For all his managerial and executive ability , President

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended core meaning is that despite his managerial and executive ability, President Hoover was often awkward and uncomfortable in his dealings with people.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

A: Correct. This answer choice uses the phrase “For all his”, conveying the intended meaning – that despite his managerial and executive ability, President Hoover was often awkward and uncomfortable in his dealings with people. Further, Option A is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

B: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “For all that he was”; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that despite his managerial and executive ability, President Hoover was often awkward and uncomfortable in his dealings with people.

C: This answer choice incorrectly uses the word “being”, leading to awkwardness and redundancy; remember, “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

D: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “Able as he was”; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that despite his managerial and executive ability, President Hoover was often awkward and uncomfortable in his dealings with people. Further, Option D incorrectly uses the word “being”, leading to awkwardness and redundancy; remember, “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

E: This answer choice subtly alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “Even having”; the use of “Even” fails to convey the needed sense of contrast, incorrectly implying that President Hoover had managerial and executive abilities, but was also often awkward and uncomfortable in his dealings with people.; the intended meaning is that despite his managerial and executive ability, President Hoover was often awkward and uncomfortable in his dealings with people.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

To understand the use of "Being" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

A and C both looked good for me and I went with C somehow... Can you please educate me why C is deemed to be wrong? Thanks.

C totally changes the meaning of the original sentence. The original sentence never says that he was "manager and executive"; he just had those "abilities".

Mr @mikemcgarry I'm looking for help on this question, I hope you can give me your opinion and perspective regarding the official answer and is explanation.

Allegedly the meaning of the sentence is the most important factor after: Grammar and stylistic and redundancy, but in this case, the phrase is shocking, I've never seen a phrase like this where the meaning seams flawed...
My choice was E, as changes the meaning (for the better in my opinion) and is grammatically correct.

Hello PaterD,

I will be glad to help you out with this one.


There is no doubt that this official sentence is pretty mind-boggling, literally.


We do not come across such sentences very often. But yes, the original sentence is absolutely grammatical.


For all his managerial and executive ability, President Hoover was often awkward and uncomfortable in his dealings with people.


Meaning Analysis]: First thing first. Let's understand the intended meaning of the sentence. The first part of the sentence says that President Hoover had managerial and executive ability. The second part of the sentence says that often, he was awkward and uncomfortable when it came to dealing with people.

So apparently, the sentence presents contrasting characteristics of President Hoover.



Error Analysis: The sentence does not use any contrasting word although it presents a contrast.

However, the phrase for all his managerial and executive ability is an expression that suggests that inherent contrast in the sentence. The phrase for all his xyz is generally followed by the information pretty contrasting in nature to what has been presented through the for phrase.

So we will hold on to this answer choice, unless we find a better choice that expresses the contrast in a better way.


Process of Elimination: So let's begin this step to see if option A really is the correct answer choice.


B) For all that he was an able manager and executive: Incorrect The phrase for all that... does not mean anything.


C) Despite him being an able manager and executive: Incorrect Use of the word despite is definitely more precise and direct to present the intended contrast. But the word being has been used incorrectly in this option.


D) Able as he was in being a manager and executive: Incorrect Same error as we saw in Choice B.


E) Even having managerial and executive abilities: Incorrect If there were Despite in place of Even, this choice would have been a contender for correct answer. The word even fails to present the contrast effectively.


Hence. Choice A indeed is the correct answer.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Dear Shraddha egmat
Thanks for the answer

As you highlight there is a contrast in the the sentence but is not directly mentioned.
A - For all his managerial and executive ability, President Hoover was often awkward and uncomfortable in his dealings with people.
Because/Despite/For A then B. Awkward... but still grammatically correct. We agree.

E - Even having managerial and executive abilities, President Hoover was often awkward and uncomfortable in his dealings with people.
However/Despite/In Spite of/ Even A then B. Would not neglect the contrast but highlight it in a direct way.
https://www.wordreference.com/synonyms/even Marks it as a Synonym of Despite

In this sense, the only explanation I find, is that the idea is a paradox... So Even changes the intented meaning and so the answer is flawed.

egmat Thanks for the kind reply

Hello PaterD,

IMHO, the expression even though does a better job in expressing contrast than just the word even. Even though is used quite frequently to present contrast in official sentences.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Why "ability" not "abilities" in option A.

Regards,
Kumar Gaurav

I had the same doubt, in fact that was the only error I felt in A and hence went on to justify the C. But here is the source and I see they have used abilities.

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/arti ... ge-h-nash/

For all his managerial and executive abilities, his dealings with people were often awkward and uncomfortable - a slightly different Version.

GMATNinja egmat @daagh- would be really great if you can share your thoughts over it as always.

thanks
harsh

The word "ability" can be used to refer to someone's collective skill/talent/competence. The same is true of "skills" vs "skill":

• "Despite all of his artistic skill, Tim has terrible handwriting." - In this context, we care about Tim's collective skill, not his individual artistic skills (i.e. brush skills, knowledge of color/proportion, etc.).
• "Common resume skills include problem solving, teamwork, and communication." - In this context, we care about the individual skills, so the plural noun is appropriate.

In choice (A), we are not concerned with Hoover's individual managerial and executive abilities. Instead, we are referring to his collective managerial and executive ability.

Of course, there are no black and white rules for this sort of thing. When in doubt, look for other more concrete errors first!

Here's the official explanation provided by the GMAC for this question:

According to the sentence, President Hoover was uneasy in his interactions with people, despite his talents as a manager and executive. The original sentence expresses that idea clearly and accurately.

Option A: Correct. The phrase for all … functions here correctly because it clearly and concisely conveys the idea that the ability mentioned was considerable. It also has concessive force (as, for example, would such phraseology as although he had a great deal of managerial and executive ability).

Option B: For all that he was … is not the appropriate form of the idiomatic usage with for. It is also wordy and awkward.

Option C: Despite is used incorrectly here with him rather than his. However, even his would be better omitted here, as the subject of the sentence, President Hoover, is the implicit subject of being.

Option D: As written, in being, is wordy, unnecessarily awkward, and conveys the intended thought less clearly. A much better structure would be able though he was as a manager and executive.

Option E: The given sentence suggests that President Hoover had a high level of managerial and executive ability, but this answer choice suggests merely that he had some abilities of that kind. Since having only some limited managerial and executive abilities would be entirely compatible with social awkwardness, the point of the concessive force of even is unclear.

The correct answer is A.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.

HI egmat

does that mean for shows contrast?
THe only reason i picked E was i thought for has 3 uses
Reason
conjunction
preposition
then how come it shows contrast?
can you please elaborate on this

Thanks in advance,
Pratishtha

Hi Pratishtha, perhaps I can help you out with this one. "For" by itself doesn't show contrast; however, the construction "For + All + noun" does. Your understanding of the other uses for "for" is correct, although I would categorize 1) and 2) under the same bracket: as a conjunction connecting 2 clauses, "for" is used to give reasons.

Hello pratishtha1210,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the "for + all + noun" modifying phrase construction used in this sentence is an idiomatic construction in which "for" plays the role of "despite".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

For all his managerial and executive ability, President Hoover was often awkward and uncomfortable in his dealings with people.

Option Elimination -

(A) For all his managerial and executive ability - "For" used as "Despite" - conveys the contrast.

(B) For all that he was an able manager and executive - "That" is a pronoun referring to what? The structure doesn't convey the contrast. For all that, it is weird. Moreover, "for all that" is an archaic and old-fashioned usage less common in modern English. For example, For all that he was a skilled chef, he often burned his dishes, which can be better conveyed as "Although he was a skilled chef, he often burned his dishes."

(C) Despite him being an able manager and executive - the use of being as a modifier is wrong. Moreover, The phrase "him being" is often considered awkward because it combines an objective pronoun ("him") with a gerund phrase ("being"), which can lead to unclear or cumbersome sentences. E.g., Despite him being a talented musician, the band struggled to find success." A better way to convey this would be, "Despite his talent as a musician, the band struggled to find success." It's often preferable to use possessive pronouns like "his" or "her" before gerunds for clarity and smoother sentence flow. "Despite his being a talented musician, he struggled to find an audience."

(D) Able as he was in being a manager and executive - "in being" as an object of the verb is ok, but the meaning is not as clear as A. Moreover, the phrase "able as he was in being a manager and executive" is redundant because when you say someone is a "manager and executive," it implies that he possesses the necessary abilities for these roles. A better way to convey the same idea would be, "He was skilled in managing and executing."

(E) Even having managerial and executive abilities. "Even" doesn't convey the contrast that well as "For," meaning Despite. Or "Despite" would have been better.