Public enthusiasm that had been growing for airline travel, still in

Official Explanation

C. The best choice here arranges the parts of the sentence in the most direct and clear way by keeping the modifiers as close as possible to the words they modify. In addition, choice C replaces when with a more appropriate and logical term, after.

Bunuel, can you please explain how diminished after a while after Amelia.... is correct?

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"Diminished after a while" does not convey the same meaning as the original " Diminished for a while"
Since Option C changes the meaning, it becomes an unlikely option.

Option D would have been more accurate if "when" were to be replaced by "after", but it still seems to be the best option out of all as it conveys the most consistent meaning in line with the original sentence without committing any grammatical mistakes.

What’s wrong with E? I eliminated C because “diminished after a while after” seemed awkward.

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In option E.

Error 1 : the use of past perfect continuous tense "had been growing" is unwarranted
Error 2 : the prepositional Phrase "in its infancy" incorrectly modifies airline travel instead of growing Public enthusiasm

Can someone please explain me how "diminished after a while" which is different than "diminished for a while" be correct?

MentorTutoring GMATNinja daagh

Let me try it for you,

Take an example,

S1: The trend of rising prices diminished for a while.

Here it means that the trend diminished for some time/ Or for a while. There can be certainty for the trend to come back.

S2: Diminished after a while: The trend of rising prices diminished after a while.

Here it means that the trend went on for sometime and then diminished.

Now our sentence is trying to say that, the public enthu for travel was growing, but the enthu diminished after the crash happened.

If you read answer choice C like this, it will make more sense:

Growing public enthusiasm (subject) for airline travel, still in its infancy(Modifying travel), diminished after a while (means that the enthu was growing and that enthu diminished after some time) (pause as another dependent clause begins from here)after
Amelia Earhart’s plane disappeared in the 1930s.


Hope this helps!!

Cheers

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Shef08

The difference I see is following :-

Original -> Enthu growing... -> Plane disappeared -> Enthu diminished soon when plane disappeared (for a while) -> Enthu started growing again (implicit meaning)

Meaning in C) -> Enthu growing -> Plane disappeared -> Enthu still growing for sometime (implicit) -> Enthu diminished (after a while after plane disappeared) -> No further implicit information whether Enthu started growing

Honestly, we are not quite concerned if the enthu is growing or not, What matters the most is that the sentence is constructed grammatically and meaning wise correct. I don't understand what do you intend to say with this sentence (highlighted), but I do sense that you have understood the fair bit of the construction in this sentence. If you compare your preferred answer and the correct answer, you will see how clear is choice C in its meaning despite being wordy,

A lil note if you find SC daunting (the way I find it), In the words of souvik101990, there will always be 4 incorrect choices and one correct choice, so if you are stuck between 2 options look very close to find a split that makes the other choice incorrect.

I can understand why options are incorrect such as the use of When in A,B and D and airline in its infancy in E, but on the same note if C used "for a while" to be inline with the original, I would have been okay. But "after a while" certainly changes the meaning a little bit as "after" and "for" are 2 different prepositions used in different contexts.

Basically my question is can such questions come in real GMAT wherein the correct answer may change the meaning from what it conveyed in Original sentence?

It seems as if many people have been posting their thoughts on distorting the meaning of the original sentence, but remember, only the non-underlined portion of the original sentence is to be taken as gospel, nothing else. The pieces within the underlined portion can be arranged differently to convey different meanings, some clear, and others not so clear. Let us take a closer look at the two contentious options in (C) and (E). I am not going to touch on (A), (B), or (D) since everyone seems to be in agreement on the usage of when, which would indicate a singular moment in time. To the sentence, then, and our two options:


First off, I would say that in both sentences, in its infancy refers back to airline travel. In terms of the real-life timeline, airline travel was still a relatively new mode of travel by the 1930s. It would not make sense, in any case, to say that enthusiasm was in its infancy. Following through with the developmental analogy, are we to understand that there had been a birth or dawn of enthusiasm or a birth or dawn of airline travel? Getting to the matter at hand, in option (C), it makes sense that something growing might take a while to diminish once news of a tragedy or disappearance of a similar vehicle reached the ears of the public. Hence, after a while could characterize the gradual diminishment, as opposed to an instantaneous change. I agree: after a while after sounds awful. But in terms of meaning, we have a clear subject, growing public enthusiasm, a clear verb, diminished, and a clear timeline of events, with enthusiasm tapering off after the disappearance of a plane. Meanwhile, option (E) places the same in its infancy in a very tight and overburdened spot, leaving us to wonder whether the enthusiasm had been growing since the dawn of airline travel or whether such enthusiasm had been growing specifically for airline travel in its infancy. Both are valid interpretations, and ambiguity of meaning is the more egregious offense as far as the GMAT™ is concerned.

I would be happy to take on any additional queries related to this question or to the grammatical issues it introduces. As always, I want to wish everyone good luck with their studies.

- Andrew

Is 'after a while after ' correct ?

Can you help with why option E is not being relevant as it also uses after instead of when.?