A recent poll indicates that many people in the United States hold a

A recent poll indicates that many people in the United States hold a combination of conservative and liberal political views; i.e., they denounce big government, saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful, while at the same time supporting many specific government programs for health care, education, and the environment.

(A) they denounce the big government, saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful, while at the same time supporting

(D) while they denounce big government, saying that government is doing too much and has become too powerful, at the same time supporting

GMATNinja I can see that saying and supporting here are acting as modifier and I clearly see that 'saying' as a modifiers goes completely with the verb denounce but how is 'supporting' going with the verb denounce.

Can u please help with this one.

Gagan

A recent poll indicates that many people in the United States hold a combination of conservative and liberal political views; i.e., they denounce big government, saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful, while at the same time supporting many specific government programs for health care, education, and the environment.


(A) they denounce the big government, saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful, while at the same time supporting

(B) they denounce big government- they say that government is doing too much and has become too powerful-but supporting at the same time

(C) they denounce big government, say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful, while they support at the same time

(D) while they denounce big government, saying that government is doing too much and has become too powerful, at the same time supporting

(E) while they are denouncing big government- they say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful-supporting at the same time

Hi IanStewart In this question, in the correct choice B, Denounce and supporting should be parallel because of a conjuction while. But it doesn't appear like that. What is reason for this?? DmitryFarber

The correct answer is A, not B. The construction is just like this:

"People do one thing while doing another."

There's nothing wrong with saying that. You could also say:

"People do one thing while they do another."

but you need to restate the subject (the "they" is not optional here) if you phrase the sentence this way. So you can say "I talk while eating", or "I talk while I eat" and either construction is fine. This sentence says "People denounce big government while supporting government programs", which is fine.

On an unrelated topic: the way this sentence uses "i.e." seems bizarre to me. It's correct to use "i.e." if the only combination of liberal and conservative views found in the poll is the specific combination the second half of the sentence describes. I would have thought the second half of the sentence was just an example of one such combination, in which case "e.g." and not "i.e." would be correct.

So, to summarise, while is one such conjuction where parallelism can be ignored, its usage is that way. Because I have never seen such construction with FANBOYS (and but or etc.) Are there any more such conjunctions, because this came as a shock to me.

You're thinking of coordinating conjunctions (that's what the 'fanboys' are). "While" is a subordinating conjunction here (like "after" or "before" and many other words), and subordinating conjunctions don't join two independent clauses, so they don't follow the same rules.

Can you tell me more about subordinating conjunctions? like how to identify them, their examples, their function etc, or maybe share an article where such info is there?? Sorry for bugging you with my questions.

in correct option A, while & at the same time are not redundant?

Hi there,

In option A, we have a non essesntial modifier:

''saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful''

This is ing verbal+ a clause construction. Is this a valid construction. Is this an absolute modifier too

Quite confused here on correct usage of such an expression. Please guide

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of the crucial part of this sentence is that many people in the United States denounce the big government, in that they say the government is doing too much and has become too powerful, while at the same time they support many specific government programs for health care, education, and the environment.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers + Grammatical Construction + Tenses + Parallelism

• Semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses; commas are used to link an independent clause with a dependent one; comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses.
• Dashes are used in place of colons: to introduce a list, a definition/explanation, or an answer/solution.
• Any elements linked by a conjunction ("but" in this sentence) must be parallel.
• All elements in a list must be parallel.
• Habitual actions are best conveyed through the simple present tense.
• The simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature.

A: Correct This answer choice correctly acts upon the independent subject pronoun "they" with the active verb "denounce" to form a complete thought, leading to a complete thought. Further, Option A uses the phrase "saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful"; the construction of this phrase conveys that intended meaning - that many people in the United States denounce the big government, in that they say the government is doing too much and has become too powerful. Moreover, Option A currently uses the simple present tense verb "denounce" to refer to habitual action. Further, Option A correctly uses commas to link the independent clause "they denounce the big government" to the dependent clauses "saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful" and "while at the same time supporting...the environment. Additionally, Option A avoids the parallelism errors seen in Options B and C, as it lists no elements together and maintains parallelism between "saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful" and "supporting...the environment".

B: This answer choice incorrectly uses dashes to join the independent clause "they denounce big government" to the independent clause "they say that government is doing too much and has become too powerful" and the dependent clause "but supporting at the same time...the environment"; remember, semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses; commas are used to link an independent clause with a dependent one; comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses, and dashes are used in place of colons: to introduce a list, a definition/explanation, or an answer/solution. Further, Option B fails to maintain parallelism between "denounce the big government" and "supporting at the same time...the environment"; remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("but" in this sentence) must be parallel.

C: Trap. This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that many people in the United States denounce the big government, and as a separate action they say the government is doing too much and has become too powerful; the intended meaning is that many people in the United States denounce the big government, in that they say the government is doing too much and has become too powerful. Further, Option C fails to maintain parallelism among "they denounce big government", "say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful", and "they support...the environment"; remember, all elements in a list must be parallel.

D: This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; "while they denounce big government", "saying that government...become too powerful", and "at the same time...the environment" are all dependent clauses, so there is no independent subject for these clauses to modify.

E: This answer choice incorrectly uses dashes to join the independent clause "they say that government is doing too much and has become too powerful" to the dependent clauses "while they are denouncing big government" and "supporting at the same time...the environment"; remember, semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses; commas are used to link an independent clause with a dependent one; comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses. Further, Option E incorrectly uses the simple present continuous tense verb "are denouncing" to refer to a habitual action; remember, habitual actions are best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

Additional Note: Please note that in Option A "saying government..." and "at the same time supporting..." are not joined by the conjunction "while"; rather both are subordinate actions to "denounce the big government"; "while" is actually used to convey a sense of concurrence between "denounce" and "supporting".

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



To understand the concept of "Simple Continuous Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



To understand the use of punctuations on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~10 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

in A]
saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful

I have never seen an independent clause assocaited with 'ing verbal' as done above

Please share more on such structural usage