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Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits
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08 Aug 2008, 23:10
2
7
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A
B
C
D
E
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45% (medium)
Question Stats:
60% (01:06) correct 40% (01:03) wrong based on 440 sessions
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Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits that damage the clarity of their prose, but these habits can be broken if they are willing to take the necessary trouble.
(A) but these habits can be broken (B) but these habits are breakable (C) but they can break these habits (D) which can be broken (E) except that can be broken
Re: Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits
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09 Aug 2008, 21:14
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spriya wrote:
Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits that damage the clarity of their prose, but these habits can be broken if they are willing to take the necessary trouble. (A) but these habits can be broken (B) but these habits are breakable (C) but they can break these habits (D) which can be broken (E) except that can be broken
We need to talk about writers not their habits. Only C) does it.
Re: Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits
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01 Jan 2011, 01:01
(C)
(A) but these habits can be broken (B) but these habits are breakable (C) but they can break these habits (D) which can be broken (E) except that can be broken _________________
Re: Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits
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07 Jan 2011, 08:38
C is the correct answer Pronoun that immediately follows the "but" which comes after a comma ,unambiguously refer to the first subject in the statement. here it refers to the scientists in C. Moreover we are talking about scientists. So the correct answer is C.
Re: Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits
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05 May 2011, 12:28
spriya wrote:
Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits that damage the clarity of their prose, but these habits can be broken if they are willing to take the necessary trouble. (A) but these habits can be broken (B) but these habits are breakable (C) but they can break these habits (D) which can be broken (E) except that can be broken
Many writers of modern English have acquired ..., but they can break these habits if they are willing .....trouble. ^ |------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
In choice C, the subjects are absolutely parallel and same across the structure, therefore the most perfect choice. I hope the reasoning should be enough. Please let me know, if any flaw in this.
Re: Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits
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09 Jun 2015, 02:04
(A) but these habits can be broken > Passive (B) but these habits are breakable > Passive (C) but they can break these habits (D) which can be broken (E) except that can be broken _________________
Re: Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits
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21 Aug 2018, 12:11
Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits that damage the clarity of their prose, but these habits can be broken if they are willing to take the necessary trouble. -----------
(A) but these habits can be broken In this case it is not clear to what noun does "they" (that comes after underlined part) refer to. Is it "writers" or "habits", we understand that it is "writers", but still. And passive.
(B) but these habits are breakable Same as in A
(C) but they can break these habits Good. The first "they", and the second one refer to "writers". And active.
(D) which can be broken "which" modifies the last noun ("prose" in our case), but "prose can be broken" makes no sense
Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits
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29 Aug 2018, 03:49
spriya wrote:
Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits that damage the clarity of their prose, but these habits can be broken if they are willing to take the necessary trouble.
(A) but these habits can be broken (B) but these habits are breakable (C) but they can break these habits (D) which can be broken (E) except that can be broken
Confused between A and C Is it necessary to keep Voices same in the entire sentence? Besides If is not parallel marker so why are we looking for parallelism? Can someone please explain?
Let me put my cents here. The sentence first introduces something about Writers and "the writers" is the focus. Suddenly, you break the flow of thinking and change the voice to passive when you are talking about their habits. Considering Parallelism rule, both elements need to be in active voice, otherwise the focus of the subject changes and a reader gets confused what exactly the author is talking about. So, as per my thought process, C is the best answer.
Re: Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits
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08 Sep 2018, 07:04
Quote:
Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits that damage the clarity of their prose, but these habits can be broken if they are willing to take the necessary trouble.
(A) but these habits can be broken (B) but these habits are breakable (C) but they can break these habits (D) which can be broken (E) except that can be broken
Most people would have eliminated B, D and E. Now let us look at A and C. 'C' represents the proper parallel structure. If they are willing to take the necessary trouble, they can break these habits.
VS
If they are willing to take the necessary trouble, these habits can be broken. (This is what option 'A' says , and as can be seen this is clearly not parallel as per GMAT standards. )
gmatclubot
Re: Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits &nbs
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08 Sep 2018, 07:04
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60% (01:06) correct 
