NEW HERE? LEARN MORE
closeclose
Last visit was: 24 Apr 2024, 16:27 It is currently 24 Apr 2024, 16:27
Decision Tracker
My Rewards
New posts
New comers' posts

Close
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

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Go to My Error Log Learn more
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel

Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton

SORT BY:
Date
Kudos
Tags:
Find Similar Topics 
Show Tags
Hide Tags
User avatar
B
fameatop
Senior Manager
Senior Manager
Joined: 24 Aug 2009
Posts: 388
Own Kudos [?]: 2260 [2]
Given Kudos: 276
Concentration: Finance
Schools:Harvard, Columbia, Stern, Booth, LSB,
Send PM
Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton [#permalink] New post   Updated on: 11 Apr 2019, 21:23
2
Bookmarks
00:00
A
B
C
D
E

Difficulty:

5% (low)

Question Stats:

83% (00:51) correct 17% (01:00) wrong based on 137 sessions
Hide Show timer Statistics
Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with another, twenty-three year-old Alan, paused in front of a first floor flat in the colony.


A. Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with another

B. Having a balance of a pizza with one hand and gripping a six-pack of carton of soft drinks with the other

C. Balancing a pizza with one hand and gripping a pack of six soft drink carton with the other

D. Being balanced a pizza with one hand and gripping a six-pack carton of soft drinks with the another

E. Having balanced a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with the other


Show Spoiler
I have a doubt in this question, posted by "Marcab"

Use of "another" vs "the other"
"The other", which means "second of two" is correct in this sentence. So options left are B,C, & E.
Option B can be ruled out because it does not maintain parallelism between Perfect participle & Present participle
Option C - maintains parallelism but a small error with "Six soft drink corner"
Option E - As per Marcab & many others this option is correct but i have a doubt in this option.

Although option E maintain parallelism using Perfect participle but perfect participle is used to indicate "Completed actions" and not "Continuing actions". If we use perfect participle in this case, it will mean that "When Alan paused in front of the door, he was neither holding the pizza nor holding the soft drink carton". If we use perfect participle it will change the intended meaning.

Waiting for Inputs from Experts..
ShowHide Answer
Official Answer
C

Originally posted by fameatop on 11 Jan 2013, 04:30.
Last edited by Bunuel on 11 Apr 2019, 21:23, edited 1 time in total.
Renamed the topic, edited the question and added the OA.
User avatar
gmatprepab
Intern
Intern
Joined: 08 Aug 2011
Posts: 38
Own Kudos [?]: 23 [0]
Given Kudos: 9
Schools: Ivey Rotman
Send PM
Reviews Badge
Re: Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton [#permalink] New post   12 Jan 2013, 07:33
fameatop wrote:
Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with another, twenty-three year-old Alan, paused in front of a first floor flat in the colony.
A. Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with another
B. Having a balance of a pizza with one hand and gripping a six-pack of carton of soft drinks with the other
C. Balancing a pizza with one hand and gripping a pack of six soft drink carton with the other
D. Being balanced a pizza with one hand and gripping a six-pack carton of soft drinks with the another
E. Having balanced a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with the other

I have a doubt in this question, posted by "Marcab"

Use of "another" vs "the other"
"The other", which means "second of two" is correct in this sentence. So options left are B,C, & E.
Option B can be ruled out because it does not maintain parallelism between Perfect participle & Present participle
Option C - maintains parallelism but a small error with "Six soft drink corner"
Option E - As per Marcab & many others this option is correct but i have a doubt in this option.

Although option E maintain parallelism using Perfect participle but perfect participle is used to indicate "Completed actions" and not "Continuing actions". If we use perfect participle in this case, it will mean that "When Alan paused in front of the door, he was neither holding the pizza nor holding the soft drink carton". If we use perfect participle it will change the intended meaning.

Waiting for Inputs from Experts..


I echo your inference Fame; 'the other' is correct in this specific case but having reflects a different meaning altogether. Now, we have obscured the sentence with Alan holding both of these things in his hand when he paused. "Six soft drink Carton" is weird in C, else it would have been the perfect one.
User avatar
commdiver
Manager
Manager
Joined: 09 Nov 2012
Posts: 153
Own Kudos [?]: 188 [0]
Given Kudos: 29
GMAT 1: 700 Q43 V42
Send PM
Re: Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton [#permalink] New post   12 Jan 2013, 12:06
E is the best choice, but it sounds awkward because "having" is used twice. I doubt the GMAT would use a problem like this.
User avatar
gmatprepab
Intern
Intern
Joined: 08 Aug 2011
Posts: 38
Own Kudos [?]: 23 [0]
Given Kudos: 9
Schools: Ivey Rotman
Send PM
Reviews Badge
Re: Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton [#permalink] New post   12 Jan 2013, 23:28
fameatop wrote:
Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with another, twenty-three year-old Alan, paused in front of a first floor flat in the colony.
A. Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with another
B. Having a balance of a pizza with one hand and gripping a six-pack of carton of soft drinks with the other
C. Balancing a pizza with one hand and gripping a pack of six soft drink carton with the other
D. Being balanced a pizza with one hand and gripping a six-pack carton of soft drinks with the another
E. Having balanced a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with the other

I have a doubt in this question, posted by "Marcab"

Use of "another" vs "the other"
"The other", which means "second of two" is correct in this sentence. So options left are B,C, & E.
Option B can be ruled out because it does not maintain parallelism between Perfect participle & Present participle
Option C - maintains parallelism but a small error with "Six soft drink corner"
Option E - As per Marcab & many others this option is correct but i have a doubt in this option.

Although option E maintain parallelism using Perfect participle but perfect participle is used to indicate "Completed actions" and not "Continuing actions". If we use perfect participle in this case, it will mean that "When Alan paused in front of the door, he was neither holding the pizza nor holding the soft drink carton". If we use perfect participle it will change the intended meaning.

Waiting for Inputs from Experts..


Fame, I thought about the option E for a while and came to the conclusion that option E is indeed incorrect.
Consider the following 2 sentences:

1) Having finished his quota of bowling spell, Ishant came out of the ground and settled into the dressing room.
2) Having finished his quota of bowling spell, Ishant started rubbing the ball for a better swing.

Choice 2 is logically incorrect and I hope you know why .. It doesn't make sense for a fast bowler to shine the ball for your colleague, especially when he is done with his spell.
Choice 1 is correct because that's common sense.

Same thing goes into this particular sentence. Since, Alan has balanced the pizza with one hand and gripped the drinks with other, there is no logical reason for him to pause in front of the flat. Yeah, some people will say maybe he might have to take out the keys from the pocket or have to ring the bell, that's the reason but that's not the logical follow up. These are pure assumptions and no natural logical flow. Opponents may say that his friend was already waiting at the door for him to come over and place the goodies at the table so no reason for Alan to pause at the door.

IMO, all the options are incorrect, and if this sentence is a copy of an official one, someone misunderstood the logic to do so.
User avatar
jlgdr
VP
VP
Joined: 06 Sep 2013
Posts: 1345
Own Kudos [?]: 2391 [0]
Given Kudos: 355
Concentration: Finance
Schools: Wharton '17 (A) HBS '17 (WA$)
Send PM
GMAT ToolKit User
Re: Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton [#permalink] New post   27 Dec 2013, 12:46
fameatop wrote:
Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with another, twenty-three year-old Alan, paused in front of a first floor flat in the colony.
A. Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with another
B. Having a balance of a pizza with one hand and gripping a six-pack of carton of soft drinks with the other
C. Balancing a pizza with one hand and gripping a pack of six soft drink carton with the other
D. Being balanced a pizza with one hand and gripping a six-pack carton of soft drinks with the another
E. Having balanced a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with the other

I have a doubt in this question, posted by "Marcab"

Use of "another" vs "the other"
"The other", which means "second of two" is correct in this sentence. So options left are B,C, & E.
Option B can be ruled out because it does not maintain parallelism between Perfect participle & Present participle
Option C - maintains parallelism but a small error with "Six soft drink corner"
Option E - As per Marcab & many others this option is correct but i have a doubt in this option.

Although option E maintain parallelism using Perfect participle but perfect participle is used to indicate "Completed actions" and not "Continuing actions". If we use perfect participle in this case, it will mean that "When Alan paused in front of the door, he was neither holding the pizza nor holding the soft drink carton". If we use perfect participle it will change the intended meaning.

Waiting for Inputs from Experts..


C is tricky for the reasons mentioned above

I think E is the best choice here

Experts please advice

Cheers!
J :)
User avatar
sivasanjeev
Manager
Manager
Joined: 16 Jan 2013
Posts: 116
Own Kudos [?]: 1588 [0]
Given Kudos: 56
Send PM
Re: Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton [#permalink] New post   27 Dec 2013, 20:17
jlgdr wrote:
fameatop wrote:
Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with another, twenty-three year-old Alan, paused in front of a first floor flat in the colony.
A. Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with another
B. Having a balance of a pizza with one hand and gripping a six-pack of carton of soft drinks with the other
C. Balancing a pizza with one hand and gripping a pack of six soft drink carton with the other
D. Being balanced a pizza with one hand and gripping a six-pack carton of soft drinks with the another
E. Having balanced a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with the other

I have a doubt in this question, posted by "Marcab"

Use of "another" vs "the other"
"The other", which means "second of two" is correct in this sentence. So options left are B,C, & E.
Option B can be ruled out because it does not maintain parallelism between Perfect participle & Present participle
Option C - maintains parallelism but a small error with "Six soft drink corner"
Option E - As per Marcab & many others this option is correct but i have a doubt in this option.

Although option E maintain parallelism using Perfect participle but perfect participle is used to indicate "Completed actions" and not "Continuing actions". If we use perfect participle in this case, it will mean that "When Alan paused in front of the door, he was neither holding the pizza nor holding the soft drink carton". If we use perfect participle it will change the intended meaning.

Waiting for Inputs from Experts..


C is tricky for the reasons mentioned above

I think E is the best choice here

Experts please advice

Cheers!
J :)


Perfect participles are used to denote actions that are just completed.
The problem with E -
E. Having (just) balanced a pizza with one hand and having (just) gripped a six-pack carton of soft drinks with the other, Alan paused at the door.
- is that the simple past doesn't have a specific time frame and we don't know which action preceded which; also, both are completed actions
He paused at the door, rang the bell and just balanced the pizza. (or)
He just balanced the pizza, rang the bell and paused at the door.

You may argue that in an example like - Having crossed the bridge, we went in the direction of the town., the sequencing is clear. Here, we know that if you don't cross the bridge, you cannot reach the town. One has to follow the other. Also, the events are widely spread.

In the given question, the events are pretty close ranging from few secs to a couple of minutes. So, what is the sequencing? Did he balance first and then pause at the door? While pausing at the door, the pizza was about to fall, and so he tried to balance it? So many open threads with E.
User avatar
VerbalBot
Non-Human User
Joined: 01 Oct 2013
Posts: 17213
Own Kudos [?]: 848 [0]
Given Kudos: 0
Send PM
Re: Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton [#permalink] New post   12 Aug 2020, 11:04
Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.
GMAT Club Bot
gmatclubot
Re: Balancing a pizza with one hand and having gripped a six-pack carton [#permalink]
12 Aug 2020, 11:04
Moderators:
GMATNinja
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
6920 posts
GMATNinjaTwo
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
238 posts

Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group | Emoji artwork provided by EmojiOne
Main navigation
GMAT Resources
Partners
MBA Resources
www.gmac.com|www.mba.com | | GMAT Club Rules | Terms and Conditions