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505-555 Level|   Verb Tense/Form|                     
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 16 Mar 2021, 03:29
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egmat
thangvietnam
WHY e IS WRONG?
why E is considered the distorted meaning

E meann "the plans are to cut" , "the plans must cut in the future"

E is both grammatical and logic but

USING COMMON SENSE, we see that D is intended meaning.

second reason why E is wrong is that D is closer to the meaning of the original sentence than E.

there are 2 ways to realize the distored meaning:
1. is the meaing is further from the meaing of the original sentence
2. using common sense.

pls comment, is my thinking correct?

E is worth discussing carefully . pls remember, this is og question.

Hi thangvietnam,

e-gmat team wishes you a very Happy New Year.

Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to health, the chief executive's plans were announced on Wednesday for cutting the company's huge debt by selling nearlv 512 billion in assets over the next 18 months.

E. executive announced plans Wednesday that are to cut the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12billion in assets over the next 18 months: Incorrect. This choice is grammatically incorrect because relative pronoun “that” illogically refers to the preceding noun “Wednesday”. Remember that “Wednesday” actually stands in the sentence as “on Wednesday”. This understood prepositional phrase modifies the verb “announced” and not the noun “plans”. This understood prepositional phrase can be placed somewhere else in the sentence without distorting the intended meaning of this sentence.

To learn when a noun modifier can refer to a far-away noun and when it cannot, click on the following link to read this detailed article:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/noun-modifier ... 35868.html

Your analysis of distorted meaning is correct. The intended meaning of the sentence may be distorted by suggesting some other meaning or by violating the common knowledge through the answer choices.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
Show more


dear egmat,
I completely agree and understand why D is the correct answer choice and why E is wrong.

E. executive announced plans Wednesday that are to cut the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12billion in assets over the next 18 months

could you please help me to clarify about "that", here in E "that" cannot jump over Wednesday and modify "plans"??? As Wednesday cannot be placed anywhere in the sentence without distorting its meanign.

thank you in advance!
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 12 Apr 2021, 10:31
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GKomoku
could you please help me to clarify about "that", here in E "that" cannot jump over Wednesday and modify "plans"???
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Hi GKomoku, that is correctly modifying plans in E. In fact, there are numerous officially correct sentences in GMAT, wherein "that" jumps over the immediate preceding nouns.

The problem with E is that the meaning is slightly off, since it suggests that the plans are to cut the company's huge debt; a more logical (intended) meaning is that chief executive wants to cut the company's huge debt and for that purpose, she announced plans.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses modifier issue of "that", their application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 13 Jun 2021, 01:08
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egmat
Hi pleaman,

e-gmat team wishes you a very Happy New Year.
Not using a preposition such as "on" before the name of the days is a very American style of writing. You can read the online publications of The Wall Street journal or The New York Times to find this common usage.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
Show more


This is like saying, " Hey ! I forget to tie my shoe lace ,its very common. It's the right thing to do.

Also D coveys - X Plans wednesday to do Y.
When did a weekday start doing stuff? Yes ! Saturday Night gives me Party Vibes , but Wednesday ?

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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 26 Jun 2021, 19:33
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egmat
Hi there,

Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to health, the chief executive's plans were announced on Wednesday for cutting the company's huge debt by selling nearly 512 billion in assets over the next 18 months.

We certainly have modifier issue in this sentence. The opening verb-ing modifier “outlining…” is in the non-underlined portion of the sentence. Now this modifier denotes some action. It denotes the action of someone outlining “his” strategy for something. Hence, it needs a doer. The context of the sentence clearly tells us that it was the chief executive who outlined his plans by announcing.

Let’s take a simple example here:

1. Riding a bicycle, Joe crossed the bridge.

The opening modifier “riding” denotes an action. It needs a doer for that action. Hence, this modifier associates with the subject of the following clause “Joe”. This makes perfect sense because Joe rode the bicycle and that’s how he crossed the bridge. Here the verb-ing modifier “riding” makes sense with the subject “Joe”. Also notice that here the opening modifier is modifying the entire following clause and not just the subject “Joe”.

2. Presenting detail of his project, Joe’s plans were announced to start the production within thirty days.

Now in this sentence, you might argue “Joe’s plan”, the subject, can very well be associated with “presenting” as plans can present details. OK. However, “presenting” needs doer and “Joe’s plan” cannot be a doer because someone else announced the plan. Also notice that the opening modifier is not only modifying the subject of the main clause. It is modifying the entire main clause. It is talking about the detail that was presented, that is the production date. Hence the above mentioned sentence is incorrect.

The official question suffers from the same flaw. The opening modifier needs a doer and “chief executive’s plans” cannot be that doer. Also the opening modifier should modify the entire main clause because the main clause talks about the strategy outlined by the executive.

Now let’s come to the example that you have cited:

So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry, and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt recruited Perkins to work within the government, rather than as a social worker.

Here the sentence structure is very different from the “chief executive’s plan” sentence. Here we have an opening dependent clause that is the cause followed by the main clause that is the effect. The correct answer follows the construction of “so X that Y”. This construction correctly and clearly presents the cause-effect relationship between the two clauses.

In the question at hand, this is not the scenario. Here we have an opening verb-ing modifier that needs a doer as well as it must modify the following clause as well. Hence, choice D is the correct answer.

PS: To know in detail about the function of the verb-ing modifier when it appears in the ebginning of the sentence, view more examples, and practise quiz, log on to e-gmat.com, register for free and go thorugh the concept "Modifiers - Verb-ing" listed in the preview level concepts that are free.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
Show more

egmat Hi Shraddha. How is "plans Wednesday" in (D) correct? Don't we need a preposition between plans and Wednesday?
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 26 Jun 2021, 20:43
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adityaganjoo
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Hi there,

Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to health, the chief executive's plans were announced on Wednesday for cutting the company's huge debt by selling nearly 512 billion in assets over the next 18 months.

We certainly have modifier issue in this sentence. The opening verb-ing modifier “outlining…” is in the non-underlined portion of the sentence. Now this modifier denotes some action. It denotes the action of someone outlining “his” strategy for something. Hence, it needs a doer. The context of the sentence clearly tells us that it was the chief executive who outlined his plans by announcing.

Let’s take a simple example here:

1. Riding a bicycle, Joe crossed the bridge.

The opening modifier “riding” denotes an action. It needs a doer for that action. Hence, this modifier associates with the subject of the following clause “Joe”. This makes perfect sense because Joe rode the bicycle and that’s how he crossed the bridge. Here the verb-ing modifier “riding” makes sense with the subject “Joe”. Also notice that here the opening modifier is modifying the entire following clause and not just the subject “Joe”.

2. Presenting detail of his project, Joe’s plans were announced to start the production within thirty days.

Now in this sentence, you might argue “Joe’s plan”, the subject, can very well be associated with “presenting” as plans can present details. OK. However, “presenting” needs doer and “Joe’s plan” cannot be a doer because someone else announced the plan. Also notice that the opening modifier is not only modifying the subject of the main clause. It is modifying the entire main clause. It is talking about the detail that was presented, that is the production date. Hence the above mentioned sentence is incorrect.

The official question suffers from the same flaw. The opening modifier needs a doer and “chief executive’s plans” cannot be that doer. Also the opening modifier should modify the entire main clause because the main clause talks about the strategy outlined by the executive.

Now let’s come to the example that you have cited:

So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry, and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt recruited Perkins to work within the government, rather than as a social worker.

Here the sentence structure is very different from the “chief executive’s plan” sentence. Here we have an opening dependent clause that is the cause followed by the main clause that is the effect. The correct answer follows the construction of “so X that Y”. This construction correctly and clearly presents the cause-effect relationship between the two clauses.

In the question at hand, this is not the scenario. Here we have an opening verb-ing modifier that needs a doer as well as it must modify the following clause as well. Hence, choice D is the correct answer.

PS: To know in detail about the function of the verb-ing modifier when it appears in the ebginning of the sentence, view more examples, and practise quiz, log on to e-gmat.com, register for free and go thorugh the concept "Modifiers - Verb-ing" listed in the preview level concepts that are free.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

egmat Hi Shraddha. How is "plans Wednesday" in (D) correct? Don't we need a preposition between plans and Wednesday?
Show more

adityaganjoo, as other members and experts have pointed out already, announced plans Wednesday is just a stylistic way of writing that is quite common in American english. Best suggestion would be to just remember this. :)
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 26 Jun 2021, 20:52
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adityaganjoo
egmat
Hi there,

Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to health, the chief executive's plans were announced on Wednesday for cutting the company's huge debt by selling nearly 512 billion in assets over the next 18 months.

We certainly have modifier issue in this sentence. The opening verb-ing modifier “outlining…” is in the non-underlined portion of the sentence. Now this modifier denotes some action. It denotes the action of someone outlining “his” strategy for something. Hence, it needs a doer. The context of the sentence clearly tells us that it was the chief executive who outlined his plans by announcing.

Let’s take a simple example here:

1. Riding a bicycle, Joe crossed the bridge.

The opening modifier “riding” denotes an action. It needs a doer for that action. Hence, this modifier associates with the subject of the following clause “Joe”. This makes perfect sense because Joe rode the bicycle and that’s how he crossed the bridge. Here the verb-ing modifier “riding” makes sense with the subject “Joe”. Also notice that here the opening modifier is modifying the entire following clause and not just the subject “Joe”.

2. Presenting detail of his project, Joe’s plans were announced to start the production within thirty days.

Now in this sentence, you might argue “Joe’s plan”, the subject, can very well be associated with “presenting” as plans can present details. OK. However, “presenting” needs doer and “Joe’s plan” cannot be a doer because someone else announced the plan. Also notice that the opening modifier is not only modifying the subject of the main clause. It is modifying the entire main clause. It is talking about the detail that was presented, that is the production date. Hence the above mentioned sentence is incorrect.

The official question suffers from the same flaw. The opening modifier needs a doer and “chief executive’s plans” cannot be that doer. Also the opening modifier should modify the entire main clause because the main clause talks about the strategy outlined by the executive.

Now let’s come to the example that you have cited:

So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry, and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt recruited Perkins to work within the government, rather than as a social worker.

Here the sentence structure is very different from the “chief executive’s plan” sentence. Here we have an opening dependent clause that is the cause followed by the main clause that is the effect. The correct answer follows the construction of “so X that Y”. This construction correctly and clearly presents the cause-effect relationship between the two clauses.

In the question at hand, this is not the scenario. Here we have an opening verb-ing modifier that needs a doer as well as it must modify the following clause as well. Hence, choice D is the correct answer.

PS: To know in detail about the function of the verb-ing modifier when it appears in the ebginning of the sentence, view more examples, and practise quiz, log on to e-gmat.com, register for free and go thorugh the concept "Modifiers - Verb-ing" listed in the preview level concepts that are free.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

egmat Hi Shraddha. How is "plans Wednesday" in (D) correct? Don't we need a preposition between plans and Wednesday?

adityaganjoo, as other members and experts have pointed out already, announced plans Wednesday is just a stylistic way of writing that is quite common in American english. Best suggestion would be to just remember this. :)
Show more

Brian123 Thanks! It would be a great help if you could provide some examples of this kind of usage. This style of writing would looks like an easy elimination!
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 26 Jun 2021, 21:21
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adityaganjoo
Brian123
egmat
Hi there,

Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to health, the chief executive's plans were announced on Wednesday for cutting the company's huge debt by selling nearly 512 billion in assets over the next 18 months.

We certainly have modifier issue in this sentence. The opening verb-ing modifier “outlining…” is in the non-underlined portion of the sentence. Now this modifier denotes some action. It denotes the action of someone outlining “his” strategy for something. Hence, it needs a doer. The context of the sentence clearly tells us that it was the chief executive who outlined his plans by announcing.

Let’s take a simple example here:

1. Riding a bicycle, Joe crossed the bridge.

The opening modifier “riding” denotes an action. It needs a doer for that action. Hence, this modifier associates with the subject of the following clause “Joe”. This makes perfect sense because Joe rode the bicycle and that’s how he crossed the bridge. Here the verb-ing modifier “riding” makes sense with the subject “Joe”. Also notice that here the opening modifier is modifying the entire following clause and not just the subject “Joe”.

2. Presenting detail of his project, Joe’s plans were announced to start the production within thirty days.

Now in this sentence, you might argue “Joe’s plan”, the subject, can very well be associated with “presenting” as plans can present details. OK. However, “presenting” needs doer and “Joe’s plan” cannot be a doer because someone else announced the plan. Also notice that the opening modifier is not only modifying the subject of the main clause. It is modifying the entire main clause. It is talking about the detail that was presented, that is the production date. Hence the above mentioned sentence is incorrect.

The official question suffers from the same flaw. The opening modifier needs a doer and “chief executive’s plans” cannot be that doer. Also the opening modifier should modify the entire main clause because the main clause talks about the strategy outlined by the executive.

Now let’s come to the example that you have cited:

So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry, and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt recruited Perkins to work within the government, rather than as a social worker.

Here the sentence structure is very different from the “chief executive’s plan” sentence. Here we have an opening dependent clause that is the cause followed by the main clause that is the effect. The correct answer follows the construction of “so X that Y”. This construction correctly and clearly presents the cause-effect relationship between the two clauses.

In the question at hand, this is not the scenario. Here we have an opening verb-ing modifier that needs a doer as well as it must modify the following clause as well. Hence, choice D is the correct answer.

PS: To know in detail about the function of the verb-ing modifier when it appears in the ebginning of the sentence, view more examples, and practise quiz, log on to e-gmat.com, register for free and go thorugh the concept "Modifiers - Verb-ing" listed in the preview level concepts that are free.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

egmat Hi Shraddha. How is "plans Wednesday" in (D) correct? Don't we need a preposition between plans and Wednesday?

adityaganjoo, as other members and experts have pointed out already, announced plans Wednesday is just a stylistic way of writing that is quite common in American english. Best suggestion would be to just remember this. :)

Brian123 Thanks! It would be a great help if you could provide some examples of this kind of usage. This style of writing would looks like an easy elimination!
Show more

adityaganjoo, I think an official question would have other options with more serious flaws (the other options in this question have clear cut errors), but then again if you think a preposition is missing, you might see that as an error so I get your point about stylistic writing. :|

Off the top of my head, I can't think of a lot of phrases that break the conventional grammar "rules" except these 2 (I'm pretty sure the poetic realm of English has plenty of weird phrases/constructions)
1. I came, I saw, I conquered - This construction lacks the word and
2. ... government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth - same style as the above example

^I'm not sure if these 2 would ever show up on the GMAT and I'm not even sure if these would be accepted if they do show up (I think they would be accepted, but I'm no expert). :)
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 26 Jun 2021, 21:48
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Quote:


Off the top of my head, I can't think of a lot of phrases that break the conventional grammar "rules" except these 2 (I'm pretty sure the poetic realm of English has plenty of weird phrases/constructions)
1. I came, I saw, I conquered - This construction lacks the word and
2. ... government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth - same style as the above example

^I'm not sure if these 2 would ever show up on the GMAT and I'm not even sure if these would be accepted if they do show up (I think they would be accepted, but I'm no expert). :)
Show more
[/quote]
Two questions:
1. Should we consider poetic constructions here? Poets tend to overlook clarity and grammar in order to impart the impact in their writings
2. How is the example number 2 in the same style?
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 26 Jun 2021, 21:52
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adityaganjoo
Quote:


Off the top of my head, I can't think of a lot of phrases that break the conventional grammar "rules" except these 2 (I'm pretty sure the poetic realm of English has plenty of weird phrases/constructions)
1. I came, I saw, I conquered - This construction lacks the word and
2. ... government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth - same style as the above example

^I'm not sure if these 2 would ever show up on the GMAT and I'm not even sure if these would be accepted if they do show up (I think they would be accepted, but I'm no expert). :)
Show more
Two questions:
1. Should we consider poetic constructions here? Poets tend to overlook clarity and grammar in order to impart the impact in their writings - I really cannot answer this. I'm just brainstorming and learning as I post these responses. Any expert should be able to help you this.
2. How is the example number 2 in the same style?[/quote] - Sorry, I should've been clearer with this. I meant that example 2 is in the same style as example 1 (Missing an and at the end of the list)
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 26 Jun 2021, 22:13
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hD13
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Hi pleaman,

e-gmat team wishes you a very Happy New Year.
Not using a preposition such as "on" before the name of the days is a very American style of writing. You can read the online publications of The Wall Street journal or The New York Times to find this common usage.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha


This is like saying, " Hey ! I forget to tie my shoe lace ,its very common. It's the right thing to do.

Also D coveys - X Plans wednesday to do Y.
When did a weekday start doing stuff? Yes ! Saturday Night gives me Party Vibes , but Wednesday ?

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Stylistic usage such as this one is annoying especially for a Non native speaker

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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 01 Jul 2021, 08:24
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GKomoku
egmat
thangvietnam
WHY e IS WRONG?
why E is considered the distorted meaning

E meann "the plans are to cut" , "the plans must cut in the future"

E is both grammatical and logic but

USING COMMON SENSE, we see that D is intended meaning.

second reason why E is wrong is that D is closer to the meaning of the original sentence than E.

there are 2 ways to realize the distored meaning:
1. is the meaing is further from the meaing of the original sentence
2. using common sense.

pls comment, is my thinking correct?

E is worth discussing carefully . pls remember, this is og question.

Hi thangvietnam,

e-gmat team wishes you a very Happy New Year.

Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to health, the chief executive's plans were announced on Wednesday for cutting the company's huge debt by selling nearlv 512 billion in assets over the next 18 months.

E. executive announced plans Wednesday that are to cut the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12billion in assets over the next 18 months: Incorrect. This choice is grammatically incorrect because relative pronoun “that” illogically refers to the preceding noun “Wednesday”. Remember that “Wednesday” actually stands in the sentence as “on Wednesday”. This understood prepositional phrase modifies the verb “announced” and not the noun “plans”. This understood prepositional phrase can be placed somewhere else in the sentence without distorting the intended meaning of this sentence.

To learn when a noun modifier can refer to a far-away noun and when it cannot, click on the following link to read this detailed article:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/noun-modifier ... 35868.html

Your analysis of distorted meaning is correct. The intended meaning of the sentence may be distorted by suggesting some other meaning or by violating the common knowledge through the answer choices.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha


dear egmat,
I completely agree and understand why D is the correct answer choice and why E is wrong.

E. executive announced plans Wednesday that are to cut the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12billion in assets over the next 18 months

could you please help me to clarify about "that", here in E "that" cannot jump over Wednesday and modify "plans"??? As Wednesday cannot be placed anywhere in the sentence without distorting its meanign.

thank you in advance!
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Hi GKomoku. I hope I am not too late to answer.
As far as the usage of that is concerned in the option, 'that' cannot logically refer to Wednesday because 'that' is followed by are and therefore, should refer to a plural subject. However, I eliminated E for a different reason as stated below. I hope you find it useful.
Some sentences use construction of 'be to' to indicate obligation or future time.See example below:
We are to receive a call. However, GMAT considers this type of a construction wrong.
You can correct the sentence depending on the intended meaning as below:
We will receive a call. (Future Time)
OR
We should receive a call. (Obligation)
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 23 Jul 2021, 05:12
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GMATNinja Can u please explain this one. A plan can outline one's strategy of action, so why is this opening modifier incorrect. Also the chief executive plans were announced on wed as per the meaning and this meaning is completely missing in D. Why is C not correct?

Gagan
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 24 Jul 2021, 16:55
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gagan0303
GMATNinja Can u please explain this one. A plan can outline one's strategy of action, so why is this opening modifier incorrect. Also the chief executive plans were announced on wed as per the meaning and this meaning is completely missing in D. Why is C not correct?

Gagan
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we need a doer of action
action: Outlining his strategy
who/what can outline strategy?
outline: Describe roughly or briefly or give the main points or summary of
how can a plan give main points? we need some body to give /write summary
hence A,B and C are out of windows.

A is passive. D is active. that's another reason to choose D over E( it's not a strict rule but a prefered choice to consider ). In this case as A is already out so I would use my energy to choose D or E.

Finally D wins over E.
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 27 Aug 2021, 14:03
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mSKR
gagan0303
GMATNinja Can u please explain this one. A plan can outline one's strategy of action, so why is this opening modifier incorrect. Also the chief executive plans were announced on wed as per the meaning and this meaning is completely missing in D. Why is C not correct?

Gagan


we need a doer of action
action: Outlining his strategy
who/what can outline strategy?
outline: Describe roughly or briefly or give the main points or summary of
how can a plan give main points? we need some body to give /write summary
hence A,B and C are out of windows.

A is passive. D is active. that's another reason to choose D over E( it's not a strict rule but a prefered choice to consider ). In this case as A is already out so I would use my energy to choose D or E.

Finally D wins over E.
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Thanks mSKR for your help with this one! Here are some additional thoughts along the same lines.

To start, think about the meaning in the correct choice, (D):

  • (D) clearly indicates that the plans involve cutting the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12 billion in assets over the next 18 months.
  • Notice that the opening modifier ("Outlining...") doesn't modify the plans themselves. Instead, it modifies the executive and his action (announcing the plans).
  • This makes sense because the plans themselves do not outline the executive's strategy -- the executive has an overall strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to health, and part of that strategy is the specific plan to cut the company's huge debt.
  • So (D) conveys the following meaning: we have an executive outlining his strategy, and in the process of outlining his strategy, the exec announced some specific plans.

In (C), the meaning is different:

  • The plans still involve cutting the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12 billion in assets over the next 18 months. But do those plans ALSO outline his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to health?
  • A specific plan to sell nearly $12 billion in assets over the next 18 months doesn't seem like something that also provides an overall strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to health.
  • Is it possible that the plans to cut the debt also include the overall strategy? I suppose, but the meaning makes more sense in (D).

Also, notice that in (D), it's very clear that the opening modifier describes the executive and his action (announcing the plans). In (C), does the opening modifier describe the plans themselves? Or the announcement of those plans? And who actually announced these plans?

(C) introduces ambiguities that (D) avoids, and that makes (D) a better choice. Also, (D) does in fact mention that the plans were announced Wednesday, so I don't think that's a concern.

I hope that helps!
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 24 Sep 2021, 02:59
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Hi there,

Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to health, the chief executive's plans were announced on Wednesday for cutting the company's huge debt by selling nearly 512 billion in assets over the next 18 months.

We certainly have modifier issue in this sentence. The opening verb-ing modifier “outlining…” is in the non-underlined portion of the sentence. Now this modifier denotes some action. It denotes the action of someone outlining “his” strategy for something. Hence, it needs a doer. The context of the sentence clearly tells us that it was the chief executive who outlined his plans by announcing.

Let’s take a simple example here:

1. Riding a bicycle, Joe crossed the bridge.

The opening modifier “riding” denotes an action. It needs a doer for that action. Hence, this modifier associates with the subject of the following clause “Joe”. This makes perfect sense because Joe rode the bicycle and that’s how he crossed the bridge. Here the verb-ing modifier “riding” makes sense with the subject “Joe”. Also notice that here the opening modifier is modifying the entire following clause and not just the subject “Joe”.

2. Presenting detail of his project, Joe’s plans were announced to start the production within thirty days.

Now in this sentence, you might argue “Joe’s plan”, the subject, can very well be associated with “presenting” as plans can present details. OK. However, “presenting” needs doer and “Joe’s plan” cannot be a doer because someone else announced the plan. Also notice that the opening modifier is not only modifying the subject of the main clause. It is modifying the entire main clause. It is talking about the detail that was presented, that is the production date. Hence the above mentioned sentence is incorrect.

The official question suffers from the same flaw. The opening modifier needs a doer and “chief executive’s plans” cannot be that doer. Also the opening modifier should modify the entire main clause because the main clause talks about the strategy outlined by the executive.

Now let’s come to the example that you have cited:

So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry, and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt recruited Perkins to work within the government, rather than as a social worker.

Here the sentence structure is very different from the “chief executive’s plan” sentence. Here we have an opening dependent clause that is the cause followed by the main clause that is the effect. The correct answer follows the construction of “so X that Y”. This construction correctly and clearly presents the cause-effect relationship between the two clauses.

In the question at hand, this is not the scenario. Here we have an opening verb-ing modifier that needs a doer as well as it must modify the following clause as well. Hence, choice D is the correct answer.

PS: To know in detail about the function of the verb-ing modifier when it appears in the ebginning of the sentence, view more examples, and practise quiz, log on to e-gmat.com, register for free and go thorugh the concept "Modifiers - Verb-ing" listed in the preview level concepts that are free.

Hope this helps.
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Shraddha
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Hey great explanation as always. just wanted to check when is it ok to drop the preposition. For instance Option d the OA says announced plans Wednesday, is that allowed and if so in what circumstances. Is there a rule about this? egmat looking forward to hear from you. Thanks
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 27 Sep 2021, 12:21
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Hi Experts,
VeritasKarishma GMATNinja

(E) executive announced plans Wednesday that are to cut the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12 billion in assets over the next 18 months
Why "are to cut" is incorrect in E? Can you please help to understand the meaning difference in D and E.
I think "That are to cut" presents more details about the plans.
We generally use sentence like - "The plan is to do X" or The plan is to do long-term projects, uncovering misdeeds in government, business and organizations.
So why "the plans are to cut the debt" is incorrect?

Thanks!
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 29 Sep 2021, 12:22
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Sneha2021
Hi Experts,
VeritasKarishma GMATNinja

(E) executive announced plans Wednesday that are to cut the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12 billion in assets over the next 18 months
Why "are to cut" is incorrect in E? Can you please help to understand the meaning difference in D and E.
I think "That are to cut" presents more details about the plans.
We generally use sentence like - "The plan is to do X" or The plan is to do long-term projects, uncovering misdeeds in government, business and organizations.
So why "the plans are to cut the debt" is incorrect?

Thanks!
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E is incorrect because 'are to cut' simply isn't necessary to get the point across.

For example: Amazon has announced plans to build a solar farm in Mississippi.

We don't need to add extra verbiage here -- I think it's just one of those things that you just have to remember.
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 29 Sep 2021, 13:40
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to health, the chief executive's plans were announced on Wednesday for cutting the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12 billion in assets over the next 18 months.

(A) executive's plans were announced on Wednesday for cutting the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12billion in assets over the next 18 months

(B) executive's plans, which are to cut the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12 billion in assets over the next 18 months were announced on Wednesday

(C) executive's plans for cutting the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12 billion in assets over the next 18 months were announced on Wednesday

(D) executive announced plans Wednesday to cut the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12 billion in assets over the next 18 months

(E) executive announced plans Wednesday that are to cut the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12 billion in assets over the next 18 months
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Sneha2021 Basshead

E isn't just too wordy; it's actually incorrect. When we refer to a plan/idea to do something, we should apply the infinitive directly to the noun. With verbs the usage depends on the specific verb but also on the nature of the action described. A few examples:

Noun forms (each noun is followed by an infinitive describing what we want to do):

We made plans to visit Japan next year.
I had the idea to collect all the specimens on the same day.
She has a dream to visit all the countries in the world.
They have a strong preference to see the house this week.
I must respect my sister's desire to arrive early.

Verb forms:

We plan to visit Japan next year.
(No verb for "idea," but we could say "I thought to collect . . . ")
She dreams of visiting all the countries in the world. / She dreams that she will visit all the countries in the world one day.
They prefer to see the house this week. / They prefer that the deal remain secret. (This second one is in the command subjunctive.)
My sister desires to arrive early.

We are using the noun form. so we don't even have to think about those variations. D is correct: "plans to cut." Getting back to E, we don't want to say "plans that are to cut." Since we've seen that the normal way to express this is "plans to cut," when we add "that are," we imply that we have a different meaning in mind. In that case, the sentence could mean that the plans will actually do the cutting ("My plans will cut 2 hours off your travel time."). We don't want to push the reader toward that interpretation.
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 02 Oct 2021, 06:35
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Why D option is the correct one.

The thing that bothers me is " Executive announced plans Wednesday".
By reading, it gives meaning as "Executive is announcing a plan named "Wednesday", instead of announcing a plan on a specific day (Wednesday).

Can someone explain?
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Outlining his strategy for nursing the troubled conglomerate back to 02 Oct 2021, 08:40
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Sneha2021
Hi Experts,
VeritasKarishma GMATNinja

(E) executive announced plans Wednesday that are to cut the company's huge debt by selling nearly $12 billion in assets over the next 18 months
Why "are to cut" is incorrect in E? Can you please help to understand the meaning difference in D and E.
I think "That are to cut" presents more details about the plans.
We generally use sentence like - "The plan is to do X" or The plan is to do long-term projects, uncovering misdeeds in government, business and organizations.
So why "the plans are to cut the debt" is incorrect?

Thanks!
Show more
I agree what DmitryFarber wrote in this post:

  • (E) "... the chief executive announced plans {...} that are to cut the company's huge debt by selling..." - This makes it sound as though the plans themselves are going to do the cutting and the selling -- as if the plans are going to sell "nearly $12 billion in assets over the next 18 months" in order to cut the debt. That doesn't make any sense.
  • (D) "... the chief executive announced plans {...} to cut the company's huge debt by selling..." - This makes the logical meaning more clear. What are we planning to do? We're planning to cut the debt. How are we going to do that? By selling nearly $12 billion in assets. This sentence does NOT imply that the plans themselves will be actively doing any cutting or selling.

Given the context, (D) makes more sense. For more on (D), check out this post.
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