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

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 of this sentence is that the conversational pace of everyday life may be so brisk that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, hampers their ability to make sense of speech.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Idioms + Verb Forms

• “so A that B” is a correct, idiomatic usage that describes cause (A) and effect (B).
• "ability to" is generally preferred over "ability for".
• The introduction of the present participle ("verb+ing"- “resulting” in this case) after comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship.

A: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "and, the result is, to make"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that the conversational pace of everyday life may be so brisk that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, the children are able to make sense of speech; the intended meaning is that the conversational pace of everyday life may be so brisk that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, hampers their ability to make sense of speech. Further, Option A incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction "so A ("brisk") B ("it hampers the ability...words")"; please remember, “so A that B” is a correct, idiomatic usage that describes cause (A) and effect (B). Additionally, Option A uses the construction "ability for"; please remember, "ability to" is generally preferred over "ability for".

B: Correct. This answer choice uses the phrase "and, as a result, to make", conveying the intended meaning - that the conversational pace of everyday life may be so brisk that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, the brisk pace also hampers their ability to make sense of speech. Further, Option B correctly uses the idiomatic construction "so A ("brisk") that B ("it hampers the ability...words")" to refer to the cause-effect relationship between the briskness of the conversational pace of everyday life and the fact that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words. Additionally, Option B uses the preferred construction "ability to".

C: This answer choice subtly alters the meaning of the sentence through the clause "they are unable to make"; the construction of this clause incorrectly implies that the conversational pace of everyday life may be so brisk that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, the children are unable to make sense of speech; the intended meaning is that the conversational pace of everyday life may be so brisk that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, the brisk pace also hampers their ability to make sense of speech.

D: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "and results in not making"; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that the conversational pace of everyday life may be so brisk that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, the brisk pace hampers their ability to make sense of speech.

E: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "resulting in being unable to make"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the conversational pace of everyday life may be so brisk that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, the brisk pace is unable to make sense of speech; the intended meaning is that the conversational pace of everyday life may be so brisk that it hampers the ability of some children to distinguish discrete sounds and words and, as a result, the brisk pace also hampers their ability to make sense of speech; remember, the introduction of the present participle ("verb+ing"- “resulting” in this case) after comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship. Additionally, Option E uses the construction "ability for"; please remember, "ability to" is generally preferred over "ability for".

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Comma + Present Participles for Cause-Effect Relationships" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~3 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

What's wrong with B?

B makes sense as the intention is to say that ability is hampered and not completely gone.
A,E are gone for idiom: ability to

D has the problem:
the conversational pace of everyday life hampers the ability of children to .. and results in not making sense of speech (of whom children are not implicit in here)
Also the intention is to say hampering the ability not loosing it.

C says they are unable => extreme and changes the meaning

hampering the ability doesn't imply that the person doesn't have the ability.
If original question intend to say that they are unable, then C would be the correct choice.



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Please underline the SC question segment

May be i can't suggest how to improve...
But i can try help you see the fine print in the given question..

A new study suggests that the conversational pace of everyday life may be so brisk that.. we need to have a "THAT" here.. also "so as to" is unidiomatic in option E.

So we are left with B,C and D.

D: what "results in not making": In this case this phrase modifies "conversational pace of everyday life". Here "inability of the children"............ results in not making.

C: As a result of "This" : Usage of this is ambiguous.

Answer B.

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

I took B because the other choices contained flaws.

However, I have a gerneral question about the use of "it". I thought that "it" could possibly refer to study instead of pace. Is this ruled out by "that", which introduces a realtive clause? I know it is not asked in the question but in other SC problems there are a lot of unclear referent issues...

You can accept certain ambiguity in pronouns. They should be your last split when you eliminate the choices, except if there is a non-sense pronoun.

Also, notice that "it" is parallel with "conversacional pace". Both are subjects in their clauses.
When that happens, there is less ambiguity. But the sentences must be parallel.

+1 B

D says: ...conversational pace...results in not making sense of speech.

The correct answer says: ...conversational pace...hampers the ability of some children...to make sense of speech.

Can someone please explain why, in option C, "the result of this" is incorrect?

You can directly eliminate option C because Suggests is Singular verb (base form of verb(v1) +s is always singular).
So we need singular noun/pronoun to refer to it .
They is incorrectly used in option C.

Hope this helps .

I don't think that's correct? Doesn't "they" refer to "children"?

My Bad

God , please help me in answering posts correctly ....
Sorry editing the post.

They indeed refers to children. The point is Parallelism here.
In option B , "it" refers to Conversational pace .
Here conversational pace is doing two things
a) hampers ability ...... to distinguish discrete sounds and words b) hampers to make sense of speech.
Here "to distinguish" and "to make" are parallel. Hence B correct .

Let's walk in through other answer choices to know why they are wrong

A. it hampers the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words and, the result is, to make.
For distinguishing is wrong.

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
Here author does not intend to say that children are unable to distinguish between sounds and words. Here author says that conversational pace hampers the ability to distinguish . Hence "they are unable to make" is not parallel to "to distinguish".
To be more precise , we know that "and" is a parallel marker .The sentence before "and" says that "conversational pace hampers ability ....to distinguish X and Y" . The sentence after "and" says they(children) are unable to make .... So these two sentences are not parallel.

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

If results is a verb then it's subject is Conversational pace. But it should have a different Subject .(comma +and ) joins two IC's. But the sentence after "and" is not a Independent clause . Hence Wrong .
E. as to hamper the ability of some children for distinguishing discrete sounds and words, resulting in being unable to make .
The word "that" is needed after brisk . --- Not Parallel.

Hope this helps

I got the answer correct , but one quick query ....
Isn't "..., as a result,..."mentioned in choice B , hampering the parallelism?

I'm i correct in understanding that since "..., as a result,..." is mentioned within commas it is not impacting the parallelism.
Please help.

as a result is a modifier phrase, encapsulated in a pair of commas so yes it does not impact the parallelism,
it enhances the meaning of the second infinitive "to make" , establishing the cause - effect relationship between the two elements presented in parallel construction.
in fact, without "as a result" , these elements cannot be entirely parallel because they're not independent consequences that can be purely separated by "and" .

HTH

can some expert explain whether so.......as to idiom usage fits here?

Yes, so... as.. (as used in option E) is valid. Option E is wrong because of another idiomatic error - "ability for..." is wrong.

sayantanc2k

so.........as according to me means it is so brisk that it results in hampering the ability.
Whereas so that sounds a bit intentional. Then is so that ok here.

The usage so..that need not be intentional.

I was so tired that I could not keep my eyes open. (becoming tired is not intentional.)
The place is so beautiful that I felt like living there forever. (being beautiful is not intentional.)