Because his political capital will be expended on a series

Question

Because his political capital will be expended on  a series of small but highly controversial issues, the finance minister failed to find any support for the major economic reforms he had proposed last year.

A) Because his political capital will be expended on
B) Since the political capital expended on
C) The political capital was expended on
D) Because his political capital was expended
E) His political capital expended on

VarunBhardwaj · Answer

C/E can be eliminated because they fail to show that the sentences are connected or related.
A can be eliminated because The correct part of the sentence is in past tense.......... failed......had proposed and choice uses a future tense.
B It misses the verb "was" .The political capital can not expend itself.
D is the correct answer. Although i am not very convinced with "his political capital", i believe it should be country's.

AspireGMAT27 · Answer

A) - Incorrect as the non-underlined part of the sentence contains simple past tense and past perfect. The future tense of option A does not match that.
B) - incorrect because “since” is used to join the first half of the sentence to the second half but does not contain a proper sentence for the first half. The basic sentence, using option B, is “Since his political capital expended on stuff, the finance minister ...” We need to join to complete sentences using conjunctions, and not fragments.
C) - incorrect because, while it contains a full sentence instead of a fragment, it lacks any conjunction to join those two sentences. Two sentences cannot be connected using only a comma.
D) - incorrect because it does not contain the idiomatic expression “expended on”.

E) is the correct answer. :lol:

mvictor · Answer

E is incorrect because we have 2 IC connected with a comma.
We need to present reasoning why FM failed. Thus, the sentence must start with because/since.
 bb  or  souvik101990  please have this question removed; such questions only negatively affect preparations for gmat.

aditya8062 · Answer

Your analysis is not correct !!
EXPENDED is not a verb here BUT a modifier, so there is no problem

mvictor · Answer

Ok, let's say expended is not a verb
His political capital-noun modifier-, Finance minister smth smth
Does it make sense? For me - not at all

Logically, we would need a word that would present the causality
In my opinion: since/because/as must be used

aditya8062 · Answer

Yes it does !!
the initial modifier is acting like an ADJECTIVE describing "finance minister" ----->similar example :  smart and intelligent, Tim blah blah blah .....

mvictor · Answer

Looks like i can't comprehend it. 2 unrelated things connected with a comma.
My next question would be - why did he fail to do smth?
To be honest - this is the first time when i see such a construction. Furthermore, not knowing the source of the question, i would rather be suspicious of such usage than accept it at the face value.

egmat , pls be so kind to have a look into this question. Thanks much

daagh · Answer

With specific reference to E: It is not correct to say that the first part, which is, in fact, an adjectival modifier using the past participial ed-verb 'expended’ as Aditya pointed out, is unrelated to the second part. After all the word ‘his’ in the first refers to FM in the second part and hence they are thick and thin related. 
As is well known, adjectival modifiers are always connected to the nouns they modify only by a comma. It must be noted that in the given case ‘His political capital expended on a series of small but highly controversial issues’ is just a phrase and not a clause. Only when two full clauses are involved, will a question of a comma splice arise.

I will give below two examples such appositives. From the OG:

1. Architects and stonemasons, huge palace and temple clusters were built by the Maya without the benefit of the wheel or animal transport.
(A) huge palace and temple clusters were built by the Maya without the benefit of the wheel or animal transport
(B) without the benefits of animal transport or the wheel, huge palace and temple clusters were built by the Maya
(C) the Maya built huge palace and temple clusters without the benefit of animal transport or the wheel
(D) there were built, without the benefit of the wheel or animal transport, huge palace and temple clusters by the Maya
(E) were the Maya who, without the benefit of the wheel or animal transport, built huge palace and temple clusters
Choice C is the correct answer, wherein, the introductory noun phrase ‘Architects and stonemasons’ is no more than a modifier connected by a comma to the main clause.

2. His campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms finally successful, Sir Joseph Lister lent his name to the company that developed Listerine, the first antibacterial liquid.

(A) His campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms finally successful
(B) Since his campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms had been eventually successful
(C) Because of the eventual success of his campaigning for sanitary conditions in operating rooms
(D) His campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms being eventually successful
(E) Campaigning, eventually successfully, for conditions to be sanitary in operating rooms

The correct answer is A. In this example His campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms finally successful’ is a modifier connected by a comma with the main clause. You can also note that the topic under question is just a simulated version of the original Og topic.

aditya8062 · Answer

@daag: the first example that you have given is a beautiful sentence .can u please tell the OG NO and question NO for both questions

daagh · Answer

Aditya 
Hi 
1. OG 11 Qn#72 Architects and stonemasons, huge palace and temple clusters were built by the Maya without

2. I am not able to fix the reference for the second one.

mvictor · Answer

I agree with the first question's OA, yet I find second one just as strange as the sentence in this topic. The first one perfectly makes sense, while the second sounds/looks like an incomplete thought. His campaign what?
I do know that adjectival modifiers usually modify the closest noun, but the modifier SHOULD make sense, no? I see it as an incomplete thought, and that is why I reject such options.

egmat , please chime in on this one.

b9n920 · Answer

This is a great SC question on Absolute Phrases (i.e. Noun + Noun Modifier), a topic that is not very frequently asked on GMAT. Well, the above sentence is an example of an Absolute Phrase

Sometimes they are really tricky, I am happy to get this Q correct.

Thanks.

santorasantu · Answer

Just wondering what is the source of this question?

Political capital meaning --> accumulation of resources and power built through relationships
expended meaning --> spent or used up 
In A, I guess the meaning does not make much sense. Because the finance minister's political capital will be expended on a series of small but highly controversial issues, the finance minister failed to find any support for the major economic reforms he had proposed last year.
In B, There is a noun in the modifier, and the next sentence starts with finance minister, so B is incorrect for sure
In C, same problem as B, so this is also incorrect
In D, the first part of the sentence reads as follows:
Because his political capital was expended a series of small but highly controversial issues, blah blah...
This is not a complete sentence
E, His political capital expended on a series of small but highly controversial issues, the finance minister failed to find any support for the major economic reforms he had proposed last year.

E looks like the best fit out of all choices.

Because his political capital will be expended on a series of small but highly controversial issues, the finance minister failed to find any support for the major economic reforms he had proposed last year.

A) Because his political capital will be expended on
B) Since the political capital expended on
C) The political capital was expended on
D) Because his political capital was expended
E) His political capital expended on

lynlyn · Answer

Because his political capital will be expended on a series of small but highly controversial issues, the finance minister failed to find any support for the major economic reforms he had proposed last year.

A) Because his political capital will be expended on -  "will" wrong tense 
B) Since the political capital expended on -  lack verb 
C) The political capital was expended on -  run-on sentence 
D) Because his political capital was expended -  lack "on" after expended 
E) His political capital expended on -  correct

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Because his political capital will be expended on a series

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Because his political capital will be expended on a series

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