So heavy were the storm’s rains and hailstones, and its gusts of gale-

Question

So heavy were the storm’s rains and hailstones that the city took nearly a decade to recover from the monumental hurricane.
So relentless [were] its gusts of gale-force winds that the city took nearly a decade to recover from the monumental hurricane.

(A) and its gusts of gale-force wind were relentless,

(B) and the gale-force wind gusts were relentless, so that

(C) its gusts of gale-force wind relentless, that

(D) the gale-force winds were gusting so relentlessly,

(E) so relentless its gusts of gale-force wind, that

Day 19 Question of the Verbal Contest:  Race Against the GMAT Club Timer 
Please make sure to post a brief reply without revealing your solution to enter the contest!

daagh · Accepted Answer

The idiomatic template is --- 
So + adjective + verb x …. so + adjective (verb expressed or elided))Y, that 
So heavy were the storm's rains and hailstones …. so relentless(verb) its gusts of gale-force wind, that 
Only E ahs this idiomatic structure

daagh · Answer

Use of 'and' between the two 'SOs' would have been most ideal; Without 'and' it looked as though the author is turning more poetic these days. Whether poetic or not, the author's rhetoric seems to be:  After all the first part is a declarative clause but I want to intensify its effect by adding more info in the form of a modifier. So, I am using a modifier, and when I use a modifier you see there is no need to use either a conjunction or a verb. Therefore, what is the point?

One can give a benefit of the doubt for the deliberate missing of the verb 'were' saying that the verb is elided in the second arm, as we already have the same word verbatim in the earlier part.

Incidentally, here is a similar official question in those days that raised a bigger storm and gale wind

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

But the climax is yet to come. This is supposed to be an adaptation of an excerpt from the New York Times.

<https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/14/books ... -club.html>

and the relevant portion pertaining to Perkins is as follows.

Strangely, the NYT version contains the all-important 'and', which GMAT woefully has missed.

itzmyzone911 · Answer

This time it was definitely not so Easy..

Eeeks

...I may be wrong this time

itzmyzone911 · Answer

Mate, this question is testing idioms and parallelism. Be sure before you mark an answer..

Now that you have quoted me, let me tell you that my answers are hidden inside my remarks..you should have cross-checked the options 2.71 times atleast...sounds wierd?

: ...think..think..

PagalGuru · Answer

Yup got your hidden answer mate, but should not it be only so X that Y rather than so X,so Y that Z...the one enclosed within commas is modifying X....oops did I revealed the concealed ?....it's so covert that it's overt

itzmyzone911 · Answer

REMEMBER: The correct answer MAY not be the best choice on earth, but will certainly be the best among the five choices given. So do away with the ‘shoulds’ and ‘coulds’ in your mind while judging the five contenders.  
  THUMB RULE: Ponder over the best choice among the five given, do not ponder over what COULD be the best answer.

Just to address your doubt specifically, note that a   single   outcome  (  indicator - 'that'  )  is being described as a result of the  intensity  (  indicator-'so'  )   of     two different    entities ( ‘ heavy   rains and hailstones’  & ‘ relentless   gusts’ ). The author intends to do so by employing two different clauses in a single sentence as opposed to two different sentences altogether. The correct answer serves the purpose well without any idiomatic or grammatical mistake.

Nevernevergiveup · Answer

So heavy were the storm’s rains and hailstones that the city took nearly a decade to recover from the monumental hurricane.
So relentless [were] its gusts of gale-force winds that the city took nearly a decade to recover from the monumental hurricane.

(A) and its gusts of gale-force wind were relentless,............. misses that in so X that Y idiom

(B) and the gale-force wind gusts were relentless, so that........... so is redundant

(C) its gusts of gale-force wind relentless, that.............. deviates the meaning from the intended one

(D) the gale-force winds were gusting so relentlessly,........... past continuous tense verb+ing becomes the spoilsport and intended meaning got deviated.

(E) so relentless its gusts of gale-force wind, that........ correct choice

rezaulnsu · Answer

I think it is a variation of so -adj -that structure to make this sentence more appealing. For example,
He is so smart that people cannot beat him. We can restructure this:So smart is he that people cannot beat him.
Again, Her voice is so sweet and her expression is so articulate that the audience love to listen her. We can restructure it as: So sweet is her voice, so articulate her expression that the audience love to listen her.
Please add if any correction or modification of my opinion.

deddex · Answer

I am unable to understand the correct idiom and why choice E is correct inspite of reading all previous explanations on this forum;

my questions: 'Its' is an possessive (singular) pronoun, so what is its referring to in answer choice E? storm's rains and hailstones but isn't this plural?

What is the correct idiom - so X, that Y? OR so X, so Y, that Z ----> (as in choice E)

NinetyFour · Answer

Could someone explain what "its" is referring to here?

ArupRS · Answer

deddex  and  kchen1994 : here the possessive pronoun "its" refers to storm's. Strom is singular. So this usage is okay. Now, had this been only " it " referring to  storm's , the option would have been wrong.

daagh : Please let me know whether we need an "and" between two clauses starting with So - e.g. So xxxx , and so yyyyy , that ZZZZZ.

regards,
Arup

daagh · Answer

Arup

CAn you pl. expand your template into a full sentence. Let's see what follows So?

deddex · Answer

could you please explain which idiom is preferred ?
Which is preferred here- so X, that Y? OR so X, so Y, that Z ----> (as in choice E)

also is the idiom  So X, So Y, That Z   always preferred >> over  so X, that Y

ArupRS · Answer

daagh  : Sir, my doubt is in the context of this sentence only :

So heavy were the storm’s rains and hailstones that the city took nearly a decade to recover from the monumental hurricane.
So relentless [were] its gusts of gale-force winds that the city took nearly a decade to recover from the monumental hurricane.

Do we need "and" (bold) here? and don't we need a verb to make this part a clause - so relentless its gusts of gale-force wind, as we have "were" in the first clause?
Please provide your suggestions.

Regards,
Arup

ArupRS · Answer

daagh Thank you so much. Nice explanation as always

regards, Arup

manass · Answer

GMATNinja  isnt there a pronoun ambiguity in E. What is 'its' referring to?

kornn · Answer

Dear  AnthonyRitz   AjiteshArun   GMATGuruNY   VeritasPrepBrian   GMATNinja ,

Q1. A lot of students, including me, pick C. 
What is grammatically wrong with C.? Is it simply because C. doesn't have "so"?

I think C. is a proper "noun + noun modifier".

Q2. If I modify choice C. to be "its gusts of gale-force wind  SO  relentless", would it be correct?

Q3. For the correct choice E., what is the role of "so relentless its gusts of gale-force wind"? 
Does it modify "So heavy were the storm's rains and hailstones" in front of it? 
Can we have  an adjective as an appositive ?

Dear  VeritasPrepBrian

Q4. Lastly, there is one sentence in the Veritas Advanced Verbal Strategy book P.46 that says 
"So parallel its structure, so clear is its meaning, that answer choice E is the correct answer"

I think the above sentence is wrong because the verb is separated by a pair of commas. Also, the verb is separated from "that" by a comma as well.

So, to mimic the correct choice, I think it should be:
"So parallel  IS  its structure, so clear   is   its meaning, that answer choice E is the correct answer"

Thank you in advance!

GMATGuruNY · Answer

The bride walked slowly  , her face glowing in the sunlight . 
The modifier in green is known as an ABSOLUTE PHRASE.
An absolute phrase is composed of the following:
POSSESSIVE + NOUN + MODIFIER
Generally, an absolute phrase must either follow or precede an independent clause. with the possessive and noun in the absolute phrase referring to the subject of the independent clause.
Here, the portion in blue can stand alone as a complete sentence and thus is an independent clause.
The possessive and noun in the absolute phrase --  her face  -- correctly refers to the preceding subject ( the bride ).

C:   So heavy were the storm’s rains and hailstones  , its gusts of gale-force wind relentless  
Here, the portion in red is composed of COMMA + POSSESSIVE + NOUN + MODIFIER and thus seems to be serving as an absolute phrase.
But the preceding clause in blue cannot stand alone as a complete sentence and thus is not independent.
Also,  its gusts  refers not to the preceding subject ( rains and hailstones ) but to the preceding possessive ( storm's ).
As a result, this usage of an absolute phrase is invalid.

Structures that are parallel and serve the same function may sometimes be connected solely by a comma.
An official example:
 In a state of pure commercial competition, there would be a large number of producing firms,  all unfettered by governmental regulations ,  each seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than the others . 
Here, the two colored portions are parallel and serve the same function: each serves to describe the preceding noun ( firms ).
For this reason, the two colored portions may correctly be connected solely by a comma.

OA for the SC above:
  So heavy were the storm’s rains and hailstones ,  so relentless   its gusts of gale-force winds , that the city took nearly a decade to recover from the monumental hurricane. 
Here, the verb in brackets is omitted but implied.
The two colored portions are parallel and serve the same function.
Each refers to the following  that -clause, as follows:
 So heavy were the storm’s rains and hailstones that the city took nearly a decade to recover from the monumental hurricane.
So relentless   its gusts of gale-force winds that the city took nearly a decade to recover from the monumental hurricane. 
Because the two colored portions are parallel and serve the same function, they may correctly be connected solely by a comma.

kornn · Answer

Dear GMATGuruNY , Thank you for your response

Q1. Absolute Phrase can also precede an independent clause, right? According to MGMAT SC book: His head held high, Owen walked out of the store. His arm in pain, Guillermo strode out of the building. Q2. I have one question about the highlighted portion quoted above. If the OA did NOT omit the helping verb: So heavy were the storm’s rains and hailstones , so relentless WERE its gusts of gale-force winds , that the city took nearly a decade to recover from the monumental hurricane. Would the above be a run-on sentence ? Can 2 sentences be connected by only just a comma? In the official example you gave quoted below, the two are just Absolute Phrase, not full sentences. If it were full sentences, would it be a run-on sentence? If possible, could you give one official example in which 2 full sentences are connected by a comma? Thank you in advance sir!

So heavy were the storm’s rains and hailstones, and its gusts of gale-

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So heavy were the storm’s rains and hailstones, and its gusts of gale-

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