The Head of Operations, after seeing the damage caused by the corrosiv

Question

The Head of Operations, after seeing the damage caused by the corrosive substance,  shouted and berated the forklift drivers who dropped the barrel .

(A) shouted and berated the forklift drivers who dropped the barrel

(B) shouted at and berated the forklift driver who dropped the barrel

(C) shouted at and berated the forklift drivers who dropped the barrels

(D) shouted at and berated the forklift drivers who dropped the barrel

(E) shouted and berated the forklift driver who dropped the barrels

IanStewart · Accepted Answer

There's no way to guess which nouns should be singular and which should be plural here (perhaps several drivers can't drop one barrel, though I'm not even sure of that, but any other combination of singular and plural makes perfect sense). And the verb "shout" does not  require  a preposition. Someone can shout, or someone can shout *at* someone or something. You can say "He shouted and ate the salad" or "He shouted at and ate the salad", and both are perfectly grammatical sentences, just with very different meanings. But in this sentence, either meaning could be right. I often run into prep company questions with no right answers, or with two right answers, but this might be the first one I've seen with five right answers. Not a good question.

ankitpal10 · Answer

Ans: B

This question uses a Split Construction (shouted and berated) in which the first verb requires a preposition (one cannot shout the forklift drivers, one can only shout at the forklift drivers), but the preposition 'at' is missing.

Choice B corrects the split construction mistake and does not make any other unnecessary changes, unlike C, D & E.

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

The Head of Operations, after seeing the damage caused by the corrosive substance,  shouted and berated the forklift drivers who dropped the barrel .

(A) shouted and berated the forklift drivers who dropped the barrel

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect.

It uses a Split Construction ( shouted and berated ) in which the first verb requires a preposition (one cannot shout the forklift drivers, one can only shout at the forklift drivers), but the preposition at is missing.

What helps us identify this question as a Split Construction question and identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign:

A split construction: Verb A + and/or + Verb B + object

(B) shouted at and berated the forklift driver who dropped the barrel

It uses a Split Construction ( shouted and berated ) in which the first verb requires a preposition (one cannot shout the forklift drivers, one can only shout at the forklift drivers), but the preposition at is missing.

What helps us identify this question as a Split Construction question and identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign:

A split construction: Verb A + and/or + Verb B + object

This answer choice corrects the Split Construction mistake and does not make any other unnecessary changes.

(C) shouted at and berated the forklift drivers who dropped the barrels

While this answer choice corrects the original Split Construction mistake, it changes the meaning of the original sentence by replacing  barrels  with  barrel

and *driver* with *drivers*.

(D) shouted at and berated the forklift drivers who dropped the barrel

While this answer choice corrects the original Split Construction mistake, it changes the meaning of the original sentence by replacing  driver  with  drivers .

(E) shouted and berated the forklift driver who dropped the barrels

This answer choice repeats the original Split Construction mistake.

It uses a Split Construction ( shouted and berated ) in which the first verb requires a preposition (one cannot shout the forklift drivers, one can only shout at the forklift drivers), but the preposition at is missing.

Moreover, one cannot *berate* at someone or something, one berates someone or something, so no **preposition** should be used after the second verb, in this case.

What helps us identify this question as a Split Construction question and identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign:

A split construction: Verb A + and/or + Verb B + object

arjunnath · Answer

After elimination, I am down to B, C and D. Though I did select B ( assuming  one driver one barrel).

I want to understand how can we be certain that more than one forklift driver was not handling more than one barrel?

Two drivers can be needed to handle One barrel or Two drivers can be needed to handle Two barrels.
As the  damaging corrosive substance  is singular in nature and could be present in both the barrels.

Can someone please help me understand this? 
Thanks in advance.

ShaikhMoice · Answer

Just 1 question though 
Original sentence has drivers hence correct answer should be  D & not B

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  ShaikhMoice ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, arguably, the use of "drivers" in Option A is a mistake in itself; it does not make much sense to say that   multiple   forklift drivers dropped a   single   barrel; one barrel would not require two or more forklifts to lift.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

The Head of Operations, after seeing the damage caused by the corrosiv

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The Head of Operations, after seeing the damage caused by the corrosiv

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