The Federalist papers, a strong defense of the United States Constitut

Question

The Federalist  papers, a strong defense of the United States Constitution  and important as a body of work in political science as well, represents  the handiwork of three different authors.

(A) and important as a body of work in political science as well, represents

(B) as well as an important body of work in political science, represent

(C) and also a body of work of importance in political science is representing

(D) an important body of work in political science and has been representative of

(E) and as political science an important body of work too, represent

The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 10th Edition, 2003

Practice Question  
Question No.: SC 213
Page: 686

Hint:   check parallelism + subject-verb agreement

Poll:   Is it a good idea to add hints with the questions posted on this forum ? please feel free to tell your opinions.

prasi55 · Accepted Answer

"Federalist Papers" would be a proper noun, and hence, singular.

But the "p" in "papers" is not capitalised. So "Federalist" functions as an adjective to the noun/subject "papers", which is plural. So you need "represent".

--Prasad

DmitryFarber · Answer

In the phrase "a strong defense," the adjective "strong" modifies the noun "defense."

In the phrase "important as a body of work," the adjective "important"  is modified  by the following part, "as a body of work." (The word "as" makes this a modifier.) So the whole thing is an adjectival phrase, referring to what? The Federalist Papers.

So in A, we have one noun (defense) and one adjective (important). This is not parallel. The only two choices that give us another noun phrase to match the first are B & C. C does not even resemble a sentence ("The FP, a strong defense and also a body of work is representing???"), so we're left with B.

abhijit_sen · Answer

a) since each of them were
Wrong. Each of them was not were.

b) since they were each
Wrong. each will be advocate of constitution not advocates.

c) since all of them were
"them" is not clear.

d) each of which was
each will be advocate of constitution not advocates.

e) because all of the men were
Seems OK.

IMO E.

PrashantPonde · Answer

Yes "and also" is wordy and certainly not preferred in correct answer choice. You will also see few problems/explanations in OG eliminating answer choices with "and also" as wordy.

gmatter0913 · Answer

What is the source of this question?
Isn't 'The Federalist Papers' a collective noun, and therefore shouldn't it be singular?

KyleWiddison · Answer

Collective nouns are singular nouns that represent a group. Examples include family, army, company, etc.

In this case the papers are emphasized, so we use the plural form. If we had changed the sentence to use a collective noun we would use a singular verb - The collection of Federalist Papers is one of the most important historical works from the Early American Era. in this example, collection is the collective noun and the focus is on the group, not the papers themselves.

We can do the same with family. My family is driving me crazy. (collective) The members of my family are driving me crazy. (plural)

KW

lalania1 · Answer

SPLIT1) SVA. THE SUBJECT OF THE SENTENCE IS "THE FEDERALIST" AND "PAPERS" IS A WORD DESCRIBING IT, "PAPERS" IS NOT PART OF THE SUBJECT BECAUSE IT IS NOT CAPITALIZED, THAT IS WHY THE SUBJECT SHOULD HAVE A PLURAL VERB BECAUSE OF THE WORD "PAPERS" DESCRIBING IT. A, C AND D ARE OUT.

SPLIT2) PARALLELISM. "A STRONG DEFENSE" MUST BE PARALLEL WITH WORD CONSTRUCTION SUCH AS "AN IMPORTANT BODY". E IS OUT

SPLIT3) OPTION "D" MISSES CONJUNCTION "AND" AFTER THE WORD "CONSTITUTION" . D IS OUT.

SPLIT4) OPTION "C" THE WORDS "IS REPRESENTING" CHANGES THE MEANING AND SOUNDS WEIRD.

DmitryFarber · Answer

lalania1 , if the word "papers" were really just modifying "Federalist," then we wouldn't be able to use it to determine singular/plural. Only the subject affects that decision! However, the subject is "The Federalist papers," hence the plural noun. If anything, we can see "Federalist" as a modifier, but it might be simpler in this case to think of the whole thing as a noun phrase. Similarly, we'd use the plural when talking about "the Godfather movies" or "the Star Wars movies." The movies are plural, and the titles tell us which movies we're referring to.

MikeHelios · Answer

hi guys

in option B had 'and' replaced 'as well as' in the starting of the sentence, would it still be right?

DmitryFarber · Answer

MikeHelios , that would be fine. "And" is the most common parallelism marker--we'd still be saying that the papers were "a strong defense" AND "and important body of work."

saathvik94 · Answer

Can someone give a clear explanation?

Abhishek009 · Answer

The Federalist papers , a strong defense of the United States Constitution as well as an important body of work in political science,  represent the handiwork of three different authors.

Must be (B)

Ted2007 · Answer

I got this wrong twice and still have no idea why.
I was really tempted to choose B, because of the parallel structure, but what drove me away is that it the paper was refer as an defense of...., which is a singular noun, and yet b used a plural verb for it. That's why I finally choose a as answer, in spite of the clearly lack of parallelism.

Can some one hind some light why the papers can be referred as a singular collection while at the same time seen as plural noun.

Posted from my mobile device

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

The easier thing to look for here at first is the  Subject Verb Agreement .

Now the subject here is not  singular  but plural. Notice the word ‘papers’ that isn’t in italics, which means that it is not the name of the document under discussion.

We need the verb ‘ represent ’ to go with this subject.

Scan the options and eliminate choices that flout the SVA:

A) and important as a body of work in political science as well,  represents

(B) as well as an important body of work in political science,  represent

(C) and also a body of work of importance in political science is  representing

(D) an important body of work in political science and  has been representative of

(E) and as political science an important body of work too,  represent

Eliminate Options A, C and D.

Two options with ‘represent’. 
Let’s look at  Option E

We can now check for parallelism. In Option E it says ‘as political science’ which changes the meaning of the sentence.

Eliminate Option E.

Option B is the best choice.

Hope this helps!

Bunuel · Answer

The correct answer is given in the original post under the spoiler as well as in the posts above. It's B.

mba757 · Answer

Hello experts!

Within A and E, are the phrases "as well as" and "too" (respectively) redundant? It seems to be so, but I'm not 100% certain. If it were, would it be a valid reason to eliminate them as an answer choice? Moreover, if it's not, why not?

blaze111 · Answer

(A) and important as a body of work in political science as well, represents
 
At first the subject might seem to be the federalist papers but pay attention sure "the federalist" is italicize and "papers" are not. Hence 'the federalist' is an adjective to 'papers'. papers is a plural subject so we need a plural verb for that which is represent instead of represents.
 Hence A is out.

(B) as well as an important body of work in political science, represent 
 Correct
 
 (C) and also a body of work of importance in political science is representing 
 The use of 'also' after 'and' ruins the parallelism between United States constitution and body of work of importance.

there is one more error in this option 'is representing' is a present continuous tense which cannot be used to state a fact.

( D) an important body of work in political science and has been representative of 
This is a very awkward construction. There is no "," before 'an important body' this forces us to think what this sentence is modifying.

(E) and as political science an important body of work too, represent 
The use of 'as' is usually before a verb and not a noun. Also the uses of 'too' makes it wordy and redundant

Hit kudos if you understood.
Motivation helps to continue Helping!

LIBERTYRodP · Answer

Here's my explanation sc2.png

SebaRaffa · Answer

Papers … represent

Hence, A, and C, which lacks a comma, can be excluded

D lacks a parallel structure

between B and E

E uses and as, political science an important body of work too, making the sentence awkward and not parallel

Therefore B is the best answer choice

The Federalist papers, a strong defense of the United States Constitut

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The Federalist papers, a strong defense of the United States Constitut

Prep Toolkit

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

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From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

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