OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONProject SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC1)
THE PROMPTQuote:
A judge overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings of Panacea, the maker of drugs used to treat epilepsy in people across the length and breadth of the country, most of whom are children, has barred lawyers for creditor firms to access the company’s finances, a move that has been widely criticized as unfair and biased. • Tip: fully underlined long sentences typically test you on (1) modifiers, (2) pronouns, and/or (3) parallelism
• Meaning?
In a move that has been widely criticized, the judge who oversees the bankruptcy proceedings the drug company Panacea has barred lawyers for creditor firms from accessing the company's finances. Panacea makes drugs that are widely used mostly in children to treat epilepsy.
• Issues?
→ Above all, meaning and logic.
A few of these options are absurd.
→ IDIOM (GMAC tests this one): the correct idiom is
barred from, not
barred to THE OPTIONSQuote:
A) A judge overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings of Panacea, the maker of drugs used to treat epilepsy in people across the length and breadth of the
country, most of whom are children, has
barred lawyers for creditor firms
to access the company’s finances, a move that has been widely criticized as unfair and biased.
•
barred to is unidiomatic
• a modifier is a bit far from its noun
→
most of whom are children arguably refers to
people because
(1)
whom is used for people, and
(2)
people is followed by a long prepositional phrase that
most of whom can "reach back over" to get to its noun.
On the other hand, the placement of
most of whom are children after
country strains the sentence.
→ If you did not know that
barred to is unidiomatic, you should have kept (A) and looked for a better answer.
The modifier is not wrong, but neither is it effectively placed.
ELIMINATE A
Quote:
B)
Panacea, the maker of drugs used to treat epilepsy in people, mostly children, across the length and breadth of the country,
has barred lawyers for creditor firms from accessing the company’s finances
by a judge overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings, a move that has been widely criticized as unfair and biased.
• Absurd
→ The drug company did not bar lawyers for creditor firms from doing anything, let alone from accessing Panacea's finances.
→ The sentence also suggests that the company's finances are being accessed by a judge.
ELIMINATE B
Quote:
C) The maker of drugs used to treat epilepsy in people, mostly children, across the length and breadth of the country,
Panacea, using a judge overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings, has barred lawyers for creditor firms
to access the company’s finances,
which has been widely criticized as unfair and biased.
• Absurd
→The company did not use the judge to bar lawyers from accessing the company's finances.
•
barred to is not idiomatic
•
which has no antecedent
→ which cannot refer to a verb or an entire clause
→ what has been criticized? A
ruling. But that noun never shows up in this sentence. The pronoun
which lacks an antecedent.
ELIMINATE C
Quote:
D) In a move that has been widely criticized as unfair and biased
across the length and breadth of the country, a judge overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings of Panacea, the maker of drugs used to
mostly treat epilepsy in
people and children, has barred lawyers for creditor firms from accessing the company’s finances.
• Absurd
→ people AND children? No. Children
are people.
•
mostly is ambiguous and confusing
→ do the drugs "mostly" treat epilepsy but also treat some other condition?
→ do the drugs "mostly" treat epilepsy but do not do so fully, so that other drugs are needed?
→ do not worry that
mostly splits the infinitive.
As of now, split infinitives are not tested and not a reason to eliminate an answer. Ever.
Although you will not be tested on split infinitives, GMAT SC writers do not use them.
I have never seen a correct answer to an official question that includes a split infinitive.
In other words, split infinitives are a non-issue. You won't see them.
• strange placement of the modifier
across the length and breadth of the country→ this placement, though different from that in other options and especially from that in option A, does
not constitute error because option A does not determine meaning.
→ this placement simply lets us know that the modifier is not very important
ELIMINATE D
Quote:
E) A judge overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings of Panacea, the maker of drugs used to treat epilepsy in people, mostly children, across the length and breadth of the country, has barred lawyers for creditor firms from accessing the company’s finances, a move that has been widely criticized as unfair and biased.
• I do not see any errors.
•
mostly children correctly modifies
people•
barred is idiomatically paired with
from• the sentence is logical and its meaning is clear
• if you were not aware of the idiom problem in option A, you could compare options A and E. Option E wins:
mostly children is right next to
people, a placement that is superior to the construction in option A.
The answer is E.COMMENTSAlmost all of these answers are excellent, despite a few missteps in some.
I am impressed.
It is not easy to explain errors in long sentences that don't lend themselves easily to clean splits.
Those who explained get kudos. Nicely done!