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28 Apr 2020, 10:31
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C
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
25%
(medium)
Question Stats:
75% (01:28) correct
25%
(01:33)
wrong
based on 167
sessions
History
Date
Time
Result
Not Attempted Yet
The belief, in some cultures, about the black cat as being a symbol of evil and a harbinger of doom is a relatively recent phenomenon; all cats, including black ones, were held in high esteem among the ancient Egyptians and protected by law from injury and death.
(A) The belief, in some cultures, about the black cat as being a symbol of evil and a harbinger of doom is a relatively recent phenomenon;
(B) Some cultures’ belief about the black cat as a symbol of evil and a harbinger of doom is a relative recent phenomenon;
(C) The belief, in some cultures, that the black cat is a symbol of evil and a harbinger of doom is a relatively recent phenomenon;
(D) The belief about the black cat as being a symbol of evil and a harbinger of doom is a relatively recent phenomenon in some cultures;
(E) The black cat is believed to be a symbol of evil and a harbinger of doom, this being a relatively recent phenomenon in some cultures;
(A) The belief, in some cultures, about the black cat as being a symbol of evil and a harbinger of doom is a relatively recent phenomenon;
(B) Some cultures’ belief about the black cat as a symbol of evil and a harbinger of doom is a relative recent phenomenon;
(C) The belief, in some cultures, that the black cat is a symbol of evil and a harbinger of doom is a relatively recent phenomenon;
(D) The belief about the black cat as being a symbol of evil and a harbinger of doom is a relatively recent phenomenon in some cultures;
(E) The black cat is believed to be a symbol of evil and a harbinger of doom, this being a relatively recent phenomenon in some cultures;
29 Apr 2020, 13:43
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I see no one has taken a crack at explaining this one yet, so I will give it a go. The question took me 1:01. I will take the opportunity to outline exactly how I approach SC questions in hopes that someone from the community may find such a method worth considering.
What do the other answer choices do to address this deficiency?
Nothing beats the feeling of certainty you can experience with many SC questions. On this one, I wanted to be conservative, but in the end, (C) stood out head and shoulders above the rest.
Good luck with your studies.
- Andrew
iamakhilnath
Yes, that is right: I cut off the sentence. That is because as soon as I know something is wrong with the original sentence, I break off from it and look for either similarities (so I know what else to eliminate without further consideration) or differences (so that I hang on to better choices for the time being). This sentence is incorrect because it employs an unidiomatic about... as being. It is not as if I eliminated it on the grounds that belief... about is necessarily wrong, even if it seems casual and I prefer belief... that, or that I tossed the sentence because of about... as, or even because of the appearance of the word being, although that did put my doubt meter a little higher. No, it is the entirety of about... as being that is clearly incorrect. I can think of no sentence that would correctly put belief about [something] as being together like this. (A) is gone. And while we are at it, we can axe (D) as well.
iamakhilnath
What do the other answer choices do to address this deficiency?
iamakhilnath
This answer opts for a possessive ahead of the subject and preserves the earlier belief... about... as, but it ditches the being. If you were unsure about the construct, you could hang on to it, which is to say that you should not get rid of an option you cannot definitely argue against, but as we are about to see, there are better alternatives.
iamakhilnath
Now we have a clear and direct sentence, and the idiom belief that is unassailable. Furthermore, that [something] is is also difficult to find fault with. This option is much better than the questionable (B), so I would ditch the earlier answer and ping back and forth between this one and (E). Almost there.
iamakhilnath
I will be honest and say that I did not get past this being before I cut this answer loose and settled on (C). However, I would also like to point out that the placement of the phrase in some cultures creates a meaning that differs from that of all the rest of the sentences. Whereas those sentences convey that some, but not all, cultures believe something, this answer indicates that the phenomenon is a relatively recent development in some, but not all, cultures.
Nothing beats the feeling of certainty you can experience with many SC questions. On this one, I wanted to be conservative, but in the end, (C) stood out head and shoulders above the rest.
Good luck with your studies.
- Andrew
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Schools: Harvard '24 Judge '23 LBS '24 McCombs '24 Mendoza Tepper '24 Ross '24 Cox Marshall '24 Fisher Kelley '24 Jones McDonough '24 Owen '24 Terry BU Simon '24 Katz GWU Mason Babson Gabelli Foster '24 Goizueta '24 Scheller Stern '23 CBS '23 Booth '23 Haas '25 Wharton '25 Stanford '26 Johnson'23 Fuqua '23 Kellogg '23 Kenan-Flagler'23 INSEAD Aug 22 intake Olin '23 Said '23 Sloan '23 Carey Arizona "22 Yale '23 UC Davis Madison '23 Anderson '23 Carroll Carlson '23 Darden '23
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30 Apr 2020, 15:25
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iamakhilnath
Quote:
This one is correct choice.
''that the black cat is a symbol of evil and a harbinger of doom'' modifies ''the belief''. IS is the verb of ''the belief''. The sentence carries semi-colon, so both parts has to be independent clause, and both parts should be connected with each other. In the first part, the author talks about the ''black cat'', and in the 2nd part there is a repetition of ''black cat'' again.
