gloomybison wrote:
VeritasKarishmaHi Karishma
I find nothing wrong in the option A :
The jab, a boxing technique, although not as impressive as a powerful left-hook, is an underappreciated technique that preserves balance and high mobility, keeping the opponent at a distance, and compromises the other fighter's guard, providing an opportunity for a more powerful strike
Whether we can't accept these two parts, along with their highlighted adverbial phrases, as parallel :
1. preserves balance and high mobility, keeping the opponent at a distance
2. compromises the other fighter's guard, providing an opportunity for a more powerful strike
As far as adverbial phrases are concerned, they seem to be playing their role correctly :
1. The adverbial phrase "keeping the opponent at a distance" modifies the preceding clause "that preserves balance and high mobility" by answering how does it preserve.
2. The adverbial phrase "providing an opportunity for a more powerful strike" modifies the preceding clause "that compromises the other fighter's guard" by letting us know that "compromises the other fighter's guard" results in "providing an opportunity for a more powerful strike".
ı agree with your post
abhishekmayank Hello
gloomybison,
We hope this finds you well.
Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can resolve your doubt.
As VeritasKarishma has written, the error here is one of meaning. Option A uses the "comma + present participle ("verb+ing")" construction "keeping the opponent at a distance"; in doing so, it illogically implies that the jab preserves balance and high mobility, and
in doing so keeps the opponent at a distance; remember, the introduction of present participle ("verb+ing"- “keeping” in this case) after comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship.
If you read closely, you will see that this meaning is illogical; staying well-balanced and highly mobile cannot directly contribute to keeping the opponent at a distance.
Option D conveys a more logical meaning through the phrase "keeps the opponent at a distance, and compromises the other fighter's guard"; this construction places the verbs "preserves", "keeps", and "compromises" in one list, conveying that the jab does three separate and equal things - preserves balance and high mobility, keeps the opponent at a distance, and compromises the other fighter's guard; remember, all elements listed together play the same role in the sentence and are of equal importance.
To understand the concept of Comma plus Present Participle for Cause-Effect relationship on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~3 minutes):
All the best!
Experts' Global Team