Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if

Can we reject A, C, D on the basis of incorrect usage of if, then conditional verb?
I mean, don't we have to have a then clause for every "if" clause?

In this sentence, it is written as
"especially if it has worked well". There is no "then clause" after it.

Please advise on this point.

Hello Harshani,

I would be glad to help you with this query.

We need a then clause with an if clause when the intended meaning is to say If A happens, then B happens.

However, the context of this sentence is slightly different from what I have mentioned above.

In a way the main clause acts as the then clause for the if clause mentioned in this official sentence. Simple put, the sentence says that if a course of action has worked well for someone in the past, then heavy commitment towards the same makes the person miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.

Hence, there is no error in the usage of if clause in Choices A, C, and D.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Hi Experts,

Could you please point out my gap in understanding the following statement :

E. Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.

I think there is SV error with

'an executive' ... miss and
'an executive' ... misinterpret

Could you please explain.

A small pamphlet on the correct use of 'being'

Typically usage of "being" makes the answer choice wordy and awkward. Nevertheless, it has been deprecated so much as if it is an untouchable word. However, there are two perfectly correct usages of this word. Being cognizant of these usages is important. Moreover, make sure you do not blindly eliminate an answer choice just because you see the word "being" in it.

Correct Usage 1 - When Being is used as part of a noun phrase or as a substantive phrase. For example
Being disrespectful to elders is not an acceptable behavior. Remember this noun phrase containing the gerund 'being' will always be accompanied by verb after it. If you don't see a verb, then 'being' wouldn’t be a correct usage.
Notice the noun phrase acting as the subject here - being disrespectful to her elders

Correct Usage 2 - When passive continuous verb tense is required to communicate the meaning. For example:
The residents of this 100-year old apartment complex are being evacuated because of structural instability of the building.
Notice the verb tense here - are being evacuated-present continuous written in passive voice. If you don't see the helping verb - anything such as is, are, was, were will be. would be , and so on-, before being, then be sure ' being is not being used properly.

Correct use of being --- some Official examples

1. Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.

A. Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
B. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that worked well in the past, makes missing signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting ones likely when they do appear.
C. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action is likely to miss or misinterpret signs of incipient trouble when they do appear, especially if it has worked well in the past.
D. Executives’ being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear.
E. Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear. Ans E

2. Simply because they are genetically engineered does not make it anymore likely for plants to become an invasive or persistent weed, according to a decade-long study published in the journal Nature.

A. because they are genetically engineered does not make it any more likely for plants to
B. because it is genetically engineered does not make a plant any more likely to
C. being genetically engineered does not make it any more likely that plants will
D. being genetically engineered does not make a plant any more likely to
E. being genetically engineered does not make a plant anymore likely that it will become D

3. According to one expert, the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs are being bred for looks or to meet other narrow criteria as that the breeds have relatively few founding members.

(A) the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs are being bred for looks or to meet other narrow criteria
(B) the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not as much their being bred for looks or meeting other narrow criteria as much
(C) it is not so much the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog that they are being bred for looks or meeting other narrow criteria as much
(D) it is not so much that the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is their being bred for looks or meeting other narrow criteria so much
(E) it is not so much the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog to be bred for looks or to meet other narrow criteria Ans B

4. A year advantage in a new computer product or process being introduced can give a company a significant edge on its competitors.
a. A year advantage in a new computer product or process being introduced
b. Introducing a new computer product or process by a year earlier
c. A year's advantage to introduce a new computer product or process
d. To introduce a new computer product or process by a year earlier
e. Being a year ahead in introducing a new computer product or process Ans. E


5. The artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir's last word was "flowers," spoken as a bouquet consisting of roses just picked from his garden were arranged in a vase on his bedroom windowsill.

a. as a bouquet consisting of roses just picked from his garden were arranged
b. as a bouquet of roses, just picked from his garden, were arranged
c. as a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden was being arranged...
d.during the arrangement of a bouquet of roses, just picked from his garden
e. while they arranged a bouquet of roses that had just been picked, from his garden Ans C

6. In these difficult economic times, those who have public pensions – veterans, mail workers, firemen, and others – are being pursued strongly by pension advance companies that operate without much oversight from banking regulators, but they are now drawing scrutiny from several other government organizations.

a. are being pursued strongly by pension advance companies that operate without much oversight from banking regulators, but they are now drawing scrutiny from several other government organizations.

b.are being pursued strongly by pension advance companies, which operate without much oversight from banking regulators but are now drawing scrutiny from several other government organizations.

c.are pursued strongly by pension advance companies and operate without much oversight from banking regulators but are now drawing scrutiny from several other government organizations.

d.are pursued strongly by pension advance companies, operating without much oversight from banking regulators but now drawing scrutiny from several other government organizations.

e. are pursued strongly by pension advance companies who operate without much oversight from banking regulators; however, they are now drawing scrutiny from several other government organizations
Ans B

7. The survival of coral colonies, which are composed of innumerable tiny polyps living in a symbiotic relationship with brilliantly colored algae, are being threatened, experts say, not only by pollutants like agricultural runoff, oil slicks, and trash, but also by dropped anchors, probing divers, and global warming.

A. are being threatened, experts say, not only by pollutants like

B. are being threatened, experts say, by not only pollutants such as

C. is not only being threatened, experts say, by pollutants such as

D. is not only being threatened, experts say, by pollutants like

E. is being threatened, experts say, not only by pollutants such as

Ans E.

Hope this will be some use to beginners at least.

Hello IWilWin,

I am not sure if you still have this doubt. Here is the explanation anyway.

Following is the "expanded" version of the correct answer Choice E:

E. Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive to miss signs of incipient trouble or to misinterpret them when they do appear.


Please note that neither an executive is a subject not miss and misinterpret verbs in this answer choice. In fact, an executive is the object of the verb phrase is likely to make. And objects do not take verbs.

Again the words miss and misinterpret are not verbs because they are preceded by the word to that remains understood in the original version of the correct answer choice.

This omission is not uncommon and is employed when the meaning is still clear with the omission. For example:

My friend helped me (to) finish the project in time.


And I am sure you know it that to verb phrases are NEVER verbs.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

daagh i need your explanation on this question i really feel e is not correct because of various reasons:-
1 use of being.
2 being heavily committed to... ,here must be the persong who is heavily committed executive
3.verb is likely belongs to which subject i didn't get it please explain
thank you in advance

Rishab
Hi
Please visit the link below; all your doubts will be cleared.

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... t3173.html

GMATNinja- thank you for your response. Just to clarify: in D, the possessive part is also just wrong even ignoring that "them" can't refer to it. As in, there doesn't appear to be anything that should be possessive, so it's just wrong on its own, right? thanks!

Hm, good question. I think I agree that the possessive is just plain wrong here, because it doesn't really make sense to for executives (or anybody else!) to possess "being heavily committed" -- I can't think of a case in which it would be appropriate to have a possessive in front of a gerund or participle, and it certainly doesn't work in this particular case. But if this said "executives' commitment to a course of action...", I'd be OK with it -- there's no problem with possessing the noun "commitment."

I hope this helps!

I chose B. I always get confused by questions like these. What all topics do I need to practice more inorder to gain strength in these.

Option B has meaning issue. The grammar topics would not cover this issue. Following could be a way to handle such issues:

In the first step, take the base sentence (after eliminating modifiers etc.) and consider whether it makes sense - if OK, then as the second step add the modifiers and then check the meaning.

If you had considered option B the above way, you would have caught the meaning issue in the first step itself. Base sentence:
An executive makes missing or misinterpreting likely.
Not really - the executive does not make missing / misinterpreting likely - his commitment (to a course of action) does.

D. Executives’ being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear.

is it the correct use of "Being" in option "D"....????
Plzzz explain..

Hello sajon,

I am not sure if your doubt still persists. Here is the answer nonetheless.


In Choice D, being has been used as a subject that takes the verb makes. This usage of being as a subject is considered correct on GMAT SC.

We see the same usage of being in the correct answer choice E too.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Hi GMATNinja

I came across one of your post where you have mentioned the usage of a special pronoun 'it' with respect to its 'standalone' usage.
PFB link:

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... tml#p49622

Please help me to understand the reference of "That second "it" is the big problem here: "makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble..." I suppose that "it" could refer to "heavy commitment" or "course of action", but neither of those would make any sense. (A) is gone" with respect to "The rain made it + quite challenging + to drive on the freeway".

Hm, that link didn't come through -- and I've never posted anything on the Manhattan website. Maybe you're confusing me with somebody else? Ron Purewal, maybe? We do have similar GMAT scores...?

"Standalone" pronouns do exist, but they're pretty darned rare on the GMAT. "Standalone" pronouns have no referent, so they're also called non-referential pronouns, if you like jargon.

The thing is, standalone pronouns only make sense in very limited circumstances. Your example is fine: "The rain made it challenging to drive on the freeway." We're not saying that the rain is challenging for anybody in particular. The rain just "makes it challenging" in general -- not for any particular person or group of people.

That's not what's happening in this question at all: "Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action... makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble..." In this case, SOMEBODY has to actually miss the signs of incipient trouble, or else the sentence makes no sense. Logically, the "heavy commitment to a course of action" makes EXECUTIVES more likely to miss signs of incipient trouble. The pronoun actually needs a referent -- otherwise, the phrase doesn't convey the intended meaning.

So yes, it's true that some pronouns don't actually need a referent. But unless you're super-advanced in SC already, I don't recommend thinking about them at all. I can only think of one or two official SC questions that include "standalone" or "non-referential" pronouns, so they're not a major issue. But if you start to imagine that "normal" pronouns don't actually need a referent, that can cause all sorts of problems. More than 99% of pronouns on the GMAT require a referent, and the exceptions aren't worth worrying about too much.

I hope this helps!

i eliminated E , based on comma-subject rule. "Being heavily committed to a course of action, executives......" isn't this the correct form?

Can anyone please shed some light on this.

Any verb+ing such as 'singing or 'sleeping' that starts a sentence and followed by its doer and its subject is indeed proper modification and is accepted as grammatical except in the case of 'being'. In the case of 'being' that is used as a participle and modifier, the usage is said to be bad in style, redundant and taboo.

However, 'being' used as a part of progressive tense along with another helping verb such as 'is being', or 'are being' is ok. In addition, 'being' used as a gerund in a subject phrase and immediately followed by its verb is also ok.

The takeaway: 'Being' used as part of 'a subject' or ' a verb' is ok, but as a 'participle' or ' modifier' it is not okay.