Pack 7 Q1: When training dogs for the Iditarod, providing...

Question

Pack 7, Question 1 of 5:

When training dogs for the Iditarod, providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least as important as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine for the musher.

A. When training dogs for the Iditarod, providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least as important as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine for the musher.
B. When they train dogs for the Iditarod, providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least of equal importance to the musher as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine.
C. Mushers training dogs for the Iditarod find that providing a nutritious high calorie diet to be equally important as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine.
D. For mushers training dogs for the Iditarod, providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least as important to them as that they maintain a regimented exercise and training routine.
E. For mushers training dogs for the Iditarod, providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least as important as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine.

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DinoPen · Answer

I said E.
A and B does not have a subject in the dependent clause. (fragment)
C wrong use of trainer - (This sentence states that the dogs are finding these eating and working out regiments to get better)
D wrong use of that. And, the latter end of the sentence does not compare anything. Hence, the use of 'at least as important' is incorrectly used.

NandishSS · Answer

Who is training the dogs here hence it should be better musher be the subject. Hence doesn't convey the meaning correctl y.

They is referring to what? Musher is singular here . Incorrect

as important as should be the phrase and meaning is non-sensical Incorrect

Does them & they refer to Mushers. Pronoun ambiguity is not a hard rule until it makes sense. Also, Maintaining should be parallel to training. Incorrect

Correct

ektakdawla · Answer

A & B are fragment....sub is missing
C big issue with Sub verb & not correct equally imp as
D paralellism breaks..different meaning as atleast as
E is winner....clear meaning & no issue with parallelism

arvind910619 · Answer

Imo E.

This question is quite tricky.

The original sentence does not have a subject who is doing the action providing and maintaining. Also there is a grave meaning error. As when training dogs, providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least as important as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine for the musher. As this seems to suggest that musher is a kind of dogs but that is not the intended meaning.

A Subject should come before providing. There is also a meaning aspect in this question." providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least as important as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine" Important to who.

A is wrong per the reasoning provided earlier.
B Same as A. They is referring to what? They should refer to Mushers, but musher here is singular so it can not refer to Musher.
C A full subject + verb structure should follow after that, but that is not the case here so this is also not correct.
D Murky parallelism here correct idiom is As X as Y. X and Y have to be parallel.
E Correct. Neat parallelism.

Raxit85 · Answer

Imo. E

When training dogs for the Iditarod, providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least as important as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine for the musher.

When training dogs for x, ??? Subject, i.e. musher, should be come in place immediately after comma; modifier error. There is no subject for is in second part of the sentence and it has nonsensical meaning.

A. When training dogs for the Iditarod,  providing a nutritious high calorie diet is  at least as important as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine  for the musher . - Incorrect, Same as above reason.
B. When  they  train dogs for the Iditarod, providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least of  equal importance  to the musher as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine. - Idiomatically incorrect. Pronoun agreement error,i.e. they referring to whom? It must be musher which is singular.
C. Mushers training dogs for the Iditarod find that providing a nutritious high calorie diet  to be equally important as  maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine. - as important as is idiomatically correct.
D. For mushers training dogs for the Iditarod,  providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least as important to them as that they maintain a  regimented exercise and training routine. - Comparison marker, as ... as needs parallelism agreement. Here, providing and maintain are not parallel to each other. Besides, sentence uses unnecessary pronouns, leading distortion of meaning. 
E. For mushers training dogs for the Iditarod, providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least as important as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine. - Sounds perfect and no error in the sentence.

Kritisood · Answer

When training dogs for the Iditarod, providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least as important as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine for the musher.

A. When training dogs for the Iditarod,   Who is training these dogs? Subject missing - modifier error   providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least as important as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine for the musher.

B. When they train dogs for the Iditarod,   Who is training these dogs? Subject missing - modifier error   providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least of equal importance to the musher as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine.

C. Mushers training dogs for the Iditarod find that providing a nutritious high calorie diet to be equally important as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine.
  Fixes the error we saw in A and B but find that...to be - incorrect. Also, idiomatically it should be as important as - out.

D. For mushers training dogs for the Iditarod, providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least as important to them as that they maintain a regimented exercise and training routine.
  who does them refer to? mushers or dogs? out!

E. For mushers training dogs for the Iditarod, providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least as important as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine.
  Fixes the modifier error as seen in ans choice A and B, the second part of the sentence is clear and free of errors! this is the correct answer choice!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Official Explanation

When training dogs for the Iditarod, providing a nutritious high calorie diet is at least as important as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine for the musher.

A.  When training dogs for the Iditarod,  providing a nutritious high calorie diet  is at least as important as  maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine for the musher. 
 B.  When they train dogs for the Iditarod,  providing a nutritious high calorie diet  is at least of equal importance to  the musher as maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine. 
 C.  Mushers training dogs for the Iditarod find that  providing a nutritious high calorie diet  to be equally important as  maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine. 
 D.  For mushers training dogs for the Iditarod,  providing a nutritious high calorie diet  is at least as important to them as  that they maintain a regimented exercise and training routine. 
 E.  For mushers training dogs for the Iditarod,  providing a nutritious high calorie diet  is at least as important as  maintaining a regimented exercise and training routine.

A quick review of our answer choices shows two main splits. The first split is how the introductory modifying phrase is worded. The second split is the wording of the comparison between the diet and the training routine; our options are “at least as important as,” “at least of equal importance,” “to be equally important as,” and “at least as important to them.”

Each of our sentences has a modifying clause, so we need to determine who or what that clause modifies. Modifiers should be as close to each other as possible. In Option A, what is the phrase “when training dogs for the Iditarod” modifying? The only thing that makes sense is “the musher,” and that occurs at the very end of the sentence. This modifier and the thing it modifies couldn’t be farther apart in this sentence. Option B also has to be modifying “the musher,” and that noun is separated from its modifier. The other answer choices place the modifiers in the correct locations.  Options A and B cannot be the best answers.

We should also consider parallel structure. “Providing a nutritious” and “maintaining a regimented” are parallel. “Providing a nutritious” and “they maintain a regimented” are not parallel.  Option D cannot be the best answer.

Now we are down to two answer choices, so let’s look at the idioms that involve comparing the importance of two things. Valid idioms are “X is as important as Y” and “X and Y are equally important.” “X to be equally important as Y” is not idiomatic, so Option C cannot be the best answer. We can also eliminate two other answer choices just by considering what is idiomatic. “X is at least of equal importance to Y” is not a valid construction, so Option B is not the best answer. Option D uses “X is at least as important to them as Y.” One could argue that this doesn’t break the idiom, but even if it doesn’t, we need to look at how Y is constructed. The sentence says “X is at least as important to them as that they maintain . . .” Huh? “To them as that they” is incredibly awkward, lacks concision, and doesn’t make much sense at all.  Option D cannot be the best answer.

We have successfully eliminated four answer choices, and in some cases, we eliminated a few choices multiple times.  Option E is the best answer.

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done,  DinoPen ! You cracked the code on this one!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done,  NandishSS ! Another great, detailed explanation that I think other students will find incredibly useful.

Kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

You cracked the code,  ektakdawla !

The subject in options A & B is "providing a nutritious high calorie diet," which isn't really what we want. See our explanation for more details on why!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done,  arvind910619 ! You cracked the code on this one! It is an incredibly tough question to answer, so it's nice to see how each of you is managing to get to the correct choice!

Kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done,  Raxit85 ! Another great explanation for such a tough question! Kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done,  Kritisood ! You cracked the code! In options A & B, they do have a subject - it's the phrase "providing a nutritious high calorie diet." Check out our official explanation to see why A & B are incorrect (you were really close in your thinking)!

VerbalBot · Answer

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Pack 7 Q1: When training dogs for the Iditarod, providing...

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Pack 7 Q1: When training dogs for the Iditarod, providing...

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