Quote:
Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
A. Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
B. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that worked well in the past, makes missing signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting ones likely when they do appear.
C. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action is likely to miss or misinterpret signs of incipient trouble when they do appear, especially if it has worked well in the past.
D. Executives' being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear.
E. Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
Hi Everyone-
This question comes down to options C and E. Most students reject option E immediately because they see “being’’ as if it is taboo in SC. However, it is important to remember that “being’’ is very much a part of GMAT SC when used correctly.
Proper uses of “being’’:
1. When “being’’ is used as a noun-
o Being the center of attention was not something Susan looked forward to when her book was published.
2. When the passive continuous verb tense “being’’ is required to communicate the meaning of the sentence-
o Elementary school students are being sent home to quarantine because of exposure to COVID.
So, we need not let the usage of “being” cause us to panic; we need to confirm “being” is correct both logically and grammatically.
Continue reading for the complete text and video solution to this question. Also, below find the link to our article on "being" entitled- “Being’’- Really the Black Sheep of the GMAT Family? And do not fear the usage of being any longer!
Sentence Structure Meaning This sentence talks about the blind commitment of an executive concerning a method or course of action that has been successful in the past. The author says that this type of commitment makes it likely to miss or misread the signs of an emerging problem when these signs begin to surface.
1. Subject-Verb Error Leading to Meaning Error: This sentence illogically says that “heavy commitment “ makes it likely to miss signs or misread the signs of the ensuing problem. However, we know from our meaning analysis that this meaning is illogical. The executive being heavily committed makes it likely that he or she will miss signs of trouble. Therefore, the subject “heavy commitment” does not make sense with the verb “makes,” and we have a subject-verb must make sense error.
2. Pronoun Error leading to Meaning Error: The antecedent for both the uses of “it “is unclear. This pronoun used in both instances may refer to either “heavy commitment” or “a course of action.” While the first instance stands ambiguous, the second stands illogical because, per the meaning analysis, the executive misses or misreads the signs of the emerging issue.
But this information is not presented clearly in the original sentence.
Note: The usage of the present perfect verb “has worked” is correct along with “in the past” because the author does not intend to say that the course of action worked well in the past and does not work anymore. The success of the course of action is not a one-time event. The author intends to say that the course of action has worked well so far.
A. Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear. Incorrect: This choice has the errors discussed in the error analysis.
B. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that worked well in the past, makes missing signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting ones likely when they do appear. Incorrect: 1. Subject-Verb Make Sense Error: Per this choice, the executive “makes missing signs…” likely. This SV pair does not make sense and the meaning conveyed is certainly not the intended meaning of the sentence.
2. Meaning Error: Per the intended meaning, because of the “heavy commitment “to a particular course of action, the executive misses the signs of emerging trouble. However, this blind commitment of an executive has been mentioned as additional information in this choice. It does not form the core meaning of the sense and hence leads to the meaning error.
3. Verb Tense Error: As mentioned in the error analysis, the success of the course of action is not a one-time event. Therefore, the use of the simple past tense verb “worked “ is incorrect.
4. Pronoun Error: The sentence talks about “signs of trouble “in general. Usage of “them” to refer to signs is better than the usage of “ones.”
C. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action is likely to miss or misinterpret signs of incipient trouble when they do appear, especially if it has worked well in the past. Incorrect: .
1. Meaning Error: This choice repeats the meaning error we spotted in Choice B.
2. Modifier Error: The modifier “especially if it has worked well in the past “is intended to modify “a course of action.” This noun modifier should be placed closer to the noun entity that it modifies.
D. Executives' being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear. Incorrect: .
1. Parallelism Error: In this sentence, “or “is the parallel marker. So, we have a list here. The first entity of this list is “to miss,” which is not grammatically parallel to the second entity, “misinterpreting.”
2. Idiom Error: The phrase “Executives’ being heavily committed “is unnecessarily wordy compared to other options.
3. Pronoun Error: The non-possessive pronoun “them “should logically refer to the plural “Executives,” but it cannot do so because “Executives’” is a possessive noun.
E. Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear. Correct: This choice correctly uses Being as a noun that has the correct verb is. All the modifiers are placed and worded correctly to convey the intended meaning of the sentence.
1. Make sure you always take the time to work through the original sentence and ask, “Does this make sense?” If the meaning is illogical, take the time to infer the logical intended meaning.
2. The presence of “being” in a sentence does not make the sentence incorrect. “Being” is very much a part of correct sentence structure. The use of “being” as a noun and subject of a sentence is grammatically correct.
3. Check out our article-“Being’’- Really the Black Sheep of the GMAT Family? (
https://gmatclub.com/forum/being-really ... 66106.html)
Here is a video solution we made for this question:
I hope this helps clarify.
Cheers!
Stacey
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