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Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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 29 Jan 2018, 09:10
Shivikaa wrote: I chose B. I always get confused by questions like these. What all topics do I need to practice more inorder to gain strength in these. Option B has meaning issue. The grammar topics would not cover this issue. Following could be a way to handle such issues: In the first step, take the base sentence (after eliminating modifiers etc.) and consider whether it makes sense - if OK, then as the second step add the modifiers and then check the meaning. If you had considered option B the above way, you would have caught the meaning issue in the first step itself. Base sentence: An executive makes missing or misinterpreting likely.Not really - the executive does not make missing / misinterpreting likely - his commitment (to a course of action) does.
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Re: QOTD: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action
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24 Mar 2018, 22:53
D. Executives’ being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear. is it the correct use of "Being" in option "D"....???? Plzzz explain.. 
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Re: QOTD: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action
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03 Apr 2018, 13:11
sajon wrote: D. Executives’ being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear. is it the correct use of "Being" in option "D"....???? Plzzz explain.. Hello sajon, I am not sure if your doubt still persists. Here is the answer nonetheless.  In Choice D, being has been used as a subject that takes the verb makes. This usage of being as a subject is considered correct on GMAT SC. We see the same usage of being in the correct answer choice E too. Hope this helps. Thanks. Shraddha
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Re: QOTD: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action
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13 Jun 2018, 05:10
GMATNinja wrote: This is one of the OG questions that causes the most trouble, partly because a lot of GMAT test-takers have an (occasionally incorrect) impulse to automatically eliminate any answer choice with the word "being." But we'll get to that. Let's take these buggers in order: Quote: A. Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
That second "it" is the big problem here: "makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble..." I suppose that "it" could refer to "heavy commitment" or "course of action", but neither of those would make any sense. (A) is gone. Quote: B. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that worked well in the past, makes missing signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting ones likely when they do appear. This is fairly subtle, but the subject doesn't make a whole lot of sense with the main verb here. "An executive... makes missing signs of incipient trouble... likely when they do appear." The pronoun "they" is OK, but it doesn't make logical sense to say that "an executive makes missing signs of trouble likely..." Also, I see no good reason use "ones" here -- in theory, "ones" would refer to very specific signs of trouble, and there's no good reason to use "ones" when a simple "them" would work. (B) is gone. Quote: C. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action is likely to miss or misinterpret signs of incipient trouble when they do appear, especially if it has worked well in the past. The "it" is a problem here: "it" generally refers to the nearest singular noun. In this case, "it" would seem to refer to "trouble," and that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. "Course of action" would work, but that's much farther back in the sentence. To be fair, ambiguous pronouns aren't always wrong on the GMAT, so if you want to be conservative, you could keep (C) for now. But as we'll see in a moment, (E) is a much better option. Quote: D. Executives’ being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear. "Them" is trying to refer back to a possessive pronoun, "executives'", and that's wrong on the GMAT. Non-possessive pronouns (they, them, he, she, it) can't refer back to possessive nouns on the GMAT. So (D) is gone. Quote: E. Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
There are lots of pronoun issues in the other answer choices, but we're all good with (E): the ambiguous "it" we saw in (C) isn't here at all, and "them" and "they" very clearly refer to "signs of incipient trouble." The subject "being heavily committed to a course of action" works nicely with the main verb phrase ("is likely to make an executive miss signs of trouble..."), so (E) is an upgrade from (B). That leaves "being" as the only reasonable objection to (E). But "being" is absolutely fine here: it's just a noun, also known as a gerund in this case. "Being" is no different than any other gerund. So (E) is our answer. Please see last Monday's Topic of the Week for more on gerunds and other "-ing" words on the GMAT: https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 39780.html. Hi GMATNinjaI came across one of your post where you have mentioned the usage of a special pronoun 'it' with respect to its 'standalone' usage. PFB link: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... tml#p49622 Please help me to understand the reference of " That second "it" is the big problem here: "makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble..." I suppose that "it" could refer to "heavy commitment" or "course of action", but neither of those would make any sense. (A) is gone" with respect to " The rain made it + quite challenging + to drive on the freeway".
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Re: QOTD: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action
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15 Jun 2018, 18:34
raunakme19 wrote: Hi GMATNinjaI came across one of your post where you have mentioned the usage of a special pronoun 'it' with respect to its 'standalone' usage. PFB link: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... tml#p49622 Please help me to understand the reference of " That second "it" is the big problem here: "makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble..." I suppose that "it" could refer to "heavy commitment" or "course of action", but neither of those would make any sense. (A) is gone" with respect to " The rain made it + quite challenging + to drive on the freeway". Hm, that link didn't come through -- and I've never posted anything on the Manhattan website. Maybe you're confusing me with somebody else? Ron Purewal, maybe? We do have similar GMAT scores...? "Standalone" pronouns do exist, but they're pretty darned rare on the GMAT. "Standalone" pronouns have no referent, so they're also called non-referential pronouns, if you like jargon. The thing is, standalone pronouns only make sense in very limited circumstances. Your example is fine: "The rain made it challenging to drive on the freeway." We're not saying that the rain is challenging for anybody in particular. The rain just "makes it challenging" in general -- not for any particular person or group of people. That's not what's happening in this question at all: "Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action... makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble..." In this case, SOMEBODY has to actually miss the signs of incipient trouble, or else the sentence makes no sense. Logically, the "heavy commitment to a course of action" makes EXECUTIVES more likely to miss signs of incipient trouble. The pronoun actually needs a referent -- otherwise, the phrase doesn't convey the intended meaning. So yes, it's true that some pronouns don't actually need a referent. But unless you're super-advanced in SC already, I don't recommend thinking about them at all. I can only think of one or two official SC questions that include "standalone" or "non-referential" pronouns, so they're not a major issue. But if you start to imagine that "normal" pronouns don't actually need a referent, that can cause all sorts of problems. More than 99% of pronouns on the GMAT require a referent, and the exceptions aren't worth worrying about too much. I hope this helps!
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Re: QOTD: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action
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19 Jun 2018, 11:35
Video explanation : https://gmat.magoosh.com/forum/3495-hea ... utive-to-a
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Re: QOTD: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action
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28 Aug 2018, 08:08
alitariquet wrote: I can't see a split in this question to use POE. I don't have this much time to go into such nitty-gritty of grammar to analyze each answer choice though I do know all the nuances of grammar and reading explanations all make sense to me but do you have all that much time on test to act as THE ninja or any other X,Y,Z to enjoy all those subtleties. I am making a master key to analyze SC part of GMAT which will be further improved as i practice more and i hope to see that master key with 6.0 Chinese burned essay template and put a full stop to this asymmetrical sentence correction portion of GMAT. Free for all without those catchy lines hey if you like this explanation have our course at this link or hey check this out the indepth gramatical rule for this. NONSENSE.
All brilliant minds please help me out on this project and lets put it free. let the education be free. File Attached
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Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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13 Oct 2018, 23:00
Apart from the amazing explanation here !!
One main issue is usage of IT/ONE
According to Ron
"being heavily committed to a course of action" vs. "heavy commitment to a course of action":
with the first of these, "ONE" clearly refers only to a course of action. it can't refer to an -ing phrase.
with the second, either "it" or "one" could possibly refer to either "commitment" or "course of action". in other words, we have an ambiguity.
"it" vs. "one":
"it" could refer either to "being heavily committed" (yes, "it" can stand for these sorts of phrases) or to "a course of action".
as stated above, "one" refers ONLY to "a course of action", since it can't stand for -ing phrases.
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Re: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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30 Nov 2018, 09:46
Hey jennptCould you please solve this question for us, i.e. the way you would solve in exam including strategy!! thanks!!
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Re: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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10 Dec 2018, 10:05
I understand that choice (E) is the correct choice, but I have doubts concerning its meaning.
The way I understand it, it could potentially mean the following. If a mid-level manager is heavily committed to a course of action, then that is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble.
How do we know that "Being heavily committed to a course of action" is being done by the executive and not some other employee?
Can someone help explain?
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Re: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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10 Dec 2018, 11:36
A. Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
--No clear subject for 'IT'
B. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that worked well in the past, makes missing signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting ones likely when they do appear.
--Sentence construction is weird and awkward ,don't know what makes missing signs means(beyond my ken to understand :P)
C. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action is likely to miss or misinterpret signs of incipient trouble when they do appear, especially if it has worked well in the past.
--'especially if it has worked well in the past' should be placed in proximity to course of action..
D. Executive being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear.
--Error in pronoun, executive is singular and them is plural .Also there are many other mistakes( I would eliminate it in first glance, just kidding ,I take enough time to figure out the mistakes as I am still learning)
E. Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
This sentence is written in passive speech(correct me if i am wrong) but the construction is correct.
course of action - one that--is
signs--them
Therefore I picked E
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Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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25 Dec 2018, 03:27
Quote: Quote: A. Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
That second "it" is the big problem here: "makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble..." I suppose that "it" could refer to "heavy commitment" or "course of action", but neither of those would make any sense. (A) is gone. Quote: C. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action is likely to miss or misinterpret signs of incipient trouble when they do appear, especially if it has worked well in the past. The "it" is a problem here: "it" generally refers to the nearest singular noun. In this case, "it" would seem to refer to "trouble," and that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. "Course of action" would work, but that's much farther back in the sentence. To be fair, ambiguous pronouns aren't always wrong on the GMAT, so if you want to be conservative, you could keep (C) for now. But as we'll see in a moment, (E) is a much better option. Quote: E. Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
In A isn't the second it can be a placeholder 'it'. in E "Being heavily committed to a course of action", shouldn't be followed by executive to be correct (modifier).
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Re: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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01 Feb 2019, 01:36
Lets take out A. The second ‘it’ just does not work, the only possible antecedents are ‘heavy commitment’ and ‘course of action’ and neither of those would make sense. B can also be taken out, though its problems are very hard to spot. The word ‘ones’ here is not correct. ‘ones’ would refer to very specific things, here ‘them’ would be a better fit. In C the problem is once again the pronoun ‘it’. In C, ‘it’ refers to ‘trouble’, which does not make any sense. Finally, D can be discarded too, as ‘them’ is referring to a possessive pronoun “executives’ “. This isn’t acceptable, per the GMAT rules.
So, E is the right answer.
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Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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01 Feb 2019, 23:51
gmatman Whether it is an executive or some other employee is not the issue here. The psyche of obsession with strongly - held beliefs, true or false, can hold good for anyone from the president to the peon in general.
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Re: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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23 Mar 2019, 13:08
Hello Everyone! Let's tackle this question, one problem at at time, and narrow it down to the correct choice! To begin, let's take a closer look at the original question, and highlight any major differences we spot in orange: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.A. Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear. B. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that worked well in the past, makes missing signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting ones likely when they do appear. C. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action is likely to miss or misinterpret signs of incipient trouble when they do appear, especially if it has worked well in the past. D. Executives' being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear. E. Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear. After a quick glance over the options, we have a few areas we can focus on. However, this is a question where the entire sentence is underlined, so we need to treat this differently than we do other questions! Whenever you see a question with the entire sentence underlined, there are a few areas you should pay attention to first to narrow down your options:1. Modifiers
2. Parallelism
3. Meaning
4. StructureLet's start with #3 on our list: meaning. There is also another glaring difference we see throughout each of the options: PRONOUNS! There are a LOT of pronouns in these sentences, so let's do a quick check to make sure all the pronouns have clear antecedents, and rule out any that don't: A. Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
first "it" = refers to "course of action" --> OKsecond "it" = doesn't refer to anything, so we call this a "dummy pronoun" --> WRONG"them" = refers to "signs of incipient trouble" --> OKB. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that worked well in the past, makes missing signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting ones likely when they do appear.
"one" = unclear; could refer to either "An executive" or "a course of action" --> WRONG"ones" = misleading; changes meaning from referring to "signs of incipient trouble" to some other signs we haven't mentioned yet --> WRONGC. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action is likely to miss or misinterpret signs of incipient trouble when they do appear, especially if it has worked well in the past.
"they" = unclear; could refer to "An executive," "a course of action," or "signs of incipient trouble" --> WRONG"it" = refers back to "a course of action" --> OKD. Executives' being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear.
"it" = refers to "a course of action" --> OKfirst "them" = refers to "Executives" --> WRONG (see below) second "them" = refers to "signs" --> WRONG (see below) So why are both "them" pronouns wrong? Because placing two of the same pronoun so close together is confusing to readers. It's too ambiguous which "them" is referring to which antecedent. Yes, you could do the hard work and figure it out, but reading shouldn't require the reader to do the heavy lifting. E. Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
"one" = refers to "a course of action" --> OK"them" = refers to "signs of incipient trouble" --> OKWell there you have it - option E is the correct choice! It's the only sentence that used clear pronouns. Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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Re: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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12 Apr 2019, 09:38
For option C, how could "it" refer to "trouble"? It seemed unlikely to me given that "signs of incipient trouble" is the entire object and is plural, and as a result "it" can only refer to "course of action".
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Re: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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15 Apr 2019, 07:48
i eliminated E , based on comma-subject rule. "Being heavily committed to a course of action, executives......" isn't this the correct form?
Can anyone please shed some light on this.
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Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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15 Apr 2019, 08:21
Any verb+ing such as 'singing or 'sleeping' that starts a sentence and followed by its doer and its subject is indeed proper modification and is accepted as grammatical except in the case of 'being'. In the case of 'being' that is used as a participle and modifier, the usage is said to be bad in style, redundant and taboo. However, 'being' used as a part of progressive tense along with another helping verb such as 'is being', or 'are being' is ok. In addition, 'being' used as a gerund in a subject phrase and immediately followed by its verb is also ok. The takeaway: 'Being' used as part of 'a subject' or ' a verb' is ok, but as a 'participle' or ' modifier' it is not okay.
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Re: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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15 Apr 2019, 08:37
susmitha2110 wrote: i eliminated E , based on comma-subject rule. "Being heavily committed to a course of action, executives......" isn't this the correct form?
Can anyone please shed some light on this. I'm not sure what the "comma-subject rule" is, but here the being is actually the subject of the sentence. Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
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Re: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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17 Apr 2019, 09:53
"makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear."
Can the second "it" perform the role of a placeholder pronoun - e.g The use of too many clauses in the sentence has made it difficult for me to comprehend.
In this case, it doesn't refers to any noun and hence in the question above, there is no pronoun ambiguity. Please correct me where I'm wrong
Thanks
Manjit
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Re: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if
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