Even though the state has spent ten years and seven million dollars pl

Question

Even though the state has spent ten years and seven million dollars planning a reservoir along the Ubi River, the project  will have to be abandoned as a result of the river becoming so heavily polluted .

(A) will have to be abandoned as a result of the river becoming so heavily polluted

(B) is to be abandoned on account of the heavy pollution which the river received

(C) had to be abandoned because the river had received such heavy pollution

(D) has to be abandoned because of the river and its heavy pollution

(E) must be abandoned because the river has become so heavily polluted

thearch · Accepted Answer

(E) for me.

in A "as a result of the river" is not correct should be "as a result of the pollution"
in B I think "the river received" is wrong tense, and there should be "that" instead of "which"
in C "had" is wrong (it could have been correct if the first clause had been "the state spent")
in D because of "the river", dont think the river can be cause of anything.

In E "has become" means that it was polluted and it is still polluted, so In my opinion is right.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear csaluja, I see that Shraddha at eGMAT responded, and I will add a few more thoughts.

You are correct that (E) is strong and direct and confident in its phrasing and that's a GOOD thing! First of all, think about advertising and other business talk. Imagine the person whose sale pitch is, " Gee, maybe my product might make some kind of difference in your marketing ." That lily-livered disaster will put that salesperson out of business! By contrast, consider the person who says, " I know that my product will shoot your sales numbers through the ceiling! You will have so many new sales that you won't know what to do with them! " That's a much more powerful and confident sales approach. Even if the two products of these two salespeople are more or less the same, the latter will wildly outsell the former because of the power of his message. It's that way in all of business: if you can't speak with conviction about what you are doing, then this situation begs the question why you are doing it at all! Also, think about the real live situation of this SC question in the real world. Even though the " Ubi River ," and hence the entire location, is fictional, GMAT Verbal problems always have the "feel" of something that would happen in the real world. In this river, the state was planning a reservoir, but now the river is " so heavily polluted ." Do you want to drink this water? Would you want your family to drink this water? Would you want anyone's family to drink this water? Of course not! Since it's clear that this is not going to become a reservoir, is there any reason to sink a few million more dollars into it? Do you want to pay for that? Again, of course not! This sentence properly needs to be phrased with words that have the same ring of certainty and conviction that the phrase " of course not! " has. Here's (A): Even though the state has spent ten years and seven million dollars planning a reservoir along the Ubi River, the project will have to be abandoned as a result of the river becoming so heavily polluted . That has the urgency of a cold bowl of oatmeal. It's pathetically weak and spineless. The phrasing employs the passive voice for the main verb of the sentence. I would say the " becoming " is a gerund: it's position as a cause is casual and questionable, but certainly the sentence would have more punch if there were another verb rather than a verb form. This is a wordy flaccid disaster. Compare (E): Even though the state has spent ten years and seven million dollars planning a reservoir along the Ubi River, the project must be abandoned because the river has become so heavily polluted . Two strong verbs: " must be abandoned " (passive but emphatic) and " has become ." This version crackles with decisiveness. Yes! This really is a problem! We really need to do something about it! This sentence has the feel of urgency and significance appropriate to the situation. My friend, if you interpret GMAT SC only at the level of what's happening with the grammar, you will miss more than half of what is going on. On the harder question, the GMAT loves to have incorrect answer choices that are 100% grammatically correct but wrong for other reasons. On a well-written GMAT SC sentence, grammar and logic and rhetoric all work together to support a single meaning . Here, the strong clear direct language in (E) is a wonderful example of the rhetoric supporting the meaning. Does all this make sense? Mike

vivek123 · Answer

How about this?

(A) will have to be abandoned as a result of the river becoming so heavily polluted 
 >> Awkward. "river becoming so heavily polluted" sounds awkward. 

(B) is to be abandoned on account of the heavy pollution which the river received 
 >> Awkward, "river received pollution" sounds weird. 

(C) had to be abandoned because the river had received such heavy pollution 
 >> Tense problem.  

(D) has to be abandoned because of the river and its heavy pollution 
 >> Sounds as if project should be abandoned because of river itself & the pollution. 

(E) must be abandoned because the river has become so heavily polluted 
 >> Good.

brugopal · Answer

Hi All, OA is E. Please refer this post. https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/vie ... &view=next Regards, Brindha

AyanamiRei · Answer

This is a question that tests: 
(1) Differences between object and issue.
(2) Tense. ("Even though the state has spend", present perfect tense thus needed.)

Actually, the context is saying that the project needs suspension, because of a certain reason. Move on.

(A) will have to be abandoned as a result of the river becoming so heavily polluted
Wrong.
(1) "the river becoming so heavily polluted" is an issue. Correct.
(2) "becoming" is present progressive tense, wrong.

(B) is to be abandoned on account of the heavy pollution (which the river received)
Wrong.
"the heavy pollution which..." is an object,  not an issue, and therefore cannot become a reason.

(C) had to be abandoned because the river had received such heavy pollution
Wrong.
Here past perfect tense is used.

(D) has to be abandoned because of the river and its heavy pollution
Wrong.
Two object emerged ( "the river", "its heavy pollution"), but there is no issue. Cross it out.
Note that this  skill of segmentation  is heavily used in a certain options.

(E) must be abandoned because the river has become so heavily polluted
Correct.

daagh · Answer

Even though the state has spent ten years and seven million dollars planning a reservoir along the Ubi River, the project  will have to be abandoned as a result of the river becoming so heavily polluted.

(A) will have to be abandoned as a result of the river becoming so heavily polluted --  'As a result of' is a synonym of' 'due to', which cannot follow a verbed action.

(B) is to be abandoned on account of the heavy pollution which the river receive --- ' pollution the river received' is awkward

(C) had to be abandoned because the river had received such heavy pollution --  tense problem; the river receiving pollution is awkward; In addition, pollution is a perpetual affair; we cannot limit to the past or past perfect tense.  
(D) has to be abandoned because of the river and its heavy pollution --  The abandonment is not because of the river but because of the pollution. 
 
(E) must be abandoned because the river has become so heavily polluted--  ' must be' is more formal and preferred usage in written English.

JS1290 · Answer

mikemcgarry   GMATNinjaTwo

Hi, I was wondering could one of you guys please explain why option A is incorrect? Other than being wordy, is there any other reason why option A is incorrect. The only reason why I eliminated the correct answer (E) was because I felt like "Must be abandoned" was a bit too strong compared to "will have to be abandoned" in option A. Could you one of you guys please help me clarify this doubt? Would greatly appreciate it!

egmat · Answer

Hello csaluja , Although your doubt is not directed to me, I will be glad to help you with this one.

You are correct in saying that will have to be abandoned is not the reason for Choice A to be incorrect. Choice A is incorrect because it says that the projects will have to abandoned because of the river . Please note that the phrase becoming so heavily polluted has been used as a modifier for the river . As a modifier, this phrase just presents extra information about the river. The phrase fails to convey that the project will have to abandoned because the river has become heavily polluted. Hope this helps.

Thanks. Shraddha

thangvietnam · Answer

choice b is wrong because
pollution the river received 
is wrong. the reason is river has become pollutted. the reason is not pollution
the second error is
river received
is wrong. present perfect is correct. simple past is wrong because received can not fit with "has spent".

Vatsal7794 · Answer

Hi Experts

Good Morning

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Can you please tell me ,other that Verb ed, Verb-ing and which. What are non essential modifiers?

DmitryFarber · Answer

Vatsal7794

Two other common indicators of non-essential modifiers are "who"/"whom" and simple nouns (appositives). For instance, I might say "Baking soda, a common kitchen staple, has a number of useful properties." However, the GMAT doesn't test essential vs. non-essential very much, so I wouldn't spend a lot of time trying to memorize lists. Simply ask whether the modifier is narrowing down the topic under discussion or just adding detail. Generally, if there's a comma in front of the modifier, it's non-essential. (Without a comma, "who(m)" can form an essential modifier. If I say "My brother, whom you met," I'm just reminding you that you met my brother. If I say "My brother whom you met," I'm differentiating him from another brother you have not met.)

thangvietnam · Answer

in choice A and B, "will have to" and "is to" is future/modal tense which show a future action and modal meaning. this tense is good inhere.

"had received" in choice C is wrong. it is not logical to say that the project had to be abandoned because in the past the rivered had received a polution.

"had to be abandoned" is also wrong because this tense is not fit with "has spent" . present perfect show a time frame which continue until present. past simple show a time frame distanced from present. they are two different time frames.

choice C is wonderful wrong answer choice, from which we can learn about present perfect. master of present perfect is hard and basis and so, is what gmat like to test. I suggest we restudy this tense in good grammar book.

tense problem is great here to learn.

if the explanation here of wrong answer choices is good enough, fewer persons will fail on gmat. the explanation here is great but not enough.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Even though the state has spent ten years and seven million dollars pl

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