One legacy of Madison Avenue’s recent campaign to appeal to people fif

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to answering this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that legacy of Madison Avenue’s recent campaign to appeal to people fifty years old and over is the realization that people's concerns change in the process of the people aging.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Pronouns + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• "when" is used to refer to a point in time.

A: This answer choice incorrectly refer to the singular noun "a person" with the plural pronoun "their".

B: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the plural noun "people" with the plural pronoun "their". Further, Option B uses the phrase "as people age", conveying the intended meaning - that people's concerns change in the process of the people aging. Additionally, Option B is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

C: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "when a person ages"; the use of "when" incorrectly implies that people's concerns change at that point in time when the people age; the intended meaning is that people's concerns change in the process of the people aging; remember, "when" is used to refer to a point in time. Further, Option C uses the needlessly indirect phrase "to realize", leading to awkwardness. Moreover, Option C uses the needlessly wordy phrase "his or her", leading to redundancy and further awkwardness.

D: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "when people age"; the use of "when" incorrectly implies that people's concerns change at that point in time when the people age; the intended meaning is that people's concerns change in the process of the people aging; remember, "when" is used to refer to a point in time. Further, Option D uses the needlessly indirect phrase "to realize", leading to awkwardness.

E: This answer choice uses the needlessly indirect construction "realizing", leading to awkwardness.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

This is parallelism. The sentence construction should be One legacy....to appeal...is to realize.

Therefore you only need to chose between C and D. Since the non underlined portion used people which is plural, use plural for the underlined one as well. Therefore, D is the answer here.

Gmatblackbelt,

Can you please explain a little more on why we are comparing noun to noun in this question...Can you tell me which part of the sentence made you realize that we are comparing nouns...

I choose D for llism (to appeal vs. to realize), and now I understand I was wrong, but isn't "to realize" an infinitive that act as a noun here as well...

thanks in advance

you can also refer one more related post:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/one-more-form-of-parallelism-146039.html

Actually "to realize" (infinitive) is acting as a "noun" here. Perhaps following correct example would be easy to associate with:

His intention is to succeed.

In fact, the case with "realizing" is also not as simple, because there are quite a few sentences in OG where "-ing" form of the verb ("realizing" in this case) acts as a noun ("-ing" form of the verb that act as Nouns are called "Gerunds").

A. Error: Pronoun "their" (plural) refers to subject "a person" (singular). These two must agree in number
B. CORRECT: "legacy" + noun (ei. "realization"); "their" (pronoun) agrees in number with "people" (multiple)
C. Error: "legacy" + to verb form; (legacy is a reference to something)
D. Error: "legacy" + to verb form; (legacy is a reference to something)
E. Error: "realizing" has a noun form "realization", which is the better use

removing the Extra words from the sentences.

B. One legacy of Madison Avenue's recent campaign to appeal to people fifty years old and over is the realization that as people age, their concerns change as well.


E. One legacy of Madison Avenue's recent campaign to appeal to people fifty years old and over is realizing that as people age, their concerns change as well.

E is changing the meaning. legacy can't realize.

Hence i choose B.

I feel by a verb realizing is better than realization
Why is E not correct ?

A concrete noun, when available, is preferred to a gerund.

One Legacy... is (to realize / the realization / realizing) ... (person / people), their / his or her concerns change as well.
----------------------Verb-------------Noun-----------gerund(N)---------Sin------Plu--------Plu----Sing----------------------------------
One quality is to be able to learn. (Quality is a noun, not a verb)
One quality is the ability to learn. (Ability is a noun, which can denote a quality)
One quality is learning. (quality doesn't learn)

Hi GMATNinja / daagh,

Can someone please explain this question a bit more clearly?

Hi Teja

Let me try to address your query.

One legacy of Madison Avenue's recent campaign to appeal to people fifty years old and over is the realization that as a person ages, their concerns change as well.

A. the realization that as a person ages, their The problem here is with the usage of "their". The sentence is talking about "a person" ageing ie; a singular noun. So the pronoun must also be in singular form. Eliminate.

B. the realization that as people age, their This seems perfect. The pronoun "their" refers to a plural noun "people. Correct answer.

C. to realize that when a person ages, his or her The first idea here, "to realize" is a verb. This refers back to "legacy...is" earlier in the sentence. A noun cannot be a verb - we must have the noun form of "realize" ie; "realization. Eliminate.

D. to realize that when people age, their Same error as (C). Eliminate.

E. realizing that as people age, their Same error as (C) and (D). Instead of "to realize", this option uses "realizing", which is still a verb form and hence cannot be the "legacy". Eliminate.

Hope this helps.

I think that "to realize" acts as a noun (infinite verb), but the "when" in C & D breaks the deal. A has S-V error.
B seems more appropriate than E (aw..kward is a much used word here!?)

Hi puneetb,

In option E, realizing is not as good a fit (parallelism) for one legacy as the realization is.

It's not clear from the explanations why C is wrong.

I can somewhat understand than "to appeal..and over" are inherently not parallel and the "and over" part is not underlined so there's nothing we can do to change it.
But what is "the realization" parallel to exactly?

This doesn't even seem like a parallelism problem tbh. In fact, it's the attempt to make the sentence parallel that throws you to the wrong answer.

Hi fireagablast,

We can look at the correct option like this:
One legacy of Madison Avenue’s recent campaign to appeal to people fifty years old and over is the realization that as people age, their concerns change as well.

The realization is a better fit here (for legacy) than to realize.

There are a couple of other problems in C: (a) his or her for a person is a little longer than their for people and (b) when is wrong. When a person ages seems to suggest that aging is ~a separate event. What we want is something that tells us aging is ~a continuous process.

I am not convinced why D is incorrect. Lat's take an example: "My purpose is to get to Harvard." Is this sentence somehow flawed? Should it be "My purpose is getting to Harvard."? and If yes, than what rule is it and where can I learn about this. I would be glad if you could indicate the topic.