Beyond the immediate cash flow crisis that the museum faces, its

Question

Beyond the immediate cash flow crisis that the museum faces, its survival depends on  if it can broaden its membership and leave  its cramped quarters for a site where it can store and exhibit its more than 12,000 artifacts.

(A) if it can broaden its membership and leave

(B) whether it can broaden its membership and leave

(C) whether or not it has the capability to broaden its membership and can leave

(D) its ability for broadening its membership and leaving

(E) the ability for it to broaden its membership and leave

mikemcgarry · Accepted Answer

Dear honchos , I'm happy to respond.

This question has a clear OA of (B) . Why are (D) and (E) incorrect? Choice (D) makes an idiom mistake, pure and simple. The adjective " able " and the noun " ability " take the infinitive 100% of the time, never never never " for " + . Choice (D) make this classic idiom mistake and is just plain wrong. For more on this idiom, see: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/verbs-that ... -the-gmat/ Choice (E) is trickier. It is 100% grammatically correct, but awkward --- a bit too wordy and indirect. Compare it to the OA: (B) whether it can broaden ... clean, crisp, direct, powerful (E) the ability for it to broaden ... clunky, wordy, mealymouthed, awkward Whenever we encapsulate action as a noun (" ability ") instead of as a verb (" can "), we are making the entire sentence less direct and less powerful. Such a move is almost always wrong on the GMAT SC. Action should be expressed as verbs, to give the sentence the most punch. See: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/active-verbs-on-the-gmat/ Does all this make sense? Mike

WaterFlowsUp · Answer

(A)  if it can  broaden its membership and leave --------if only takes a condition/consequence

(B) whether it can broaden its membership and leave--correct
(C) whether or not it has the capability to broaden its membership and can leave-----whether or not is gramatically correct but it is imp to know that GMAT doesn't approve of it
(D) its ability for broadening its membership and leaving---ability to(idiom)
(E) the ability for it to broaden its membership and leave---ability to(idiom)

trahul4 · Answer

Go with B. Rememberthe simple rule : Whether almost always beats if on GMAT

lotus · Answer

B is the answer-'whether' is preferred over 'if', the sentence is short, and broaden and leave are parallel
D cannot be the answer - because,'ability for broadening' is redundant and most of the time 'ability for' signals redundancy

crashVcrush · Answer

Bxn If & whether : IF is used for CONDITIONAL cases and the following stem doesn't reveal any such condition :

Thus A / D / E are Eliminated

furthermore in D : For Broadening is an incorrect usage of Idiom

Bxn B & C :

C : To broaden ......................AND.................... Leave = Breaks Parallelism

Leading to B

docdrizzeally · Answer

the options D and E are both almost right by using ability directly making the sentence light but miss the idiom by using "FOR"
C i have found is too correct in usage as is wordy though technically correct
B usage of whether is correct despite the more concise if here and you should come back to choose it after traversing all the choices 
A could still be a choice if the B structure was as foggy as D and E

vietmoi999 · Answer

whether, not if, is used for "yes,no " meaning. This point is gmat standard, not general grammar standard.
ability to do is idiom
capability of doing: is idiom

"for somebody to do some thing" is expansion of " to do some thing" . but this expansion is not a formular which is applicable to every phrase. where to use this expansion is the problem of idiom. in short, " ability for it to do" is not idiomatic.

EliLTG · Answer

"Whether" should be used for two choices--however, the phrase "whether or not" is usually considered redundant on the GMAT. In this case, the two options are that the museum could succeed or it could fail; however, the "or not" is correctly implied by the sentence, rather than being redundantly made explicit.

Hope this helps!

varunjoshi31 · Answer

My Approach to solve this is as follows :

1. Read the option A, whether is more apt than if in this scenario hence A is out
2. In the last split leave, leaving is a wrong tense hence D is out
3. Now with B,C and E, "The" in E is out of context hence out
4. Left with B and C... C is too wordy and whether or not idiom is not required. Hence answer is B

Total time taken to solve : 80 seconds

lalania1 · Answer

Split1) "Ability + to", D and E say "ability+for" => this is not correct grammer. D and E are out.

Split2) The use of "whether" is correct and the GMAT prefers one word "whether" to the long "whether or not" so C is out.

Split3) Idiom? "depends + on" vs. "depends + if". I want to say that the correct grammar is "depends + on" and this is because IDIOM rules. Now, I am not sure about it, but please if someone can enlighten me with a more solid reason this split, I would greatly appreciate it. If "depends+on" holds, then A is incorrect. Source of reading on split3: https://www.waywordradio.org/discussion/ ... ends-upon/

AK125 · Answer

Can someone clarify why A is wrong?

I think I have figured it out.

If is used for conditional sentences.
Recognize a conditional sentence by, reversing it. If it still makes sense, then it is a conditional sentence.

If I exercised regularly, I would be healthier. I would be healthier, if I exercised regularly.

Whether is used for alternatives.

The sentence can not be flipped therefore it should be non conditional and whether is required.

Please correct me, if I am wrong.

abhimahna · Answer

Yes, option A can be neglected based on if and whether usage.

If is used for conditions and whether is used for questions.

Beyond the immediate cash flow crisis that the museum faces, its survival depends on  whether  it can broaden its membership and leave its cramped quarters for a site where it can store and exhibit its more than 12,000 artifacts.

mbaapp1234 · Answer

A "If" requires a corresponding "then" statement, and none is given here.
B Correct.
C "Whether or not" is redundant.
D "Ability for" is not idiomatic.
E "Ability for" is not idiomatic.

sasyaharry · Answer

Remove the fluff.

Beyond the immediate cash flow crisis that the museum faces ,  its  survival depends on if it can broaden its membership and leave its cramped quarters for a site  where it can store and exhibit its more than 12,000 artifacts.

Here the pronoun 'it' refers to 'the museum'. Now the important thing about  'if'  is that it is only valid when used in a  true conditional statement .
For ex:  If you make a right turn, we can stop at a gas station . If we reverse this example, we get:  We can stop at a gas station if you make a right turn.

Applying this analogy, reverse the original sentence:  It can broaden its membership if its survival depends on??? ......doesnt sound right. 
The correct phrase here is whether. Hence   eliminate A and D

With E, the sentence becomes  its survival depends on the ability for it to broaden......  has no condition at all and changes intent

Between B and C,  whether or not it has the capacity to broaden its membership and can leave  shows incorrect parallelism between to broaden and can leave.

siddyj94 · Answer

mikemcgarry   sayantanc2k

I was able to eliminate CDE because of the correct reasons and they did match with the reasons provided here.
Thanks to you guys.

However, I was not sure how to eliminate A and be sure about B.
As a matter of fact i am aware of the rules that If is used whenever there is a condition and Whether is used for a choice.

But as the gist of the passage conveys that there is a condition underlying that the survival of the museum depends on the  If it can broaden and leave....

Seem to me that If is used correctly over here.
Please can you correct me over here.

abhimahna · Answer

Hey  siddyj94  ,

You didn't understand the meaning of the sentence properly.

If you are saying if in A is used correctly, let me ask you one thing.

The sentence as per you should be "If it can broaden its membership and leave its cramped quarters for a site where it can store and exhibit its more than 12,000 artifacts, its survival depends on {what??} "

Do you see the difference? what does it depend on? That is not clear. Hence, using if is incorrect here.

But the moment I say "whether" (as in B), I am saying its survival depends on whether X... .

Does that make sense now?

sayantanc2k · Answer

"If" introduces a clause depicting a  condition . This clause MUST always be accompanied by another clause depicting the  effect  when the condition is satisfied.

If you come, (then) you will enjoy.

Condition = "you come".
Effect = "you will enjoy"
The action "enjoy" is the effect if the action "come" happens.

Now consider option A:
Condition = "it can broaden its membership...."
Effect = "its survival depends on"

i.e. IF it can broaden its membership, (THEN) its survival depends on.

Since the action "depends on" is not an effect if the action "broaden" happens, this option does not make any sense.

AkshdeepS · Answer

(A)  if  it can broaden its membership and leave

(B) whether it can broaden its membership and leave

(C)  whether or not it has the capability  to broaden its membership and can leave

(D) its  ability for  broadening its membership and leaving

(E) the  ability for it to  broaden its membership and leave

Only (B) makes sense

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

We can get to the right answer quickly enough if we remember the difference between  whether  and  if .

If is used to set up a conditional phrase. But here, the sentence sets up two choices. 
This means that ‘whether’ is the right choice.

Eliminate   Option A  right away.

Option C  has ‘can leave’ which is not necessary to maintain parallelism. 
Additionally, ‘whether or not’ is considered redundant. 
 Eliminate

Option D  uses ‘its ability for’ which is incorrect. We need an infinitive with ability. 
 Eliminate. 
 
 Option E  does not present the choice that Option B provides. This takes the sentence away from its intent. 
 Eliminate

Option B  is the best choice.

Hope this helps!

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