In elucidating and ultimately decrying the various strains of nihilism

Hello, ravigupta2912. The second infinitive is just an alternative continuation of the main clause, Dostoyevsky sought. That is, he sought to A and to B. When we remove the conjunction and in this construct, it is common to see a comma in its place, whether the element in question is an infinitive, a that clause—i.e. When he said this, he meant that A..., that B.—or something else.

I hope that helps. Thank you for thinking to ask me.

- Andrew
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Can anyone please explain the usage of comma in "A" option before to. is its usage is correct.

Anyone please explain.

thanks in advance.

Hello, Ravi. As chance would have it, I came across the following line from a Reading passage in another test that I teach:

Diminished excellence is a condition of the world and therefore never an occasion for sorrow, whereas flawed competence comes out of character and therefore is frequently the reason for the bowed head, the furrowed brow.

In place of the comma at the end could be an and or an or. But the author has chosen, perhaps stylistically, to list the two options for the object of the preposition (for) in the manner above. Likewise, in the sentence about Dostoyevsky, we have an object that we need to fill in, only this time, the object follows a verb (sought). Although I am hard-pressed to find an official GMAT™ SC example on the spot, I know I have seen a few similar questions on this forum, and I remember that the questions were categorized as 700-level. (Most people have trouble with a lesser known grammatical convention such as this one.)

I apologize for confusing you earlier. At the same time, I would say that this is such a marginally tested topic that it is not worth fussing about. Just be open to the idea that you may not have encountered certain grammatical conventions before, that human language follows a not-so-tidy pathway sometimes (leading to exceptions).

- Andrew
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By POE eliminate C and D. Among A, B and E the best is A.

In elucidating and ultimately decrying the various strains of nihilism endemic to his native Russia, the novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky sought to edify the populace, to lead it away from the evil portended in a philosophy that denied all values.

A sought to edify the populace, to lead it away from
B sought to edify the populace leading them from
C sought in the edification of the populace to lead them away from
D sought in edifying the populace and leading it from
E sought to edify the populace in the leading of them from


First difference that can be seen is the use of pronoun it and them

Populace is singular hence we need it.
B,C,E can be eliminated.
sought to is the correct idiom and hence A.

A sought to edify the populace, to lead it away from — keep. Correct answer.

B sought to edify the populace leading them from —eliminate. “Them” can’t refer to singular “populace”. Incorrect.

C sought in the edification of the populace to lead them away from — “sought in” is the incorrect idiom. Incorrect.

D sought in edifying the populace and leading it from —same as C. Incorrect.

E sought to edify the populace in the leading of them from — edify is for a purpose . That causal link is missing here. A is much better prose. Also the pronoun number agreement in this choice is bad. “Them” for populace

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“To lead” cannot be parallel to “to edify”. “To lead” is the purpose why the novelist “edifices”. If we think of these as parallel, the causality is diminished. “To lead” here is a kind of noun modifying the entire previous clause.

Request AndrewN to throw some light.

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Hi AndrewN, if the subject (Dostoyevsky), sought (verb) to do 2 things (edify & lead), shouldn't those 2 things be parallel elements and hence require a conjunction? I'm very confused now. Would request if you could show more examples on this. Also in what other situations would a "comma" and "and"be interchangeable?

Regards,
Ravi