Events & Promotions
|
|
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Nov 1811:00 AM PST
-12:00 PM PST
Join us in a live GMAT practice session and solve 30 challenging GMAT questions with other test takers in timed conditions, covering GMAT Quant, Data Sufficiency, Data Insights, Reading Comprehension, and Critical Reasoning questions.
Nov 2211:00 AM IST
-01:00 PM IST
Do RC/MSR passages scare you? e-GMAT is conducting a masterclass to help you learn – Learn effective reading strategies Tackle difficult RC & MSR with confidence Excel in timed test environment- Nov 23
11:00 AM IST
-01:00 PM IST
Attend this free GMAT Algebra Webinar and learn how to master the most challenging Inequalities and Absolute Value problems with ease. 
Nov 2510:00 AM EST
-11:00 AM EST
Prefer video-based learning? The Target Test Prep OnDemand course is a one-of-a-kind video masterclass featuring 400 hours of lecture-style teaching by Scott Woodbury-Stewart, founder of Target Test Prep and one of the most accomplished GMAT instructors.
A
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
45%
(medium)
Question Stats:
59% (01:14) correct
41%
(01:20)
wrong
based on 12451
sessions
History
Date
Time
Result
Not Attempted Yet
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.
(A) in healing physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help
(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
(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
(A) in healing physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help
(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
(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
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/30/science/women-s-cults-of-antiquity-the-veil-rises.html
Among the objects are small terracotta models of arms as well as wombs and eyes - left by women who were either asking the goddess's aid in healing physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help.
Among the objects are small terracotta models of arms as well as wombs and eyes - left by women who were either asking the goddess's aid in healing physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help.
09 May 2018, 22:54
Kudos
Bookmarks
The relatively easy part of this question is the parallelism: the words that immediately follow “either” and “or” must be strictly parallel. (And just in case you’re one of the GMAT Club members who asked: these are two of the “special parallelism triggers” I mentioned in our YouTube webinar on parallelism and meaning.)
Unfortunately, there’s also a frustrating idiom thing in this question, and I really don't think that it should be tested at all. But we can't really avoid it in this case. I’ll rant more about that below.
Hey, you can’t beat that in terms of the parallelism. Maybe you think that “aid in healing” or “such help” sound funny, but neither of them are wrong, and “sounding funny” is a terrible reason to eliminate answer choices anyway. Let’s keep (A).
That’s all sorts of wrong. First, “either” and “and” really don’t go together at all – it just doesn’t make any sense. Second, the parallelism is wrong, anyway: “asking” and “to thank” are not parallel. So (B) is out.
So (C) is gone, too.
So now let’s line (A) and up side-by-side, since there are no DEFINITE errors in either of them (and for more on the distinction between DEFINITE errors and other stuff, check out this crusty old article):
Ugh, this is one of those nightmare scenarios that I absolutely dread, both as a teacher and as a test-taker: the only difference is an idiom. There are roughly 25,000 idioms in English, and they are – by definition! – arbitrary, and don’t follow generalizable rules. I discuss idioms at length in this article; you could memorize 25,000 idioms if you really want to, but the key on the overwhelming majority of GMAT SC questions is to avoid the idioms as much as possible, and look for ANY other error.
But in relatively rare cases, there’s nothing else you can do: you just have to fight with the idiom. In this case, it turns out that the GMAT prefers the phrase “aid in healing” over “aid to heal.” The same is true if we replace “aid” with “help”: “help in healing” would apparently be correct on the GMAT, but “help to heal” would not. So (A) is correct, and (E) is wrong.
Why is that the case? I don’t know. It’s an idiom, so it doesn’t need reasons. And again, I think it’s a silly thing for the GMAT to test. But in the very unlikely event that you encounter these on your actual GMAT, now you know the correct idiom: “aid in healing” or “help in healing” are correct, but “aid to heal” is wrong on the GMAT.
But more importantly: make sure you’re really strict and literal with the “either/or” business, because I 100% promise that you’ll see THAT stuff again.
Unfortunately, there’s also a frustrating idiom thing in this question, and I really don't think that it should be tested at all. But we can't really avoid it in this case. I’ll rant more about that below.
Quote:
Let’s start with the parallelism triggered by the either/or construction: “…supplicants who were either asking the goddess Bona Dea's aid in healing physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help.
Hey, you can’t beat that in terms of the parallelism. Maybe you think that “aid in healing” or “such help” sound funny, but neither of them are wrong, and “sounding funny” is a terrible reason to eliminate answer choices anyway. Let’s keep (A).
Quote:
In (B), we have: “…supplicants who were either asking the goddess Bona Dea's aid in healing physical and mental ills and to thank her for such help.
That’s all sorts of wrong. First, “either” and “and” really don’t go together at all – it just doesn’t make any sense. Second, the parallelism is wrong, anyway: “asking” and “to thank” are not parallel. So (B) is out.
Quote:
(C) suffers from exactly the same problem as (B): “either” and “and” just don’t make any sense together. Sure, “asking” and “thanking” are in the same form, but that’s irrelevant if we can’t get the either/or thing right.
So (C) is gone, too.
Quote:
Well, we have an “either/or” construction now, so that’s good, but the parallelism is still wrong: “…supplicants who were either asking the goddess Bona Dea's aid to heal physical and mental ills or to thank her for such help. “Asking” and “to thank” aren’t parallel to each other, so (D) is out, too.
Quote:
The parallelism looks absolutely fine in (E): “…supplicants who were either asking the goddess Bona Dea's aid to heal physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help. Cool.
So now let’s line (A) and up side-by-side, since there are no DEFINITE errors in either of them (and for more on the distinction between DEFINITE errors and other stuff, check out this crusty old article):
Quote:
Ugh, this is one of those nightmare scenarios that I absolutely dread, both as a teacher and as a test-taker: the only difference is an idiom. There are roughly 25,000 idioms in English, and they are – by definition! – arbitrary, and don’t follow generalizable rules. I discuss idioms at length in this article; you could memorize 25,000 idioms if you really want to, but the key on the overwhelming majority of GMAT SC questions is to avoid the idioms as much as possible, and look for ANY other error.
But in relatively rare cases, there’s nothing else you can do: you just have to fight with the idiom. In this case, it turns out that the GMAT prefers the phrase “aid in healing” over “aid to heal.” The same is true if we replace “aid” with “help”: “help in healing” would apparently be correct on the GMAT, but “help to heal” would not. So (A) is correct, and (E) is wrong.
Why is that the case? I don’t know. It’s an idiom, so it doesn’t need reasons. And again, I think it’s a silly thing for the GMAT to test. But in the very unlikely event that you encounter these on your actual GMAT, now you know the correct idiom: “aid in healing” or “help in healing” are correct, but “aid to heal” is wrong on the GMAT.
But more importantly: make sure you’re really strict and literal with the “either/or” business, because I 100% promise that you’ll see THAT stuff again.
18 Aug 2009, 20:04
Kudos
Bookmarks
Both Aid in and Aid to are correct. But pay attention.....to what follows the propostions.
Aid to the victims (noun) is available
Her Aid in walking (verb) the dog is appreciated.
As you can see, the question, requires the second version because healing is a verb.
So based on idiom itself, you can eliminate D and E. And among A,B,C - A is the only one that follows correct either/or structure. Therefore A is correct.
Aid to the victims (noun) is available
Her Aid in walking (verb) the dog is appreciated.
As you can see, the question, requires the second version because healing is a verb.
So based on idiom itself, you can eliminate D and E. And among A,B,C - A is the only one that follows correct either/or structure. Therefore A is correct.
