In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found tha

Question

In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found that driving automobiles and sleeping in tents allowed them to enjoy nature close at hand and tour at their own pace, with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels.

C. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables nor

A. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the

B. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains, railroad timetables, nor

C. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables nor

D. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the

E. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or the

daagh · Accepted Answer

A. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the ---  wrong as per point 2 said above . 
B. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains, railroad timetables, nor –none and nor are double negatives --- -wrong; there should be an ‘and’ between trains and railroad 
C. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables nor— double negatives  
D. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the –  wrong as in A 
E. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or the -----  correct

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one issue at time, so we can find the correct answer quickly! First, here is the original question with the major differences between each option highlighted in  orange :

In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found that driving automobiles and sleeping in tents allowed them to enjoy nature close at hand and tour at their own pace, with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels.

C. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables nor

A.  with none of  the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables  or  with the
B.  with none of  the restrictions of passenger trains, railroad timetables,  nor 
C.  without  the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables  nor 
D.  without  the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables  or  with the
E.  without  the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables  or  the

After a quick glance over the options, a couple differences become clear:

1. with none of vs. without
2. or vs. nor

Let's tackle #2 on our list because this will be the easiest to figure out: or vs. nor. Whenever you see the conjunction "nor" in a sentence, it MUST be preceded with the word "neither." Here are some examples to show how this idiom works:

X nor Y =  WRONG 
Neither X and Y =  WRONG 
Neither X or Y =  WRONG 
Neither X nor Y =  CORRECT

Let's see if we can eliminate any options that use this idiom incorrectly:

A. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the
B. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains, railroad timetables,  nor 
C. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables  nor 
D. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the
E. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or the

We can eliminate options B & C because they don't use the proper format of the idiom "neither X nor Y."

Now that we're left with only 3 options, let's tackle #1 on our list: with none vs. without. There are two things we need to focus on here:

1. Parallelism (both items must be listed using similar wording, verb tense, structure, etc.)
2. Proper Logic (both items must make logical sense; no distorting the intended meaning)

Let's take a closer look at the remaining options with the entire sentence added back in:

A. In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found that driving automobiles and sleeping in tents allowed them to enjoy nature close at hand and tour at their own pace,   with none of  the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or  with  the  formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels.

This option is  INCORRECT  because it doesn't use parallel structure. Both phrases must be introduced with the phrase "with none of" for this to be parallel. Otherwise, it suggests that driving automobiles  did not  have the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables, but it  did  have the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels, which doesn't make logical sense.

D. In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found that driving automobiles and sleeping in tents allowed them to enjoy nature close at hand and tour at their own pace,   without  the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or  with  the  formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels.

This option is also  INCORRECT  because it doesn't use parallel structure by starting both phrases with "without." It also creates a logic problem by stating that driving automobiles comes  without  the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timelines, but it comes  with  the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels, which isn't true.

E. In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found that driving automobiles and sleeping in tents allowed them to enjoy nature close at hand and tour at their own pace,   without the  restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables  or the   formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels.

This is  CORRECT ! It's clear that ALL of the negatives of using trains or hotels go together, and that driving a car has NONE of these problems! It uses the correct "without X or Y" construction to show this clearly!

There you have it - option E is the correct choice!

Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question -

Concepts tested here: Parallelism + Grammatical Construction + Idioms + Awkwardness/Redundancy

A:  This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables" and "the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("or" in this sentence) must be parallel. Further, Option A uses the needlessly wordy phrase "with none of", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

B:  This answer choice incorrectly joins two elements in a list - "passenger trains" and "railroad timetables" - with a comma; please remember, if a list has two elements, they must be joined with a conjunction. Further, Option B uses the needlessly wordy phrase "with none of", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

C:  This answer choice fails to maintain the idiomatic construction "neither A nor B", as it omits the word "neither"; please remember, “neither A nor B” and “either A or B” are idiomatic uses and are only used when referring to two elements; A and B must be parallel.

D:  This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables" and "with the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("or" in this sentence) must be parallel.

E:   Correct.  This answer choice correctly maintains parallelism between "the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables" and "the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels". Further, Option E correctly joins two elements in a list - "passenger trains" and "railroad timetables" - with conjunction ("and" in this sentence). Additionally, Option E avoids the idiomatic error seen in Option C, as it does not employ the "neither A nor B" construction. Besides, Option E is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

The question is based on Construction.

The last part of the sentence mentions the restrictions that are not part of driving automobiles and sleeping in tents. There are the restrictions of trains and timetables on the one hand and the formalities, expenses and impersonality of hotels on the other. So, there must the conjunction ‘and’ between the two aspects of trains to indicate that they are two aspects of one thing. Similarly, there must be the same conjunction between the three aspects of hotels. There must also be a conjunction between the aspects of trains and the aspects of hotels to separate the two. This function is ideally performed by the conjunction ‘or’.

Option A is wordy. The preposition ‘with’ is needlessly repeated. So, Option A can be eliminated.

The presence of the adjective ‘none’ makes the conjunction ‘nor’ redundant. So, Option B can be ruled out.

Option C has a similar error. The difference is that the conjunction ‘nor’ is redundant after the preposition ‘without’. So, Option C can be ruled out.

Option D distorts the meaning. This option rules out the restrictions of trains but includes the restrictions of hotels. Since the meaning thus conveyed is illogical, Option D can be ruled out.

Option E corrects the error in Option D by leaving out the preposition ‘with’. This option conveys the meaning that vacationers found that driving around and sleeping in tents allowed them to enjoy nature without restrictions. Therefore, E is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

stallone · Answer

E for me

rest all use "nor" and "with" wrongly

by the way: what is this GMAT-SET ? (is it some online data-store/PDF of questions ) . Please forward the link/pdf .

thanks

reply2spg · Answer

IMO E

In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found that driving
automobiles and sleeping in tents allowed them to enjoy nature close at hand and tour at
their own pace, with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or
with the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels.

A. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the -  "with" is awkward 
B. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains, railroad timetables, nor - " with" is awkward 
C. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables nor -  "nor" did not fit here 
D. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the -  "with the" missing the ||ism 
E. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or the - correct

omidsa · Answer

From IDIOM list offered in SC aristotle book:

"Restrictions Of " is not idiomatic and it should be "restrictions on".

so all ACs has diomatic error?

jlgdr · Answer

'Allowed them to enjoy nature' WITHOUT the restrictions should be used here. Hence, A and B are out
Now between C,D, and E, without nor is clearly incorrect as it is a double negative. So C is out
Now between D and E, do we need the with before? Without the restrictions or the formalities sound good to me!
Therefore IMO, correct answer should be (E).

OA please to corroborate.
Experts any good takeaways from this question?

Cheers

chetan2u · Answer

there are two different things attached with 'or'
1)the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables
2) the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels.

we have to choose the choice which connects these two parts properly
A. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or  with  the
with none in second part is required

B. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains, railroad timetables, nor
and omitted

C. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables nor
parallelism issue

D. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the
same as A

E. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or the
correct 
ans E

WaterFlowsUp · Answer

Without restriction X or (restriction) Y

With no X or (no) Y

abrakadabra21 · Answer

In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found that driving
automobiles and sleeping in tents allowed them to enjoy nature close at hand and tour at
their own pace, with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or
with the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels.
A. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or  with the 
B. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains, railroad timetables, nor
C. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables nor
D. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the
E. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or the

We need two clauses
1> without the restriction of passenger trails and railroad trouble. 
2> without the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels

B. with none of the restrictions of  passenger trains, railroad timetables , nor => B is wrong because you need (X and Y) structure 
C. without X nor Y => it should be without X and Y (without X or Y) - Introduces double negetives
D. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or  with  the

E => correct

Shiv2016 · Answer

mikemcgarry , @e-gmat, and  GMATNinja 
 
Can we use 'nor' without neither like we use 'or' without either in some sentences?

Thanks

Skywalker18 · Answer

In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found that driving automobiles and sleeping in tents allowed them to enjoy nature close at hand and tour at their own pace, with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels.

C. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables nor

A. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the - meaning error - the sentence intends to say that by driving automobiles and sleeping in tents, vacationers are able to enjoy nature and tour at their own pace without any restrictions of trains or formalities of hotels. However, the way it is constructed right now, the sentence conveys an illogical meaning that “vacationers enjoy nature and tour at their own pace with the formalities of hotels”. 
B. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains, railroad timetables, nor - idiom error - “nor” should be preceded by “neither” while writing down the elements of a list.
C. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables nor - same as B
D. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the - meaning error - Having without restrictions and with formalities as elements of a list implies that vacationers do not have restrictions of trains but have to face the formalities of hotels.
E. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or the-Correct

Answer E

egmat · Answer

Hello Shiv2016 , I am aware that you asked this quite sometime back. I am not sure if you still have this doubt. Here is the answer nonetheless.

IMHO, nor can be used without neither when used as comma + FANBOYS . Hope this helps.

Thanks. Shraddha

shabuzen102 · Answer

Would you please explain why "none" and "nor" in option B are double negatives?

From what I understand, this is the list of meaning of this structure "with...or..."

1. without A or B = without A nor B = without A and B = without (A and B): We don't have A and we don't have B.

2. without A or with B = without A and with B = We don't have A but we do have B

3. With no A/ none of A, nor B - it looks like  daagh  (in the first post of this thread) thinks it's double negative. Would you please explain why?

Thank you very much!

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  shabuzen102 . I will do my best to illustrate why using both  none  and  nor  in choice (B) makes no sense, in terms of meaning and grammatical structure. Let us take a closer look at the sentence and the answer in question.
 
In this  with none of  construct, the negation carries into any item that follows, and importantly, the second item in that list is surrounded by commas, indicating that a third item will follow. Note the difference:

1) with none of A, B, or C
2) with none of A or B, nor with C

It is not that I would never use 2) above, but that the  with none of  tag has to exhaust itself before  nor  can enter the picture, and that does not happen in option (B). As written, the phrase could be read as,

B. with none of the restrictions of passenger trains, with none of the restrictions of railroad timetables, nor with none of the restrictions of formalities...

I think you would agree that something is off in that last phrase, and that that something is the extraneous  nor . You can call it what you want, but in any case, it does not belong.

I hope that helps. Please let me know if you have further questions.

- Andrew

shabuzen102 · Answer

Dear Andrew MentorTutoring , Thanks so much for your detailed answer. It makes a lot of sense. Just to confirm though, both (1) and (2) are correct right? 1) with none of A, B, or C 2) with none of A or B, nor with C Would you please explain then why C is wrong? Is it just because of the lack of "the"? It doesn't seem too convincing to me if it's just the absence of "the"

Thanks!

AndrewN · Answer

Yes, both 1) and 2) above could be used to write a grammatically correct sentence. If you want examples, I could provide some, but to address your question about  this  sentence, let us take a closer look at option (C):
 
A neither/nor construct could work here with  with , as in,  with neither A nor B , but a  without  at the head of the phrase creates this hard-to-follow drivel:

without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables nor  without  the formalities...

What are we to make of  nor without , in light of the fact that each word on its own negates something?

I hope that helps.

- Andrew

Deadpool3 · Answer

Hi  GMATNinjaTwo   GMATNinja   generis   hazelnut   mikemcgarry   TheEconomistGMAT   GMATGuruNY  ,  VeritasKarishma ,  ChiranjeevSingh ,  Skywalker18 ,  egmat 
 
In the above question, Isn't the "or" in option E Illogical? Shouldn't "And" come instead of "or" because "driving automobiles and sleeping in tents " is eliminating both the bottlenecks?

In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found that driving automobiles and sleeping in tents allowed them to enjoy nature close at hand and tour at their own pace, with none of the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables or with the formalities, expenses, and impersonality of hotels.

C. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables nor

E. without the restrictions of passenger trains and railroad timetables  or  the

In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found tha

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In the early part of the twentieth century, many vacationers found tha

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