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20 Apr 2011, 23:52
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Someone please give a little explanation as to why the following structure is grammatically wrong/not allowed:
To increase efficiency, more cars were produced.
Due to higher costs, less spending is needed.
Where as the following is preferred:
To increase efficiency, the company produced more cars.
Due to higher costs, we need to reduce spending.
Is it because the first sentences are passive voice?
Thanks
To increase efficiency, more cars were produced.
Due to higher costs, less spending is needed.
Where as the following is preferred:
To increase efficiency, the company produced more cars.
Due to higher costs, we need to reduce spending.
Is it because the first sentences are passive voice?
Thanks
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21 Apr 2011, 08:07
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capnx
Hi capnx,
Yes--the first sentences are in passive voice. In general, the GMAT prefers active voice.
The GMAT guys prefer:
[A] did [B]
instead of
[B] was done by [A]
Does that mean that the answer cannot be in passive form? No!
Many times the correct answer is actually in passive voice form--but that's usually because another answer choice in active voice does not exist so it's the "best" among the available answer choices.
But just keep in mind that you PREFER active voice. You prefer [A] did [B].
Hope that helps!
23 Apr 2011, 10:29
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Passive voice is not the real problem here. In the first sentence, "To increase efficiency" is followed by "more cars." It is unclear who is trying to increase effiency. The second version fixes this problem by putting "the company" after the opening phrase.
As for the other sentence, neither version works well. "Due to" means "resulting from," and neither "we" nor "less spending" can be said to be resulting from the higher costs. Use "because of" here, since "because" can modify verbs and clauses.
Because of higher costs, we need to reduce spending.
The original sentence would not work this way. If we say "Because of higher costs, less spending is needed," it sounds as if the higher costs actually reduce the need for spending, when actually they are making a reduction necessary.
As for the other sentence, neither version works well. "Due to" means "resulting from," and neither "we" nor "less spending" can be said to be resulting from the higher costs. Use "because of" here, since "because" can modify verbs and clauses.
Because of higher costs, we need to reduce spending.
The original sentence would not work this way. If we say "Because of higher costs, less spending is needed," it sounds as if the higher costs actually reduce the need for spending, when actually they are making a reduction necessary.
