In many of the world’s regions, increasing pressure on water resources

In theory, that construction would make sense in a sentence like this one:

"An Old Fashioned cocktail contains both lemon or orange rind and rye whiskey."

• The cocktail contains two things: rind and whiskey.
• The "or" part tells us that we could have either of two different kinds of rind (lemon or orange).

Is this always wrong? Maybe not. But I think we can all agree that it's awfully confusing. You have to read the sentence a few times to be clear about what's happening.

I can't imagine seeing "BOTH X or Y AND Z" in a correct answer choice. Does that mean it's always wrong? Maybe not -- you always want to carefully consider the five unique options in front of you and think about what makes the most sense given the context of the specific question. It's not a great idea to try to boil GMAT SC down to a list of mechanical rules that can be applied blindly.

In this case, the "both X or Y and Z" construction in (B) is very confusing, and (D) is a much better option.

I hope that helps a bit!

The absence or presence of an article (such as "the") will create only a very very subtle meaning difference, so it's usually not a major decision point in GMAT questions. Generally speaking, you’re better off focusing on more concrete issues instead.

But can you be more specific here? Where do you think the word "the" should be, and why?

Hi Daagh,

From X to Y is a correct idiom. Doesn't option D violate this idiom ?

Thank you very much for the reply Daagh. I was under the impression that it has to be used only as From X to Y form.

Parallelism of "...expanding development, changes in climate, and pollution...."

Ensure that "from" is kept before the list or in every item of the list.

Dear GMATNinja,

Could please help me with this one. My reasoning is as follows:

We can eliminate A and B based on incorrect usage of "Both + and". In C parallelism is violated i.e after "and" there is "also". To maintain parallelism there should be "from X, Y and From Z", so "also" is redundant. Generally, in GMAT I've seen that most answer choices with "and also" are wrong. So, I've developed a habit that when I see "and also", I cross it. Is it correct?

I'm confused between D and E. I think D violates the parallelism: "from expanding development, changes in climate, and pollution". Shouldn't it be "from expanding development, changes in climate, and from pollution"?

In E, the word "expansion" triggers me that "expanding" is better. "Expansion of development" is not parallel to "changes in climate" and "pollution", since "Expansion of" is in different format. Is that correct? Also, "future concern" is redundant. But it maintains parallel structure: "From X, Y and from Y". How can I confidently eliminate E over D?

Last but no least, I can't quite understand the use of "so that" in the sentence. As far as I know, "so that" implies intention. For example: "Yesterday, I went to bed early, so that I can get up early in the morning". Here "so that" shows my intention of sleeping early. Am I correct?
But I can't catch the overall meaning of the sentence.

I would love to have your thoughts.

You have a very valid question to ask. One important thing when you read the statement is figuring out the right subject. Now, here in this case, you have "future supplies" and not just "supplies" as a subject. Future supplies can actually take both a singular and a plural verb. But since we have it in the non-underline part of the sentence, we have to believe what is a given.

MyGuruStefan AjiteshArun daagh VeritasKarishma

I am not able to understand what the highlighted part means. Doesn't the question statement consists of two ICs joined by FANBOYS 'So' ?

Also the 'water resources' is a part of a prepositional phrase and how does it connects to/ impacts 'future supplies' in the 2nd IC?

If you can please help me with my above query?

Thanks
Saurabh

You cannot assume any outside knowledge from a sentence correction, so the only possible anteceding referent for "the supply" is the plural "water resources" even if it is part of a descriptor. I believe that should explain both of your questions, since basically as written "the supply" could refer to anything.

Hi experts,

Isn't 'future supply.... going forward' redundant in the same sentence and hence we should ignore (A) and (C) for this reason as well ?

Parallelism

From xxxx,yyy to zzzz?

Please advise why the idiom "to" is not used in answer D?

Thanks

Hi Sir, so you are saying the idiom - "from.....to.." the "to" is not necessary? (i.e. We have products ranging from birthday cards to handcrafted jewellery.

OR

the "from expanding development" is a noun phrase?
If Yes, can we form a noun phrase with the word "from"? if i'm not wrong "from" is a preposition, only adjective can modify noun and only adverb/adjective can modify adjective

[quote="AbdurRakib"]In many of the world’s regions, increasing pressure on water resources has resulted both from expanding development, changes in climate, and from pollution, so that the future supply in some of the more arid areas is a concern going forward.


A. both from expanding development, changes in climate, and from pollution, so that the future supply in some of the more arid areas is a concern going forward (both refers only two verbs or noun or phrase eg both A and B)

B. both from expanding development or changes in climate, and pollution, so that future supplies in some of the more arid areas are a concern (both refers only two verbs or noun or phrase eg both A and B)


C. from expanding development, changes in climate, and also from pollution, so that the future supply in some of the more arid areas is a matter of concern going forward ( for the sake of parallelism you either use preposition common for all or use separately for each)

D. from expanding development, changes in climate, and pollution, so that future supplies in some of the more arid areas are a concern

E. from expansion of development, changes in climate, and from pollution, so that supplies in some of the more arid areas are a future concern (same as C)

Errors
both A and B
Parallelism while using A, B, and C

There are certainly cases when "from... to" make sense. For example:

• "I drove from New York to Boston."
• "The store sells everything from doughnuts to deep-fried candy bars."

But in other cases "from" is used by itself to indicate the source of something. For example:

• "A strong odor emanated from the deep-fried candy bar." - What was the source of the odor? The deep-fried candy bar.
• "Her success resulted from years of hard work." - What was the source of her success? Years of hard work.

That's basically what we have in choice (D): X resulted from Y, where Y is a list of 3 things: 1) expanding development, 2) changes in climate, and 3) pollution.

I hope that helps!

In many of the world’s regions, increasing pressure on water resources has resulted both from expanding development, changes in climate, and from pollution, so that the future supply in some of the more arid areas is a concern going forward.


Expanding development ,changes in climate, pollution - these three are part of the list - hence usage of Both ....and is incorrect.

A. both from expanding development, changes in climate, and from pollution, so that the future supply in some of the more arid areas is a concern going forward - incorrect

B. both from expanding development or changes in climate, and pollution, so that future supplies in some of the more arid areas are a concern - same error as above

C. from expanding development, changes in climate, [color=#ff0000]and also from[/color] pollution, so that the future supply in some of the more arid areas is a matter of concern going forward

D. from expanding development, changes in climate, and pollution, so that future supplies in some of the more arid areas are a concern - looks good in every aspect

E. from expansion of development, changes in climate, and from pollution, so that supplies in some of the more arid areas are a future concern - future needs to modify supplies not concern - hence wrong

Hi GMATNinja VeritasKarishma

Isn't the question statement and the correct answer choice little awkward in construction?

It seems like there was an deliberate increase in pressure on water resources in order to generate concern regarding water supply in arid areas in future. Actually the three factors, let say X, Y and Z increased pressure on water resources and therefore future supply is now a concern in some areas. I am confused about the use of so that. IMO it would make sense to use therefore / hence / thus in place of so that.

Please correct me if I am wrong and help me crossing 700

Both x and y is correct. But Both x and y for giving several reasons is not correct. A and B are eliminated.

and also from and from are not correct C and E are eliminated.

The correct answer is D.