Project SC Butler: Day 72 Sentence Correction (SC1)
For SC butler Questions Click Here Although the plaintiff had been planning to call Mr. Hoff as a witness, she failed to secure a sworn record of his testimony during pre-trial discovery, leading the judge to grant the defendant's motion for summary judgment.
A) Although the plaintiff had been planning to call Mr. Hoff as a witness, she failed to secure a sworn record of his testimony
B) Even though the plaintiff was planning on calling Mr. Hoff as a witness, having failed to secure a sworn record of her testimony
C) Although the plaintiff has been planning to call Mr. Hoff as a witness, failing to secure a sworn record of her testimony
D) Even though the plaintiff was planning on calling Mr. Hoff as a witness, she was failing to secure a sworn record of his testimony
E) Although the plaintiff had planned on calling Mr. Hoff as a witness, she had failed to secure a sworn record of his testimony
OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONMy annotations are in blue typeface.• The sentence is correct as written.
• The first difference that stands out in the answers is the alternation between
although and
even though; unfortunately, the only difference between them is stylistic, not grammatical, so that [
split] is not really something fixable.
• The verbs are changing in tense, from
had been planning to
was planning to
had planned• Check the rest of the sentence for other verbs and time cues.
Logically, this action needs to take place before she
failed or possibly simultaneously [
with her having failed].
• Choice B incorrectly makes it sound [
as if] the failure happened first, and can therefore be eliminated.
• Choice C removes the
she from before the failure and changes the verb to
failing. That [
omission] makes the sentence incomplete, so C can be eliminated too.
• Choices D and E both have simultaneous verbs.
Choice D sounds kind of weird but that [
weirdness] doesn't always mean an answer is wrong, so look for more errors.
• Comparing the remaining three, there's another difference after the word
planning:
A says
to, while
D and E say
on•
The correct idiom is planning to, so D and E can be eliminated. (???)The correct answer is A.
COMMENTSGiuPao94 , welcome!
• IDIOM?I chose this question in part because I am concerned about the idiomatic status of
plan to vs.
plan on.
First, the idiom is obscure, and a lot of contradictory information exists about it.
Second, although GMAC has issued one question in which "to plan ON" was correct,
that question was a GMATPrep question, and I am not sure whether that question
would actually make it onto the GMAT.
HERE is the GMAT Prep question in which "to plan ON" was correct.
Third and finally, I don't think that the issue is settled.
I researched for quite a while. I'm not sure whether
Manhattan Prep's position is accurate. Manhattan often is the go-to source on issues such as this one.
You can see a discussion
on this thread, here and in particular, in
in this post, here.I think that the expert on the GMAT Club post (the GMAT Prep question, linked above) is correct:
the GMAT is unlikely
to test this idiom without other errors.•• Time sequence? From latest to earliest in time• The judge dismissed the case at the end of a summary judgment hearing.
Z• Before the hearing, the plaintiff failed to secure (and submit) a sworn statement.
YA sworn statement simply states on penalty of perjury that pre-trial testimony is true to the best of the oath-taker's knowledge.
• She needed the sworn statement only after she decided to use Mr. Hoff.
The earliest/first event was her decision to use him as a witness, her plan to use him as a witness.
X----|<------------------------------------------>|
---
X<--------------
Y--------------------------->
ZI usually use splits to answer questions, but in this case, I would take the options one by one, and go from obviously worst to least bad.
• Option COption C is the worst. It's an incomplete sentence.
Although Plaintiff has been
planning to P,
failing to Q during D,
leading the judge to do R
No working verb exists.
You might also have caught that "has been planning" does not match with the fact that the judge ended the trial.
Eliminate C.
•
Option D - I disagree with the OE. Option D is not just "weird." I think option D is wrong.
D) Even though Plaintiff was planning on P, she
was failing to Q during D, leading the judge to do R
"was failing" does not work in a logical sense.
Her failure —finished, over, no more chances— compelled the judge to declare summary judgment in favor of the other party
"was failing" connotes a continual failing that ends at some point in the past.
Correct:
I was shoveling show all day yesterday.Weird but not wrong:
He was neglecting to turn in assignments and was failing the class, and the teacher gave him an F. He was not
still failing the class when the teacher gave him an F. He had failed. He failed. Whatever you like, but it's over.
In this sentence, we have a simple past time marker. The teacher gave him an F.
Weird and wrong:
Option D.At some point prior to the trial during pre-trial discovery, she
failed, not "she was failing."
Her completed failure to secure the sworn statement then logically LED the judge to rule against her.
Eliminate D
• Option BB) Even though the plaintiff was planning on P, having failed to Q during D, leading the judge to do R.
I do not think that the OE is very clear.
In Verbal and in Quant, if need be, create a similar but simpler example that IS logically correct, and compare.
Having decorated his birthday cake, I was planning on shopping for two hours, _________
I cannot come up with a verbING that works.
(If you can, let me know.)
Option A is better
Eliminate B
• Option EE) Although the plaintiff had planned on P, she had failed to Q during D, leading the judge to rule against her.
Past perfect requires the presence
of at least one simple past tense event.No such event exists.
Eliminate option E
The answer is A.
Because I did not warn you about the idiom (I wanted to see whether it would be an issue),
and because all the answer are good to very good, everyone gets kudos.
GiuPao94 ,
GKomoku , and
Shrinidhi - kudos!
P.S. Am I the only one who caught that the testimony of the PERSON changes in B and C?
I find it strange that an obvious oddity is not mentioned at all by anyone, OE writer included.
I suspect that one of the authors at Princeton Review studied law and legal history.
I doubt that the pronoun change was mere oversight. When I thought about the civil procedure issue, though, from a legal standpoint the owner of the unsworn testimony does not matter. Under oath and in the courtroom, he can be examined about his own testimony, or he can corroborate hers. Just a heads up. _________________
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