Margaret Mead, the best-known anthropologist of the twentieth century,

1. Excepting B and D all others uses like for denoting examples. Drop them ruthlessly. .
2. D – ‘helped the shaping’, ‘opinion for’ are unidiomatic. ‘Helped (to) shape’ and ‘opinion in’ are correct idioms. So tick B and go to the next question.
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B , imo

in such X as Y and Z - idiomatic

(A) shape public opinion on fundamentally important areas like attitudes toward children and families, along with - areas such as is required
(B) shape public opinion in such fundamentally important areas as attitudes toward children and families and
(C) to shape public opinion about such fundamentally important areas like attitudes toward children and families, also about - areas such as is required
(D) the shaping of public opinion for fundamentally important areas such as attitudes toward children and families, and those toward - those does not make sense
(E) the shaping of public opinion around fundamentally important areas like attitudes toward children and families, and those of - areas such as is required

Hmm, good explanation ppl.

I did the same question in GMATPrep and chose D.

It appeared a logical choice, but as mentioned in the postings, "those" is wrong right?

Is it because "those" lacks an antecedent? Because "those" can refer to attitudes or areas, right?

Please confirm if this is correct.

Thanks alot.

Why you assume the word attitude should be placed before relative merits of competition and cooperation ?

IMO B: anyway not sure whether we need a comma after "families" so that it clearly separates "merits" out of the chain of " children and families"?

As a thumb rule, I will ALWAYS ALWAYS treat the pronouns (those, they, it) with suspicion.
I have encountered a no. of GMAT practice problems testing the same thing. (as in choice D)

thanks guys.,..

Some notes on this question as some students are focusing on small idiomatic issues when they miss what is really being tested in this question.
https://www.gmatpill.com/practice-questi ... ar-errors/

helped shape public opinion...

I thought B was wrong because of the two conjugated verbs next to each other. I thought that it had to be helped \(TO\) shape public opinion.

Does anyone else see this as a flaw with answer choice B?

in B, dont we need comma after families?

Hi kjumbala and agdimple333,
Your doubt is genuine. This is because of idiom "such X as Y and Z".
so here X=fundamentally important areas
Y= attitudes toward children and families
Z= relative merits of competition and cooperation

I hope my explanation helped, if indeed please give me kudos.
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Here one more idiom is used wrongly:
Correct idiom is "opinion on" , which is only used in A. If anyone wants to advise on this

"such as" is more prefferable when present exampls than "like"
so eliminate A,C and E

D no clear refference for thoes

B is correct

A. shape public opinion on fundamentally important areas like attitudes toward children and families, along with

1)the sentence is trying to introduce an example here so such as should be used
2)Also along with the relative merits of competition and cooperation is acting as a modifier modifying public opinion on fundamentally important areas which is incorrect.

B. shape public opinion in such fundamentally important areas as attitudes toward children and families and
This option is correct

C. to shape public opinion about such fundamentally important areas like attitudes toward children and families, also about
Same reason as A

D. the shaping of public opinion for fundamentally important areas such as attitudes toward children and families, and those toward
1)helped the shaping of is unclear (as per my thinking)
2)Pronoun those does not have antecedent

E. the shaping of public opinion around fundamentally important areas like attitudes toward children and families, and those of
1)helped the shaping of is unclear (as per my thinking)
2)Pronoun those does not have antecedent
3)Such as should be used to introduce example

usually like is used for comparison (nouns, noun phrases) and such as used to give examples...
now A,C.E use like and B.D use such as....
This sentence says "Margaret Mead helped shape public opinion on areas"....followed by examples of those areas....so such as suits here...
In D those doesnot have antecedent also i feel helped the shaping is awkward....helped shape is better construction....so only one left is B.
so eliminate all the options that do not contain such as....we are left with B and D....

Clear B. I was a bit skeptical about the use of and in the last part but the rest of the sentences were clearly out of contention.

I think ans should be C. "
helped to shape.........."seems correct. though it has like which is not acceptable in GMAT to give example...
Why the OA is B ...Only for Such as...

Direct B - parallelism - attitude towards and relative merits of and such as for examples .

1. Dear Chemerical71: Will you kindly mark the underlining to make it easier to read and respond.

2.Let's first get rid of choices A, C and E for using like to denote examples. Such ... as is the correct idiom to use. Now between B and D:

D is wrong on a few counts as below.
A. Helped the shaping of' is inferior to the bare infinitive 'helped (to)shape'.
B. 'For' fundamentally important areas - is a wrong idiom; 'in' fundamentally important areas is a better one.
C. In a list, when there are two items only it is not necessary to put a serial comma between the first and second items.
D . The difference between ' such important areas as' and "important areas such as':
When we say ' such important areas as' A and B, we mean that the cited A and B are the only two important areas. When we say, -important areas such as A and B ', we mean that there many more than those A and B. In this case, both facts could be true and hence, this split does not make a critical difference IMO.
B, sans these pitfalls, is the clear winner. Beautiful question. Kudos to the poster.
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like for examples is incorrect. A, C and E are right away eliminated.
in C, also -> unknown what function it has here - and is more appropriate.
D - those - what it refers to? areas? attitudes? since it's ambiguous, it can be eliminated.

B stands!