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655-705 Level|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|   Meaning/Logical Predication|   Modifiers|   Parallelism|                        
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 07 Apr 2021, 22:10
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Hey AndrewN and other members. Option E kind of sounds like the cattle breeders are performing the action of acquiring the characteristics. I'm definitely not debating the OA, but just looking to get a second opinion on this.
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 08 Apr 2021, 09:52
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Hey AndrewN and other members. Option E kind of sounds like the cattle breeders are performing the action of acquiring the characteristics. I'm definitely not debating the OA, but just looking to get a second opinion on this.
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Hello, Brian123. I know what you mean about meaning issues, particularly in the beginning of the answer choice, since someone typically acquires something from another party, but I do not want to get ahead of myself. How about we look at the sentence with (E) inserted?

Quote:
In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.
Show more
Believe it or not, the preposition in makes all the difference. The cattle breeders cannot be said to acquire characteristics either for or from their steers. Logically, the breeders must be using crossbreeding in hopes of getting the right combination of traits in the steers. The context supplies just enough for the sentence to work.

As always, you have to go by what is on the screen, and if other choices have more obvious flaws, you have to get behind the option that is simply the best—the least debatable—of the lot.

I hope that helps with the issue. Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 19 Aug 2021, 02:38
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I’ve always kind of hated this question. It’s not that it’s illegitimate or anything like that. It’s just a spectacularly annoying question, because fundamental grammar rules aren’t terribly useful for dealing with most of the answer choices. We have to fight with some goofy meaning issues that aren’t very straightforward.

So I’ll approach this particular explanation differently than usual. Instead of launching right into the answer choices, we’ll use a few stripped-down sentences to illustrate the principles at work in this question. So take a look at these puppies first:

    1. Arpit studies hard so that he should get a good GMAT score.
    2. Arpit studies hard because he should get a good GMAT score.
    3. Arpit studies hard because of getting a good GMAT score.
    4. Arpit studies hard in order to get a good GMAT score.
    5. Arpit studies hard to get a good GMAT score.

The first three are all at least a little bit illogical if you think strictly and literally about the meaning of the sentences. “Should” implies some sort of value judgment, and that’s not appropriate here: Arpit studies in order to obtain a good GMAT score, NOT because he “should” get a good GMAT score. For that reason, #1 & #2 are wrong.

Similarly, Arpit doesn't study hard “because of getting a good GMAT score.” If we think about that phrase literally (in sentence #3), the sequencing is wrong, because it suggests that getting a good GMAT score is the cause, and “Arpit studies hard” is the effect. And that makes no sense at all.

But #4 and #5 both make plenty of sense, because they clarify that Arpit studies in order to achieve the goal of a good GMAT score. We probably don’t need the phrase “in order to”, when just “to” would suffice. But either #4 or #5 are fine.

If you feel clear about everything I just wrote, then stop, and retry the original question above. If it still doesn’t work for you, then keep reading…

Quote:
(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics
Before we get into the meaning stuff, there’s a nice parallelism error that we can work with: “…in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding…” That’s not pretty.

And perhaps more importantly, the meaning makes no sense here, largely because of the word “should.” (See example #1, above.) So (A) is out.

Quote:
(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers
(B) has the same parallelism error as (A): in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers and partly because crossbreeding…” That’s still not pretty, and it’s enough to eliminate (B).

For whatever it’s worth, I’m also not crazy about the phrase “for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers.” You wouldn’t say “Arpit studies hard for getting a good GMAT score”, right? It makes much more sense to say “Arpit studies hard to get a good GMAT score” – and it would make more sense to say “cattle breeders have used crossbreeding… to acquire characteristics in their steers…”

In any case, the parallelism is enough to eliminate (B), and we definitely have better options below.

Quote:
(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics
(C) has exactly the same problem as example #3, above. (C) seems to get the causality confused, because it suggests that the steers acquired certain characteristics first, and because of that, ranchers decided to use crossbreeding. That’s illogical: the steers acquired characteristics because the ranchers used crossbreeding, and not the other way around.

So (C) is gone.

Quote:
(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers
(D) has the same problem as examples #1 and #2 above. The use of “should” is just wrong here, because it implies some sort of value judgment: maybe my wife thinks that I “should” be more efficient at changing dirty diapers, or maybe you think that I “should” eat less bhindi masala. (Personally, I think that I “should” eat more bhindi masala, but that’s just my opinion.)

But that makes no sense in this case: ranchers are using crossbreeding in order to accomplish something, not because they “should” accomplish something. For that reason, (D) can be eliminated.

Quote:
(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers
Here we go, this one looks more like #5 in our examples above. The parallelism is fine now (“partly” and “partly” are parallel), and it’s clear that the ranchers are crossbreeding for the purpose of acquiring characteristics in their steers.

It sounds terrible, in my opinion. (But by now you probably know that your ear is not your friend on GMAT SC, right?) Because (E) is the only answer choice that makes logical sense, it is the correct answer.
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I get the explanation that D is incorrect because of should - which implies a moral obligation. But E uses the wrong construction and preposition for acquire. How can someone acquire X 'IN' Y?


Can you please explain?


THanks
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 19 Aug 2021, 20:20
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.


(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics
(in part that...
partly because crossbreeding is said to..
violate paralle structure, eliminate immediately)

(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers
(in part for...
partly because crossbreeding is said to..
violate paralle structure, eliminate immediately)

(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics (because of should be followed by noun, not a clause, eliminate immediately)

(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers (this is the most confusing choice. "passive + and + active" violates paralle structure)

(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 04 Oct 2021, 20:05
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.


(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics

(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers

(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics

(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers

(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers


GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo
AjiteshArun
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I need help understanding the use of "should" in general. Does it always imply some sort of moral obligation? When I googled "should" I came across multiple uses of should.

How do I understand which one is correct:

should

1. used to indicate obligation, duty, or correctness, typically when criticizing someone's actions.
" he should have been careful"
2. indicating a desirable or expected state.
"by now pupils should be able to read with a large degree of independence"
3. used to give or ask advice or suggestions.
"you should go back to bed"
4. used to give advice.
"I should hold out if I were you"

https://gmatclub.com/forum/by-applying- ... 12302.html

In the above official question the use of "should" is correct. Can you please help me understand the role "should" plays in the above sentence?

In general - How do I understand what is the intended meaning of "should" in the sentence. Also, would you be able to help me with some other official examples concerning the use of "should"
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 05 Oct 2021, 06:42
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I need help understanding the use of "should" in general. Does it always imply some sort of moral obligation? When I googled "should" I came across multiple uses of should.
Show more
Hi sonalchhajed2019,

I don't think we should restrict ourselves to that "moral obligation" meaning of should. There are many ways to use that word:
1. Obligation
2. Condition
3. Likelihood

And that's just off the top of my head. Here's a much better look at should.

Generally, we need to careful whenever we see advice that goes from a very small sample to "this is the only way something can be done on the GMAT". The GMAC releases very few questions every year (and sometimes, it releases no new questions at all :)), so it's hard for us to see what's happening in the actual question pool. This is where I think a more permissive approach to usage really helps. Here's an example of what I mean: this post and then this official question.

The key is to prioritise. When we mark an option correct, it's always because we think it's the best of the 5 given options. Taking an extreme position on usage hurts our ability to do that.
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 05 Oct 2021, 23:25
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sonalchhajed2019
I need help understanding the use of "should" in general. Does it always imply some sort of moral obligation? When I googled "should" I came across multiple uses of should.
Hi sonalchhajed2019,

I don't think we should restrict ourselves to that "moral obligation" meaning of should. There are many ways to use that word:
1. Obligation
2. Condition
3. Likelihood

And that's just off the top of my head. Here's a much better look at should.

Generally, we need to be careful whenever we see advice that goes from a very small sample to "this is the only way something can be done on the GMAT". The GMAC releases very few questions every year (and sometimes, it releases no new questions at all :)), so it's hard for us to see what's happening in the actual question pool. This is where I think a more permissive approach to usage really helps. Here's an example of what I mean: this post and then this official question.

The key is to prioritize. When we mark an option correct, it's always because we think it's the best of the 5 given options. Taking an extreme position on usage hurts our ability to do that.
Show more

Thank you for your reply. I have gone through the links you posted and also a few other examples. In general, I understand that some things need to be taken as preferences and not rules. I have been coming across more and more such examples (especially the harder ones).
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 27 Mar 2022, 02:15
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Hi GMATNinja AndrewN

"partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers"

Doesn't the meaning here suggest that something is happening in "somewhere"
As far as i know "in" suggest a timeframe or a place
Wouldn't we say "I acquired this souvenir in Italy"? If we use same logic it gives us that acquiring is happening inside the cattles, and that would weird i guess...

Posted from my mobile device
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 27 Mar 2022, 04:04
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gloomybison
Hi GMATNinja AndrewN

"partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers"

Doesn't the meaning here suggest that something is happening in "somewhere"
As far as i know "in" suggest a timeframe or a place
Wouldn't we say "I acquired this souvenir in Italy"? If we use same logic it gives us that acquiring is happening inside the cattles, and that would weird i guess...

Posted from my mobile device
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Hello gloomybison,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "acquire certain characteristics in their steers" is a somewhat convoluted phrase but it is an acceptable way to refer to the action of giving their steers certain characteristics.

For further clarity, consider this similar sentence - "I study the works of Van Gogh because I want to see his level of skill in my paintings."; here "level of skill in my paintings" means that a certain level of skill is evident in the paintings.

We hope this helps.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 27 Mar 2022, 13:14
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gloomybison
Hi GMATNinja AndrewN

"partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers"

Doesn't the meaning here suggest that something is happening in "somewhere"
As far as i know "in" suggest a timeframe or a place
Wouldn't we say "I acquired this souvenir in Italy"? If we use same logic it gives us that acquiring is happening inside the cattles, and that would weird i guess...
Show more
Hello, gloomybison. I agree with the explanation provided earlier by ExpertsGlobal5. I would like to add that your analogous situation is, in fact, following the correct line of reasoning—acquiring is happening inside the cattle, in a manner of speaking. The cattle breeders are hoping to crossbreed cattle to produce certain traits or advantages in the offspring of those cattle. This is the way GMAC™ likes to present the topic of genetics and heritability, I guess. Sure, it will be the cattle, not the breeders, that will acquire those traits, but this is a niche use of to acquire in which the intent of the breeders themselves can be expressed. Such usage also conveys that cattle are property to these breeders, something to control like a science experiment. (Poor cows.)

Thank you for thinking to ask, and good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 23 May 2022, 20:04
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.


(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics

(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers

(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics

(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers

(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers



Show Spoilerarticle
The New Yorker SEPTEMBER 26, 1983 ISSUE
https://archives.newyorker.com/?iid=16243&crd=0&searchKey=as%20hybrid%20vigor#folio=088
Attachment:
002.jpg
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30 Seconds sol
for parallelism A & B out
In C We need noun after because of so out
B/W D & E E is active while D is passive and to acquire is corrrect idom so E is selected
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 11 Aug 2022, 14:54
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Just wanted to understand if my logic is right.

In option E- partly ... partly... good
acquire.... provide... parallel tense.....

so E is better than C and D?

is my thinking right ?
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 11 Aug 2022, 21:03
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Just wanted to understand if my logic is right.

In option E- partly ... partly... good
acquire.... provide... parallel tense.....

so E is better than C and D?

is my thinking right ?
Show more
Hi vamkrispk,

The repetition of partly is nice, as it helps readers better connect {to acquire...} and {because...}.

To provide, however, is not related to either of these elements. Options C and D have meaning issues. Option C is a slightly awkward way to say that cattle breeders are using crossbreeding because their steers have already acquired certain characteristics, while D tells us that the steers need to do the acquiring.
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 06 Dec 2022, 16:31
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Quote:
In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.

(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics
(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers
(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics
(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers
(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers
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Request Expert Reply:
What if the sentence is written in the following way? Will it still be ok? A vast curiosity on it ...
In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor and partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers.
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, 19 Oct 2023, 06:55
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In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.

This question tests the grammar rule + meaning.
Grammar rule - how? - If we see after "and," we have a subordinate clause introduced by subordinating conjunction "because." The subordinate clause acts as an adverbial modifying the verb "have used" crossbreeding. To maintain parallelism, we need an adverbial before "and" as well. The infinitives can modify both nouns and verbs. If they are modifying the verbs, they'll answer one of the four questions that typically any adverb will do. "why," "when," "where," and "how.". Here, if you see the part after "and," is answering the "why." Why do they do crossbreeding? Because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor. We also need a similar adverb in part before "and." In option E; we have an infinitive that can act as an adverbial, answers the "Why" parts, and thus is perfectly parallel. That's where GMAT punishes the students who look at the blind parallelism, such as option D, and rewards those who can logically ditch D and choose a strange-looking option E, which is grammatically and logically correct. Sorry, I don't want to scare you with all the jargon, but the only way to deal with the elephant in the room is to deal with it head-on. Let's get out of our comfort zone and do that.

Meaning - How? Should is used to add a sense of duty or correctness. E.g., You should study for the exam if you want to succeed. In this sentence, we are simply looking for "why" they use crossbreeding, not any obligation or duty on their part.


(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics - grammatically, "in part" is acting as a prepositional phrase "that" as a connector - this is ok. But the problem is the meaning. How will it look if we say that the "steers" have a duty or a sense of obligation to acquire certain characteristics? Here, we are not trying to share any obligation or sense of duty for the "steers" themselves, but we are trying to answer "why" cattle breeders use cross-breeding.

(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers - "for the acquisition" is inferior to "to acquire."

(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics - "because of" introduces the prepositional phrase - okay, so far as the prepositional phrase can act as an adverbial. But wait, the ING "acquiring" is modifying the steers, saying that because steers are acquiring certain characteristics (the cause), the cattle breeders use cross-breeding. Wrong meaning.

(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers - "because" introducing a subordinate clause - ok so far. But wait, again, it says certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers. Convert this to active to understand the meaning if it helps. It says, "their steers should acquire certain characteristics," as if their steers have a duty or an obligation to acquire certain characteristics. Good grammatical structure and ridiculous meaning - a recipe for setting up a good trap.

(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers - finally. We have an option that uses Infinitive, and yes, Infinitive acts as an adverbial, so the parallelism is complete. And we don't have our troublemaker "should." When GMAT tests the parallelism in the harder question, it's not right to just look for high-level parallelism, such as match "partly" here and with the "partly" there. That's a good recipe for a disaster. Let's understand parallelism to the core of it, which may help solve difficult questions with a little more ease.
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