More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African

I was not sure about the "award with X" or "award X" idiom but was able to stike out the options because of other errors.

More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded―some of them posthumously―with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

A. with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in - 'was' is incorrect here because the 'Medal of honor' exists in present also.

B. with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue - this sounds as "the nation’s highest military award" is for long overdue recoginition of bravery. Distorts the meaning.

C. the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, long-overdue in - 'was' is incorrect here because the 'Medal of honor' exists in present also.

D. the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for longoverdue - this sounds as "the nation’s highest military award" is for long overdue recoginition of bravery. Distorts the meaning.

E. the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, in longoverdue - 'the nation’s highest military award' correctly describes 'Medal of Honor' and the 'Medal is in recognition of their bravery'

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended core meaning of this sentence is that a number of African American soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in order to recognize their bravery, and doing so had been long overdue.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Tenses + Idioms

• Information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense.
• The simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.
• "awarded" requires no preposition or helping word; it is followed directly by a noun or pronoun.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb "was" to refer to information that is permanent in nature; please remember, information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past. Further, Option A incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction "awarded with"; please remember, "awarded" requires no preposition or helping word; it is followed directly by a noun or pronoun. Additionally, Option A uses the needlessly wordy phrases "which was the nation’s highest military award" and "which was long overdue", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

B: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "for long-overdue recognition"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that a number of African American soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for recognizing their own bravery; the intended meaning is that a number of African American soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in order to recognize their bravery, and doing so had been long overdue. Further, Option B incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction "awarded with"; please remember, "awarded" requires no preposition or helping word; it is followed directly by a noun or pronoun.

C: Trap. This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "long-overdue in recognition"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that the Congressional Medal of Honor, itself, was long overdue; the intended meaning is that the act of recognizing the African American soldiers' bravery was long overdue. Further, Option C incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb "was" to refer to information that is permanent in nature; please remember, information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.

D: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "for long-overdue recognition"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that a number of African American soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for recognizing their own bravery; the intended meaning is that a number of African American soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in order to recognize their bravery, and doing so had been long overdue.

E: Correct. This answer choice uses the phrase "in long-overdue recognition", conveying the intended meaning - that a number of African American soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in order to recognize their bravery, and doing so had been long overdue. Further, Option E avoids the tense error seen in Options A and C, as it uses the modifying phrase "the nation’s highest military award" rather than an active verb. Additionally, Option E correctly and idiomatically uses "awarded" without any preposition or helping word, directly following in with the noun "the Congressional Medal of Honor". Besides, Option E is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

A& B eliminate- with is wrong
C& D does not have 'in recognition of'

my answer is E

OA is E

I like this SC very much
It actually tests 2 good idioms to remember
1) to reward somebody a medal
2) in recognition of

hi nusmavrik,

try to think in terms of what is preferred on the GMAT exam, rather than what is technically right or wrong.

On the GMAT, "awarded X" is preferred over "awarded with X"--if you can express one idea well with fewer words, why do it with more?

Having said that, I see "awarded with" in so many publications that it's hard to label them all as "grammatically incorrect."

Don't bother getting yourself into intellectual discussions about the technicalities. Just know that for the GMAT, "awarded X" is preferred. When in doubt, simple is better.

Hope that helps.

Congressional Medal of Honor is the nation's highest military award. So eliminate A,C for that.
the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue means the award is for long overdue recognition whi9ch is wrong. For these soldiers this award was long overdue.

So E is correct

More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded―some of them posthumously―with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

Lets find the error in choice A. For this we need to understand the meaning of the sentence.

The sentence states the following:

1: Second world war + 50 years later - many African American soldiers were awarded a great Medal
2: This is called Congressional Medal of Honor
3: This is the nations highest military award.
4: This award was given to soldiers in long overdue recognition of their outstanding bravery.

Understanding the last point is the key to figuring out the grammatical error in choice A. What is the role of "long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery". The way it is written, it appears as though the Congressional Medal of Honor is long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery. This is not logical - how can a medal of honor be long overdue...The act of awarding that medal can be long overdue. That is the grammatical error - choice A uses "which modifier" to describe the action - awarded the medal. "Which modifier" can only be used for modifying nouns.

Hope this addresses your concern. The thing to keep in mind is - Always read the sentence and understand what the author is trying to communicate. (meaning analysis) Once you understand that, then you apply your knowledge of grammar and see if the author has used English language appropriately or not. (error analysis) Once you hone in on the errors, then you correct those errors. (answer choice analysis). The first step is always to understand the meaning. If you skip this step, then you are setting yourself up for failure (especially for medium to difficult level questions).

What is the source of this question?

I received a PM asking me to comment on this problem, so I thought I'd chime in. In addition to the points egmat made, there is another, simpler reason to rule out (A). The split among answer choices calls it to our attention: two start with 'with' and three omit that word. Idiomatically, you are 'awarded a prize' or 'awarded the medal of honor'. 'Awarded with' is not the correct idiom, so (A) and (B) are wrong.

As for what's wrong with (E), that's giving me a little more trouble. What's the source of this problem, and what's the original answer?

Dash has been used just to add emphasis to posthumous, therefore the rest of sentence must be read in continuation.
Now between 'awarded with the congressional medal' and 'awarded the congressional medal' , later is more precise and simple usage. Eliminate choice A and B.
Among C, D and E. E is the correct sentence as it uses correct form of idiom 'in recognition of' while other two dont (actually choice B as well). eliminate C and D. C and A have one additional meaning issue because of use of 'was', suggesting that congressional medal is no more the highest military award. Therefore apart from E each choice has atleast two issues.

Ans E it is!

A) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military awardedand which was long overdue in
1) incorrect idiom "awarded with" should just be "awarded," commonly confused because of the idiom "rewarded with"

B) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue
1) like (A), incorrect idiom "awarded with" should just be "awarded," commonly confused because of the idiom "rewarded with"
2) incorrectly modifies "the Congressional Medal of Honor" with "for long-overdue...", changes meaning

C) the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, long-overdue in
1) incorrectly modifies "the Congressional Medal of Honor" because adjective prepositonal phrases (adj + prepositon) modify the noun they come after; should modify "recognition" in "in recognition of"

D) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue
1) like (B), incorrectly modifies "the Congressional Medal of Honor" with "for long-overdue...", changes meaning

E) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, in long-overdue
correctly uses idiom and modifiers

More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded, some of them posthumously, with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.


A) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in
Wrong. "X was awarded something". NOT "X was awarded with something".

B) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue
Wrong. "X was awarded something". NOT "X was awarded with something".

C) the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, long-overdue in
Wrong. "long-overdue in...." is modifier ==> modifies the preceding clause "which was the nation's highest military award" ==> Does not make any sense.

D) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue
Wrong. X were awarded the medal for (long-overdue) recognition of their bravery <== wrong. "for recognition of something" is WRONG idiom.

E) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, in long-overdue
Correct. "in recognition of something"is correct idiom

Hope it helps.

It would seem Answer D vs E is another idiomatic issue.
It should be: awarded X in recognition of Y, thus E. (or alternately we would say something like: He was awarded a medal for his work etc or The award recognized his work etc)
D states: awarded....for recognition... of

More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded, some of them posthumously, with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

After first look, I tested for S/V agreement for correct modifier placement.

A) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in Wrong. "And" must join two common elements, but here it is joined illogically to the main clause. This is also a common splice in that "which" is long overdue" is not a complete sentence.

B) with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue "For long-overdue" modifies award while the phrase should modify the verb.

C) the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, long-overdue in Ok - I'll argue that this is correct because the modifiers are correctly placed. "long-overdue" is an adverbial modifier describing how the medal was awarded.

D) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long-overdue Wrong - "for long overdue recognition" modifies the type of award.

E) the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, in long-overdue Wrong - "in" is a preposition that describes the preceding noun "award"

IMO C.

Its not "in long-overdue" that we are looking at, it is "in..recognition", you award something in recognition of something not "for recognition'. Now you can say "for recognizing something" e.g.: A is useful for recognizing B. But when we speak of awards its in recognition of his long service etc.

alokkumargupta
The congressional medal of honor is still the highest military award. The sentence "which until last year was the nation’s highest military award" makes it look like , it was the highest award till last year, but no longer is.

Hope that helps.

Hi,
the Q is


you have choosen D over E, but D is wrong for two reasons..

1) " in recognition of" is the correct idiom meaning " in acknowledgment of"..
2) Apart of this the glaring mistake in D, if its correctly reproduced here is..
the nation’s highest military award for longoverdue..
without the comma in between 'award' and 'for', it has changed the meaning, illogicaly meaning that the Congressional Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest military award for longoverdue recognitions

More than fifty years after the Second World War, a number of African American soldiers were awarded―some of them posthumously―with the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, and which was long overdue in recognition of their outstanding bravery.

a number of African American soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor....

Or

a number of African American soldiers were awarded with the Congressional Medal of Honor

Though awarded with is correct idiomatic usage it is wordy , so lets check if there are some less wordier options available conveying the intended meaning.


C. the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was the nation’s highest military award, long-overdue in

Changes the tense to past tense.

D. the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for long overdue

Seems to convey the meaning that the award was for in recognition of long overdue.

E. the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, in long overdue

Let's check the sentence -

a number of African American soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor......... in long overdue recognition of their outstanding bravery.

Hence (E) is correct..

Most of the people who are picking up the wrong answer is not because they are basing their answer on "awarded" but because they are failing to see another subtle and important word in the sentence -"recognition" -because it falls outside the underlined part.
The correct usage is "IN RECOGNITION OF" (widely used and accepted)
The correct usage is "IN RECOGNITION FOR" (also used in many instances)
"FOR RECOGNISITION OF" (blatantly unidiomatic and a big grammatical blunder)
Therefore "FOR LONG-OVERDUE RECOGNISITION OF" is also incorrect


Also there is no difference in "awarded with" or "awarded". Both are correct.
So one cannot eliminate an option because it has "awarded" instead of "awarded with. "


This makes honing into the right answer a matter of seconds.

OPTION B and D are outright incorrect. (Incorrect usage ;- for long overdue recognition)
OPTION A :- which was the nations highest military award is wrong. The award is still the highest award. Option A is also needlessly wordy
OPTION C:-which was the nations highest military award is wrong. The award is still the highest award.

OPTION E IS THE CORRECT ANSWER. "IN RECOGNITION OF" and "AWARDED" are used correctly. Useless words like "which was, which is" are removed and the sentence is crisp, clear and concise.