sujit2k7 wrote:
I think this one of the weird GMAT prep questions... no good explanations in any of the forums... if some one can really go on and dissect it rather than just telling E looks better parallel than others , than KUDOS are waiting for him
So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry, and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt recruited Perkins to work within the government, rather than as a social worker.
A. and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent,
B. and lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, so that
C. her lobbying for wage and hour reform persistent, that
D. lobbying for wage and hour reform was so persistent,
E. so persistent her lobbying for wage and hour reform, that
My question is what is take away from this question. any similar examples.
Do we not need the 'AND' before second SO.
Do we not need the verb in construction E (is ellipses work here..can some one so another example )
Since the questions are pertaining to the structure of the correct choice, I will only take that one in my response.
So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry,
so persistent her lobbying for wage and hour reform, that Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt recruited Perkins to work within the government, rather than as a social worker.
I will simplify this sentence for my analysis:
So dogged were FP's investigations, so persistent her lobbying for wage and hour reform, that AES and FDR recruited Perkins to work within the government.
There are certain specific things about the structure of this sentence.
1: Inverted Structure
If this sentence were written in a more straightforward way, it would be as follows:
FP's investigations of the garment industry were so dogged that AES and FDR recruited Perkins to work within the government. (notice that I have not considered the second element in this sentence for the sake of explanation. I will consider that in my analysis below:) )Now to come up with the sentence in question, simply flip the order of the SV in the first clause in the simple sentence above. This will get us to the following version:
So dogged were FP's investigations, that AES and FDR recruited Perkins to work within the government.2: Idiom used
Let's take the simplified version of the sentence (I will show both inverted and straight sentences)
- FP's investigations of the garment industry were so dogged that AES and FDR recruited Perkins to work within the government.
- So dogged were FP's investigations, that AES and FDR recruited Perkins to work within the government.
So as you can see, the idiom that has been used here is "
So x that Y".
3: Two entities connected using a comma
I understand that there are two elements in the list but they have been connected using a comma. Let's consider the straight version of this sentence:
- FP's investigations of the garment industry were so dogged
AND her lobbying for wage and hour reform was so persistent that AES and FDR recruited Perkins to work within the government.
In this version I would have added the second element using an AND.
Now let's consider the inverted structure.
- So dogged were FP's investigations
AND so persistent was her lobbying for wage and hour reform that AES and FDR recruited Perkins to work within the government.
Here also I would have added the second element using an AND
So why is there is no AND and a COMMA instead - I do not know. I can almost say that it is a style of writing and certainly not a common style of writing.
4: Ellipsis
As you can see, the second element does not contain a verb. In fact ellipsis is at play here. Here is another sentence with similar ellipsis at play:
Of all the wild animals in their area, none was more useful to the Delaware tribes than the Virginia white- tailed deer: it was a source of meat, and its hide
was used for clothing, its antlers and bones
were used for tools, and its sinews and gut
were used for bindings and glue.
Notice the verb "was used" in the first element.
Notice no verb in the second and third elements. But here ellipsis is at play.
Take away
- Follow the process for solving the question. Eliminate choices on deterministic errors and then consider errors such as punctuation etc. Yes, while you are preparing for GMAT, you must understand the construction of the correct sentence, but when you are in test environment, be confident of your approach and do not second guess yourself if questions such as these appear.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Payal
According to rule of pronouns, objective pronoun must refer to the logical referent in the sentence. I've eliminated A, C and E option because of lack of logical referent of the "her" as i could not see the Frances perkin (herself, rather than her investigation) in the entire sentence.