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In reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety that their prospects for being hired and promoted are being stunted by their habit.

(A) In reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety that
Expl. Using past tense distorts the meaning. ...smokers expressed...that...prospects are being stunted.... We dont have to emphasize that they did finish expressing anxiety sometime in the past. Especially not if they are referring to the current hostility.

(B) Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety about
Expl. Using about, the sentence becomes something like expressed...anxiety about...their prospects are being stunted.... This just does not make sense. You express anxiety about a thing, a noun. Not about a full clause. We need the keyword that to refer to a full clause/action/etc.

(C) When referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety about
Expl. Same as in (B).

(D) With reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety about
Expl. Same as in (B).

(E) Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety that
Expl. This version corrects both errors from A and B.
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what is the difference between B & D?
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what is the difference between B & D?
Looking at (B) and (D), we have "referring to" vs "with reference to". Is one of those wrong? Maybe, but I certainly wouldn't eliminate either based on that difference alone.

And luckily, we don't have to! Both of these options (as well as choice C) boil down to, "smokers frequently expressed anxiety about their prospects {...} are being stunted by their habit." As described in this post by daagh, that doesn't work.

  • "I'm nervous about my audition." - No problem here: "I'm nervous about X."
  • "I'm nervous because I have an audition tomorrow." - All good here. We can have a clause (subject-verb pair) after "because".
  • "I'm nervous about I have an audition tomorrow." - No good. We can't have a subject-verb pair ("I have") after the preposition ("about").
  • "Smokers expressed anxiety about their prospects are being stunted." - This is wrong for the same reason.

I hope that helps!
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unflinchingSubhs
There seems to be a lot of idiom play ...With Reference/In reference ...anxiety about /anxiety that etc.
How do I get to the correct answer based on meaning and grammar .
GMATNinja

I agree with you unflinchingSubhs. Therefore I would like to present my 2-cents based on grammar and meaning and the experts can chime in as well!

In reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety that their prospects for being hired and promoted are being stunted by their habit.

(A) In reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety that
INCORRECT : If there is a current hostility towards smoking, how can smokers 'expressed their anxiety '? Should this expression not be in a simple present or present progressive to suggest the same?

(B) Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety about
INCORRECT: Same error as in (A)

(C) When referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety about
INCORRECT: Grammar and meaning wise this is correct but the about is not a great way to complete this for idiomatic reasons as well as the fact that about is a preposition and not a relative clause modifier.(daagh Sir has also explained this very well) Also using the 'that' from the original sentence preserves its original meaning.

(D) With reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety about
INCORRECT: Usage of past tense and the word about

(E) Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety that
CORRECT: The expression of the anxiety of the smokers is in present tense and logically refers to their expression towards the current hostility towards smoking. Moreover that completes the sentence as a relative clause modifier.

Hope this answers your query! :)
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I selected (B), which eventually came out to be wrong over (E), which resembles with (B), except the subtle difference of "about" and "that". Do I have to remember these minute topics or is there any logic behind it?
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lakshya

It is not a subtle difference. It is a major difference. Without knowing that ‘about’ is a preposition followed by a noun while 'that' is connector followed by a clause, one cannot go far in SC. Whether it is SC, CR or RC, you will be haunted with both the types of sentences and if you didn’t understand the difference, then you wouldn’t understand any situation.

Therefore go back to basics. Read the various parts of speech and their usage. Understand the different types of sentences and their purposes.

This is a must.
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Express is required and not expressed because the "current situation" is being talked about here -

So I eliminated A ,B and D.

Coming to C and E ,
in C - as Daagh sir has explained very well - ‘about’ is a preposition and has to be necessarily followed by a noun or pronoun or a noun or a pronoun phrase. In the text, what you have after ‘anxiety about’ is a full fledged clause, with a subject ‘their prospects’ and a verbal phrase ‘are being stunted’. This is grammatically wrong

Hence we are left with E.
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A is grammatically correct which means "in reference to" is correct and NOT worded. However, A is wrong because of the past tense. In the non-underlined part, "are being stunted" hinted us that we should consider the present tense.
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daagh
In the given text, one point seems to have been missed in general, about the use of ‘anxiety about’ in B, C and D and ‘anxiety that’ in A and E. (Of course B is wrong even otherwise, because of using a past tense for a universal statement.

The idiom ‘anxiety about’ is quite okay in general use , but remember that ‘about’ is a preposition and has to be necessarily followed by a noun or pronoun or a noun or a pronoun phrase. In the text, what you have after ‘anxiety about’ is a full fledged clause, with a subject ‘their prospects’ and a verbal phrase ‘are being stunted’. This is grammatically wrong; that is why B, C and D are eventually wrong.

E avoids this prepositional pitfall by using a subordinate clause that is introduced by the conjunction ‘that’, in addition to using the present tense to mark a general statement. However A is wrong because of the past tense use. E is the right one.

I hope this clears some doubts.

Thanks Daagh , your explanation always comes as a ray of hope whenever i am in doubt. Would like to invite you to help us out on Critical thinking questions as well. Regards.
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(A) In reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety that -- We don't need a simple past (expressed) here. It doesn't make sense to express anxiety in past when the hostility is current. Also not the intended meaning of the sentence. Also non-underlined portion has "prospects of.... are". If it was a case of simple past, then "were" would have been used.

(B) Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety about -- Same as A.

(C) When referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety about -- Changes the meaning. The conjunction "when" implies that smokers are referring to xxx and at the same time expressing their anxiety.

(D) With reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety about -- same as A.

(E) Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety that -- Correct.
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Quote:


The idiom ‘anxiety about’ is quite okay in general use , but remember that ‘about’ is a preposition and has to be necessarily followed by a noun or pronoun or a noun or a pronoun phrase. In the text, what you have after ‘anxiety about’ is a full fledged clause, with a subject ‘their prospects’ and a verbal phrase ‘are being stunted’. This is grammatically wrong; that is why B, C and D are eventually wrong.

E avoids this prepositional pitfall by using a subordinate clause that is introduced by the conjunction ‘that

The above explanation is as per daagh

daagh GMATNinja VeritasKarishma egmat GMATNinjaTwo
Can anyone please clear this point about prepositions:
about' is a preposition and has to be necessarily followed by a noun or pronoun or a noun or a pronoun phrase

Can't the object of preposition be a Clause? Is it always that the preposition needs to be followed by a 'noun' or 'noun phrase'
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sudeshpatodiya
Quote:


The idiom ‘anxiety about’ is quite okay in general use , but remember that ‘about’ is a preposition and has to be necessarily followed by a noun or pronoun or a noun or a pronoun phrase. In the text, what you have after ‘anxiety about’ is a full fledged clause, with a subject ‘their prospects’ and a verbal phrase ‘are being stunted’. This is grammatically wrong; that is why B, C and D are eventually wrong.

E avoids this prepositional pitfall by using a subordinate clause that is introduced by the conjunction ‘that

The above explanation is as per daagh

daagh GMATNinja VeritasKarishma egmat GMATNinjaTwo
Can anyone please clear this point about prepositions:
about' is a preposition and has to be necessarily followed by a noun or pronoun or a noun or a pronoun phrase

Can't the object of preposition be a Clause? Is it always that the preposition needs to be followed by a 'noun' or 'noun phrase'

Yes, prepositions connect nouns/pronouns/noun phrases to the rest of the sentence. You do need to use 'that' with the relative clause as done in option (E) here.
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In reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety that their prospects for being hired and promoted are being stunted by their habit.

(A) In reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety that -> we have "expressed" denotes Past tense, but non underlined part used "are" present tense. Tense error. Incorrect.

(B) Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety about -> Same as A. Although, referring to is better and modifier "smokers" is in place too.

(C) When referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety about -> Why do we say, Smokers when referring to the ..." Incorrect.

(D) With reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety about-> Same as A.

(E) Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety that -> It is better in tense and we have correct modifier "smokers" in place. This is about tense agreement.

So, I think E. :)
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gmat20102011
When you read the sentence after removing the prepositional phrase " for being hired and promoted". The sentence is in present tense.
This eliminates choices: (A) (B) (D)- since they use "expressed"

How would you choose between choices (C) and (E)?

It's about reading the sentence as a whole, so the sentence uses "are", and E is the perfect match.
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Correct Option E
I really think this question must be marked under Modifier - SC

In reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety that their prospects for being hired and promoted are being stunted by their habit.

1. Modifier : Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, Modifiy - smokers,
option only avilable in B, and E,
rest all brings conditional form in sentence, with word "When"
2. Referring means - mention or (allude to - call attention to indirectly)
- In Referance to means - about or concerning

Based on above points, we can eliminate, A, C, and D
the differance between B, and E is, in sentence B, word expressed is past tense, which is not required, we need simple present tense express (verb)

(A) In reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety that
(B) Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety about
(C) When referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiet about
(D) With reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety about

(E) Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety that - Correct
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There is a tense error in the sentence. smokers expressed....are being stunted. one part of the sentence uses the past tense while the other part "are" is in present tense. E rectifies this from a tense point of view.:)
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How can we solve this without the knowledge of the correct idiom?
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