Sartre, an inadvertent guru, had an opinion on everything, painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, often changed . (A) often changed (B) and it was usually changed (C) that was often changed (D) changing often (E) one he often changed SC56561.01 https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,924058-2,00.html This inadvertent guru had an opinion on everything, painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, often changed . But for most of his life he was convinced of the ineluctable corruption of the bourgeoisie, even though he was to the bourgeoisie born. His father was a naval officer who sickened and died when Jean-Paul was only two. The boy was brought up in the house of his grandfather, a linguistics professor who doted on him. His prim Roman Catholic mother he loved but did not respect, because nobody else in his free-thinking Lutheran grandfather's household did ("My mother and I were the same age," Sartre later recalled).

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Sartre, an inadvertent guru, had an opinion on everything, painfully

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Vishrudh

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12 Dec 2022, 09:13

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why no and in the end....isnt it a requirement for a list of adverbs explaining opinion

vv65

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13 Dec 2022, 04:18

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Vishrudh

why no and in the end....isnt it a requirement for a list of adverbs explaining opinion

Why no AND? That's the writer's choice! He did not want an AND.
Isn't it a requirement? No, an AND is not essential

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23 Dec 2022, 12:19

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debjyoti31

===============================

I understood the concept. However, I want to understand, why isn't there any "AND" included before the last element of the list. Is it a special case that needs to be remembered ?

This post might help a bit: https://gmatclub.com/forum/sartre-an-in ... l#p2825828.

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04 Mar 2023, 12:59

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Sartre, an inadvertent guru, had an opinion on everything, painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, that was often changed.

While 'and' before 'often changed' is missing, I tried to make sense of this sentence. I chose option C because I interpreted 'painfully considered, elaborately reasoned' as modifying 'opinion' but 'that was often changed' modifies 'everything'.

"Sartre, an inadvertent guru, had an opinion on everything - painfully considered, elaborately reasoned - that was often changed."

What's wrong with this sentence, could you please comment?

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02 Apr 2023, 03:22

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In case any one is wondering why the conjunction 'and' is skipped. Please note- here figures of speech is being tested.

Asyndeton-
the omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence, as in I came, I saw, I conquered.

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RupalTot123

CJAnish, ChiranjeevSingh, GMATNinja
Kindly throw some light on tackling this kind of a question.
Thanks a lot!

This question is mostly about parallelism. The non-underlined portion ends with a list of attributes (describing Sartre's opinion), so we're expecting another attribute to complete the list. The first two attributes (“painfully considered, elaborately reasoned”) show us the pattern: adverb adjective, adverb adjective.

Choice (A) gives us exactly what we expect: another attribute that describes Sartre's opinion, in the form "adverb adjective" ("often changed"). So (A) is looking pretty good, but let's see if we can eliminate the others.

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(B) and it was usually changed

If we only had "usually changed" instead of "it was usually changed," then (B) would be tempting. Again, the first two elements of the list are in the form "adverb + adjective," so we expect something similar in the final part.

Instead, we get "pronoun + verb + adverb + adjective"--the addition of a subject pronoun and verb ("it was") makes it seem like we are starting an entirely new sentence, rather than continuing the list of attributes.

That's not what we want, so we can get rid of (B).

Quote:

This would be fine if the “that was” came before the whole list: “…had an opinion on everything that was painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, [and] often changed.” But at the end of the list, "that was" doesn't make any sense and throws off the parallelism. (C) is out.

Quote:

(D) changing often

Here the parallelism might technically be ok because we have another attribute that describes Sartre's opinion ("changing often"). But unlike in (A), we don't get a nice, clean (and easy-to-follow) list of "adverb + adjective" pairs.

Moreover, since we are talking about Sartre's opinion in the past, the opinion shouldn’t be “changing often"--this seems to imply that the opinion is STILL changing in the present.

In contrast, "considered" and "reasoned" suggest actions that were performed ON the opinions in the past--the opinions were painfully considered BY Sartre, and the opinions were elaborately reasoned BY Sartre. That pattern doesn't work with the third item: "The opinions were changing often by Sartre" doesn't make sense.

On the other hand, choice (A) implies that "the opinions were often changed by Sartre," which makes more sense and fits with the pattern of the first two attributes. This makes (A) the better choice, so we can eliminate (D).

Quote:

(E) one he often changed

You can get rid of (E) pretty quickly because it doesn't fit with the parallel structure at all. Using this option, the list of attributes has the form: "(1) adverb adjective, (2) adverb adjective, (3) pronoun ("one") noun modifier ("[that] he often changed")--the parallelism is clearly better in (A).

That's enough reason to get rid of (E). But if (and only if) you'd like nerd out and dive a little deeper on this one, keep reading...

Aside from the obvious deviation from the part of speech pattern, there is another really subtle reason that the parallelism isn't ideal here:

The first two items in the list describe what Sartre’s opinion was like, without mentioning specific action by Sartre: his opinion was considered and reasoned. (If you like the jargon, this is the passive voice). As we saw in option (D), the first two elements imply actions performed ON the opinions.
But with "one he often changed," "he" is the subject of the verb "changed." This active construction gives Sartre more agency—he is the one specifically changing the opinion, as opposed to the opinion having been changed BY him.
Simply put, because two of the elements in the list are in the passive voice and one is in the active, the parallelism isn't as good as it is in option (A). Again, you don't need to go there to get rid of (E), but this gives us one more vote for (A) over (E) .

In any case, (A) is our best option.

I hope that helps!

where is the "and". Last element of the list should have "and". painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, often changed. No can see "and".

please elaborate why its correct without and?

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22 Jan 2024, 21:04

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desertEagle

where is the "and". Last element of the list should have "and". painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, often changed. No can see "and".

please elaborate why its correct without and?

It's correct because parallelism is necessary. The AND, on the other hand, is not absolutely necessary.

Are you taking the GMAT within the next week?

Note, AND is always necessary in a list of independent clauses. We need comma+AND when we connect independent clauses: otherwise we get a run-on sentence (comma splice) -- and that is unacceptable.

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vv65

desertEagle

where is the "and". Last element of the list should have "and". painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, often changed. No can see "and".

please elaborate why its correct without and?

It's correct because parallelism is necessary. The AND, on the other hand, is not absolutely necessary.

Are you taking the GMAT within the next week?

Note, AND is always necessary in a list of independent clauses. We need comma+AND when we connect independent clauses: otherwise we get a run-on sentence (comma splice) -- and that is unacceptable.

yes.. i will be taking gmat next week and i am finding SC very difficult due to flexible nature of rules. Almost all of the rules are not absolute. Everything has exception. I dont know how to handle them. If i use one logic, i find that different logic has been used. I am not able to get into the head of GMAT to know the true answer. My CR and RC skills are much better. But SC is bringing the overall score way lower than expected to 37.

Need a way to get way better in next few days.

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23 Jan 2024, 01:10

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desertEagle

vv65

desertEagle

where is the "and". Last element of the list should have "and". painfully considered, elaborately reasoned, often changed. No can see "and".

please elaborate why its correct without and?

It's correct because parallelism is necessary. The AND, on the other hand, is not absolutely necessary.

Are you taking the GMAT within the next week?

Note, AND is always necessary in a list of independent clauses. We need comma+AND when we connect independent clauses: otherwise we get a run-on sentence (comma splice) -- and that is unacceptable.

Don't obsess about getting better in the next few days. If you're scoring 37, you're in quite a good place. Don't overthink SC. It's really not possible to make a list of rules and exceptions.

SC has a few inflexible rules. For example,
- Subject and verb must agree.
- Pronoun and noun must agree. IT must refer to a singular noun and THEY to a plural noun.
- Independent clauses must be properly connected (with a comma+FANBOYS, a semi-colon, a colon or a long dash).

The GMAC is very concerned about parallelism, comparisons, clarity, comprehensibility, and avoiding absurd meanings (modifiers come under the last two).

Then of course, the GMAT is also concerned about standard language or what we call idioms. You probably are familiar with the common important idioms already.

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