Educator Maria Montessori believed that students be allowed to choo

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down our options quickly so we know how to answer questions like this when they pop up on the GMAT! To begin, let's take a quick look at the question and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

Educator Maria Montessori believed that students be allowed to choose from among a number of different lessons designed for the encouragement of their development as thinkers and creators with individual learning and thinking styles.

A) that students be allowed to choose from among a number of different lessons designed for the encouragement of

B) that students be allowed to choose between a number of different lessons designed to encourage

C) that students should be allowed to choose among a number of different lessons designed to encourage

D) in allowing students to choose from among a number of different lessons were designed for encouraging

E) in allowing students to choose between a number of different lessons designed for the encouragement of

After a quick glance over the options, we have a few key differences we can focus on:

1. that students be allowed / that students should be allowed / in allowing students (Construction)
2. among vs. between (Idioms)
3. for the encouragement of / to encourage / for encouraging (Idioms)

Since #2 on our list is an either/or split, let’s start there. No matter which direction we choose, we’ll eliminate 2-3 options rather quickly. As a quick reminder, here is the difference between “among” and “between:”

among = 3+ options
between = 2 options

The sentence says that the choices students have are “a number of different lessons,” which suggests it’s a lot more than just two! Let’s see how our options break down:

A) that students be allowed to choose from among a number of different lessons designed for the encouragement of

B) that students be allowed to choose between a number of different lessons designed to encourage

C) that students should be allowed to choose among a number of different lessons designed to encourage

D) in allowing students to choose from among a number of different lessons were designed for encouraging

E) in allowing students to choose between a number of different lessons designed for the encouragement of

We can eliminate options B & E because “between” isn’t idiomatically correct when discussing more than 2 items. Now that we have it narrowed down a bit, we actually have another either/or split we can focus on! Let’s focus on #3 on our list, which is another idiom issue:

A) that students be allowed to choose from among a number of different lessons designed for the encouragement of
This is INCORRECT because the phrase “designed for the encouragement of” is not idiomatic. It’s also overly wordy, so we can definitely eliminate this one.

C) that students should be allowed to choose among a number of different lessons designed to encourage
This is our CORRECT choice! The phrase “designed to encourage” is both concise and idiomatic!

D) in allowing students to choose from among a number of different lessons were designed for encouraging
This is INCORRECT because saying “designed for encouraging” is not idiomatic.

There you have it - option C is our winner! By focusing on “either/or” splits, we can quickly eliminate incorrect options, leaving us with more time to tackle complex grammar issues if necessary.

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