Delighted by the reported earnings for the first quarter of the fiscal

Question

Delighted by the reported earnings for the first quarter of the fiscal year,  it was decided by the company manager to give her staff a raise .

(A) it was decided by the company manager to give her staff a raise 
(B) the decision of the company manager was to give her staff a raise 
(C) the company manager decided to give her staff a raise 
(D) the staff was given a raise by the company manager 
(E) a raise was given to the staff by the company manager

The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 10th Edition, 2003

Practice Question  
Question No.: SC 45
Page: 660

skinsvt · Answer

I would say C. The modifying phrase is referring to the manager so the manager must follow the modifying phrase.

egmat · Answer

https://vimeo.com/32303535

gmatfighter12 · Answer

C is for sure since only manager can be delighted and gave raise.

Employee as a subject would transfer the sentence to passive voice.

PrateekDua · Answer

The answer will be "C".

As the sentence is talking about "The Company Manager" who was delighted by the records and decided to give a raise.

navaljoshi · Answer

Past participle modifier should modify manager. Ans -c. Hope it helps

daagh · Answer

A starter level question dealing with the fundamentals of modification. Not much left advanced level practice.

Skywalker18 · Answer

Delighted by the reported earnings for the first quarter of the fiscal year,  it was decided by the company manager to give her staff a raise .

A it was decided by the company manager to give her staff a raise 
B the decision of the company manager was to give her staff a raise 
C the company manager decided to give her staff a raise 
D the staff was given a raise by the company manager 
E a raise was given to the staff by the company manager

C - Correct - the opening modifier "Delighted ... year " should modify company manager .

anox · Answer

Delighted by the reported earnings for the first quarter of the fiscal year,  it was decided by the company manager to give her staff a raise .

Issue:  Modifier

Analysis: The non-underlined part of the sentence "Delighted by... of the fiscal year" is a clause that begins with "Delighted". The word that immediately after comma should answer the question "Who was delighted?". Looking at the options,
1. only 2 options (C) and (D) qualify to be possible answers for "Who was delighted?"
2. Option (D) has meaning issue, hence it can crossed off.

A  it was decided by the company manager to give her staff a raise
 B  the decision of the company manager was to give her staff a raise 
 C the company manager  decided to give her staff a raise 
 D  the staff was given a raise by the company manager 
 E  a raise was given to the staff by the company manager

Ibrahim Ramadan · Answer

c is the right answer ,

delighted by ....... refers to the company manager

egmat · Answer

Hello anox , I am aware that you presented this analysis a long time ago. But since official questions always remain significant for test takers, I would just like to make a small correction here.

The structure Delighted by the reported earnings for the first quarter of the fiscal year is not a clause because it does not have a Subject-Verb (SV) pair. A clause must have an SV pair. The opening verb-ed modifier is a phrase and, as you said, correctly must refer to the entity who was delighted by the reported earnings. Hope this helps.

Thanks. Shraddha

Chef · Answer

e-gmat,

I understand that in option C, 'her' can only refer to the company manager. This may be a silly question but anyway: Whether company manager is a woman or a man, how do we know? Why is this out of scope?

surabhi26 · Answer

always choose, active sentence ..not the passive ones

AkshdeepS · Answer

(A) it was decided by the company manager to give her staff a raise

(B) the decision of the company manager was to give her staff a raise

(C) the company manager decided to give her staff a raise

(D) the staff was given a raise by the company manager

(E) a raise was given to the staff by the company manager

The one who is delighted should be present after the comma. Hence "company manager"

(C)

rever08 · Answer

Doesn't matter. All we need to do is fix the modifier.

Posted from my mobile device

PoojanB · Answer

Question can be easily tackled by asking a simple question: who was delighted ?
Ans: the manager
The clause is referring to the manager so after comma, manager(subject) should appear first
Only Choice with such construction is choice C

HasnainAfxal · Answer

(A)  it  was decided by the company manager to give her staff a raise 
(B)  the decision  of the company manager was to give her staff a raise 
(C)  the company manager  decided to give her staff a raise 
(D)  the staff  was given a raise by the company manager 
(E)  a raise  was given to the staff by the company manager

anujpal · Answer

Delighted by the reported earnings for the first quarter of the fiscal year,  it was decided by the company manager to give her staff a raise .

(A) it was decided by the company manager to give her staff a raise 
(B) the decision of the company manager was to give her staff a raise 
(C) the company manager decided to give her staff a raise 
(D) the staff was given a raise by the company manager 
(E) a raise was given to the staff by the company manager

1st one is the modifier, so after the modifier should be Subject. Only C fits in the same. (Subject after comma rule)

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

What is the  subject  that the modifier is referring to?

It’s not the decision or the staff, but  the manager.

Let’s scan the options:

(A)  it was  decided by the company manager to give her staff a raise

(B)  the decision  of the company manager was to give her staff a raise

(C)  the company manager  decided to give her staff a raise

(D)  the staff  was given a raise by the company manager

(E)  a raise  was given to the staff by the company manager

Eliminate   Options A, B, D and E.

Option C  is the best choice.

Hope this helps!

AnirudhaS · Answer

OE:
 Logical predication; Verb form 
Who was delighted? The company manager was delighted. The long
modifying phrase that introduces the sentence describes a person, not it,
so the delighted person must be the subject of the sentence. Correcting
the modification error also changes the construction from the wordy
passive voice, it was decided by x, to the more concise active voice, x
decided; the active voice is generally preferred.
A. The modifier illogically describes it, not the company manager. The
passive voice is wordy.
B. The modifier illogically describes the decision. The construction
decision of the . . . was . . . is wordy.
C.  Correct.  The modifying phrase correctly modifies the company
manager; using the active voice creates a more concise sentence.
D. The modifier describes the staff rather than the company manager;
the passive voice is wordy.
E. The modifier illogically describes a raise; the passive voice is wordy.
 The correct answer is C.

Delighted by the reported earnings for the first quarter of the fiscal

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Delighted by the reported earnings for the first quarter of the fiscal

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