jlgdr wrote:
But isn't 'due to' = 'caused by'?
Then if we replaced caused by in the sentence it wouldn't make any sense
Please advice Mike
Cheers!
J
Dear
jlgdr,
I'm happy to respond.
This is a very tricky diction point, and so many people get this wrong in colloquial English. The GMAT loves to trap people on this one. You can read some background here:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-idiom ... nsequence/The basic idea is: the word "
due" is an adjective, a noun-modifier, so the phrase "
due to" can only modify a noun, NOT a verb or a clause. It's very different from the preposition "
because of", which acts as a verb-modifier. While both phrases indicate the cause of something, their grammatical use is different. We can say:
"
Because of rain, the picnic was canceled."
The "because of" phrase modifies the action, the verb. By contrast:
"
Due to rain,
the picnic was canceled."
That sentence is flat out incorrect. "
Due to" has to modifier a noun, and like all noun-modifiers, it is bound by the
Modifier Touch Rule. Here, the sentence is illogically suggesting that picnic itself was caused by rain, and that this picnic caused by rain was canceled. That's not the intended meaning at all. This latter sentence would pass as 100% acceptable in spoken English, and some folks would even consider it more sophisticated.
The structure "
caused by" is not a structure I have ever seen on official GMAT material. I suppose it could show up. The structure "
due to" is definitely more formal and more sophisticated.
In this question, I believe I misspoke above. The structure "
X is due to Y" is 100% correct. Here, though, re-reading it carefully now, I see what we have is "
X is magnified due to Y", an incorrect use of "
due to" as a verb modifier. That's a problem. There's a great deal I don't like about this question: I don't think adheres to the high standards of the GMAT.
Does all this make sense?
Mike
_________________
Mike McGarry
Magoosh Test PrepEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. — William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)