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555-605 Level|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|               
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Lok2209
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In his research paper, Dr. Frosh, medical director of the Payne Whitne 07 Oct 2021, 20:26
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Lok2209
hi,
I see everyone is concerned about the idiom, which i got it correct. But i am more concerned with the sentence structure
can anyone please explain me the sentence structure especially the subject and verb? The comma after the clinic seems wrong to me.

any help will be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Let's take a look at the sentence using the correct answer choice:

Quote:
(C) In his research paper, Dr. Frosh, medical director of the Payne Whitney Clinic, distinguishes between mood swings, which may be violent without being grounded in mental disease, and genuine manic-depressive psychosis.
Notice that "medical director of the Payne Whitney Clinic" is just a comma-separated modifier that gives us more information about Dr. Frosh. The comma after "clinic" is simply the second of two commas that separate the modifier from the noun it modifies ("Dr. Frosh"). If we remove that modifier, we could also remove the two commas:



    "In his research paper, Dr. Frosh distinguishes between mood swings, which may be violent without being grounded in mental disease, and genuine manic-depressive psychosis."

Now it's easier to see that "Dr. Frosh" is the subject and "distinguishes" is the verb.

Notice that "which may be violent without being grounded in mental disease" modifies "mood swings," and the opening modifier ("In his research paper") modifies the entire main clause (telling us where Dr. Frosh distinguishes between...). Removing those modifiers leaves us with the following:

    "Dr. Frosh distinguishes between mood swings and genuine manic-depressive psychosis."

This is the core of the sentence: "Dr. Frosh distinguishes between [X] and [Y]." Everything else is just additional modifying information that, while essential to the meaning of the sentence, can be removed without impacting the core structure of the sentence.

I hope that helps!
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understood, Thanks a lot dear Gmat ninja
i overlooked Dr. frosh :dazed
really appreciate the quick response

thanks
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In his research paper, Dr. Frosh, medical director of the Payne Whitne 12 Oct 2021, 12:35
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Can we use "which" to refer to plural words? Here mood swings is plural, right ?

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In his research paper, Dr. Frosh, medical director of the Payne Whitne 13 Oct 2021, 11:07
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pranavsingh2911
GMATNinja egmat Why is A wrong, considering it has no idiom issues. Only has one extra word 'their'.
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Consider how "their" impacts the meaning. Imagine you saw the following start to a sentence:

    "The kids traveled to Maine without their...."

Your expectation is that whatever follows "their" is going to be noun that the kids possess right? They traveled without their dog. They traveled without their toothbrushes. Or something like that.

Now go back to (A). When I see "mood swings, which may be violent without their..." I'm expecting a noun possessed by the mood swings. But "their being," doesn't make any sense. They're violent with their essence? Nah.

If you read it over a few times, can you figure out that the writer isn't using "being" as a noun, but rather as a modifier? Maybe. But notice that (C) is more logical because it removes "their." Now there's no longer an expectation to see a noun possessed by the mood swings. Instead, it's clear that "being grounded" is a modifying phrase describing the "mood swings."

If one option is clearer and more logical than another, it's better. Simple as that.

I hope that clears things up!
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In his research paper, Dr. Frosh, medical director of the Payne Whitne 13 Oct 2021, 11:54
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A1212
Can we use "which" to refer to plural words? Here mood swings is plural, right ?

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Yes, "which" can modify singular or plural nouns. You just want to make sure that the verb in the "which" clause agrees with the corresponding noun:

  • "Tim's books, which have received critical acclaim, are well-written and thought-provoking." - The "which" clause modifies a plural noun (books), so it needs a plural verb (have received).
  • "Tim's book, which has received critical acclaim, is well-written and thought-provoking." - The "which" clause modifies a singular noun (book), so it needs a singular verb (has received).

Either of these sentences is perfectly fine. Note that the same is true when we use "that" as a noun modifier (and not as a pronoun), as discussed in this post.

I hope that helps!
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In his research paper, Dr. Frosh, medical director of the Payne Whitne 28 Mar 2022, 21:31
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Hi egmat,

Please can you advise on the usage of "Being" as a modifier in this question. Why is it not incorrect?

Thanks
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In his research paper, Dr. Frosh, medical director of the Payne Whitne 29 Mar 2022, 12:07
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Nonie94

Why would it be incorrect? Sure, "being" is often used badly, but it is a real English word! :)

In this case, "being" works just like any other "-ing" modifier. I can say "I carried the coffee without spilling any on my pants" or "I want to have a successful career without working in an office." So we have CARRIED without SPILLING and HAVE without WORKING. In our original, we're just contrasting two versions of the word "to be." Mood swings can BE x without BEING y.
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In his research paper, Dr. Frosh, medical director of the Payne Whitne 02 Apr 2022, 00:00
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DmitryFarber
Nonie94

Why would it be incorrect? Sure, "being" is often used badly, but it is a real English word! :)

In this case, "being" works just like any other "-ing" modifier. I can say "I carried the coffee without spilling any on my pants" or "I want to have a successful career without working in an office." So we have CARRIED without SPILLING and HAVE without WORKING. In our original, we're just contrasting two versions of the word "to be." Mood swings can BE x without BEING y.
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Hi DmitryFarber

Thanks for the reply!

So the usage of "being" here is a Gerund?

Thanks
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In his research paper, Dr. Frosh, medical director of the Payne Whitne 07 May 2022, 00:00
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It is always distinguishes between A & B
Distinguish follows preposition between
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In his research paper, Dr. Frosh, medical director of the Payne Whitne 01 Jun 2023, 19:06
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