niyatisuri wrote:
Hello
GMATNinja,
This is regarding option E
(E) They will either scale back their orders to pre-2003 levels, or they will stop doing business with us altogether dependent on whether the changes their management has proposed will be fully implemented, or not.
This describes an 'either X or Y' structure, where X and Y should be parallel.
X--> scale (verb)
Y--> they (pronoun)
X and Y are clearly not parallel, and hence is the reason for elimination?
What if option E changes to
(E)
They will either scale back their orders to pre-2003 levels, or stop doing business with us altogether dependent on whether the changes their management has proposed will be fully implemented, or not.
Here 'They will' is taken away as common from the 'either X or Y' structure. Would this choice be correct then?
Please suggest if I am missing something in option E.
Thank you in advance!
Even if we fix the parallelism, we have a "whether... or not" structure that the GMAT considers redundant.
Also, "dependent on whether..." doesn't seem idiomatically correct (not sure why you wouldn't use "depend
ing on..." instead). Regardless, does the "dependent on..." part only go with the second half of the either/or list? The upfront placement of the "whether..." part in (A) makes the meaning more clear.
But I wouldn't worry too much about trying to fix an answer choice. As long as you understand why (A) is better than (E) as written, you've done your job.
niyatisuri wrote:
GMATNinjaHi Charles,
Can we almost always eliminate answer choices if they have any sort of redundancy.
For example, in this case, can the sole occurrence of 'whether or not' classify as
strong elimination reason, or should we look at more concrete reasoning.
Please suggest.
I certainly don't recall seeing "whether or not" in a correct answer choice. That said, the moment we think we've uncovered a "rule," the GMAT tends to put us in our place.
Usually "whether or not" isn't the only deciding factor, so I'd recommend looking for other clues to support eliminating any options where it appears.
I hope that helps!
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