Research has shown that the ancient Mesoamerican ballgame did not alwa

Question

Research has shown that the ancient Mesoamerican ballgame did not always involve human sacrifice;  it was often used for entertaining, exercising, worship and conflict resolution between warring factions.

(A) it was often used for entertaining, exercising, worship and conflict resolution between warring factions.

(B) it was often used for entertainment, exercise, worship and conflict resolution between warring factions.

(C) it was often used for entertaining, exercising, worshipping and conflict resolution between factions at war.

(D) they had often used it for entertaining, exercising, worshipping and resolving conflicts between factions who were at war.

(E) it was often used for entertaining, exercising, worshipping and resolving conflicts between warring factions.

gmatopoeia · Accepted Answer

Answer: B

Strike One: Parallelism - it should be either 'entertainment, exercise, worship and conflict resolution' or 'entertaining, exercising, worshipping and resolving conflicts' ---> eliminate A and C

Strike two: subject-verb agreement - ballgame (singular) and needs to be referred to using 'it' and not 'they'. ---> eliminate D.

Strike three:
We are left with B and E.

Option E: if you were to break it up, it seems to be saying:
- it was often used for  entertaining  conflicts between warring factions.
- it was often used for  exercising  conflicts between warring factions.
- it was often used for  worshipping  conflicts between warring factions.
- it was often used for  resolving  conflicts between warring factions.
WRONG!!

So, that leaves us with B as the answer.

sayantanc2k · Answer

Gerund can be used without an object, e.g.  I like swimming .

The actual reason that E is wrong is the wrong idiomatic usage of  use for + verb-ing (gerund).  The correct usage is  use + to verb ( infinitive) .

Wrong: used  for  entertaining, exercising, worshipping and resolving.
Correct: used  to  entertain, exercise, worship and resolve.

Nonetheless  use for + concrete noun  is also alright as stated in option B.

seekmba · Answer

Can someone please explain why E is incorrect?

nusmavrik · Answer

human sacrifice is noun. It should be parallel to other activities.

Gerund (ing form of verb) is not a complete noun as "human sacrifice". Hence E is OUT.

rs47 · Answer

I felt that the gerund form of the verbs in option E need an object.. Hence eliminated E in favour of B.. Is my line of reasoning right?

ju9549 · Answer

How is E incorrect option? Cab someone please help me understand

Posted from my mobile device

styleashish20 · Answer

If taken individually,
- it was often used for   entertaining   conflicts between warring factions -  awkward 
- it was often used for   exercising   conflicts between warring factions -  Wrong 
- it was often used for   worshiping   conflicts between warring factions -  awkward 
- it was often used for   resolving   conflicts between warring factions -  OK

Hence E can be   eliminated

as03691 · Answer

A and C have parallelism problems, so they are out. D has an SV agreement problem, ‘ballgame’ is being referred to in the plural. Comma placement in E is poor. It implies that the ballgame was only used in the context of conflicts between tribes and that entertaining, exercising, worshipping, and resolving are all things done to the conflicts. B is the right answer.

scranjith · Answer

Would be terrible if 'it' refers to sacrifice. That ambiguity is quite possible as sacrifice is the closest noun.

Posted from my mobile device

faat99 · Answer

In my view the OA is wrong and many explanations here are unconvincing, answer should be C not B; please let me know why I'm incorrect. My rationales are:
1. there is no parallelism issue for all options, they are all nouns, gerund is a noun, conflict resolution is a compound noun
2. people claim that there is confusion that "worship" applies to resolution; I agree and that's exactly the problem with OA as boldened below
3. the correct idiom should be "used for + v-ing" not "used for + noun", although it is not wrong, just a preference

In conclusion C is the best:
(A) it was often used for entertaining, exercising,  worship and conflict resolution  between warring factions.
(B) it was often used for entertainment, exercise,  worship and conflict resolution  between warring factions.
(C) it was often used for entertaining, exercising, worshipping and conflict resolution between factions at war.
 > list has clear meaning and the last phrase "between factions at war" is the clearest amongst all 
 (D) they had often used it for entertaining, exercising, worshipping and resolving conflicts between factions who were at war. 
(E) it was often used for entertaining, exercising,  worshipping and resolving conflicts  between warring factions.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  faat99 ,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can resolve your doubts.

In Option C, "entertaining", "exercising", "worshipping" are not active verbs, but they are also not gerunds, as they refer to actions. To understand this distinction, please consider these examples -

"For maintaining one's health, exercise is necessary." - here, "maintaining" is not an active verb, as it is part of a modifying phrase, but it is not a gerund.

"The maintaining of one's health requires exercise." - here, "maintaining" is a gerund, as it acts as a noun to play the role of the subject.

Further, the phrase "factions at war" is needlessly wordy, making it inferior to the phrase "warring factions".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

VerbalBot · Answer

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Research has shown that the ancient Mesoamerican ballgame did not alwa

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