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Hi,

Here is my analysis of the sentence.

awarded with is incorrect usage.

Consider the following examples

The winner of the race will be rewarded with an amount Rupees Ten thousand.

The winner of the race will be awarded a gold medal.

Choice D is incorrect for the obvious reasons.

The second interesting split is between choice C and choice E.

{which was the nation's highest military award vs the nation's highest military} - this should not be considered as a split - as we don't know whether it is currently considered as the highest award or not

Option choice C ( Simplified version ) - Soldiers were awarded Medal long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

Option choice E (Simplified version ) - Soldiers were awarded Medal in long overdue recognition of their outstanding bravery.

Meaning - Option choice C - medal was long overdue

Meaning - Option choice E - recognition was long overdue

Option A states that medal was long overdue.

Is it better to say that

Recognition was long overdue

than

medal was long overdue.

Experts may please comment.
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More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded, some of them posthumously, with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

(A) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in -"with" is wrongly used. Also, Medal of Honor is nation's highest military award --> This is fact so we need simple present tense. --> "was" is wrongly used.
(B) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue -"with" is wrongly used. "for" recognition is wrong.
(C) the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, long-overdue in - Medal of Honor is nation's highest military award --> This is fact so we need simple present tense. --> "was" is wrongly used.
(D) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue -"for" recognition is wrongly used
(E) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, in long-overdue -Correct
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I have come across this question 2-3 times and everytime i go through the same argument whcih gave and get confused why C is wrong, In fact i do the exact opposite argument saying when the question itself says the medal WAS the highest award, how can we assume that it IS now.

Can you comment?

mikemcgarry
vabhs192003
More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded―some of them posthumously―with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

A. with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in
B. with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue
C. the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, long-overdue in
D. the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long overdue
E. the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, in long overdue
Dear vabhs192003,
This is a great question. I'm happy to help. :-)

Split #1: "awarded" vs. "awarded with". The construction "awarded with" is idiomatically incorrect. We would just say Q was awarded the XYZ medal. (A) & (B) make this mistake and cannot be correct.

Split #2: idiom for recognition. The correct idiom here is "in recognition", not "for recognition". (B) & (D) make this mistake and cannot be correct.

That gets us down to (C) vs. (E), which is the hard part of this question. First, look at the way they both modify the name of the medal:
(C) the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, ...
(E) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, ...
Choice (E) uses an appositive phrase. For more on this, see:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... e-phrases/
This structure is very elegant and concise. By contrast, the "which" clause in (C) is a little longer. There's also a problem with verb tense. I realize the tense is the same as in the prompt, but the past tense makes it sound as if that medal WAS the nation's highest military award, but isn't anymore. Is this true? Was a new highest honor recently introduced to supersede this medal? Hmmm, this calls for outside knowledge, but it just seems unlikely that whatever the highest military honor was recently (in the 1990s) would be swapped out for something else. Not only is (C) longer and clunkier, but it also raises awkward questions about verb tense & implication that (E) sleekly avoids.
Both endings are acceptable ("long-overdue in recognition" vs. "in long-overdue recognition"), because we could reasonably say that either the medal or the recognition was overdue. The above discussion indicates why (E) is a superior answer, and the best answer here.

BTW: outside knowledge: the Congressional Medal of Honor is still the nation's highest military honor.

Does all this make sense?

Mike :-)
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narendra111988
I have come across this question 2-3 times and everytime i go through the same argument whcih gave and get confused why C is wrong, In fact i do the exact opposite argument saying when the question itself says the medal WAS the highest award, how can we assume that it IS now.

Can you comment?



Hello narendra111988,

I will be glad to help you out with this one. :-)

Let's take a look at the sentence with choice C:

More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded―some of them posthumously―the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, long-overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

This choice has two errors.

1. Use of simple past tense verb was is incorrect as the choice suggests that the said award is no longer the nation's highest military award.

It is not difficult to understand that usage of simple past tense is incorrect because a nation's highest civilian o/and military awards do not change very frequently. Such honors are pretty constant.


2. The placement of long-overdue is such that it suggests that the award was long-overdue, not the recognition.


Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
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sahilmalhotra01
Hi,

Here is my analysis of the sentence.

awarded with is incorrect usage.

Consider the following examples

The winner of the race will be rewarded with an amount Rupees Ten thousand.

The winner of the race will be awarded a gold medal.

Choice D is incorrect for the obvious reasons.

The second interesting split is between choice C and choice E.

{which was the nation's highest military award vs the nation's highest military} - this should not be considered as a split - as we don't know whether it is currently considered as the highest award or not

Option choice C ( Simplified version ) - Soldiers were awarded Medal long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

Option choice E (Simplified version ) - Soldiers were awarded Medal in long overdue recognition of their outstanding bravery.

Meaning - Option choice C - medal was long overdue

Meaning - Option choice E - recognition was long overdue

Option A states that medal was long overdue.

Is it better to say that

Recognition was long overdue

than

medal was long overdue.

Experts may please comment.



Hello sahilmalhotra01,

I must say you have presented a very good analysis here. Keep up the good work. :thumbup:


Per the context of the sentence, I would say that the recognition was long overdue, and that is why the award was presented more than 50 years after the World War II.

If the service of these soldiers would have been recognized earlier, the award would have come earlier.


Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
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Caas
More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded, some of them posthumously, with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.


(A) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in

(B) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue

(C) the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, long-overdue in

(D) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue

(E) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, in long-overdue

Got this correct, but if you believe my reasoning is flawed please let me know:

A) Medal of honor IS the highest award, WAS is wrong
B) Need a comma after AWARD or else it sounds like the medal of honor is an award for long-overdue recognition
C) WAS is incorrect. It IS
D) Same as B
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hello,
(C) the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation???s highest military award, long-overdue in

In option C, LONG OVERDUE IN is what type of modifier and it modifies what?
and what is the usage of this kind of modifier.
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Split 1 - "for long over-due"
This is incorrect as it implies the soldiers were awarded for "overdue recognition" instead of being awarded in recognition of bravery.
Eliminate B, D

A - doesn't make sense to be why we are joining a relative clause modifier with a conjunction that is separated by a comma; both relative clauses are modifying the same thing, so they shouldn't be separated in this way.

Awarded with isn't idiomatically corect it should be Awarded X (x=the award)
Eliminate A

C is incorrect because of the verb tense issue. "was" implies that the medal is no longer the highest military award. Also "awarded with the Medal, long-overdue in recogntion" seems to make the reader think that this is the correct way to phrase the noun modifier. It should be changed to "in long-overdue" to make it abundantly clear via the prepositional phrase "in" that they were awarded for something in long-overdue recogntion of something else.

Correct Answer: E
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Caas
More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded, some of them posthumously, with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.


(A) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in

(B) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue

(C) the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, long-overdue in

(D) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue

(E) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, in long-overdue


(A) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in - Wrong: 1) Idioms 2) Meaning

(B) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue - Wrong: 1) Idioms 2) Meaning

(C) the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, long-overdue in - Wrong: 1) Modifier

(D) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue - Wrong: 1) Meaning

(E) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, in long-overdue - Correct
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(A) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in
“awarded” - correct , "awarded with” - incorrect

(B) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue
"in recognition OF/FOR” - correct, "for recognition" - incorrect
“awarded” - correct vs. "awarded with” - incorrect

(C) the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, long-overdue in
long - overdue wrongly modifies the preceding clause

(D) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue
"in recognition OF/FOR” - correct, "for recognition" - incorrect

(E) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, in long-overdue
No Error
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I have a love-hate kind of relationship with this SC question

I love it because I was sure that "someone is awarded xyz" is correct usage and "someone was awarded with xyz" is incorrect usage
I hate it because I was unsure about "in recognition of..." vs "for recognition of..."

Bottom line: This is one of the very few test-idiom-knowledge question which tests less grammar and more idiom knowledge

Remember:
CORRECT USAGE:
1. someone is awarded xyz
2. in recognition of
OR
INCORRECT USAGE:
1. someone is awarded WITH xyz
2. FOR recognition of
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Could you please explain what's wrong with C? Is it just that it's wordy? Isn't the Which in C modifying Congressional Medal of Honor which is a noun?

Also in A isn't the Which modifying the Congressional Medal of Honor which is the closes noun?

Appreciate your help on this.


egmat
More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded―some of them posthumously―with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

Lets find the error in choice A. For this we need to understand the meaning of the sentence.

The sentence states the following:
    1: Second world war + 50 years later - many African American soldiers were awarded a great Medal
    2: This is called Congressional Medal of Honor
    3: This is the nations highest military award.
    4: This award was given to soldiers in long overdue recognition of their outstanding bravery.

Understanding the last point is the key to figuring out the grammatical error in choice A. What is the role of "long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery". The way it is written, it appears as though the Congressional Medal of Honor is long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery. This is not logical - how can a medal of honor be long overdue...The act of awarding that medal can be long overdue. That is the grammatical error - choice A uses "which modifier" to describe the action - awarded the medal. "Which modifier" can only be used for modifying nouns.

Hope this addresses your concern. The thing to keep in mind is - Always read the sentence and understand what the author is trying to communicate. (meaning analysis) Once you understand that, then you apply your knowledge of grammar and see if the author has used English language appropriately or not. (error analysis) Once you hone in on the errors, then you correct those errors. (answer choice analysis). The first step is always to understand the meaning. :) If you skip this step, then you are setting yourself up for failure (especially for medium to difficult level questions).

What is the source of this question?
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vabhs192003
More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded―some of them posthumously―with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

A. with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in
B. with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue
C. the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, long-overdue in
D. the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long overdue
E. the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, in long overdue
Dear vabhs192003,
This is a great question. I'm happy to help. :-)

Split #1: "awarded" vs. "awarded with". The construction "awarded with" is idiomatically incorrect. We would just say Q was awarded the XYZ medal. (A) & (B) make this mistake and cannot be correct.

Split #2: idiom for recognition. The correct idiom here is "in recognition", not "for recognition". (B) & (D) make this mistake and cannot be correct.

That gets us down to (C) vs. (E), which is the hard part of this question. First, look at the way they both modify the name of the medal:
(C) the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, ...
(E) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, ...
Choice (E) uses an appositive phrase. For more on this, see:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... e-phrases/
This structure is very elegant and concise. By contrast, the "which" clause in (C) is a little longer. There's also a problem with verb tense. I realize the tense is the same as in the prompt, but the past tense makes it sound as if that medal WAS the nation's highest military award, but isn't anymore. Is this true? Was a new highest honor recently introduced to supersede this medal? Hmmm, this calls for outside knowledge, but it just seems unlikely that whatever the highest military honor was recently (in the 1990s) would be swapped out for something else. Not only is (C) longer and clunkier, but it also raises awkward questions about verb tense & implication that (E) sleekly avoids.
Both endings are acceptable ("long-overdue in recognition" vs. "in long-overdue recognition"), because we could reasonably say that either the medal or the recognition was overdue. The above discussion indicates why (E) is a superior answer, and the best answer here.

BTW: outside knowledge: the Congressional Medal of Honor is still the nation's highest military honor.

Does all this make sense?

Mike :-)

When i gave you a kudo, it's shown as 'awarded +1', not "awarded with +1'! :D :D


Thanks Mike!
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I am splitting the hair a bit here, but I don't think you can eliminate C based on "was", as many suggested here

I am from EU and have no knowledge of the honour system in the US, and probably many American won't. The sentence here is referring in past tense (50 years after WW2... were rewarded...), and the original option A also used was, so it is not suffice to assume the medal must be in present tense. Making prejudice based on general knowledge may trip you in other instances.

To me, I get down to C and E, and eliminated C because of the modifier at the end:
C implies the medal/award is long overdue.
E reads as in 'recognition of...' and the recognition is long overdue. = better
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pallavichsk
Could you please explain what's wrong with C? Is it just that it's wordy? Isn't the Which in C modifying Congressional Medal of Honor which is a noun?

Also in A isn't the Which modifying the Congressional Medal of Honor which is the closes noun?

Appreciate your help on this.


egmat
More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded―some of them posthumously―with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

Lets find the error in choice A. For this we need to understand the meaning of the sentence.

The sentence states the following:
    1: Second world war + 50 years later - many African American soldiers were awarded a great Medal
    2: This is called Congressional Medal of Honor
    3: This is the nations highest military award.
    4: This award was given to soldiers in long overdue recognition of their outstanding bravery.

Understanding the last point is the key to figuring out the grammatical error in choice A. What is the role of "long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery". The way it is written, it appears as though the Congressional Medal of Honor is long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery. This is not logical - how can a medal of honor be long overdue...The act of awarding that medal can be long overdue. That is the grammatical error - choice A uses "which modifier" to describe the action - awarded the medal. "Which modifier" can only be used for modifying nouns.

Hope this addresses your concern. The thing to keep in mind is - Always read the sentence and understand what the author is trying to communicate. (meaning analysis) Once you understand that, then you apply your knowledge of grammar and see if the author has used English language appropriately or not. (error analysis) Once you hone in on the errors, then you correct those errors. (answer choice analysis). The first step is always to understand the meaning. :) If you skip this step, then you are setting yourself up for failure (especially for medium to difficult level questions).

What is the source of this question?

Hello pallavichsk,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe that we can help resolve your doubts.

Option C alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "long-overdue in recognition..."; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the medals awarded to the soldiers were long-overdue because of the recognition of the soldiers' outstanding bravery; the intended meaning is that the medals awarded to the soldiers were long-overdue and were awarded because of the recognition of the soldiers' outstanding bravery. Further, Option C also incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb "was" to refer to an action that takes place in the current time frame -- the Congressional Medal of Honor being the country's highest military honor. Of course, picking up on this error requires a bit of outside knowledge, as one who is not familiar with military honors in the U.S.A may reasonably assume that this medal has been retired or some other has been introduced that supercedes it. However, we can still say that Option E is superior in this regard, as the modifying phrase "the nation’s highest military award" avoids this tense ambiguity and is more concise.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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GMATNinja egmat please help

I eliminated A & B on the basis of 'with'.
I did not know the idiomatic difference between 'in recognition' and 'with recognition', hence was stuck with C,D,E.

In C, it seemed as if 'long overdue in' modified 'Medal of Honor' incorrectly, hence eliminating option C. The medal was long overdue (illogical).

Option D & E, I got stuck.

Option D analysis- 'for long overdue' seems to modify the 'the nations...award'. this noun phrase modifies 'the medal of honour', therefore similar to option C, it seems as if the medal was long overdue.

Since 'medal of honour' modifies the verb 'were awarded', the PP phrase 'for long recognition' also modifies the verb were awarded. A verb modifier needs to be placed as close to the verb as possible. In this case, is is placed quite far away.

Based on this reasoning, I eliminated option D.

Please let me know if this reasoning is correct.

Option E analysis-
'in long recognition' modifies 'medal of honour' ,structurally, which modifies 'were awarded', hence this is correct.

'the nation's highest military award'- non essential noun modifier that can be removed.

Selected E.
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Vartikaa14
GMATNinja egmat please help

I eliminated A & B on the basis of 'with'.
I did not know the idiomatic difference between 'in recognition' and 'with recognition', hence was stuck with C,D,E.

In C, it seemed as if 'long overdue in' modified 'Medal of Honor' incorrectly, hence eliminating option C. The medal was long overdue (illogical).

Option D & E, I got stuck.

Option D analysis- 'for long overdue' seems to modify the 'the nations...award'. this noun phrase modifies 'the medal of honour', therefore similar to option C, it seems as if the medal was long overdue.

Since 'medal of honour' modifies the verb 'were awarded', the PP phrase 'for long recognition' also modifies the verb were awarded. A verb modifier needs to be placed as close to the verb as possible. In this case, is is placed quite far away.

Based on this reasoning, I eliminated option D.

Please let me know if this reasoning is correct.

Option E analysis-
'in long recognition' modifies 'medal of honour' ,structurally, which modifies 'were awarded', hence this is correct.

'the nation's highest military award'- non essential noun modifier that can be removed.

Selected E.

Hello Vartikaa14,

We hope this finds you well.

Your analysis is broadly correct, but there are a few salient points we would like to bring up.

Firstly, the most obvious error in Option C is that it incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb "was" to refer to information that is permanent in nature; please remember, information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.

Secondly, the phrase "in long-overdue recognition..." in Option E does not modify "Congressional Medal of Honor"; "in long-overdue recognition..." is an adverbial phrase that directly modifies the verb "awarded".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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