A new study suggests that the conversational pace of everyday life may

Dear Team,

even I have the same doubt and not convinced with explanation provided in the thread till now.
Kindly explain in detail.

Thanks in advance
bb generis GMATNinja EMPOWERgmatVerbal

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one problem at a time, to narrow it down to the correct choice! First, here is the original question with any major differences between the options highlighted in orange:

A new study suggests that the conversational pace of everyday life may be so brisk it hampers the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words and, the result is, to make sense of speech.

(A) it hampers the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words and, the result is, to make
(B) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, to make
(C) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, the result of this, they are unable to make
(D) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words, and results in not making
(E) as to hamper the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words, resulting in being unable to make

After a quick glance over the options, there are a few things we can focus on:

1. it hampers / that it hampers / as to hamper
2. for distinguishing / to distinguish
3. Their endings

Let's start with #1 on our list, which is an issue of idiom structure. The idiom we are trying to use here is this:

so X that Y

Here is how each option uses (or misuses) this idiom:

(A) it hampers the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words and, the result is, to make --> so X Y --> WRONG
(B) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, to make --> so X that Y --> GOOD
(C) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, the result of this, they are unable to make --> so X that Y --> GOOD
(D) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words, and results in not making --> so X that Y --> GOOD
(E) as to hamper the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words, resulting in being unable to make --> so X as to Y --> WRONG

We can eliminate options A & E because they don't adhere to the idiom structure "so X that Y."

(It turns out we could also eliminate options A & E because they also incorrectly use the "for verb+ing" structure instead of the correct "to verb" in this sentence.)

Now that we've narrowed it down to 3 options, let's take a closer look at how each option ends, and look for any glaring issues. I'll give you a hint: it has something to do with parallelism!

(B) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, to make

This is our CORRECT option! It uses parallel structure with "to distinguish" and "to make!" It also uses the correct idiom structure "so X that Y."

(C) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, the result of this, they are unable to make

This is INCORRECT because it doesn't use parallel structure to describe the two things that are hampered in the sentence. Because of this, we can rule this option out.

(D) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words, and results in not making

This is also INCORRECT because it doesn't use parallel structure to describe the two things being hampered in the sentence!


There you have it - option B is the correct choice because it follows the "so X that Y" idiom structure and uses parallelism correctly!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

Hi EMPOWERgmatVerbal
Thanks for the detailed explanation to an OG question.

My question is about the idiom used in option E: so X as to Y. You have marked it incorrect. I have come across a couple of question where this idiom has been used and the answer choice was correct. Link to one such question is below:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/immanuel-kan ... 62621.html

Now, when is it ok to use so X as to Y and when so X that Y?

Thanks.

A new study suggests that the conversational pace of everyday life may be so brisk it hampers the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words and, the result is, to make sense of speech.

A. it hampers the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words and, the result is, to make
B. that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, to make
C. that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, the result of this, they are unable to make
D. that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words, and results in not making
E. as to hamper the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words, resulting in being unable to make


Hi sayantanc2k daagh

The usage of 'so brisk as to hamper the ability' is incorrect in option 'E' in my opinion because this usage gives an indication that 'the conversational pace of everyday life' is brisk with the intention of hampering the ability of children, altering slightly the intended meaning of the original sentence.

I do understand that there is another error in option 'E', but can you please throw some light on my above reasoning?


Thanks
Saurabh

sayantanc2k daagh AjiteshArun

If you could please help me with my above query.


Thanks
Saurabh

D is not parallel is what everyone is saying.

But can we not say these two elements are parallel?

(D) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words, and results in not making

Experts, help.

A new study suggests that the conversational pace of everyday life may be so brisk it hampers the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words and, the result is, to make sense of speech.


(A) it hampers the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words and, the result is, to make

(B) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, to make

(C) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, the result of this, they are unable to make

(D) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words, and results in not making

(E) as to hamper the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words, resulting in being unable to make

sayantanc2k daagh AndrewN - could you please help me with a doubt?

I was evaluating choices B,C and D (eliminated A and E for unidiomatic usage) and was confused by the comma after "and" in options B and C. Should the comma not have been before "and" (distinguish discrete sounds and words, and as a result, to make)? Is it trivial compared to the parallelism that B maintains, which makes it the correct choice? Thanks for your help !

https://gmatclub.com/forum/with-government-funds-no-longer-increasing-and-private-philanthropy-no-324695.html


In the official question referenced above, optin C, D , and E have been rejected as unidiomatic "ability of" and in this Official question all options have ability of.

Can someone please point out the correct idiomatic usage of ability ???

I ended up in choosing D after POE of B&D because:

Conversational pace does 2 things.
- hampers the ability of Children
- results in not making sense of Speech.

I assumed these 2 are Parallel instead because ''not making sense'' is the result of preceding sentence ''it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words''.

Or Probably 'that' missing in front of 'results in not making' is an indicator that it is not parallel to 'hampers'?
If we need to make these sentences parallel, Is 'that' mandatory before 'results in not making' (Although meaningfully doesnt make sense)

Did I Misunderstood the sentence ? Can someone help?

A new study suggests that the conversational pace of everyday life may be so brisk it hampers the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words and, the result is, to make sense of speech.

(A) it hampers the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words and, the result is, to make

(B) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, to make

(C) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, the result of this, they are unable to make

(D) that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words, and results in not making

(E) as to hamper the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words, resulting in being unable to make