Among the objects found in the excavated temple were small terra-cotta

Hi iamdivs,

I'm not sure whether this is a complete answer, but we can absolutely "ask {something}" (ask ~ "request" or "seek").

Quick example: both "ask her opinion" and "ask for her opinion" are possible.

Sure sorry if I didn't make myself clear what I wanted to say is you don't ask someone 'in something'

You sure can ask someone to do something but not in something or you can ask for someone's help in something but then 'for' would be required. I will appreciate if you could help me understand this question's correct answer. It seems here 'help' is not a person but rather the actual help needed ( as clear from the second part of the sentence)

Thank you!

Posted from my mobile device

I understand your question now. That's not exactly what this sentence is saying.

... were asking the goddess Bona Dea's aid in healing physical and mental ills...
is the same as
... were asking (the goddess Bona Dea's aid in healing physical and mental ills)...
or
... were asking someone's something...
not
... were asking someone in something...

Let's take another look at "ask her opinion". (a) Ask is a verb, (b) her is a possessive pronoun, and (c) opinion is a noun.

In "were asking the goddess Bona Dea's aid in healing physical and mental ills", (a) were asking is a verb, (b) the goddess Bona Dea's is a possessive noun, and (c) aid in healing physical and mental ills is a noun (because of aid). The in that we see there is for aid, not ask.

GMATNinja I think you are wrong on this one... "Help TO" is correct Idiom, "Not Help IN".

For starters, this official GMAT SC question would beg to differ with you.

More importantly: the relative importance of knowing this particular idiom is very, very low. Sure, it might show up on the test, but thousands of other idioms might show up as well, meaning that it is kind of a waste of time to study particular idioms. So I really don't recommend that you waste too many brain cells on this issue .

That being said, both "in" and "to" can be correct, depending on the exact construction:

1) Help in doing something: This is the construction most relevant to the question on this thread. I would ask a friend for "help in studying for the GMAT," NOT for "help to study for the GMAT." This mirrors the "aid in healing" construction in (A).

2) Help someone to do something: for example, I might "help my parents to buy a house." Here we have "help... to," but it is separated by a noun. Sure, this is correct English -- but I'm not sure I've ever seen this construction on the GMAT, making this concept a very low priority.

Overall, the other issues in this question are much higher value, because they are far more likely to show up on other questions. This idiom, on the other hand, is very unlikely to be a factor on test day.

I hope that helps!

GMATNinja
What exactly is the 'her' referring to? I believe pronouns cannot refer back to possessive nouns - in which case, here the 'her' must refer back to 'aid', which doesn't make sense.

Subject/object pronouns typically don't refer back to possessive nouns, but unfortunately that is not an ironclad rule. In this case, you could argue that "her" refers to "the goddess" and doesn't in fact refer back to a possessive.

But regardless of what "her" technically refers to, there is only one possible referent here that makes sense, and that's the goddess Bona Dea.

More importantly, all five options use "her," so clearly the GMAT doesn't want us worrying about it!

I have a doubt.

In correlative conjunction like not only x but also y, the x part cannot be carried over to the y part.
ex : Not only Jim is crazy but also Jim is fun. // This is correct

Jim not only is crazy but also fun // this is wrong

In above sentence, the deity part is in X part of conjunction, how can you the "her" after 'or' refer back to the deity?

^ Might be a very basic thing that I am missing here, would be great if someone could explain what that is

Hi ashimakumari,

We should check whether the two elements are structurally similar. If they are, that's enough. Pronoun reference is a different concept, not related to the "carry over" concept.

Also, if we use not only... (but) (also) to join clauses, the clause after not only must be in the inverted form. So the correct way to write (ex) is (1), assuming that we can use the word fun to describe a person:

1. Not only is Jim crazy, but Jim is also fun.
or
2. Not only is Jim crazy, but he is also fun.

Correct Option : A
Original Sentence
Among the objects found in the excavated temple were small terra-cotta effigies left by supplicants who were either asking the goddess Bona Dea's aid in healing physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help.

Correct Idioms :
- either X or Y
- to ask for aid in doing X
Correct Parallelism :
Asking || Thanking
Aid || help

Elimination Process:
(A) in healing physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help - Correct Idiom Correct Parallelism
(B) in healing physical and mental ills and to thank her for helping - Idiom error Parallelism Error
(C) in healing physical and mental ills, and thanking her for helping - Idiom error Parallelism Error
(D) to heal physical and mental ills or to thank her for such help - Idiom error Parallelism Error
(E) to heal physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help - Parallelism Error

Correct option A

Most important is to know, what makes idiom correct !
Small small word, which we call Preposition, which some ignore and end up in worng answer selection
with proper knowledge, this hard question can be solved in just 30 sec

Rule 1 : Preposition follow only Noun, Pronoun and Gerund
Rule 2: Understand the usage of some helpful preposition like "to", "for", "of", "in" which are used almost max time in GMAT
Rule 3: Verb-ing and Gerund are different

Preposition "to" when indicating that there is movement from one place to another.
Preposition "for" to talk about a purpose or a reason for something
Preposition "of" when we want to show that people or things relate to other things or peopler
Preposition "In" is defined as inside an area, moving from a point outside to a point inside

Eliminate D, and E
- wrong usage of Preposition "to" with verb "heal"
- Idiom Error Either X or Y
- Parallelism Error - asking not parallel to thank
(D) to heal physical and mental ills or to thank her for such help
(E) to heal physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help

Eliminate B, and C
Parallelsim error - asking || thanking,
Preposition Error - For used for verb "helping"
Idiom Error - Either X or Y
(B) in healing physical and mental ills and to thank her for helping
(C) in healing physical and mental ills, and thanking her for helping

Correct Option
A) in healing physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help
- Healing is a Noun, correct usage of preposition "IN"
- Either X or Y - correct
- Parallelism asking || thanking

Aid in is correct idiom so option a

(A) in healing physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help
The meaning and parallelism is perfect therefore let us hang on to it

(B) in healing physical and mental ills and to thank her for helping
healing and thank not parallel , along with the usage of and is distorting the meaning therefore out

(C) in healing physical and mental ills, and thanking her for helping
Similar reasoning as B

(D) to heal physical and mental ills or to thank her for such help
thank isn't the right usage therefore out

(E) to heal physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help
healing should be the right usage therefore out

THerefore IMO A

B, and E break parallelism established in A

C incorrectly uses a second "and", we should see "or" used instead

D is using the incorrect action type "to heal" is a future action, when they want aid currently

A doesn't introduce new errors, correct!

Hello experts,

Between A and E,
Is there any change in meaning when we say-
aid in healing vs
aid to heal??

Seems like there is, but i am not sure how?
Or its just a strict idiom elimination?

Posted from my mobile device

Hello dcoolguy,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, there is no difference in meaning between Options A and E; "aid + in" is merely the preferred construction.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

AjiteshArun GMATNinja RonPurewal - i thought "aid to" was correct.

Reason - dont we say :



How are you so sure that the above structures [Aid to Ukraine] was not what the author intended to reflect when the author wrote this SC question ?

Is it because == alll 5 answer choices have [Aid to VERB'ING], hence the above structure [(i) and (ii)] -- is not the intended meaning of the author's ?

If so, then dont we say the following --
Also,


I dont know what this difference in meaning is -- both structure [help in finishing vs help to finish], both seem fine to me. I dont know what the difference is