The Baldrick Manufacturing Company has for several years followed a

Question

The Baldrick Manufacturing Company has for several years followed a policy  aimed at decreasing operating costs and improving  the efficiency of its distribution system.

(A) aimed at decreasing operating costs and improving

(B) aimed at the decreasing of operating costs and to improve

(C) aiming at the decreasing of operating costs and improving

(D) the aim of which is the decreasing of operating costs and improving

(E) with the aim to decrease operating costs and to improve

egmat · Accepted Answer

Hi Shikhar,

There are two different idioms wit “aim” - “aim to do” and “with the aim of doing”. Let’s see their usage in simple sentences:

a. Joe  aims to finish  his book by the end of this month.
b. Joe is writing the book  with the aim of finishing  it by the end of this month.

Choice E uses the idiom “with the aim to decrease…”. This is not an idiomatic expression. This makes choice E incorrect.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

ENAFEX · Answer

'Aimed at' and 'with the aim of' are used in different context.
E.g. 
Shikar aimed at scoring a 760 in the GMAT.  (you aim at something) 
Shikar studied hard for the GMAT with the aim of getting into a top B-school.  (you did something with the aim of getting something else)

You get the difference?

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation of this question-

Concepts tested here: Parallelism + Idioms + Verb Forms + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• Any elements linked by conjunction must be parallel.
• Present participles ("verb+ing" – “aiming” in this sentence) are used to modify nouns, refer to ongoing events in any time period, and (when preceded by a comma) express cause-effect relationships.
• If "aim" is used as a noun, "aim + of" is the correct idiomatic construction, and if "aim" is used as a verb, "aim + to" is the correct idiomatic construction.

A:   Correct.  This answer choice maintains parallelism between "decreasing operating costs" and "improving the efficiency of its distribution system". Further, Option A avoids the verb form error seen in Option C, as it uses the past participle "aimed" rather than the present participle ("verb+ing"). Additionally, Option A avoids the idiom error seen in Option E, as it uses the adjective "aimed at" rather than the noun "aim". Besides, Option A is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

B:  This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "the decreasing of operating costs" and "to improve the efficiency of its distribution system"; remember, any elements linked by conjunction must be parallel.

C:  This answer choice incorrectly uses the present participle ("verb+ing" - "aiming" in this sentence) to refer to an action that is not ongoing in nature; remember, the present participle ("verb+ing" - "aiming" in this sentence) is used to refer to ongoing events in any time period. Further, Option C fails to maintain parallelism between "the decreasing of operating costs" and "improving the efficiency of its distribution system"; remember, any elements linked by conjunction must be parallel.

D:  This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "the decreasing of operating costs" and "improving the efficiency of its distribution system"; remember, any elements linked by conjunction must be parallel. Further, Option D uses the needlessly wordy phrase "the aim of which is", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

E:  This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction "aim (noun) + to"; please remember, if "aim" is used as a noun, "aim + of" is the correct idiomatic construction, and if "aim" is used as a verb, "aim + to" is the correct idiomatic construction.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

kraizada84 · Answer

(A)  aimed at  decreasing operating costs and improving

directly modifies policy --> hence correct.

(E) with the aim to decrease operating costs and to improve

it modifies company, but here we need a modifier modifying the policy- hence incorrect

anordinaryguy · Answer

I don't agree with your explanation behind rejecting E. In E, 'with' modifies 'policy only... not company. 
For following reasons , why E is rejected :

1> A doesn't have any problem in it
2> E seems to have redundancy. 
-U try to remove 'with the aim' from this option (policy to decrease operating costs and to improve) and option still conveys clear meaning. 
This is because 'use of aim' actually to depict the purpose of subject and at many occasions, 'to+verb' is also used to play the same role.

uledssul · Answer

The Baldrick Manufacturing Company has for
several years followed a policy  aimed at decreasing operating costs and improving  the efficiency of its
distribution system.
(A) aimed at decreasing operating costs and improving - the most concise one
(B) aimed at  the decreasing of operating costs  and  to improve  - wrong parallelism
(C) aiming at  the decreasing  of operating costs and  improving  - looks tempting, but wrong parallelism
(D) the aim of which is the decreasing of operating costs and improving - wordy, wrong parallelism
(E) with the aim to decrease operating costs and to improve - a policy was meant to aim at its purpose. 'With' usage sounds like the company followed a policy AND its aim separately. Policy and Aim should go together.

rphardu · Answer

I followed below approach:

The Baldrick Manufacturing  Company has  for
several years  followed a policy  aimed at decreasing operating costs and improving  the efficiency  of its
distribution system.

All strike through are prepositional middleman which are acting like big adjectives.

Company has followed a policy  aimed at decreasing operating costs and improving  the efficiency.

First check is "and" so both side of "and" should be parallel so option B is incorrect because it contains "decreasing" and "to improve".

D looks wordy and more of that if policy is being modified by "the aim of which...." then modifier generally starts with preposition, pariciple or which/that or in other cases at least with comma.

E is wrong because of idiom. "with the aim of v+ing"

Now the real fight is between C and A. 
Past participle represents "completed action" (please note I didn't mention past) and present participle represent "on going or presently available action".
Here policy should be modifies by past participle because when policy was implemented/followed then aim/result of policy was already known. Infact in order to acheive that aim , company has followed particular policy.

kimberly87 · Answer

Can someone help explain why  " aimed at "  is used here instead of  " aiming at " ? Agree that "aimed at decreasing operating costs and improving the efficiency of its distribution system" definitely modifies the preceding N "policy". In other words, it should read:

The Baldrick Manufacturing Company has for several years followed a policy   which aimed   at decreasing operating costs and improving the efficiency of its distribution system.

and should be re-written as:

The Baldrick Manufacturing Company has for several years followed a policy   aiming at   decreasing operating costs and improving the efficiency of its distribution system.

Wonder if I miss some point here.

plumber250 · Answer

Hi Kimberly - No it's correct as it is.

To think about it logically - the policy was devised once, and that policy was (past tense) aimed at something.

They continue to use the policy, but it was created in the past and still points in the same direction.

Hope that makes sense.

James

WaterFlowsUp · Answer

the Simplest solution is:

Decreasing || improving is intended. Now both are adjectives. the moment an adj is followed by an article it becomes a NOUN. leaves us with correct answer choice A

JarvisR · Answer

Aim to vs Aim at Vs with Aim of

Aim to (idiom) 
Meaning - Try or intend to do something. 
e.g : We aim to please our customers, or She aims to fly to California. 
 Correct usage: aim to + verb

With the Aim Of: 
 b. Joe is writing the book with the aim of finishing it by the end of this month.
 Note:With the aim to is unidiomatic

Aim at (idiom) 
 Meaning - Direct a missile or criticism at something or someone; to plan, intend or to have as one's purpose
e.g: In his last speech the President took aim at the opposition leader.
He aims at finishing tomorrow.

thangvietname · Answer

great posting,

the matter is why E is wrong
one error is "with the aim of" is not idiomatic. but this error is hard to remember

second point, I think the main point is

with the aim of decreasing the costs, the company has followed a policy.

the meaning relation between "aim of decreasing cost" and "has followed" is not close

in choice A,
the company has followed a policy aimed at decreasing costs

the meaning relation between "aimed at" and policy is very close. This is correct.

gmat prefer the choice having close meaning relation between phrases

pls, discuss this point, a hard point and important point. I see there are many situations in og and gmatprep questions

anox · Answer

The Baldrick Manufacturing Company has for several years followed a policy  aimed at decreasing operating costs and improving  the efficiency of its distribution system.

Issues:  Conjunction | Parallelism

Analysis:
 1. The sentence talks about a policy that the company has followed and that policy has two aims
2. "aimed at" is the idiomatic way to conjugate the aims of policy to the main sentence.

(A)   aimed at   decreasing  operating costs and  improving

(B)  aimed at  the decreasing  of operating costs and  to improve 
 - Parallelism issue

(C)   aiming  at the  decreasing  of operating costs and  improving 
 
- incorrect usage of "verb-ing" modifier
- Alters the meaning of the sentence; suggest that operating costs were already decreasing and efficiency was already improving

(D)  the aim of which is  the decreasing  of operating costs and improving
 - The clause is missing a conjunction
- "the decreasing" is incorrect as the sentence is not talking about any particular decrease in cost

(E) with the aim  to decrease operating costs and to improve
 - "with the aim" is unidiomatic

Answer:  (A)

zoezhuyan · Answer

Hi experts :

although I read the whole thread, I still a bit confused, genuinely need your explanation

1/
what's the difference between "aim at doing" and "aim to do"?
2/
"aim" in A is verb - ed , as a modifier, why not aiming ?

I encounter one OG problem, 
Last week local shrimpers held a news conference to take some credit for the resurgence of the rare Kemp???s ridley turtle, saying that their compliance with laws requiring that turtle-excluder devices be on shrimp nets protect adult sea turtles.
(A) requiring that turtle-excluder devices be on shrimp nets protect 
(B) requiring turtle-excluder devices on shrimp nets is protecting 
(C) that require turtle-excluder devices on shrimp nets protect
(D) to require turtle-excluder devices on shrimp nets are protecting 
(E) to require turtle-excluder devices on shrimp nets is protecting

like "law requiring", why not "policy aiming"?

Thanks a lot

have a nice day

zoezhuyan · Answer

Dear  mikemcgarry ,  MagooshExpert  Carolyn, GMATNinjaTwo ,  GMATNinja ,  sayantanc2k , 
Anyone can help me ?

Thanks in advance
Have a nice day
>_~

MagooshExpert · Answer

Hi zoezhuyan ! Please see JarvisR's very useful post for an explanation of the difference between "aim at" and "aim to": So to summarize, "aim to do" means "try to do", whereas "aim at doing" means more like "intend to do". If we use "aim to", there is more uncertainty about whether or not the goal will be reached. Here, the intention of the company's policy is intended to decrease costs and improve efficiency, so it makes sense to use "aimed to". As for your second question, there isn't any strict reason why we can't use "aiming at" here instead of "aimed at". You're correct that it's acting as a modifier here

So the sentence would be correct either way. Hope that helps!

saby1410 · Answer

VeritasKarishma   GMATNinja   ChiranjeevSingh

Please explain why option E is not correct

Posted from my mobile device

KarishmaB · Answer

saby1410

(E) uses incorrect idiom and has accuracy in meaning error.

When you use "with the aim" it is followed by "of", not "to".

Also, the meaning of the way you use "aim" in (A) vs (E) is different.

(A) A has followed a policy aimed at decreasing B.

"aimed at decreasing B" modifies "a policy". It describes what kind of policy A has followed. The policy aims at decreasing B.

(E) A has followed a policy with the aim of decreasing B.

This says that A has followed this policy because A wants to decrease B. Note that the use of "a policy" does not make sense here. We need to use "the policy" because it makes sense to say that A has followed that particular policy because it wants to decrease B.

Hence (E) is incorrect.

sssanskaar2 · Answer

Hi experts,

The Baldrick Manufacturing Company has for several years followed a policy aimed at decreasing operating costs and improving the efficiency of its distribution system.
 
here in the original sentence:

aimed at -
1.  decreasing operating costs  - (sounds like a gerund to me, like decreasing profits -  As a CEO, I want to investigate the decreasing profits in this quarter )

2. improving the efficiency of its distribution system. (this IS DEFINATELY a verb.)

Although i was inclined towards option A, I ultimately chose E because it sounded to me that a gerund and an action clause were being compared in the original sentence.

Is this a poorly worded question? Or I am missing something?
 I think an addition of 'the' after 'decreasing' (like 'the' after 'improving') would have made this difference clearer?

The Baldrick Manufacturing Company has for several years followed a policy aimed at  decreasing THE operating costs  and improving the efficiency of its distribution system.

VeritasKarishma  /  GMATNinja  kindly help

The Baldrick Manufacturing Company has for several years followed a

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