Hello Everyone!
Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down our options quickly so we know how to answer questions like this when they pop up on the GMAT! To begin, let's take a quick look at the question and highlight any major differences between the options in
orange:
The company's CEO backed away from her
plan for dividing the firm into five parts, saying that she still had meant to spin off or sell two units but that the company would retain ownership of two others as well as the core company.
A) plan
for dividing the firm into five parts,
saying that she still
had meantB) plan
that was to divide the firm into five parts,
and she said that she still
would meanC) plan
to divide the firm into five parts,
saying that she still
meantD) planning
on dividing the firm into five parts,
and saying that she
meant stillE) planning
to divide the firm into five parts,
and she said that she
meant stillAfter a quick glance over the options, there are a few areas we can focus on to narrow down our choices:
1. for dividing / to divide / on dividing (Idioms)
2. saying / and she said / and saying (Wordiness)
3. had meant / would mean / meant / meat still (Verb Form)Let’s start with #1 on our list, which is an idiom issue. On the GMAT, the proper idiom format here is “plan to X” or “planning to X.” Other forms of this are considered incorrect, and should be eliminated:
A)
plan for dividing the firm into five parts, saying that she still had meant
B)
plan that was
to divide the firm into five parts, and she said that she still would mean
C)
plan to divide the firm into five parts, saying that she still meant
D)
planning on dividing the firm into five parts, and saying that she meant still
E)
planning to divide the firm into five parts, and she said that she meant still
We can eliminate options A & D because they don’t follow the proper idiom format. Now that we have it narrowed down to only 3 options, let’s look at each one more carefully. We need to make sure they are not overly wordy, and we also need to make sure the verb used at the end conveys the intended meaning clearly:
B) plan that was to divide the firm into five parts, and she said that she still would meanThis is
INCORRECT for a couple reasons. First, the phrases “that was to divide” and “and she said” are overly wordy. Option C handles both of these more concisely without changing meaning. Second, the future tense “would mean” doesn’t fit the intended meaning here. The events of the sentence happened in the past, and they need to stay in the past.
C) plan to divide the firm into five parts, saying that she still meantThis is our
CORRECT option! It is concise, keeps the intended meaning, and uses a clear past tense verb!
E) planning to divide the firm into five parts, and she said that she meant stillThis one is
INCORRECT for a few reasons. First, the gerund “planning” doesn’t work here - it’s much clearer to use the noun “plan” to refer to the CEO’s actual plan, and not the action of planning something. Second, the phrase “and she said” is overly wordy compared to using “saying” instead. Third, the adverb “still” needs to be BEFORE the verb it’s modifying, which in this case is “meant.”
There you have it - option C is our winner! By eliminating idiom problems early, we narrowed down our options quickly and gave ourselves more time to focus on the more complex grammar issues!
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