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605-655 Level|   Grammatical/Rhetorical Construction|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|   Meaning/Logical Predication|   Modifiers|   Pronouns|   Punctuation|                                 
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 27 Jun 2021, 14:40
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Video solution from Quant Reasoning starts at 00:42:52
Subscribe for more: https://www.youtube.com/QuantReasoning? ... irmation=1
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 31 Jul 2021, 05:23
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A. Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is [/quote]
That “it” jumps out at me right away. It just doesn’t seem awesome: “it” could refer to “conversation” or “tool” or “telephone” or “substitute” or “radio” or “conception of the radio.” Actually, since “it” is the subject of the second full clause in the sentence, that pronoun most likely refers to the subject of the first full clause, “Marconi’s conception of the radio.” (Again, more on these pronoun issues in this video.)

Of course, “it” logically needs to refer to “radio.” So we definitely have a pronoun ambiguity situation on our hands, but pronoun ambiguity isn’t an absolute crime. So I wouldn’t eliminate (A) based only on the pronoun issue.

But there’s also a meaning issue with (A): “Marconi’s conception… was as a substitute for the telephone…” Wait, no. Logically, the radio is the substitute for the telephone – the “conception of the radio” definitely is not the substitute.

So I’m not 100% comfortable eliminating (A) based on the pronoun ambiguity alone, but the logical problem at the beginning of the sentence gives us a reason to ditch (A) with confidence.

----The conception of radio was as a substitute, how is this wrong; its like marconi thought of radio as a substitute
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 09 Aug 2021, 23:45
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If we go by the intended meaning, the Q. states, that Marconi conceived of radio to be used as a telephone but it is used as some other tool.
==> hence "usages", in two different time zones, are being compared.
==>A,B,E are out ==> In A,E "it" sounds very ambiguous , God knows what "it" refers to.
in "B" wrong usage of "which" as it may refer to "private conversation"

In D --> wrong usage of "which" as it refers to "telephone"
==> C- answer

Extra Notes::
"Conceived of" is the right idiom.
conceived of X as Y = CORRECT
Conceived of X to be Y = WRONG
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 02 Dec 2021, 11:06
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I am right in using the appositive concept as an elimination process here ?


Here is my process:


(A) Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is

This is wrong as an appositive always refer to the nearest noun, here "a tool for private conversation" refers to "telephone" instead of "radio".



(B) Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, but which is

Same problem as in A)



(C) Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become

No problem, keep C)



(D) Marconi conceived of the radio to be a tool for private conversation, a substitute for the telephone, which has become

Of course, here the "which" appears as a more direct error. But, I still think that "a tool for private conversation" badly refers to "conversation".


(E) Marconi conceived of the radio to be a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, other than what it is,

Same problem as in A) and C)



Therefore, C) is correct


Please tell me, whether I am right.

Thanks :)



marine
Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.


(A) Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is

(B) Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, but which is

(C) Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become

(D) Marconi conceived of the radio to be a tool for private conversation, a substitute for the telephone, which has become

(E) Marconi conceived of the radio to be a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, other than what it is,




OG16 SC113
Category: Rhetorical construction; Logical predication

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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 03 Dec 2021, 07:20
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Naptiste
I am right in using the appositive concept as an elimination process here ?


Here is my process:


(A) Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is

This is wrong as an appositive always refer to the nearest noun, here "a tool for private conversation" refers to "telephone" instead of "radio".



(B) Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, but which is

Same problem as in A)



(C) Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become

No problem, keep C)



(D) Marconi conceived of the radio to be a tool for private conversation, a substitute for the telephone, which has become

Of course, here the "which" appears as a more direct error. But, I still think that "a tool for private conversation" badly refers to "conversation".


(E) Marconi conceived of the radio to be a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, other than what it is,

Same problem as in A) and C)



Therefore, C) is correct


Please tell me, whether I am right.

Thanks :)



marine
Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.


(A) Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is

(B) Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, but which is

(C) Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become

(D) Marconi conceived of the radio to be a tool for private conversation, a substitute for the telephone, which has become

(E) Marconi conceived of the radio to be a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, other than what it is,




OG16 SC113
Category: Rhetorical construction; Logical predication

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Hello Naptiste,

We hope this finds you well.

Unfortunately, your reasoning is not entirely correct here. In these answer choices the positive "a tool for private conversation" modifies the noun phrase "a substitute for the telephone", not the noun "telephone". Thus, this use of the positive is not in error. For a detailed explanation, please see our post here. https://gmatclub.com/forum/marconi-s-co ... l#p2895176

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 16 Sep 2022, 19:39
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GMATNinja
This is another question that’s at the top of my list of the most unsatisfying official GMAT SC questions ever produced.

I’ll be honest: my first instinct is to eliminate the correct answer because of pronoun ambiguity, but that’s a bad idea: pronoun ambiguity is not an absolute rule on the GMAT (more on that in this video), and there are far worse errors in the other answer choices.

And that’s classic GMAT right there: there aren’t a ton of absolute RULES that ALWAYS apply on the GMAT, but it’s always true that you’ll want to eliminate the four worst answer choices. Whatever you’re left with might not be great, but it’ll be correct enough.

Quote:
A. Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is
That “it” jumps out at me right away. It just doesn’t seem awesome: “it” could refer to “conversation” or “tool” or “telephone” or “substitute” or “radio” or “conception of the radio.” Actually, since “it” is the subject of the second full clause in the sentence, that pronoun most likely refers to the subject of the first full clause, “Marconi’s conception of the radio.” (Again, more on these pronoun issues in this video.)

Of course, “it” logically needs to refer to “radio.” So we definitely have a pronoun ambiguity situation on our hands, but pronoun ambiguity isn’t an absolute crime. So I wouldn’t eliminate (A) based only on the pronoun issue.

But there’s also a meaning issue with (A): “Marconi’s conception… was as a substitute for the telephone…” Wait, no. Logically, the radio is the substitute for the telephone – the “conception of the radio” definitely is not the substitute.

So I’m not 100% comfortable eliminating (A) based on the pronoun ambiguity alone, but the logical problem at the beginning of the sentence gives us a reason to ditch (A) with confidence.

Quote:
B. Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, but which is
This is such a confusing mess that it’s hard for me to explain why it’s a confusing mess. The whole problem is “but which is”, a phrase that seems to be (awkwardly) referring to the telephone. But that doesn’t make sense: “the telephone… but which is precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.”

Nope. It’s the radio that's the tool for communicating with a large, public audience – not the telephone. If we switched “which” to “it” (or “instead it”), then we might be OK, but (B) in its current form just doesn’t make sense.

Quote:
C. Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become
Like (A), (C) has some potential pronoun ambiguity: “it” would refer to “the radio” or “private conversation” or “substitute” or “telephone.” But again: pronoun ambiguity is NOT automatically wrong on the GMAT. And in this case, I think you could argue that the “it” isn’t even all that confusing.

And the thing is, I don’t see any other problems. The modifier “that could substitute for the telephone” seems to correctly modify “tool for private conversation.” I’m OK with the verb tense at the end of the underlined portion of the sentence: “[the radio] has become a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.” Sure, I guess we could say that the radio started to become a tool for mass communication long ago, and continues to become a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.

Honestly, I’d be happier picking an answer choice that doesn’t have the pronoun ambiguity problem, but ONLY IF that answer choice doesn’t have more severe problems. (C) at least makes sense, and the pronoun ambiguity isn’t enough to eliminate it. So let’s keep the little booger for now.

Quote:
D. Marconi conceived of the radio to be a tool for private conversation, a substitute for the telephone, which has become
(D) has nice, clear problems. The modifier beginning with “which” is just plain wrong: “which has become a tool for communicating with a large, public audience” seems to modify “the telephone”, and that makes no sense at all.

And for whatever it’s worth, “conceived… to be” is not the correct idiom. It should be “conceived… as.” But don’t lose too much sleep over idioms, since there are around 25,000 of them in English.

Anyway, (D) is out.

Quote:
E. Marconi conceived of the radio to be a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, other than what it is,
For starters, we have the same idiom problem as in (D). But then there’s just a messy construction later in the sentence: “Marconi conceived of the radio to be a substitute for the telephone…., other than what it is, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.”

Huh? “Other than what it is”? That’s a mess, and the contrast isn’t clear between Marconi’s conception of the radio and what it actually is: (C) much more clearly states that the radio is instead a tool for mass communication.

So (E) is gone, and we’re left with (C). So pronoun ambiguity isn’t ideal, but it’s not automatically your enemy, either.
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Hello GMATNinja Boss - I did not pick (C) first time because I though The modifier “that could substitute for the telephone” incorrectly modifying “private conversation.” and it did not make sense meaning wise. Is it because "for" is a preposition and thus, it is referring to the tool, which is referring to the radio. When I read - "private conversation could substitute for the telephone" - it did not make sense from the meaning side of things, can you please clarify dear SC GOD?
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 18 Sep 2022, 05:31
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GMATNinja
This is another question that’s at the top of my list of the most unsatisfying official GMAT SC questions ever produced.

I’ll be honest: my first instinct is to eliminate the correct answer because of pronoun ambiguity, but that’s a bad idea: pronoun ambiguity is not an absolute rule on the GMAT (more on that in this video), and there are far worse errors in the other answer choices.

And that’s classic GMAT right there: there aren’t a ton of absolute RULES that ALWAYS apply on the GMAT, but it’s always true that you’ll want to eliminate the four worst answer choices. Whatever you’re left with might not be great, but it’ll be correct enough.

Quote:
A. Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is
That “it” jumps out at me right away. It just doesn’t seem awesome: “it” could refer to “conversation” or “tool” or “telephone” or “substitute” or “radio” or “conception of the radio.” Actually, since “it” is the subject of the second full clause in the sentence, that pronoun most likely refers to the subject of the first full clause, “Marconi’s conception of the radio.” (Again, more on these pronoun issues in this video.)

Of course, “it” logically needs to refer to “radio.” So we definitely have a pronoun ambiguity situation on our hands, but pronoun ambiguity isn’t an absolute crime. So I wouldn’t eliminate (A) based only on the pronoun issue.

But there’s also a meaning issue with (A): “Marconi’s conception… was as a substitute for the telephone…” Wait, no. Logically, the radio is the substitute for the telephone – the “conception of the radio” definitely is not the substitute.

So I’m not 100% comfortable eliminating (A) based on the pronoun ambiguity alone, but the logical problem at the beginning of the sentence gives us a reason to ditch (A) with confidence.

Quote:
B. Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, but which is
This is such a confusing mess that it’s hard for me to explain why it’s a confusing mess. The whole problem is “but which is”, a phrase that seems to be (awkwardly) referring to the telephone. But that doesn’t make sense: “the telephone… but which is precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.”

Nope. It’s the radio that's the tool for communicating with a large, public audience – not the telephone. If we switched “which” to “it” (or “instead it”), then we might be OK, but (B) in its current form just doesn’t make sense.

Quote:
C. Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become
Like (A), (C) has some potential pronoun ambiguity: “it” would refer to “the radio” or “private conversation” or “substitute” or “telephone.” But again: pronoun ambiguity is NOT automatically wrong on the GMAT. And in this case, I think you could argue that the “it” isn’t even all that confusing.

And the thing is, I don’t see any other problems. The modifier “that could substitute for the telephone” seems to correctly modify “tool for private conversation.” I’m OK with the verb tense at the end of the underlined portion of the sentence: “[the radio] has become a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.” Sure, I guess we could say that the radio started to become a tool for mass communication long ago, and continues to become a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.

Honestly, I’d be happier picking an answer choice that doesn’t have the pronoun ambiguity problem, but ONLY IF that answer choice doesn’t have more severe problems. (C) at least makes sense, and the pronoun ambiguity isn’t enough to eliminate it. So let’s keep the little booger for now.

Quote:
D. Marconi conceived of the radio to be a tool for private conversation, a substitute for the telephone, which has become
(D) has nice, clear problems. The modifier beginning with “which” is just plain wrong: “which has become a tool for communicating with a large, public audience” seems to modify “the telephone”, and that makes no sense at all.

And for whatever it’s worth, “conceived… to be” is not the correct idiom. It should be “conceived… as.” But don’t lose too much sleep over idioms, since there are around 25,000 of them in English.

Anyway, (D) is out.

Quote:
E. Marconi conceived of the radio to be a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, other than what it is,
For starters, we have the same idiom problem as in (D). But then there’s just a messy construction later in the sentence: “Marconi conceived of the radio to be a substitute for the telephone…., other than what it is, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.”

Huh? “Other than what it is”? That’s a mess, and the contrast isn’t clear between Marconi’s conception of the radio and what it actually is: (C) much more clearly states that the radio is instead a tool for mass communication.

So (E) is gone, and we’re left with (C). So pronoun ambiguity isn’t ideal, but it’s not automatically your enemy, either.

Hello GMATNinja Boss - I did not pick (C) first time because I though The modifier “that could substitute for the telephone” incorrectly modifying “private conversation.” and it did not make sense meaning wise. Is it because "for" is a preposition and thus, it is referring to the tool, which is referring to the radio. When I read - "private conversation could substitute for the telephone" - it did not make sense from the meaning side of things, can you please clarify dear SC GOD?
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Hello IN2MBB2PE,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, yes; due to the propositional nature of the phrase "for private conversation", "that" will refer to "tool" rather than "conversation".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 21 Sep 2022, 14:20
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IN2MBB2PE


Hello GMATNinja Boss - I did not pick (C) first time because I though The modifier “that could substitute for the telephone” incorrectly modifying “private conversation.” and it did not make sense meaning wise. Is it because "for" is a preposition and thus, it is referring to the tool, which is referring to the radio. When I read - "private conversation could substitute for the telephone" - it did not make sense from the meaning side of things, can you please clarify dear SC GOD?
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Aw, you're making me blush! Thank you for the kind words, as always.

Anytime you have a "that" or a "which" modifier following a noun phrase that contains more than one noun, you need to use context to determine what "that" refers to.

If I see "a box of cereal that is missing the top flap," the modifier beginning with "that" clearly has to refer to the "box", right? Cereal doesn't have a flap.

But if I see "a box of cereal that is stale and tastes like marshmallows and broccoli," now "that" seems to refer to the "cereal" itself, since boxes rarely taste like marshmallows or broccoli. (It's possible that I've gotten excited and accidentally tasted a few boxes over the years. None have tasted like marshmallows or broccoli. :tongue_opt3 )

Back to our dude Marconi: in (C), a "tool" could logically be a substitute for a "phone," but a "private conversation" couldn't be, so we know "that" refers to "tool."

The takeaway: there's no such thing as a touch rule! As long as there's something nearby for "that" to logically describe, it's fine. Then you're on to other issues.

I hope that helps!
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 25 Oct 2022, 14:33
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GMATNinja


Quote:
B. Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, but which is
This is such a confusing mess that it’s hard for me to explain why it’s a confusing mess. The whole problem is “but which is”, a phrase that seems to be (awkwardly) referring to the telephone. But that doesn’t make sense: “the telephone… but which is precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.”

Nope. It’s the radio that's the tool for communicating with a large, public audience – not the telephone. If we switched “which” to “it” (or “instead it”), then we might be OK, but (B) in its current form just doesn’t make sense.

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GMATNinja
Hello sir, can you check highlighted part, please?
if this is the case shouldn't it be 'run-on' sentence?
Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, instead, it IS precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.
one more issue: ^^
if this is the case then it seems that the tense (IS) is just a general truth, not the result/consequence of ''Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone.....''.

Am I missing anything?
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 25 Oct 2022, 15:24
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Question #3
(B) Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, ...
Think about this. Here, the phrase "a tool for private conversation" modifies "telephone", explaining to us what a telephone is. That's ridiculous! What person over the age of six need any explanation about what a telephone is? This is entirely absurd!!
Also, think: did Marconi say "I want to invent a new substitute"? Or did he say, "I want to invent a new tool"? There's something subtly illogical about Marconi conceiving of his invention primarily as a substitute. That's really a level of subtlety a little beyond what the GMAT would test, but notice that incorrect answers on the GMAT SC, in addition to having something 100% clear and bonafide wrong, also are sprinkled with these subtle logical mistakes.
Now, think about (C)'s phrasing:

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)
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It is long time Mr Mike is not available in this club, maybe. I'm going to request some of my honorable instructor to put an explanation instead of Mr Mike regarding the highlighted part (with underlined), please.
Is it seriously 'ridiculous' to GMAC? Most of the people in my country still did not see 'telephone' in their own eyes! What do you think about it, honorable instructor, RonTargetTestPrep, MartyTargetTestPrep, GMATNinja.
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 25 Oct 2022, 15:40
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C. Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become
Like (A), (C) has some potential pronoun ambiguity: “it” would refer to “the radio” or “private conversation” or “substitute” or “telephone.” But again: pronoun ambiguity is NOT automatically wrong on the GMAT. And in this case, I think you could argue that the “it” isn’t even all that confusing.

And the thing is, I don’t see any other problems. The modifier “that could substitute for the telephone” seems to correctly modify “tool for private conversation.” I’m OK with the verb tense at the end of the underlined portion of the sentence: “[the radio] has become a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.” Sure, I guess we could say that the radio started to become a tool for mass communication long ago, and continues to become a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.

Honestly, I’d be happier picking an answer choice that doesn’t have the pronoun ambiguity problem, but ONLY IF that answer choice doesn’t have more severe problems. (C) at least makes sense, and the pronoun ambiguity isn’t enough to eliminate it. So let’s keep the little booger for now.

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GMATNinja
Sir, is it “tool for private conversation.” or ''radio' that “that could substitute for the telephone” modifies, actually? I am little confused here in this case..
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 27 Oct 2022, 05:38
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GMATNinja


Quote:
C. Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become
Like (A), (C) has some potential pronoun ambiguity: “it” would refer to “the radio” or “private conversation” or “substitute” or “telephone.” But again: pronoun ambiguity is NOT automatically wrong on the GMAT. And in this case, I think you could argue that the “it” isn’t even all that confusing.

And the thing is, I don’t see any other problems. The modifier “that could substitute for the telephone” seems to correctly modify “tool for private conversation.” I’m OK with the verb tense at the end of the underlined portion of the sentence: “[the radio] has become a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.” Sure, I guess we could say that the radio started to become a tool for mass communication long ago, and continues to become a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.

Honestly, I’d be happier picking an answer choice that doesn’t have the pronoun ambiguity problem, but ONLY IF that answer choice doesn’t have more severe problems. (C) at least makes sense, and the pronoun ambiguity isn’t enough to eliminate it. So let’s keep the little booger for now.

GMATNinja
Sir, is it “tool for private conversation.” or ''radio' that “that could substitute for the telephone” modifies, actually? I am little confused here in this case..
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Hello TheUltimateWinner,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "that could substitute..." is meant to modify "tool for private conversation"; the intended meaning here is that Marconi imagined the radio as a particular type of tool that could replace the telephone.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 27 Oct 2022, 15:00
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Question #3
(B) Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, ...
Think about this. Here, the phrase "a tool for private conversation" modifies "telephone", explaining to us what a telephone is. That's ridiculous! What person over the age of six need any explanation about what a telephone is? This is entirely absurd!!
Also, think: did Marconi say "I want to invent a new substitute"? Or did he say, "I want to invent a new tool"? There's something subtly illogical about Marconi conceiving of his invention primarily as a substitute. That's really a level of subtlety a little beyond what the GMAT would test, but notice that incorrect answers on the GMAT SC, in addition to having something 100% clear and bonafide wrong, also are sprinkled with these subtle logical mistakes.
Now, think about (C)'s phrasing:

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)
It is long time Mr Mike is not available in this club, maybe. I'm going to request some of my honorable instructor to put an explanation instead of Mr Mike regarding the highlighted part (with underlined), please.
Is it seriously 'ridiculous' to GMAC? Most of the people in my country still did not see 'telephone' in their own eyes! What do you think about it, honorable instructor.
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I agree that it could be argued that the placement of "a tool for private conversation" in choice (B) is not clearly problematic.

The main issue with the (B) version is the use of "but which," as discussed by GMAT Ninja in this response.
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 27 Oct 2022, 15:27
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GMATNinja
Sir, is it “tool for private conversation.” or ''radio' that “that could substitute for the telephone” modifies, actually? I am little confused here in this case..

Hello TheUltimateWinner,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "that could substitute..." is meant to modify "tool for private conversation"; the intended meaning here is that Marconi imagined the radio as a particular type of tool that could replace the telephone.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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So, you're saying that "that could substitute..." did not modify 'radio', right? I got my answer. Thanks__
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 28 Oct 2022, 04:41
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GMATNinja
Sir, is it “tool for private conversation.” or ''radio' that “that could substitute for the telephone” modifies, actually? I am little confused here in this case..

Hello TheUltimateWinner,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "that could substitute..." is meant to modify "tool for private conversation"; the intended meaning here is that Marconi imagined the radio as a particular type of tool that could replace the telephone.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
ExpertsGlobal5
So, you're saying that "that could substitute..." did not modify 'radio', right? I got my answer. Thanks__
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Hello TheUltimateWinner,

We hope this finds you well.

Just to ensure that there is no confusion, yes; we mean to say that "that" does not refer to "radio".

All the best!
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 28 Oct 2022, 13:42
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ExpertsGlobal5


Hello TheUltimateWinner,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "that could substitute..." is meant to modify "tool for private conversation"; the intended meaning here is that Marconi imagined the radio as a particular type of tool that could replace the telephone.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
ExpertsGlobal5
So, you're saying that "that could substitute..." did not modify 'radio', right? I got my answer. Thanks__

Hello TheUltimateWinner,

We hope this finds you well.

Just to ensure that there is no confusion, yes; we mean to say that "that" does not refer to "radio".

All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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Thank you very much for your straightforward response ExpertsGlobal5
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 31 Oct 2022, 12:57
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mikemcgarry


Question #3
(B) Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, ...
Think about this. Here, the phrase "a tool for private conversation" modifies "telephone", explaining to us what a telephone is. That's ridiculous! What person over the age of six need any explanation about what a telephone is? This is entirely absurd!!
Also, think: did Marconi say "I want to invent a new substitute"? Or did he say, "I want to invent a new tool"? There's something subtly illogical about Marconi conceiving of his invention primarily as a substitute. That's really a level of subtlety a little beyond what the GMAT would test, but notice that incorrect answers on the GMAT SC, in addition to having something 100% clear and bonafide wrong, also are sprinkled with these subtle logical mistakes.
Now, think about (C)'s phrasing:

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)
It is long time Mr Mike is not available in this club, maybe. I'm going to request some of my honorable instructor to put an explanation instead of Mr Mike regarding the highlighted part (with underlined), please.
Is it seriously 'ridiculous' to GMAC? Most of the people in my country still did not see 'telephone' in their own eyes! What do you think about it, honorable instructor.
I agree that it could be argued that the placement of "a tool for private conversation" in choice (B) is not clearly problematic.

The main issue with the (B) version is the use of "but which," as discussed by GMAT Ninja in this response.
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I thought so sir. kudos for you.
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 13 Nov 2022, 03:17
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ExpertsGlobal5 EducationAisle mikemcgarry

(C) Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become

Shouldn't it be substitute instead of substitute for

radio as a tool...that could substitute telephone
radio as a tool...that could substitute for telephone
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Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephon 02 Jul 2025, 10:17
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