In California and New York, Democratic challengers will need to spend

Question

In California and New York, Democratic challengers will need to spend more heavily in the months ahead to beat back rivals for their own party’s  nomination, or to introduce  themselves to voters against Republicans who are already well-known.

(A) nomination, or to introduce

(B) nomination, introduce

(C) nomination by introducing

(D) nomination, and introducing

(E) nomination through the introduction of

akhil911 · Accepted Answer

Posting the original answer that was given.

This confusing problem is a perfect example of how important logical meaning is in sentence correction. On your first read through, the original might seem awkward or incorrect, but it is the only sentence that conveys a logical meaning and has a correct grammatical structure. The sentence in (A), after the proper slash-and-burn is really: “The democratic challengers will need to spend more heavily TO DO THIS OR TO DO THAT.” Importantly those two things (the THIS and THAT) are very different and unrelated to each other (beat back their own rivals OR introduce themselves to voters in order to compete against well known candidates of the other party). (B) contains a clear structure error - you cannot say “challengers will need to spend….., introduce” - some type of connector would be required. (D) also contains a structural error as you cannot say “challengers will need to spend more heavily…and introducing” In (C) and (E), the structural issue is corrected but the sentences are entirely illogical: They are not going to beat back rivals of their OWN party “by introducing” or “through the introduction of themselves” themselves to voters against well known Republicans. These are clearly two separate things and these structures cannot be used to convey a logical meaning. Only (A) is correct and contains a proper structure that conveys a logical meaning.

daagh · Answer

The problem with this question is that for an outsider, this will be a riddle. We do not know the significance of the reference to California and New York in particular. If it were the entire US, then we can understand that the elections were national. Secondly, looking from today’s perspective, this question may not be relevant. May be in 2008, Obama, then a new hand had to beat the more popular Hillary Clinton and prove to the voters that he was better than the Vietnam War hero McCain. Today, Hillary Clinton is much more remembered than any of her own party’s rivals for a variety of reasons and for that matter more than even the Republican aspirant Trump is. So, I wonder, whether this will be a logical theme for a GMAT question. 
That aside, the problem as I see is that admittedly if there are two disparate reasons for which money has to be spent, why use the conjunction ‘or’ rather than ‘and’

Of course, A may be the best of the lot not by conviction but by compulsion.

aditya8062 · Answer

the non underlined portion of this question does not make any sense !! 
this construction  "ahead to beat back rivals  for their own party’s nomination  " is hanging .bolded portion does not make any sense .in fact  "their own party's"  is very awkward .

colorbrandon · Answer

In California and New York, Democratic challengers will need to spend more heavily in the months ahead to beat back rivals for their own party’s  nomination, or to introduce  themselves to voters against Republicans who are already well-known.

A. nomination, or to introduce

On first glance, I considered this a comma splice since "to introduce themselves to voters against Republicans who are already well-known" is not a complete thought.

B. nomination, introduce

This is most definitely a comma splice. Eliminate this one.

C. nomination by introducing

This was the one I was leaning toward at first because it is not a comma splice and it does not violate parallelism. However, I thought that this distorts the meaning of the original sentence. See choice E for the same reasoning. Eliminate this one too.

D. nomination, and introducing

Not parallel with "will need to spend." Eliminated.

E. nomination through the introduction of

This distorts the original meaning of the sentence. That is the democrat will either have "to spend" or "to introduce." Eliminated.

arvind910619 · Answer

Imo A
Meaning here is key .
Why the candidates of democratic will have to pay more in the coming months .
The reason can be 1)   To secure nomination they have to beat rivals from their own party.  
2)   To introduce themselves to public against republican candidates.  
These two steps are going to be expensive.
only option A makes sense in such a scenario.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

There's a meaning reason to choose "or" over "and": the idea is that a challenger may be trying to beat or unseat other Democrats, or they may be running unopposed against a Republican. It's not necessarily both. However, since the only choice with "and" (D) doesn't work grammatically, we don't need to worry about this, or to know anything about American politics. (By the way, while the GMAT would be unlikely to use this content, there's nothing particularly topical about this statement--it could be true in any election season.)

As for C, it implies that Democratic candidates will succeed against other Democrats  by means of  introducing themselves to the general voters who may vote Republican. These are two different steps of the process (securing the Democratic nomination and winning the general election against a Republican.) Then again, I'm a long-time California voter. If this isn't clear to everyone, then I'd say that this part  does  rely on political knowledge!

madhukaramar · Answer

Hello  abhimahna  - Could you please help me out here -

Which two things are parallel here - 
-- "to spend more money heavily" & "to introduce themselves" (OR)
-- "to beat back rivals" & "to introduce themselves"

I thought - choice A is not making this clear and so selected choice C - which I think is grammatically correct but changes the meaning. Looking forward for your reply -

abhimahna · Answer

Hey madhukaramar , I am happy to help

You didn't notice the comma "," before "or to introduce". This is used to clarify the point that || elements of the sentence are 'to spend more" and "to introduce". Remember this is similar to the construction X, Y and Z , and W. Here Y and Z are || and X is || to (Y and Z) which in turn is || to W. Also, understanding the meaning of the sentence is the key here. One should not rely completely on the grammar. As per the meaning of the sentence, "Democratic challengers" need to spend heavily on something as well as introduce themselves. Hence, A is a clear winner here. For C, as you mentioned meaning is changing. This is not allowed when you have choice A present. Does that make sense?

richirish · Answer

Good question, C is a trap choice, "this or that" format. Meaning trumps rules.

sid0791 · Answer

DmitryFarber

Although A is correct, but I have a doubt in this.

"party’s nomination, or to introduce", why there is a comma before or?

That shouldn't make any sense.

Please explain me, if it does makes sense

Bambi2021 · Answer

To me, like someone said, this is nothing but a riddle.

In California and New York, 
Democratic challengers 
will need to spend more heavily in the months ahead to beat back rivals for their own party’s nomination, 
or   to introduce themselves to voters against Republicans who are already well-known.

It seems like too much is missing to make these statements parallel. The comma though strongly indicates this split.

In California and New York, 
Democratic challengers will need to spend more heavily in the months ahead 
to beat back rivals for their own party’s nomination, 
or to introduce themselves to voters against Republicans who are already well-known.

However, the meaning here doesnt get to me. The goal for the challengers is to win the election process within their own party. This can be achieved either "by beating back rivals" or by "introducing themselves to voters in debates against well-know Republicans". But... isn't this introduction of themselves just one of many measure they can take to achieve their goal of winning their own party's nomination?

So on a meaning level, this choice is not parallel. Either we achieve the goal A or we take one specific measure that could lead us to achieve our goal A. What?

milanrajb · Answer

In California and New York, Democratic challengers will need to spend more heavily in the months ahead to beat back rivals for their own party’s nomination* , or to* introduce themselves to voters against Republicans who are already well-known.

I always get confused with the use of commas. I eliminated A because a comma + conjunction requires an independent clause proceeding it.

Can someone help me to understand if there are any exceptions to the above rule. Also, does GMAT tests such cases?

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In California and New York, Democratic challengers will need to spend

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In California and New York, Democratic challengers will need to spend

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