Verbal problems from the *free* official practice tests and
problems from mba.com
Astor
 
 

Second Correct problem with Being

by Astor Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:53 am

According to one expert, the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs are being bred for looks or to meet the other narrow criteria as that the breeds have relatively few founding members.

A. the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs are being bred for looks or to meet the other narrow criteria

B. the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not as much their being bred for looks or meeting other narrow criteria as much

C. it is not so much the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog that they are being bred for looks or meeting other narrow criteria as much

D. it is not so much that the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is their being bred for looks or meeting other narrow criteria so much

Source: GMAT Prep

E. it is not so much the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog to be bred for looks or to meet other narrow criteria
Image
ddohnggo
 
 

by ddohnggo Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:02 am

i'm not an expert, but i'll give it a shot:

a. i believe this is correct.
b. incorrect because 'their' is ambiguous. the idiom 'as much...as' is followed by an incomplete idiom 'much as...'
c. incorrect because they is ambiguous as it should refer to dog rather than breeds. the beginning portion skews the meaning such that it now says that genetic irregularities are are not the cause.
d. incorrect because 'their' is ambiguous. 'is their being bred' is awkward and unidiomatic.
e. the beginning portion skews the meaning such that it now says that genetic irregularities are are not the cause.
RonPurewal
Students
 
Posts: 19744
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
 

by RonPurewal Wed Dec 05, 2007 4:42 am

hi - there's no need to clutter this page up with an image file of a problem if you've posted the full text of the problem. please restrict the posting of image files to threads about math problems with diagrams or complex formulas that don't translate well into normal typed characters. thank you.

--

a is correct because it's the only choice combining proper parallelism with correct grammar. the cause is not so much that x as that y.
b: previous poster is correct about 'their', but a much more obvious problem is bad parallelism. the cause is not so much their x as that y.
c: lots of things
- as the previous poster points out, 'it is not so much the cause...' seems to say that the phenomenon mentioned doesn't really cause the mentioned effect
- you don't use 'much' twice; the proper construction is 'not so much ... as'
d: mostly the same things that are wrong with c, plus even more (go ahead and reply if you don't see anything wrong with d)
e: a couple of things
- as in choice c, 'it is not so much the cause of genetic irregularities' seems to say that the phenomenon mentioned isn't the cause of the given effect
- 'breeds of dog to be bred for looks' seems to imply dogs meant to be bred for looks (analogy: on the table are the five packages to be shipped)
RonPurewal
Students
 
Posts: 19744
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
 

by RonPurewal Wed Dec 05, 2007 4:44 am

oh yeah, by the way: the principal reason that 'being' is acceptable here is because it is essential for the verb 'bred' which is used in the passive voice. you can't construct the passive voice without some form of the verb 'to be'.

in problems using 'being' in a non-passive voice construction, the answer choices with 'being' are usually wrong.
rschunti
 
 

one more question

by rschunti Sun Feb 03, 2008 4:04 pm

In option "B" as mentioned below:-
B. the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not as much their being bred for looks or meeting other narrow criteria as much

What is the rule to help us quickly narrow down that "their" is an antecedent for "dog"and not "breeds"? Is it based on semantic or based on rule. Pls can you clarify?
RonPurewal
Students
 
Posts: 19744
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
 

Re: one more question

by RonPurewal Wed Feb 06, 2008 5:29 am

rschunti Wrote:What is the rule to help us quickly narrow down that "their" is an antecedent for "dog"and not "breeds"? Is it based on semantic or based on rule. Pls can you clarify?


it isn't.

if 'their' is to have an antecedent, that antecedent must be plural, because 'their' is plural. this sort of agreement is ironclad and admits no exceptions.

strictly speaking, there's a bit of a problem because there are two possible plural antecedents: 'irregularities' and 'breeds'. of course, only the latter makes any sense, but you shouldn't use 'sense' to narrow down gmat problems.

choice b also has another major issue: namely, the double use of 'as much'. that's unacceptable as well.
SEPY
Students
 
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2010 10:40 pm
 

Re: Second Correct problem with Being

by SEPY Mon Nov 01, 2010 10:24 am

Hi Ron,

You mentioned that "to be" form is required with bred in passive construction.

According to one expert, the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs are being bred for looks or to meet the other narrow criteria as that the breeds have relatively few founding members.

In the sentence"that dogs are being bred for looks or to meet the other narrow criteria" if we dont consider this as an ongoing situation but a fact then can we skip being from the sentence?
I mean "According to one expert, the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs are bred for looks or to meet the other narrow criteria as that the breeds have relatively few founding members."
Is this construction correct.We have used here "are"("to be" form)
in passive construcion.
RonPurewal
Students
 
Posts: 19744
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
 

Re: Second Correct problem with Being

by RonPurewal Wed Nov 10, 2010 10:22 pm

dipti.ch12 Wrote:Hi Ron,

You mentioned that "to be" form is required with bred in passive construction.

According to one expert, the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs are being bred for looks or to meet the other narrow criteria as that the breeds have relatively few founding members.

In the sentence"that dogs are being bred for looks or to meet the other narrow criteria" if we dont consider this as an ongoing situation but a fact then can we skip being from the sentence?
I mean "According to one expert, the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs are bred for looks or to meet the other narrow criteria as that the breeds have relatively few founding members."
Is this construction correct.We have used here "are"("to be" form)
in passive construcion.


yes, that works too.

it's a slightly different meaning -- it suggests that "dogs are bred for looks..." in general (i.e., that this is some sort of inherent, necessary trait of the process of dog breeding) rather than just for the moment -- but it's both (a) grammatically correct and (b) not completely unreasonable.
mithilesh.vnit85
Students
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 6:52 am
 

Re: Second Correct problem with Being

by mithilesh.vnit85 Wed Dec 22, 2010 12:42 pm

the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs are being bred for looks or to meet the other narrow criteria

Are this two things parallel?
I am bit confused, can you please explain RON?
RonPurewal
Students
 
Posts: 19744
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
 

Re: Second Correct problem with Being

by RonPurewal Sat Dec 25, 2010 1:15 pm

mithilesh.vnit85 Wrote:the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs are being bred for looks or to meet the other narrow criteria

Are this two things parallel?


nope.
the two parallel constructions are "for looks" and "to meet the other narrow criteria"; each of these constructions modifies "dogs are being bred", by giving a specific way in which dogs are being bred.

if you are placing those two constructions in parallel, then it's almost 100% certain that you are thinking only about grammar, and not about meaning.
if you think about what the sentence is actually saying, it's a lot easier to figure out which elements are supposed to be parallel!
this part of the sentence is talking about two different reasons why dogs are being bred; the parallelism follows.
shivani_magan
Forum Guests
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 3:37 am
 

Re:

by shivani_magan Mon Mar 12, 2012 3:22 pm

RonPurewal Wrote:hi - there's no need to clutter this page up with an image file of a problem if you've posted the full text of the problem. please restrict the posting of image files to threads about math problems with diagrams or complex formulas that don't translate well into normal typed characters. thank you.

--

a is correct because it's the only choice combining proper parallelism with correct grammar. the cause is not so much that x as that y.
b: previous poster is correct about 'their', but a much more obvious problem is bad parallelism. the cause is not so much their x as that y.
c: lots of things
- the beginning 'it' doesn't have a proper antecedent
- as the previous poster points out, 'it is not so much the cause...' seems to say that the phenomenon mentioned doesn't really cause the mentioned effect
- you don't use 'much' twice; the proper construction is 'not so much ... as'
d: mostly the same things that are wrong with c, plus even more (go ahead and reply if you don't see anything wrong with d)
e: a couple of things
- as in choice c, 'it is not so much the cause of genetic irregularities' seems to say that the phenomenon mentioned isn't the cause of the given effect
- 'breeds of dog to be bred for looks' seems to imply dogs meant to be bred for looks (analogy: on the table are the five packages to be shipped)


Hi Ron ,
can you explain this part as in choice c, 'it is not so much the cause of genetic irregularities' seems to say that the phenomenon mentioned isn't the cause of the given effect
Why is E wrong?
agarwalmanoj2000
Students
 
Posts: 43
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 8:00 pm
 

Re: Re:

by agarwalmanoj2000 Tue Mar 13, 2012 6:07 am

shivani_magan Wrote:Hi Ron ,
can you explain this part as in choice c, 'it is not so much the cause of genetic irregularities' seems to say that the phenomenon mentioned isn't the cause of the given effect
Why is E wrong?


Errors in Option E -
1) "It" has no antecedent.
2) Meaning is changed - Original sentence tells the cause of genetic irregularities in breeds of dog, but option E does not tell us the cause of genetic irregularities in breeds of dog.

Original:
the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs are being bred for looks or to meet the other narrow criteria as that the breeds have relatively few founding members.

Option E:
it is not so much the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog to be bred for looks or to meet other narrow criteria as that the breeds have relatively few founding members.
RonPurewal
Students
 
Posts: 19744
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
 

Re: Re:

by RonPurewal Wed Mar 28, 2012 7:00 pm

shivani_magan Wrote:Hi Ron ,
can you explain this part as in choice c, 'it is not so much the cause of genetic irregularities' seems to say that the phenomenon mentioned isn't the cause of the given effect


first, check out my post above regarding the parallelism here.

second, remember to take into account the message that the sentence is trying to convey.
this sentence is saying, in essence, that the cause of a certain phenomenon is not x, but rather y. in order to convey that idea accurately, the sentence needs to have a form that actually says THE CAUSE IS x RATHER THAN y (or some other wording that is equivalent to this).
if the entire parallel structure starts off with "it is not the cause...", then, taken literally (as it must be), this wording suggests that the entire discussion revolves around what is not the cause. that would be bad.
shivani_magan
Forum Guests
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 3:37 am
 

Re: Re:

by shivani_magan Thu Mar 29, 2012 4:40 am

RonPurewal Wrote:
shivani_magan Wrote:Hi Ron ,
can you explain this part as in choice c, 'it is not so much the cause of genetic irregularities' seems to say that the phenomenon mentioned isn't the cause of the given effect


first, check out my post above regarding the parallelism here.

second, remember to take into account the message that the sentence is trying to convey.
this sentence is saying, in essence, that the cause of a certain phenomenon is not x, but rather y. in order to convey that idea accurately, the sentence needs to have a form that actually says THE CAUSE IS x RATHER THAN y (or some other wording that is equivalent to this).
if the entire parallel structure starts off with "it is not the cause...", then, taken literally (as it must be), this wording suggests that the entire discussion revolves around what is not the cause. that would be bad.



Read the entire thread again .Its clear now . thanks Ron :)
RonPurewal
Students
 
Posts: 19744
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
 

Re: Re:

by RonPurewal Mon Apr 23, 2012 2:06 pm

thank you for actually reading the thread.