gmat prep

[ahtsai0905]

I made the same assumption that media is singular, and I too ended up getting this wrong. In examining the question again, I think another way to tell that Media is plural in this sentence is to look at the second independent clause beginning with "they have generally overlooked the cost...)" Since "they" has to refer to media (and not analyses as explained in the previous post), "they have" must mean that the sentence treats media as a plural noun.

Difficult to deduce under time pressure!

[jnelson0612]

I made the same assumption that media is singular, and I too ended up getting this wrong. In examining the question again, I think another way to tell that Media is plural in this sentence is to look at the second independent clause beginning with "they have generally overlooked the cost...)" Since "they" has to refer to media (and not analyses as explained in the previous post), "they have" must mean that the sentence treats media as a plural noun.

Difficult to deduce under time pressure!

Good observation!

[sahandsepehrnia]

Nevermind, didn't see the post on the second page...


I'm probably a bit late to the game here:

If you look at the rest of the sentence, the second clause starts with "but THEY" ... they being plural and referring to media.

So you can eliminate A, B, and E right off the bat.

(C) Sounds simple and works
(D) Have had as a focus is awkward. Also, "they" must refer back to the media, so media analyses should not be there subject here.

[jnelson0612]

Welcome to the thread. :-)

[vaibhav_agarwal2002]

one thing i didn't mention above, though, because it didn't directly answer any of your questions -- but which is very important:
the best way to choose between (c) and (d) is to use PARALLELISM.

(c)
have focused on...
have overlooked...
perfectly parallel.

(d)
have had as a focus...
have overlooked...
not parallel (or, at least, badly inferior to the parallelism in (c).)

(c) wins.

Dear Ron
If we take C then the subject will be the media isnt it...but its singular how can we use "have"...?

[RonPurewal]

Dear Ron
If we take C then the subject will be the media isnt it...but its singular how can we use "have"...?

it is not singular.

did you read the thread? please read the thread; this issue has already been addressed by one of our other instructors on the previous page.

[zhongshanlh]

Hi,Ron and Manhattan experts, i would like to ask something about option A and option C.

actually, i would very muck like to know the differences in meaning and logic between "Analyzing campaign expenditures" and "In analyzing campaign expenditures" as the openings of the sentence.

please clarify me and thank u in advance.

[zhongshanlh]

or maybe I should have asked :
despite the disagreement between the subject and the verb, is there anything wrong in option A in terms of "Analyzing campaign expenditures, the media blah blah blah"??

[jlucero]

Hi,Ron and Manhattan experts, i would like to ask something about option A and option C.

actually, i would very muck like to know the differences in meaning and logic between "Analyzing campaign expenditures" and "In analyzing campaign expenditures" as the openings of the sentence.

please clarify me and thank u in advance.

There sure is. "Analyzing campaign expenditures" sounds/look like an adjective, modifying "the media," and "in analyzing campaign expenditures" is an adverb, modifying WHERE "the media have focused on the costs and ethics of campaign finance".

Even though the -ING Modifier includes a comma, the fact that this warmup is unclear about what it refers to means that including an "in" helps clarify that the warmup isn't referring to the media, but the clause as a whole.

[xyq121573]

yes, "they" could refer to media analyses -- i'm quite sure that could be correct, too. (in fact, in terms of making purely logical sense, i think that's actually a little bit better.)

2. Regarding pronoun agreement between "they" and "media analyses," one must understand that the pronoun takes the place of a noun. Here analyses is the noun that is replaced by they. "Media" is an adjective that makes it clear what type of 'analyses' is discussed in the sentence. Analyses and they agree in number but analyses does not make sense when substituted in for "they" in the non-underlined portion of the sentence.

To see this insert analyses where you see they in this sentence: "but they have generally overlooked" becaomes "but media analyses have generally overlooked"

The analyses can't overlook anything because they aren't something that can take action. "media", on the other hand, is a noun that can take action.

Thanks!
Chris

is there any contradiction between those two understandings? whether it is correct to say that analyses focus... and overlook... or not?
thks in advance~

[jlucero]

A little bit yes. Ron's taking the more lenient newspaper-writing approach while Chris is taking the more strict academic-writing approach. Since some of these SC sentences are taken from newspaper articles, I'd recommend giving this usage a pass. What both instructors agree upon is that there are better issues to focus on here.

[SC312]

Hi Ron,

I have dismissed the option D) for a different reason.

Here is the option D) :

Media analyses of campaign expenditures have had [ as a focus ] the high costs and low ethics of campaign finance, ...

Therefore the sentence structure stands :

Subject + VERB + <ADVERBIAL MODIFIER modifying "have had > + Object

Now, if we drop the modifier, the sentence "Media analyses of campaign expenditures have had the high costs and low ethics of campaign finance, .. " doesn't make sense. Therefore, the option looked to be incorrect.

Can you please confirm if the reasoning is correct ?

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

No, not correct.

You can't indiscriminately "drop modifiers", and then object to the meaning of the resulting sentence.

"- If you "drop" a modifier that is enclosed by commas, the resulting sentence should still make sense.

"- If you "drop" a modifier that is NOT enclosed by commas, the resulting sentence will almost never make sense. It will still have a legitimate grammatical structure (in terms of pure mechanics), but it will almost always become nonsense.

[SC312]

Thanks Ron, for the wonderful explanation.

While I am not questioning what you have just explained, I wanted to know how such constructions in general work. And, my previous post was based on the following example of another GMATPrep question :-

The 151 member governments ....., though some United States legislators cite [ as an obstacle to congressional passage ] the concern that the bank’s loans will help foreign producers compete with American businesses.


Now in this case, I believe if we drop the adverbial modifier "as an obstacle to congressional passage", the sentence will still make sense.

My question is - Is it in the nature of this prepositional phrase starting with "as" and the way it qualifies the verb, which contribute to the incorrectness of the following sentence :-

"Media analyses of campaign expenditures have had as a focus the high costs and low ethics of campaign finance, ... "

Sorry, if I have dwelled on this more than I should have.

[thanghnvn]

[quote="sudaif"]What is wrong with answer choice D?
Is it wrong because it is wordy?
Is "have had as a focus" incorrect?
Can "they" refer to media analyses?

Analyzing campaign expenditures, the media has had as a focus the high costs and low ethics of campaign finance, but they have generally overlooked the cost of actually administering elections, which includes facilities, transport, printing, staffing, and technology.
a.
b. Analyses of campaign expenditures by the media has been focused on
c. In analyzing campaign expenditures, the media have focused on
d. Media analyses of campaign expenditures have had as a focus
e. In their analysis of campaign expenditures, the media has been focusing on.

I also choose C.
but , there is a problem . it is possible that this og question is INCORRECT.

according to some , not one, grammar books, "in+doing" means "as a result of doing" . if this point is correct, the meaning in oa C is INCORRECT.

pls, correct me,