As literary criticism grows more complex, students majoring

Dear abhinav11,

I'm happy to help with this.

Split #1a: category with examples
This is one of the GMAT's favorite grammar splits. Suppose we have a category (e.g. baseball teams) and we want to give a few examples (say, the Mets and the Giants). In colloquial speech, one might say ".... some baseball teams, like the Mets and Giants ..." , and this may sound fine to native speakers, but this is dead wrong on the GMAT. The correct idiom for listing examples is not "like" but "such as": ".... some baseball teams, such as the Mets and Giants ...". Choice (A) makes this mistake.
A related mistake ---- We see a split among the answers .....
(1) "in specialized areas such as" in (B) & (D)
(2) "in such specialized areas as" in (C) & (E)
The first is just the ordinary idiom for listing examples of "specialized areas" --- perfectly correct. The second one seems to put a special emphasis on "specialized" --- as if we are talking about some areas that are particularly or uniquely specialized. First of all, that's a little strange --- there really aren't that many ways to be specialized --- yes, there's more or less specialized, but beyond that, the adjective doesn't allow for that much variation. More to the point, nothing in the sentence really indicates an extreme specialization. The categories "post-colonialism and Marxist discourse" are rather large categories. If the sentence had mentioned something super-specialized -- say, Marxist discourse by a fringe Trotskyist school in Burma in the 1930s --- OK, that would really be specialized, and in that case, an emphasize on "how specialized?" would seem appropriate. In the absence of that, idiom (2) seems uncalled for, and (1) seems preferable.

Split #1a: the examples themselves
Look what happens after the word "as" ---- in (B) & (E), we have: "... as post-colonialism and Marxist discourse ...". In (C) & (D), we have "... as those of post-colonialism and Marxist discourse ...". The addition of the words "those of" makes it sound fancy and more GMAT like, but these words are incorrect. We are listing examples of "specialized areas", and "post-colonialism and Marxist discourse" are themselves examples of specialized areas. It's not anything about post-colonialism, or belonging to post-colonialism --- it's just post-colonialism itself. Choices (C) & (D) are wrong.

Split #2: the verbs
The main subject of the sentence is "students", and here is the split among the main verbs
(A) .... have been becoming ....
(B) .... are becoming ....
(C) .... are being ....
(D) .... have been becoming
(E) .... are being ....
All of these are variants on the progressive tenses. First of all, the progressive tense with the verb "to be" ------ "are being" ---- is irredeemably awkward. This should be taken out back and shot. Choices (C) & (E) are wrong. The verb "to become" works in this context much better anyway. The form "are becoming" is the present progressive, and the form "have been becoming" is the present progressive perfect. The first, the present progressive, indicates that a process is ongoing and continuing in the present moment. The present progressive perfect indicates that the action has been ongoing for some time and continues up to and through the present moment. The other verb in the sentence ("grows") is in the simple present tense, and the participle "majoring" is also a present participle. The present progressive, "are becoming", is a natural fit with these. By contrast, the present progressive perfect "have been becoming" introduces information about the period of time leading up to the present, and this period is not really discussed elsewhere in the sentence. The best verb choice is (B).

For all these reasons, the best answer is (B).

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Mike
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Sujit2k7, the next time you post a sc question it would be good if you can underline the incorrect portion in the given sentence. Will make life easier.

A. majoring in specialized areas like those of post-colonialism and Marxist discourse have been becoming increasingly
Like is incorrect. Such as is required.
B. who major in such specialized areas as post-colonialism and Marxist discourse are becoming more and more
C. who majored in specialized areas such as those of post-colonialism and Marxist discourse are being increasingly
Such as is used correctly. Shift from Majored (past tense) to present tense.Also I believe Those of is incorrect as post-colonialism and Marxist discourse are the areas that are referred to
D. who major in specialized areas like those of post-colonialism and Marxist discourse have been becoming more and more
Like is incorrect. Such as is required.

Agree with the above post on underlining statements before posting them.

This is a like vs. such as question. Such as is used to start a list of a example. Like is to show similarity between two or more nouns.
Here the author meant to use such as and NOT Like.
The second point is who majored vs. majoring in

In C and D, such as THOSE of is the wrong pronoun because Those doesn't refer to anything in particular.
A and E are wordy. In A (have been becoming increasingly) and in E ( are being increasingly)

"are becoming more and more" on B isn't wordy and redundant?

Rule of thumb , "Being" is a dirty word in GMAT. So option C is last option , if there are no better option among the others. As explained above , option B is still grammatically correct , so B has to be correct (we can rule out C)

There are answers with being in the right choice. So it is not true that being is always wrong. A sentence cannot be eliminated only on the basis of being.

More and More sounds wordy but other choices have grammatical errors that are prominent!!

Re: "being" - in this case, "being" doesn't work because you can't pair it with "increasingly successful". You can "be" - although not within the specific context of this sentence - or you can "become", but you can't "being increasingly successful".

Step 1. This is a case of examples; remove all ‘like’ choices namely A and D.

Step 2. majoring in a subject is a general activity and can not be limited to a timeline. It has to be in the eternal tense of the simple present. The author says that whoever majors, he is being considered. The use of past tense majored in C as well as the use of ‘having majored’ in E, tend to distort the meaning that only past students are eligible for this phenomenon.

Step 3. ‘Are becoming more and more’ reflects the author’s thinking that it is an ongoing affair currently
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Woooo That was the best explanation I have seen on one problem....Thanks so much Mike, That point for PResent Progressive and presemt progressive perfect really helped..Kudos to you !!!!

Hope to learn more from you !!!


Regards,
Abhinav
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As literary criticism grows more complex, students majoring in specialized areas like those of post-colonialism and Marxist discourse have been becoming increasingly successful at finding positions in the faculties of top universities.

A. majoring in specialized areas like those of post-colonialism and Marxist discourse have been becoming increasingly

B. who major in such specialized areas as post-colonialism and Marxist discourse are becoming more and more

C. who majored in specialized areas such as those of post-colonialism and Marxist discourse are being increasingly

D. who major in specialized areas like those of post-colonialism and Marxist discourse have been becoming more and more

E. having majored in such specialized areas as post-colonialism and Marxist discourse are being increasingly

Dear mikemcgarry , if you look at the question again

B and E says - "in such specialized areas"
C and D states - "in specialized area such as "

Shouldn't B and E be wrong ? I think you mistakenly swapped "in such specialized areas" for C and D


Can you please help here . Thanks !

Hi,

firstly what ever differences in the two ways such .. as.. or ...such as, the GMAT is likely to give you other reasons to eliminate a choice rather than just on this..
Here, too, the main difference is the tenses that are used and the choices are finally eliminated on basis of TENSES..
although the difference is there on EMPHASIS but Not so much here that we can eliminate a choice just on its basis

Even Mike, who has given split based on this point has finally picked up an answer that as per the split is not correct.
very unlikely that GMAT will test you on this concept.
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we can not avoid tense problems on SC because this point is basic.
sequence of tense is the key to tense problems. remember
had done happen before simple past
have done and simple past happen before present simple

this rule is simple to remember. now we apply this rule to choice D
have been becoming must happen before "grows" grammatically. but this is not logic. so, choice B is better

Is it allowed to use something like "more and more" on the GMAT ?

zondice , yes.

I have seen at least one official question that used the phrase "more and more" in non-underlined portions.
(I believe I have seen three or four SC questions in GMAT Official Guides with the phrase "more and more," but after awhile I forget in which portion of Verbal I saw a particular phrase.)

One of those official questions comes from the Official Guide 2015 14th edition, SC # 75.

You can find that question here, on GMAT Club.

Here, from the GMATPrep Default Exam Pack, is another such sentence in an official source.

I can understand why the phrase might sound redundant to non-native speakers of English.
Used in the right context, it is not.

In the context I describe below, the phrase is common (and see daagh , above, in response to the very same question you asked).

"More and more" means "progressively more" -- something increases in degree or number at a continuous rate, i.e., all the time.

Correct: As the country's leader grew increasingly autocratic, more and more citizens became alarmed by his actions.
Correct: We are discovering more and more about planets that might support life.

Hope that helps.
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Bunuel
Is there any mix up in th OE? Referece to shark seems to be out of place for the topic under question.
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You are right. That OE was for totally different question. Removed. Thank you for noticing.
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