Last visit was: 20 Nov 2025, 03:30 It is currently 20 Nov 2025, 03:30
Home
GMAT
Messages
Tests
Schools
Events
Rewards
Chat
My Profile
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Go to My Error Log Learn more
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
Back to Forum
Create Topic
   1   2 
User avatar
CrackverbalGMAT
User avatar
Major Poster
Joined: 03 Oct 2013
Last visit: 19 Nov 2025
Posts: 4,844
Own Kudos:
8,945
 [1]
Given Kudos: 225
Affiliations: CrackVerbal
Location: India
Expert
Expert reply
Posts: 4,844
Kudos: 8,945
 [1]
Immanuel Kant's writings, while praised by many philosophers 23 Mar 2020, 10:42
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
PAVANKUMARR123
I understand option A, But what's wrong with the usage of option C
Show more
Hi Pavan

Let us plug in option (C).

Immanuel Kant's writings, while praised by many philosophers for their brilliance and consistency, are characterized by sentences so dense and convoluted that they posed a significant hurdle for many readers interested in his works.

The problem is with the usage of "pose" in the past tense. This implies that the hurdle was only in the past and it may have (has?) been overcome. This is clearly not the intended meaning of the original sentence, which talks about the "hurdle" in an ongoing sense.

Hope this helps.
User avatar
mSKR
User avatar
Joined: 14 Aug 2019
Last visit: 10 Mar 2024
Posts: 1,290
Own Kudos:
938
 [1]
Given Kudos: 381
Location: Hong Kong
Concentration: Strategy, Marketing
Schools: IE (A) IIML-IPMX '22 (A) HKUST '22
GMAT 1: 650 Q49 V29
GPA: 3.81
Schools: IE (A) IIML-IPMX '22 (A) HKUST '22
GMAT 1: 650 Q49 V29
Posts: 1,290
Kudos: 938
 [1]
Immanuel Kant's writings, while praised by many philosophers 29 May 2020, 09:38
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
souvik101990
Official Solution:

Immanuel Kant’s writings, while praised by many philosophers for their brilliance and consistency, are characterized by sentences so dense and convoluted as to pose a significant hurdle for many readers who study his works.

A. so dense and convoluted as to pose
B. so dense and convoluted they posed
C. so dense and convoluted that they posed
D. dense and convoluted enough that they posed
E. dense and convoluted enough as they pose


OE from Veritas Prep Your success on Sentence Correction will depend much more on your ability to recognize what is wrong than to recognize what is right. This question offers an excellent example – you know that the structure “so X that Y” is a commonly accepted idiom.

You’ve become accustomed to seeing that structure and so when you see the phrasing “so X as to Y” in choice A and the much-more-familiar “so X that Y” in choice C, your inclination is to quickly eliminate A. But A is the correct answer.

Simply because “so X that Y” is correct does NOT mean that “so X as to Y” is incorrect. Idioms are commonly accepted ways to phrase an idea – but they are not exclusive. There are many – or several, or quite a few – ways to express any idea. And much like there is no “greatest prime number” (ask your instructor for the proof, using what you learned in Arithmetic) there is no “one and only” correct idiom. You can almost always find one more. So you can study idiomatic expressions for months and not have them mastered, and what’s worse – you’ll likely only lead yourself astray from your core competencies like verb tense. In this example, the past-tense in choice C (and B and D) is illogical. It’s wrong. So the not-as-common idiom in A, attached to the “correct” usage of verb tense, provides the correct answer. It’s not what you want to see – but the author knows this and constructed a question in which what you wanted to see was bait.

The authors of these questions are grammar experts and they know this about you – you will never know all of the correct idiomatic expressions, accepted sentence structures, or allowable ways to phrase an idea. So they use them. They take the common phrasing and attach it to an incorrect answer – one containing a major-category error that you should know – and correct that problem in a choice that uses an awkward, unexpected, but still correct structure or idiom. They know that you want to choose “what you know to be right” but that in doing so you’re apt to also wed yourself to something that is hidden, but wrong.


Answer: A
Show more


Definition: So X as to Y" means something is SO (big, strong, slow, whatever, but something kind of extreme) that it actually causes something else to happen - something that wouldn't ordinarily happen

in so x as to verb y, "X to verb y” part indicates the extent of x.

Please correct
1. the examples have "so X(adjective) to Y". Adjective makes sense to show extension of the meaning .
room is so dark as to appear black - Correct
he is so dark as to appear black - Correct
(dark appears like black. extension of dark meaning)

2. If verb then how a non-living thing can take action or show any purpose.the purpose must be denoted by a living thing.

He has so stretched out the cloth so as to tear it.- Correct
(stretched action ; tear action - done by him on cloth-has some purpose-make sense)

Cloth is so stretched out as to tear- WRONG
(stretched action ; tear action - can not be done by cloth itself - doesn't make sense)
(who torn - subject is not clear)- see below question

Cloth is so stretched out that it is torn- Correct
room becomes so dark that it appears black.- Correct

please comment
User avatar
Kritisood
User avatar
Joined: 21 Feb 2017
Last visit: 19 Jul 2023
Posts: 492
Own Kudos:
1,272
Given Kudos: 1,090
Location: India
GMAT 1: 700 Q47 V39
Products:
My Reviews
GMAT 1: 700 Q47 V39
Posts: 492
Kudos: 1,272
Immanuel Kant's writings, while praised by many philosophers 09 Jul 2020, 01:59
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
CrackVerbalGMAT
PAVANKUMARR123
I understand option A, But what's wrong with the usage of option C
Hi Pavan

Let us plug in option (C).

Immanuel Kant's writings, while praised by many philosophers for their brilliance and consistency, are characterized by sentences so dense and convoluted that they posed a significant hurdle for many readers interested in his works.

The problem is with the usage of "pose" in the past tense. This implies that the hurdle was only in the past and it may have (has?) been overcome. This is clearly not the intended meaning of the original sentence, which talks about the "hurdle" in an ongoing sense.

Hope this helps.
Show more
hi CrackVerbalGMAT

as per mgmat "from our research, the GMAT seems to hate "enough that" but likes "enough to", whereas it likes "so that" and in fact doesn't really like "so as to""

keeping the same in mind, can so as to be right?
User avatar
sid0791
User avatar
Joined: 09 Aug 2020
Last visit: 28 Feb 2024
Posts: 81
Own Kudos:
10
 [1]
Given Kudos: 16
Posts: 81
Kudos: 10
 [1]
Immanuel Kant's writings, while praised by many philosophers 05 Dec 2020, 08:01
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Hi everyone,
Can somebody explain to me the difference between "so X as to Y" vs "So X that Y"?
User avatar
AnthonyRitz
User avatar
Stacy Blackman Consulting Director of Test Prep
Joined: 21 Dec 2014
Last visit: 19 Nov 2025
Posts: 238
Own Kudos:
427
 [3]
Given Kudos: 169
Affiliations: Stacy Blackman Consulting
Location: United States (DC)
GMAT 1: 790 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
GPA: 3.11
WE:Education (Education)
GMAT 1: 790 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Posts: 238
Kudos: 427
 [3]
Immanuel Kant's writings, while praised by many philosophers 05 Dec 2020, 09:48
3
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
sid0791
Hi everyone,
Can somebody explain to me the difference between "so X as to Y" vs "So X that Y"?
Show more

We cannot, because there is no such difference.

The only issue here is tense: Since "are characterized" is present tense, "pose" must be present tense as well.
avatar
TarunKumar1234
avatar
Joined: 14 Jul 2020
Last visit: 28 Feb 2024
Posts: 1,107
Own Kudos:
1,348
Given Kudos: 351
Location: India
Posts: 1,107
Kudos: 1,348
Immanuel Kant's writings, while praised by many philosophers 27 Dec 2020, 05:18
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Immanuel Kant's writings, while praised by many philosophers for their brilliance and consistency, are characterized by sentences so dense and convoluted as to pose a significant hurdle for many readers interested in his works.


A. so dense and convoluted as to pose-> So x as y...Idiom is correct. characterized and convoluted are parallel too. Let's keep it.

B. so dense and convoluted they posed-> they posed!...We have "are characterized". We can't have past tense here.

C. so dense and convoluted that they posed-> they posed!...We have "are characterized". We can't have past tense here.

D. dense and convoluted enough that they posed-> they posed!...We have "are characterized". We can't have past tense here.

E. dense and convoluted enough as they pose-> we don't have "So". Incorrect.

So, I think A. :)
avatar
AVARGUR
avatar
Joined: 16 Apr 2023
Last visit: 20 Jun 2024
Posts: 15
Own Kudos:
3
Given Kudos: 53
Location: India
Posts: 15
Kudos: 3
Immanuel Kant's writings, while praised by many philosophers 02 Oct 2023, 13:14
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
avohden
Immanuel Kant's writings, while praised by many philosophers for their brilliance and consistency, are characterized by sentences so dense and convoluted as to pose a significant hurdle for many readers interested in his works.


A. so dense and convoluted as to pose

B. so dense and convoluted they posed

C. so dense and convoluted that they posed

D. dense and convoluted enough that they posed

E. dense and convoluted enough as they pose
Show more

Whenever I see someone mention Kant, it reminds me of Chidi from 'The Good Place', a great series and a great guy who kind of fan-boys Kant!
Anyway to our question: A vs C, as all other options are easy to eliminate, A: POSE vs C: POSED, which is definitely wrong. (Also something to note: So X as to Y vs So X that Y, which causes a bit of confusion here but both of the idioms arent very different in meaning as to speak with respect to this question)
   1   2 
Moderators:
GMATNinja
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
7443 posts
GMATNinjaTwo
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
231 posts
miag
189 posts