Hello Everyone!
Let's tackle this question, one issue at a time, and narrow it down to the correct answer quickly! To begin, here is the original sentence with any major differences between the options highlighted in
orange:
The absence
from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave us with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and how they survived economically.
(A)
from business and financial records
of the nineteenth century of statistics
about women leave us with no record of
the jobs that were performed by women and (B)
from business and financial records of statistics
about women
from the nineteenth century leave us with no records of
what jobs women performed or (C)
of statistics
for women from business and financial records
in the nineteenth century leaves us with no record
of either the jobs that women were performing and of (D)
of statistics
on women from business and financial records
of the nineteenth century leave us with no record of
the jobs that women performed or of (E)
of statistics
about women from business and financial records
of the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of
either what jobs women performed orAfter glancing over the options quickly, there are a few things we can focus on to narrow down our choices:
1. The absence from vs. The absence of
2. of / from / in the nineteenth century
3. about / for / on women
4. How each option ends (parallelism & idioms)Let's start with #1 on our list: The absence from vs. The absence of. Whichever we choose, it will eliminate 2-3 options right away.
To figure out the best way to tackle this, we need to ask ourselves a very simple question:
WHAT is absent here?
If we look at the original sentence, we can clearly see what the term "absence" is referring to:
The absence from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave us with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and how they survived economically.
It is thoroughly confusing to readers to separate the phrase "The absence" from what is actually absent - statistics about women. So let's take a look at each sentence and eliminate the ones that place absence and statistics too far apart:
(A)
from business and financial records of the nineteenth century of statistics about women leave us with no record of the jobs that were performed by women and
(B)
from business and financial records of statistics about women from the nineteenth century leave us with no records of what jobs women performed or
(C)
of statistics for women from business and financial records in the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of either the jobs that women were performing and of
(D)
of statistics on women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century leave us with no record of the jobs that women performed or of
(E)
of statistics about women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of either what jobs women performed or
We can eliminate options A & B because they put the word "absence" too far away from what it's referring to - statistics. Now that we have this question narrowed down to only 3 options, let's tackle #4 on our list: parallelism and idioms. We need to focus on making sure each sentence that uses a common idiom structure (
both X and Y / either X or Y / by X and Y) does so correctly, and that both items are written using parallel wording. To make this easier, I've added in the second part of the phrase to make problems easier to spot:
(C) of statistics for women from business and financial records in the nineteenth century leaves us with no record of
either the jobs that women were performing and of how they survived economically.This is
INCORRECT for two reasons:
1. Wrong idiom usage: either X
and Y is incorrect...it should be either X
or Y
2. X and Y are not parallel: the jobs that women were performing / how they survived economically
(D) of statistics on women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century
leave us with no record of
the jobs that women performed or of how they survived economically.This is
INCORRECT for two reasons:
1. The plural verb "leave" doesn't match the singular subject "absence."
2. The two items at the end aren't written using parallel structure. It should be "...with no record of X or Y," but it says "...with no record of X or of Y," which sounds clunky and confusing.
(E)
of statistics about women from business and financial records of the nineteenth century
leaves us with no record of
either what jobs women performed or how they survived economically.
This is
CORRECT! It places the word "absence" next to what's absent - statistics. It also uses the correct singular verb "leaves." The ending is also written using proper parallel structure and idiom structure with "either X or Y."
There you have it - option E is the correct choice!Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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