Critics contend that the new missile is a weapon whose importance is

Question

Critics contend that the new missile is a weapon whose importance is largely symbolic, more a tool  for manipulating people's perceptions than to fulfill  a real military need.

(A) for manipulating people's perceptions than to fulfill

(B) for manipulating people's perceptions than for fulfilling

(C) to manipulate people's perceptions rather than that it fulfills

(D) to manipulate people's perceptions rather than fulfilling

(E) to manipulate people's perceptions than for fulfilling

ydmuley · Accepted Answer

Critics contend that the new missile is a weapon whose importance is largely symbolic, more a tool for manipulating people's perceptions than to fulfill a real military need.

The parallel structure can take either of the below forms.

1. For manipulating ........... for fulfilling
2. To manipulate ------------ to fulfill

A) for manipulating people's perceptions than to fulfill ===> Missing Parallelism
B) for manipulating people's perceptions than for fulfilling - CORRECT
C) to manipulate people's perceptions rather than that it fulfills ===> Missing Parallelism
D) to manipulate people's perceptions rather than fulfilling ===> Missing Parallelism
E) to manipulate people's perceptions than for fulfilling ===> Missing Parallelism

Hence, Answer is B

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sony26 · Answer

for  manipulating ... than  for  fulfilling - adheres to //ism.
Only B fits the bill.

Cheers
SOny

Nevernevergiveup · Answer

Critics contend that the new missile is a weapon
 whose importance is largely symbolic, 
 more a tool for manipulating people's perceptions than to fulfill a real military need.

I agree we can straightly go for Option B simply based on Parallelism.
But since both the actions are intentional, I feel  to  is comparably better option than  for (if available).
manipulating people's perceptions
fulfilling a real military need

I feel it should be something like 
Critics contend that the new missile is a weapon whose importance is largely symbolic, more a tool to manipulate people's perceptions than to fulfill a real military need.

Can someone explain?

sa2222 · Answer

This is an easy one - However, my question is for the usage of more X rather than Y - is it a correct usage?

sa2222 · Answer

OG explanation states both the usage are correct - for and to, as you mentioned. I dont see a reason why not?

evst · Answer

Hi Mechmeera,
According to my understanding, l feel if the sentence conveyed the meaning - the missile should have been made  with the intention of  fulfilling real military need- 
then "to" would have made sense 
But the sentence above talks about only the role of missile, Hence the role of missile(according to critics) is for manipulating people's perceptions and not for fulfilling real military need .

Hope I was able to help 
Regards 
Teja

newyork2012 · Answer

abstract nouns:
a plan to do..
a strategy to do ..
an idea to do..

Concrete nouns:
a tool that ....
a machine that...

daagh · Answer

Regarding an alternate choice that has been suggested by a poster using two infinitives in preference to two gerunds, my suggestion would be not to attempt it in an OG question, a practice that is not going to be of any avail. Perhaps choosing the best of the options would be more rewarding since there is no choice as – none of the above – or --state a better choice – in GMAT.

Dienekes · Answer

It can be either  more x than y  or  x rather than y

thangvietname · Answer

for doing can modify a noun. so, 
noun for doing 
exist in english

but
noun to do
is idiom with some noun

here we do not need to know tool for doing or tool to do is better. we need to know 
paralelism

AnubhavK · Answer

"B" is the correct choice - Clearly parallelism used. (manipulating ... fulfilling)

Choices A, C, D and E are out as they are not parallel (manipulate... fulfils/manipulate...fulfilling)

soodia · Answer

you are right
B is the best option and the only correct option
but OG says: both to and for are correct if they were parallel, although we know "TO" is for "purpose" 
in the E_GMAT article, even in Manhattan books, it is clearly mentioned.
am I wrong?

SAYEED7760 · Answer

B is the correct answer as it correctly obeys parallelism within the idiom 'more than'. 
In B it is the correct construction as 'more...for.......than for' .
In other options the elements within idiom are not parallel .

daagh · Answer

It is just not the idiomatic correctness of both 'to fulfill' and 'for fulfilling'. You must see it in combination with the structural parallelism of 'for manipulating' and 'to manipulate' 
That is where B overtakes other choices

thangvietnam · Answer

we dont need to know the diference between noun +to do and noun+for doing to solve this problem. but knowing the difference is also good.
sometimes, noun + to do or noun+for doing is a matter of idiom.
other times, both noun+to do and noun+for doing can be used, I am not sure about this.

ArtVandaley · Answer

daagh   mikemcgarry   egmat  
Isnt the parallelism incorrect here.

More X than Y idiom demands that X and Y be parallel.
Here X is a tool for manipulating people's perceptions and Y is for fulfilling a real military need.

Shouldnt the correct answer be like this?
Critics contend that the new missile is a weapon whose importance is largely symbolic,  more  a tool  more  for manipulating people's perceptions  than  for fulfilling a real military need.

I understand that it is highly frowned upon to modify OG questions or to try to make it better. But isnt //ism an oversight?
What am i missing here?

daagh · Answer

Darshak wrote

It is not something about the kind of parallelism. If you meddle with the un-underlined portion, you are getting into an unnecessary land, which is not the real intent of SC. We must get into the habit of avoiding time-wasters.

However, to clarify whether there is a breach of parallelism, it must be said that we should not get confused the 'more …. than' parallelism with the correlative conjunctions parallelism, where the right of side the two correlative words should be parallel.
Ex: Both Jack and Jill sang the song

Neither the novel nor the cinema was interesting'

Here the parsing works out like this.

B. Critics contend that the new missile is a weapon whose importance is largely symbolic, more a tool  (for manipulating people's perceptions)  than  (for fulfilling a real military need.)
 
Since there is only one tool that is being applied for both the arms, the 'tool' is elided in the second arm. It is a perfectly accepted parallelism practice.

dabaobao · Answer

(A) for manipulating people's perceptions than  to  fulfill  - Wrong: 1) Parallelism

(B) for manipulating people's perceptions than for fulfilling  - Correct

(C) to manipulate people's perceptions  rather  than that  it  fulfills  - Wrong: 1) Parallelism 2) Idiom

(D) to manipulate people's perceptions  rather  than  fulfilling   - Wrong: 1) Parallelism 2) Idiom

(E) to manipulate people's perceptions than  for  fulfilling  - Wrong: 1) Parallelism

kritikumari · Answer

What you mentioned is correct but that option is not given and gmat is about choosing the best fit option.

Critics contend that the new missile is a weapon whose importance is

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Critics contend that the new missile is a weapon whose importance is

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