Even though the beauty of Americas national parks can be witnessed by

Question

Even though the beauty of America’s national parks  can be witnessed by simply driving through it, experiencing a park at its best require one to spend  time in exploring the forests, meadows, deserts, rivers, and mountains on a more intimate scale.

A.can be witnessed by simply driving through it, experiencing a park at its best require one to spend

B.is witnessed by simply driving through them, experiencing a park at its best requires spending

C.witnessed by simply driving through them, experiencing them at its best requires that one spend

D.can be witnessed by simply driving through them, experiencing a park at its best requires that one spend

E.can be witnessed by simply driving through it, experiencing a park at its best requires that one spends

agar123 · Answer

Hi,

Can someone please help with this question? What is the subject in this sentence? I thought it's beauty and "of America’s national parks" is a prepositional phrase. So I selected A, but the correct answer is B.

J2S2019 · Answer

generis , Need your kind guidance here, as always

Though i have picked the correct answer, but i need some of your reasoning here. Point no 1 - the subject of the sentence - is it "the beauty..." & "of America’s national parks" is just a mere prepositional phrase?? If this is the case, then the next pronoun should be matched with the singular subject? but again if "it" is used as a pronoun, then it has no clear antecedant , as "driving through them" can properly justify the usage, "them" refers to parks. Point no 2 - "experiencing a park at its best requires that one spend"....this part of the sentence - what is it actually doing? "experiencing" - is it a VerbING modifer modifying the preceding clause or "experiencing" is a gerund acting as a noun & as a verbal it should take the singular verb "requires"?? but again, if it is not a modifier then why it has been placed after a comma ","? Confused, need your help

bacseialex · Answer

Hello agar123,

You are right, the subject of the sentence is " The beauty", but the problem is the pronoun it, which replaces "the beauty". And you can't "drive trough the beauty". So you can eliminate A and E. Also A is wrong because experiencing(which is a gerund) is singular, therefore, the verb has to be requires, not require.

For me B,C and D are in passive voice. Typically, the passive voice is constructed using some form of “to be” (is, was, were…) along with a past participle. Hence, C is eliminated.

Now, between B and D. I see requires in the second part of the sentence. Subjunctive. So, the correct form is requires that.

IMO the answer is D.

I'm no expert, but this was my thinking process. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

generis · Answer

J2S2019 - sorry for the wait, I'm catching up. Yes, beauty is the subject. of America's national parks is the prepositional phrase that tells us where this beauty is located. I don't know what "mere" means.

No, though I understand why you would believe this framework were the case. You are thinking that the pronoun must be the subject of the preceding clause. The antecedent of a pronoun can be the object of a preposition. In this case, parks is the correct antecedent and the pronoun should be them. We drive through the parks, not through the beauty. " Any noun anywhere in the sentence, in any role, can be the antecedent of a pronoun,.. It doesn't matter whether the noun is the subject, the object of a verb, or the object of a prepositional phrase." Mike McGarry, here on GMAT Club. Ignore what he says about possessive poison antecedents. That post was written before a certain question in 2016 kinda blew the lid off of possessive poison. I explain the change in the possessive poison rule in this post, here .) And here is a post by egmat titled Pronoun Usage – Myths and Facts. Scroll down to Myth #3. The object of a preposition can never be the subject of a sentence, but the object of a preposition (parks) can be the antecedent of a pronoun (them). This thought is correct. It could refer only to beauty . Not logical. We don't drive through beauty. And yes, the them in driving through them correctly refers to parks. This sentence is confusing. Let's sort it out. This part of the sentence is the main clause. Experiencing comes after a comma because when a main clause is preceded by an introductory subordinate clause ("although . . "), the subordinate clause takes a comma after it. • Experiencing is a verb-like noun that is singular and that takes the singular verb requires . Experiencing is called a gerund. In this case it means something like getting the full experience of -- Don't worry about the jargon. egmat people use verbING. MGMAT people use __ING. Some people say "gerund" or "participle." • So experiencing functions as a noun—an active noun. Try some easier examples that are similar. -- Listening to music soothed him. -- Watching the sun set can be both beautiful and isolating. -- Studying too much produces poor results. • Experiencing anchors the noun phrase in the main clause. The main clause is preceded by although . . . , which is a subordinate clause (a clause that cannot stand on its own and that depends on the main clause for its meaning and to finish its thought) We use commas after introductory subordinate clauses. (Although XYZ, experiencing . . . requires . . .) Example: Even though I thoroughly enjoy friends I have made on the forum , meeting them in person would be even more enjoyable. -- subordinate clause + comma (required) + main clause So we have experiencing a park at its best as the noun phrase. Experiencing is singular. Gerunds are always singular. Then comes a bossy verb, requires . These verbs have a certain structure called "command subjunctive" (and other names): Bossy verb + THAT + subject + bare infinitive Requires + THAT + one + spend I wrote about command subjunctive and "require" in this post, here, which contains a link to a post by bb on command subjunctive. In addition, see my post below. I hope that answer helps. If not, ask more questions and tag me. I'm happy to try to help.

generis · Answer

bacseialex , belated welcome to GMAT Club. I don't understand the elimination of (C) part, but other than that, nice work and thoughtful of you to help.

+1 P.S. to tag someone such as agar123 , type the @ symbol right before the username (no spaces) and leave one space after the last letter of the username.

generis · Answer

The subject of the sentence is  beauty —the prepositional phrase  of America's national parks  tells us where that beauty is.
The sentence conveys two major ideas about this beauty. Idea #1 is subordinate to Idea #2.

Idea #1: the beauty can be witnessed   simply by driving through the parks
Idea #2:  , in order to experience the park  at its best, a person must spend time   in exploring the forests, meadows, etc. "on a more intimate scale." 
On a more intimate scale means either on a smaller scale (the whole park vs, parts in it) or in a closer manner (as in, the spatial distance between you and the things is not interrupted by a car). Let's say "more closely."

THE OPTIONS

•  driving through it  is incorrect: 
(1) you cannot drive through beauty, and
(2)  it  should be  them,  which would properly refer to parks. 
-- The antecedent of a pronoun can lie in a prepositional phrase.
•  experiencing  is a gerund (a verbING, a verb-like noun). Gerunds are always singular. The verb  require  is plural. S/V disagreement.
Eliminate A

•  is witnessed  by whom? Whereas  can be witnessed  implies "it's possible   to see the beauty,"  is witnessed  implies nonsensically that the beauty is = only witnessed by driving through the park.
• requires can take a gerund, but at this point we have no subjects and a lot of sluggish __ING words (when __ING words function as nouns, they often weigh sentences down)
• You know, sometimes sentences are so frustratingly bad in terms of style that . . . 
• this sentence has no agents who could actually witness, drive, or experience nature on a more intimate scale. KEEP, but look for a better answer.

• The  even though  clause is missing a helping verb (can be)
•  its  is incorrect.  Them  refers to parks. The correct phrase would be  at  their  best

• them correctly refers to parks
• experiencing, singular, correctly takes the singular verb requires
• requires is a "bossy" verb that takes the command subjunctive structure
Command subjunctive structure: 
   +   +   +   
We have
  +   +   +  
-- Correct. 
-- The infinitive is TO SPEND. The bare infinitive simply drops the word "to": SPEND
Infinitive: TO WALK. Bare infinitive: WALK
KEEP

• same problem as that in A: you cannot drive through beauty, and  it  should be  them  in order to refer to  parks 
• command subjunctive is constructed incorrectly— spends  should be  spend 
See the construction above, in D. 
We need the bare infinitive. Infinitive: TO SPEND. Bare infinitive: SPEND.
Eliminate E

Option B v Option D? No contest. D wins.
• beauty  can be  witnessed makes much more sense than beauty  is  witnessed
-- IS witnessed is declarative and present tense; the construction confuses me for a moment because I read that the   way to witness beauty is to drive through the park, but then I read that in order to witness the park at its best I should not be in my car.
• there is a difference between correct passive construction (which is  frequently  correct on the GMAT) and utterly agent-less construction.
Option B has no people, not even generic ones, to do this witnessing and experiencing.
• Option B is not as forceful as D.
XYZ  requires that one spend  time in exploring
is more forceful than
XYZ  requires spending  time in exploring
-- spend is more forceful than spending. Active verbs typically enliven sentences. 
-- use gerunds (verbING words, verb-like nouns) sparingly. 
As noun forms, gerunds are not the same as comma + participle (also called verbING in egmat's method, I think). 
The latter are adverbial modifiers of previous clauses and are very effective at presenting additional information.

The answer is D

J2S2019 · Answer

You are just awesome

Thanks a ton generis . all these explanations are really of a great help. I liked the example "Even though I thoroughly enjoy friends I have made on the forum, meeting them in person would be even more enjoyable." Hope one day this comes true.

Thank You again. Cheers!!

Sanjay7392 · Answer

Options B and C can be eliminated quickly due to the difference witnessed/ is witnessed/ can be witnessed. Only Options A,D and E are left since only they reflect the intended meaning with "can be witnessed".

A& E use the word "it" for "parks" - so we can eliminate them as well.

Correct answer - D

A& E use the word "it" for "parks" - so we can eliminate them as well.

Correct answer - D

ArtVandaley · Answer

This is an excellent example of meaning in GMAT SC. HEre one will be apt to spot the difference between it/them if one has understood the meaning of the sentence. While it also has a proper referent(beauty), the sentence,as such, is trying to convey that the beauty can be experienced by driving through them(parks).

I am answering Sc questions with 90% accuracy and meaning helps tremendously in doing that.

I am answering Sc questions with 90% accuracy and meaning helps tremendously in doing that.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Even though the beauty of Americas national parks can be witnessed by

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