After the 1973 drought's 70 percent total cattle loss, livin

What is the OA?

Confused btw A & C

What is the OA?

Confused btw A & C

At first glance

A - drought's 70 percent total cattle loss (<-- that is odd)
B - wrong construction. (no verb in the sub-ordinate clause)
C - seemed fine
D - not really sure about this option
E - no antecedent to "these people"

So, I was stuck between C and D and I chose C.

I have two questions related to this question.

Is "Even though" a sub-ordinate conjunction ? I mean should "Even though" be followed only by a clause?

Is there anything wrong with the usage of "Despite" in the last option? "Despite" is a preposition and should be followed by an object of preposition - noun/pronoun/noun phrase. I thought "Sahel inhabitants' ...improvement" is a noun phrase and hence the usage is correct.

Kindly comment.

OE

Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors:

The original sentence is awkward, insinuating that the drought suffered a cattle loss, which is absurd. The drought may have caused the loss of cattle, but it did not have a loss itself. So we know that answer choice (A) can be eliminated. We also know that we are looking for a sentence that corrects this possession issue.


Eliminate Wrong Answer Choices:

Answer choice (A) has already been eliminated.

We know that we need to eliminate any choices that do not correct the possession issue. Therefore, choices (B) and (E) can be eliminated because they also do not eliminate the original possession problem.

This leaves us with choices (C) and (D), both of which correct the possession issue. In distinguishing between these two, choice (C)’s meaning is clearer than that of choice (D), which is awkwardly phrased. Answer Choice (C) is correct. Double check by reading (C) back into the sentence. "Although living conditions for inhabitants of the Sahel improved after the end of the 1973 drought, during which the estimated proportion of cattle lost was 70%, these people continue to suffer from the devastating effects of malnutrition." This confirms that Answer Choice (C) is correct.

IMO
It is not necessary that EVENTHOUGH should be followed by a clause...as i havent found any official explaination stating so.
for ALTHOUGH OG says it must be followed by finite clause.(i know you will be familiar with that).

yes the last option is wrong because of the use of posessive noun inhabitant's.
it should be INHABITANTS to act as ANTECEDENT for the pronoun in non underlined part.
otherwise use of DESPITE (IMO) is correct as it creating a contrast and as you said it is followed by noun phrase.

hope it helps

After the 1973 drought's 70 percent total cattle loss, living conditions improved for inhabitants of the Sahel, but these people continue to suffer from the devastating effects of malnutrition.

A) After the 1973 drought's 70 percent total cattle loss, living conditions improved for inhabitants of the Sahel, but
Wrong. Very awkward structure. IMO, GMAT hardly uses this type of phrase.

Be aware of possessive form. That's usually a sign of error in GMAT.

B) Even though Sahel inhabitants' living conditions, which improved over the 1973 drought's 70 percent total loss of cattle
Wrong. The part "which improved...." is modifier, so we can omit it without meaning changes. Thus, the sentence becomes "Even though Sahel inhabitants' living conditions these people continue......." does it make sense? Nope. B is wrong.

C) Although living conditions for inhabitants of the Sahel improved after the end of the 1973 drought, during which the estimated proportion of cattle lost was 70 percent,
Lengthy but correct. C is error free. So C is a correct sentence.

D) While there was an improvement in living conditions for inhabitants of the Sahel after the 70 percent total cattle loss of the 1973 drought, still
Wrong. "while" does not make sense here.

E) Despite Sahel inhabitants' living condition improvement from the 1973 drought's 70 percent total cattle loss,
Wrong. Same error as in A. The red phrase is very awkward. GMAT hardly uses this type of phrase.

Hope it helps.

was stuck between A and C. went with C.

drought's 70% cattle loss - drought does not have cattle loss - so out.
one more error, although subtle, living conditions is the subject, but then we discuss people. so not good.

B - we do not have an IC here. these does not have an antecedent.
C - looks good.
D - while there was - oh my god, no. wile + still. no no no
E - these does not have an antecedent.

Prioritized meaning and essence over everything else in this one.

C captures both the parameters in the most efficient way. There is a very nice flow to it too. The other options simply don't match up to it.
Although <condition A> improved <complement>, <condition B>.

Not to mention some of the obvious grammatical errors in the rest of the options.

Nice question. Not only because I got it right.

The expression ‘1973 drought’s 70 percent’ is too casual and colloquial to find a place in the formal writing. In one stroke, we can dump A,B and E. D also can fall into the category, as the choice indicates as if the 70 percent total cattle loss is a characteristic of the said drought. I addition, It is not clear what 70 percent total cattle loss means by saying it is total loss but yet 70 percent. What survives is choice C in spite its wordiness.

The answer should be C, at least that is what I got after applying the process of elimination.

We can take up A and B together, since they both have the same flaw. The first two options suffer from a meaning error, both of them refer to the 70 per cent loss of cattle as being off the 1973 drought. The drought may have caused the cattle loss but the loss does not belong to the drought. B also, incorrectly, implies that conditions improved during the cattle loss. D and E make the same error as A. E also has very awkward construction. Only C correctly says that the cattle loss happened during the 1973 drought.

Hi Experts,

AjiteshArun daagh

In the option D :

D) While there was an improvement in living conditions for inhabitants of the Sahel after the 70 percent total cattle loss of the 1973 drought, still

Whether we can also rule out option D because of "While... still" combination ?

Thanks in advance !!

Will option E be a better answer had it been as below ? :
Despite improvements in the living conditions of Sahel's inhabitants since the 70% cattle loss in the 1973 drought , these people continue to suffer from the devastating effects of malnutrition.

Hi MentorTutoring,

Since my query remained unanswered, could you please shed light on it?

Thanks for your consistent help and guidance !!

Hello, abhishekmayank. Yes, while and still serve the same purpose in (D), making still unnecessary and redundant. Even if we removed while from the head of the sentence, but, not still, would better convey that the inhabitants of the Sahel continue to suffer. (Keep in mind, continue to also steps on the toes of still, and we cannot negotiate that part of the sentence, so we would not want to see the two side by side.) Taken together, there is no doubt that (D) is a weaker version of the sentence, one that we can eliminate.

I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask.

- Andrew

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