The Cold War, an apt name for the nervous post-World War II

Question

The Cold War, an apt name for the nervous post-World War II relations between the superpowers, prompted  families to build bomb shelters costing thousands of dollars but  fortunately were never used.

A) families to build bomb shelters costing thousands of dollars but

B) families to invest in bomb shelters that would cost thousands of dollars and that

C) families to invest thousands of dollars in bomb shelters that

D) the building by families of bomb shelters costing thousands of dollars that

E) the building of bomb shelters by families that cost thousands of dollars but

sayantanc2k · Accepted Answer

The conjunctions  and, but  etc without a comma can be used to join two verbs; both of these verbs have the same subject

I swim and play.
I eat a lot but exercise hard.

These conjunctions when used to join 2 independent clauses must be preceded by a comma.
I swim, and I play.
I eat a lot, but I exercise hard.

In option A two verbs ("prompted" and "were") are joined with "but" (without comma). The subject of both these verbs is "The cold war". Obviously the second verb is meaningless with this subject ( "The cold war were never used").

rimpygautam · Answer

Correct answer choice: The Cold War, an apt name for the nervous post-World War II relations between the superpowers, prompted families to invest thousands of dollars in bomb shelters that fortunately were never used.

is it not meaning that families invested in already built bomb shelters (which distorts the intended meaning that the families built them and invested their money)??

goodyear2013 · Answer

Correct answer choice: ...shelters that were never used. - modifies "shelters"

rrsnathan · Answer

What is prob in A) choice.

I know C) is right "that" refers to "shelters"

But what is wrong in A.. . Plz help me.

Thanks in Advance,
Swami.

goodyear2013 · Answer

Hi Swami,

A. Meaning. We need to use "that" instead of "but" at the end of this phrase to clarify what "fortunately were never used" refers to.

Hope this explains.

yenpham9 · Answer

What is wrong with B?

It seems that B conveys the original meaning: the bomb shelters cost thousands of dollars and were never used while C says that family invests thousands of dollars in bomb shelters.

meghaswaroop · Answer

IMO C,

But, I have a doubt in the non-underlined part;"The Cold War, an apt name for the nervous post-World War II relations  between  the superpowers....." . I think "among" should be used instead of "between".

As for the underlined portion, the meaning of the question calls for answer choice expecting that the bomb shelters that fortunately were never used not thousands of dollars that fortunately were never used. Option 'd' is out for that.
Option "B" fails in parallelism.
option 'e' looses the meaning, it means as if the families are building the bomb shelters.
Option 'a' is unclear and contrasting sentence makes it more complex.

EliLTG · Answer

Hi meghas,

There were only two superpowers in the Cold War (the US and the Soviet Union), so between is correct.

Good explanation! Notice that (A) violates parallelism as well, making it a slam-dunk elimination.

meghaswaroop · Answer

Hi EliLTG,

Haha Ya I got it, I was completely lost in the question and forgot the history :D. Thank you for correcting me .

Regards,
Swaroop

EliLTG · Answer

No problem! It's a good thing that you're looking, though--indeed, "between" and "among" are commonly tested. Your question indicates you're developing good test-taking instincts!

dinesh86 · Answer

The Cold War, an apt name for the nervous post-World War II relations between the superpowers, prompted families to build bomb shelters costing thousands of dollars but fortunately were never used.

A) families to build bomb shelters costing thousands of dollars but - Present participle (verb+ing) wrongly modifying shelters, it seems that shelters are costing dollars instead of building of shelters.

B) families to invest in bomb shelters that would cost thousands of dollars and that - Grammatically correct but wordy

C) families to invest thousands of dollars in bomb shelters that - Relative clause correctly refers to shelters.

D) the building by families of bomb shelters costing thousands of dollars that - Passive and wrong construction. It seems that war prompted building. Also, it has modification error same as in A.

E) the building of bomb shelters by families that cost thousands of dollars but - Passive and wrong construction. It seems that war prompted building. That seems to modify families which is wrong. There are two ICs therefore comma is must before but and that is required after but to maintain II-ism.

Correct me if I am wrong in my approach or else give Kudos if you find my explanation useful..... :lol:

SivaKumarP · Answer

I'm not sure if anyone noticed that there is a change in the meaning in option c.

Option C says "families to invest XXX XXX in bomb shelters", while the "families to build the bomb shelters".. It kills the meaning..

I don't understand if the word 'Invest' is correct here....But OA says C :shock:

Grammar experts, any thoughts?

Mbawarrior01 · Answer

IMO option C distorts the entire meaning. Hence, chose A

"invest in shelters" (may be already built !!!) is different from "invest to build". Please advise if anyone understands this better.

sayantanc2k · Answer

Yes, the meanings could be different. Nonetheless in absence of another grammatically correct option, it is alright to select an option even with a shift from the meaning conveyed in the original sentence.

Mbawarrior01 · Answer

Thank you Sayantan. It does perplex me at times, when we choose grammar over meaning because the basic rules always convey that meaning should be maintained no matter what.

Parnika · Answer

I have a different reason to eliminate A --

But is used to join independent clauses and since 'fortunately were never...' is not an independent clause. Hence, A and E will be eliminated.

Please correct me.

Parnika · Answer

I have a different reason to eliminate A --

But is used to join independent clauses and since 'fortunately were never...' is not an independent clause. Hence, A and E will be eliminated.

Please correct me.

sayantanc2k · Answer

The meaning conveyed in option C is definitely a valid one and can as well be the one intended to be conveyed by the speaker / author. It is not mandatory to assume that the intended meaning is always the one conveyed by the first (original) sentence.

If there is no other grammatically correct option, it is alright to deviate from the meaning conveyed by the original sentence. However, if there are more than one grammatically correct sentences, then the one that retains the original meaning (if it is a logical one) should be selected.

praveenbaranwal · Answer

The Cold War, an apt name for the nervous post-World War II relations between the superpowers, prompted   families to build bomb shelters costing thousands of dollars but    fortunately were never used.

(A) families to build bomb shelters costing thousands of dollars but
(B) families to invest in bomb shelters that would cost thousands of dollars and that
(C) families to invest thousands of dollars in bomb shelters that
(D) the building by families of bomb shelters costing thousands of dollars that
(E) the building of bomb shelters by families that cost thousands of dollars but

The Cold War, an apt name for the nervous post-World War II

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The Cold War, an apt name for the nervous post-World War II

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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