The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr

Question

The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the country had no choice but to accept help from many other countries,  including those with which they had less than friendly relations. 
A. including those with which they had less than friendly relations
B. including those with which it had less than friendly relations
C. including the countries that they have unfriendly relations with
D. even the countries that they are unfriendly to
E. even from those countries that it has less friendly relations with

Source: McGraw Hill GMAT

nks2611 · Answer

can someone please help me out to understand the option B ,i chose E because i heard that correct idiom is relations with then why it is not mentioned in option B ?
 please help !

thecriticalreader1 · Answer

"Relations with" is the correct idiom, but depending on the context, the preposition does not need to be placed immediately after the noun.

When writers want to avoid ending a sentence/phrase with a preposition, they can use the construction "preposition + which."

End of the sentence: The country was forced to accept help from other countries that it had less than friendly relations  with .

Can be rewritten as:

Preposition + which: The country was forced to accept help from other countries  with which  it had less than friendly relations.

nks2611 · Answer

Thanks thecriticaleader 1, for putting some new knowledge in my dictionary ?

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vikzz7 · Answer

so which is the correct form of sentence writing, because you mentioned it can be rewritten as option B makes both of them correct.
correct me if am wrong.

Nightmare007 · Answer

Here ,
 Including is not a verb+ing modifier, Don't mistake the word for verb+ing - Including is used to showcase examples of just preceding noun. 
 Here it is for countries. 
 Hence, B is apt.
 Coming to E.
 E. even from those countries that it has less friendly relations with - don't you think its a bit awkward and changing meaning - from giving examples to emphasizing or trusting on the countries changing the tone. Moreover, Everything was in past tense in the Question. So why to make it present tense it is saying as if. Till now it has less friendly relations with those countries.

manojhanagandi · Answer

A,C and D are out as 'they, is wrong antecedent for 'country'.
When we compare B and E. 
In B., less than friendly relation is awkward
So E is good ans

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sevenplusplus · Answer

egmat ,  GMATNinja 
Do you think the comma at the end of the first clause wrong here?
The correct statement, in my view, would be:
The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the country had no choice but to accept help from many other countries including those with which it had less than friendly relations.

GMATNinja · Answer

If you gathered 20 professional editors and English style experts into a room, there would be 20 slightly different opinions on when, exactly to use commas. So the GMAT really doesn't waste much time testing the nuances of comma rules -- and it's not something that you need to be terribly worried about, unless the commas clearly affect the meaning of the sentence somehow.

In this particular case, I personally think that the sentence works much better with the comma, but I'm not sure that it would be wrong to omit it. In any case, don't lose much sleep over it -- it's a non-official question, and a comma in this situation would never be the deciding factor on an official GMAT question.

mrinal0308 · Answer

B is the only correct answer.

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mrinal0308 · Answer

This question has less to do with idioms. If you look closely, it not a idiom issue at all. It has everything to with the pronoun use. I have explained above if that helps.

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udaypratapsingh99 · Answer

Isn't "it" reference ambiguous ? Can't "it" refer to the disaster ?

MBAB123 · Answer

UdayPratapSingh99 , pronoun ambiguity arises when the pronoun can refer to 2 logical antecedents. It makes absolutely no sense to say that the disaster had friendly relations with some nations. So, there is no ambiguity here IMO.

The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr

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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr

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