A recent poll indicates that many people in the United States hold a

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 meaning of the crucial part of this sentence is that many people in the United States denounce the big government, in that they say the government is doing too much and has become too powerful, while at the same time they support many specific government programs for health care, education, and the environment.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers + Grammatical Construction + Tenses + Parallelism

• Semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses; commas are used to link an independent clause with a dependent one; comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses.
• Dashes are used in place of colons: to introduce a list, a definition/explanation, or an answer/solution.
• Any elements linked by a conjunction ("but" in this sentence) must be parallel.
• All elements in a list must be parallel.
• Habitual actions are best conveyed through the simple present tense.
• The simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature.

A: Correct This answer choice correctly acts upon the independent subject pronoun "they" with the active verb "denounce" to form a complete thought, leading to a complete thought. Further, Option A uses the phrase "saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful"; the construction of this phrase conveys that intended meaning - that many people in the United States denounce the big government, in that they say the government is doing too much and has become too powerful. Moreover, Option A currently uses the simple present tense verb "denounce" to refer to habitual action. Further, Option A correctly uses commas to link the independent clause "they denounce the big government" to the dependent clauses "saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful" and "while at the same time supporting...the environment. Additionally, Option A avoids the parallelism errors seen in Options B and C, as it lists no elements together and maintains parallelism between "saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful" and "supporting...the environment".

B: This answer choice incorrectly uses dashes to join the independent clause "they denounce big government" to the independent clause "they say that government is doing too much and has become too powerful" and the dependent clause "but supporting at the same time...the environment"; remember, semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses; commas are used to link an independent clause with a dependent one; comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses, and dashes are used in place of colons: to introduce a list, a definition/explanation, or an answer/solution. Further, Option B fails to maintain parallelism between "denounce the big government" and "supporting at the same time...the environment"; remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("but" in this sentence) must be parallel.

C: Trap. This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that many people in the United States denounce the big government, and as a separate action they say the government is doing too much and has become too powerful; the intended meaning is that many people in the United States denounce the big government, in that they say the government is doing too much and has become too powerful. Further, Option C fails to maintain parallelism among "they denounce big government", "say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful", and "they support...the environment"; remember, all elements in a list must be parallel.

D: This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; "while they denounce big government", "saying that government...become too powerful", and "at the same time...the environment" are all dependent clauses, so there is no independent subject for these clauses to modify.

E: This answer choice incorrectly uses dashes to join the independent clause "they say that government is doing too much and has become too powerful" to the dependent clauses "while they are denouncing big government" and "supporting at the same time...the environment"; remember, semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses; commas are used to link an independent clause with a dependent one; comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses. Further, Option E incorrectly uses the simple present continuous tense verb "are denouncing" to refer to a habitual action; remember, habitual actions are best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

Additional Note: Please note that in Option A "saying government..." and "at the same time supporting..." are not joined by the conjunction "while"; rather both are subordinate actions to "denounce the big government"; "while" is actually used to convey a sense of concurrence between "denounce" and "supporting".

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



To understand the concept of "Simple Continuous Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



To understand the use of punctuations on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~10 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

This is a sitter because straight away C,D E are out........

because of while.................. at the same time.............

They don't come together.
I mean while denouncing they support
But we don't say that while denouncing at the same time they support.

So left with A and B.
Coming to B,

They denounce the gov- they say.............
we cannot have they two times as mentioned in the above statment

So A

hi,Tommy,I think "denounce" and "support" are parallel, as "saying....." is a further explanation about the denouncement of big government.
so maybe "while" here leads an elliptical clause..... is it? Is so ,will it raise ambiguity about what the "while" part is parallel with?

There's another SC problem in which the "while at the same time doing " is the right answer.

Industrialization and modern methods of insect control have improved the standard of living around the globe while at the same time they have introduced some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants, having gone virtually unregulated since they were developed more than 50 years ago.
A. while at the same time they have introduced some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants, having
B. while at the same time introducing some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants that have
C. while they have introduced some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants at the same time, which have
D. but introducing some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants at the same time that have
E. but at the same time introducing some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutant, having

thank you very much!

Hey Kaja,

I'm not quite sure exactly what your question is. Yes, the other question you cite makes the same point as this one (that we can say "while at the same time X-ing"). As for parallelism, you have to work with what you're given. I'd love an answer choice that correctly paralleled the verbs "denounce" and "support." But it isn't here. That means they MUST be paralleling the other verbs. In other words, almost everyone DENOUNCES the government, but while doing so, some "SAY X" while others "SUPPORT Y."

Feel free to keep following up if I haven't answered your question!

-t

Hi Tommy,
I still think "While at the same time supporting" is parallel with "denounce", the speaker is citing an example of "a combination of conservative and liberal political views ", if we consider "supporting" parallel with "saying", the "denounce" clause seems to lead these two part. and the example will not mean "combination thought" , structurely at least.

Well, based on the above thought, I cite another question in which "while at the sametime doing" seems parallel with a clause.

so, I'm asking:
1.in the government question, is the "while" part really parallel with "saying" part?
2.if the"while" part is parallel with "denounce"part, should we consider the while part is an elliptical clause ? (the industrial evolution question makes think this way).
3,if it is clause, why choose elliptical form? don't GMAT prefer the perfect parallem that looks similar in clause sturcture? why here we choose an elliptial form to be paralleled with an non-elliptical one?

Hey Kaja,

1. No. You can't parallel "while" and "saying." One is a conjunction and one is a participle.

2. It's not. One is a conjunction and one is a verb.

3. It's not. It's not.

I don't care about elliptical versus non-elliptical. It's much more straight forward than that.

"While at the same time" is a conjunction. It, on its own, couldn't parallel anything. The stuff that's parallel comes AFTER the conjunction. "-ing" words have to match with other "-ing" words, and regular verbs go with regular verbs. Let's do this ONE MORE TIME:

A) they denounce the big government, saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful, while at the same time supporting --> Saying/Supporting = parallel

B) they denounce big government- they say that government is doing too much and has become too powerful-but supporting at the same time --> say/supporting = not parallel

C) they denounce big government, say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful, while they support at the same time --> say/support = parallel

D) while they denounce big government, saying that government is doing too much and has become too powerful, at the same time supporting --> saying/supporting = parallel

E) while they are denouncing big government- they say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful-supporting at the same time --> say/supporting = not parallel

It's really that simple. Elliptical versus non-elliptical is immaterial.

-t

hi, Tommy!


in this part, sorry I didn't make that clear, when I said"while part" , I meant "supporting......". I still can't believe "supporting...." is parallel with "saying....." ,in the respect of meaning. ,could you elaborate on that?

And for the "while at the same time doing"...in this SC problem, how can we undersand the seemingly parallelism between"have improved"and "introducing"?

Industrialization and modern methods of insect control have improved the standard of living around the globe while at the same time they have introduced some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants, having gone virtually unregulated since they were developed more than 50 years ago.
A. while at the same time they have introduced some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants, having
B. while at the same time introducing some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants that have
C. while they have introduced some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants at the same time, which have
D. but introducing some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutants at the same time that have
E. but at the same time introducing some 100,000 dangerous chemical pollutant, having

Thanks again for your answer and patience.

Kaja

Kaja,

The example you give is not the same. Our sentence has TWO modifiers of the main verb "denounce," which are then paralleled. Your example only has ONE modifier of the main verb "improved," so there's no need for parallel.

As for elevinty, I would agree. I'd much prefer the sentence without the comma. However, there's not a better option out there! For what it's worth, I don't like the question overall. A and C both are squidgy on the parallelism (the issue here is the comma, and in A, the use of "while...at the same time" in the third term).

-t

Please always post the source.

this question is from GMATprep, OA is A.

In first part fo the sentence is a hidden meaning:
Look at it A recent poll indicates that many people in the United States hold a combination of conservative and liberal political views.
So at the same time they have conservative and liberl views.

Answer A perfectly suits in aforementioned meaning of the sentence:
they [people] denounce [express their views] big government, saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful - [conservative position], while at the same time supporting - [liberal position]

Saying, while supporting - must be parallel.

Hi fozzy,

This is in response to your PM. Although many people have arrived at the correct answer, let me describe it in a little more detail as to how to eliminate the incorrect answer choices and why the correct one is indeed correct.

A recent poll indicates that many people in the United States hold a combination of conservative and liberal political views; i.e., they denounce big government, saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful, while at the same time supporting many specific government programs for health care, education, and the environment.

MEANING ANALYSIS:

According a recent poll, many people in the US have combination of conservative and liberal political views. They denounce big government for two reasons:
a. government is doing too much
b. government has become too powerful
But at the same time, they support many government health care, education, and environment programs.

ERROR ANALYSIS:

If we carefully study the structure of the underlined portion of this sentence, we will see it uses the structure – They denounce A while… supporting B. The same structure can be seen in OG 12 & 13#134 - Recently implemented "shift-work equations" based on studies of the human sleep cycle have reduced sickness, sleeping on the job, and fatigue among shift workers while raising production efficiency in various industries.
The above correct sentence employs the same structure – “Shift-work equations have reduced… while raising…”
The semicolon is correctly followed by an IC.
Comma + verb-ing modifier “saying” correctly modifies the preceding clause. The parallelism is maintained between the two reasons stated for denouncing the government.
Also, the simultaneous action has been correctly written by using “while”. The phrase
at the same time” just lays more emphasis on this simultaneity of actions. This sentence has no errors.

PoE:

(A) they denounce the big government, saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful, while at the same time supporting: Correct as is for the reason stated above.

(B) they denounce big government- they say that government is doing too much and has become too powerful-but supporting at the same time: Incorrect. Use of “but” brings in contrast here. The intention is to talk about the simultaneity of actions. This is the reason why, in choice “while” has been followed by “at the same time”.

(C) they denounce big government, they say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful, while they support at the same time: Incorrect. The two ICS are connected by comma. This is a run-on sentence.

(D) while they denounce big government, saying that government is doing too much and has become too powerful, at the same time supporting: Incorrect. There is no IC after semicolon.

(E) while they are denouncing big government- they say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful-supporting at the same time: Incorrect. Same error an in Choice D.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

A recent poll indicates that
many people in the United States hold a combination of conservative and liberal political views; i.e.,
they denounce big government,
---saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful,
while at the same time supporting many specific government programs for health care, education, and the environment.

(A) they denounce the big government, saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful, while at the same time supporting

(B) they denounce big government- they say that government is doing too much and has become too powerful-but supporting at the same time
>>"But" is a conjunction, used to connect two independent clauses.
(C) they denounce big government, say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful, while they support at the same time
>> Missing proper conjunction to connect 2 clauses or verb.
(D) while they denounce big government, saying that government is doing too much and has become too powerful, at the same time supporting
>>Missing independent clause by starting the sentence with subordinate cluase "while".
(E) while they are denouncing big government- they say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful-supporting at the same time
>>Same as D.

Selected A by POE but sentence structure in A is still weird. Request others to share their view.

The biggest issue with (C) is that it seems to be making a botched attempt at parallelism:


The subject "they" performs two parallel actions in (C): "denounce" and "say", but there's no conjunction ("and") between the two verbs. The only other way this could be acceptable is if there's a conjunction ("and") followed by third parallel verb -- something like "they denounce big government, say X, and support Y..." -- but that's not the case here.

(A) correctly turns the verb "say" into a modifier: "saying...". And that makes tons of sense: "saying government is doing too much" is giving us extra information about the previous clause ("they denounce big government"). In (C), the parallelism isn't structured correctly because there's no conjunction between the two verbs "denounce" and "say" -- but you could also argue that those two actions shouldn't be parallel, anyway. "Saying government is doing too much" just modifies the phrase "they denounce big government."

I hope this helps!

Hey GMATNinja,
All the options look wrong to me.
I feel in A, there is a lack of proper parallelism. they denounce big governments, saying that government is doing too much and has become too powerful, while supporting at the same time..........here denounce is not in parallel to supporting. I dont think supporting can be parallel to saying (just to justify the right answer). While introduces a dependent clause and needs to have a verb and must match in parallelism with the independent clause.
So, if all the options look wrong, how do we pick the best of them?

I'm thinking "out loud" a little bit here, and I'm not sure that I have this completely correct... but I don't think that the word "while" necessarily demands parallelism, or at least I never think of it that way. Whenever I see "and" or "or", I know that something HAS to be parallel, and those are the two parallelism "triggers" that show up the most often on the GMAT. But if there's a conjunction that joins a dependent with an independent clause, I don't actually think of it as parallelism, other than the fact that both clauses -- by definition -- need to have a subject and a verb. But that's not a very interesting form of parallelism, and there's no reason why the verbs couldn't be different tenses.

In this case, though, I think you might be struggling with a different issue: "while" doesn't explicitly require you to join a dependent clause with an independent clause. Here's a great explanation of the concept: https://gmatclub.com/forum/although-is- ... l#p1540391.

See if that article helps at all?

I rejected options b,c,d and e because they all lacked that and that parallelism, is this a valid elimination strategy?

Posted from my mobile device

If in X and Y the Y is headed by a that, then we definitely need a that (or something similar) for the X as well.

However, if the X is headed by a that, we may or may not see a that in Y. Adding a second that is a definitely a good idea, but we probably don't want to look at it as a "rule".

Hi GMATNinja,

Thank you for your kind explanation.
I always love your explanation on Verbal question.

However, I have some doubt on A.

Can we use the phrase "while at the same" , because "while" itself implies "simultaneous action"?
In this case, is it not a redundancy issue ?

Please explain.

Thank you.