The creation of an independent treasury, establishing lower

Question

The creation of an independent treasury, establishing lower tariffs, and purchasing  the Oregon territory, all credited to the presidency of James Knox, are among the significant accomplishments that persuade historians to rank his former governor of Tennessee well as a US president.

(A) The creation of an independent treasury, establishing lower tariffs, and purchasing
(B) The creation of an independent treasury, securing lower tariffs as well as purchasing 
(C) The creation of an independent treasury, the establishment of lower tariffs, and the purchase of 
(D) Creating an independent treasury, securing lower tariffs, and purchasing
(E) Creating an independent treasury, the securing of lower tariffs, and the purchasing of

Whats wrong with D

sguptashared · Answer

Securing and establishing both have different meaning altogether. Why would you want to change it if you have an grammatically correct option present without any change in the meaning?

shrive555 · Answer

i was probably concerned with grammatical structure rather than the actual meaning of the sentence. :roll:

sguptashared · Answer

The rule is if two sentences are identical grammatically, then choice that provides best meaning wins. If two choices are even identical in meaning, then the most concise choice wins.

GMATPASSION · Answer

Securing lower tariffs is wrong. B,D, E are out. A & C -C is parallel C :-D

shrive555 · Answer

it means if we change securing to establishing, then D would be better than C.

Aj85 · Answer

Creating an independent treasury, securing lower tariffs, and purchasing the Oregon territory,  all credited  to the presidency of James Knox, are among the significant accomplishments that persuade historians to rank his former governor of Tennessee well as a US president.

IMO D will still not be better.

Creating an independent treasury - who created the independent treasury ? who secured lower tariffs and who purchased the Oregon territory. In sentences which begin with participle phrase its preferable to place noun directly after the comma. In this sentence instead of james knox, 'all credited to' comes after the beginning phrase.

Choice C uses proper noun forms (creation of,establishments of ) rather than gerunds (creating, securing etc) and thus avoids the awkwardness of D. However different sentences could be structured in different ways, some times gerunds may be more efficient and economical way of writing a sentence.

shrive555 · Answer

For GMAT purpose i shouldn't dig it too deep, but just curious to know If we take Gerund as subject, would it be right to restructure the sentence as

Creating an independent treasury, securing lower tariffs, and purchasing the Oregon territory are among the significant accomplishments, all credited to the presidency of James Knox , that persuade historians to rank his former governor of Tennessee well as a US president.

Aj85 · Answer

hmm I think that the new sentence that you have constructed is alright. In this sentence 'Creating an independent treasury, securing lower tariffs, and purchasing the Oregon territory' are among the OBJECTS of noun 'accomplishments'. In the previous statements 'Creating an independent treasury, securing lower tariffs, and purchasing the Oregon territory' was looking like awkward modifier. In anyways I think its more about preference based on ways sentences are written. In choice d 'all credited to' coming after initial phrase seemed to be awkward.

LalaB · Answer

nice explanation :wink:

gautammalik · Answer

||sm question.
A - The creation of !|| establishing and purchasing
B - The creation of !|| securing and purchasing
C - the creation || the establishment || the purchase - Correct
D - Creating || securing and purchasing (securing is not given in question stem)
E - Creating an !|| securing of and purchasing of (securing is not given in question stem)

metallicafan · Answer

+1 C

Between a concrete noun (creation) and a gerund (creating), we must choose the first.

Gerunds (without "the") are parallel only with other gerunds of the same type (without "the").

The creation of an independent treasury, establishing lower

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