The owner of Steele’s Grocery in Osage, Ohio, saved $600 monthly on he

Question

The owner of Steele’s Grocery in Osage, Ohio, saved $600 monthly on heat during the winter by putting all his refrigerator air compressors together in an insulated compartment,  then installing two fans and a duct that carried  waste heat from the compressors into the main part of the store.

(A) then installing two fans and a duct that carried
(B) then he installing two fans and a duct that carried
(C) then two fans were installed with a duct that carried
(D) installing two fans, and then carrying through a duct
(E) installing two fans, and a duct carrying

seofah · Answer

Only A and D can contend for a correct choice.
I will choose D!

You need to look at two things: (i) parts of a sentence that need to be parallel; (ii) meaning of the sentence
 
Let's see both:
(A) The owner of Steele’s Grocery in Osage, Ohio, saved $600 monthly on heat during the winter  by putting  all his refrigerator air compressors together in an insulated compartment,   then    installing  two fans and a duct  that  carried waste heat from the compressors into the main part of the store.

  Although grammatically makes sense, highlighted "that" is referring to "two fans and a duct "; it makes less sense.  

(D) The owner of Steele’s Grocery in Osage, Ohio, saved $600 monthly on heat during the winter  by   putting  all his refrigerator air compressors together in an insulated compartment,  installing  two fans, and then  carrying  through a duct carrying waste heat from the compressors into the main part of the store.

Fistail · Answer

agree it is between A and D but remains with A cuz the owner of Steele’s Grocery installed both fans and duct at the same time.

tsaditya · Answer

I believe D is wrong because it measn the owner himself carried the waste heat through the duct pipes.

Ravshonbek · Answer

The owner of Steele’s Grocery in Osage, Ohio, saved $600 monthly on heat during the winter  by   putting  all his refrigerator air compressors together in an insulated compartment,  then  installing   two fans and a duct  that carried  waste heat from the compressors into the main part of the store.


(A) then  installing  two fans and a duct that carried - keeps parallelism fine. ---  by   putting ...., then i nstalling ..fans and duct... 

(B) then he  installing  two fans and a duct that carried- this one should be past tnense 

(C) then two fans were installed with a duct that carried-  passive, not relevant for GMAT 

(D) installing two fans, and then carrying through a duct- position of DUCT changes the meaning or doesnt give any meaning. since waste goes through duct 

(E) installing two fans, and a duct carrying -  again parallelism is broken 

A. is fine

misterJJ2u · Answer

Even though you want explanations only, i'll clarify that my choice is A.

Now for my reasoning... Upon first glance I'd eliminate choice B and C. (B) "then he installing two fans" is awkward (C) "then two fans were installed" is past tense. The sentence should describe what the owner did to save the $600--by putting X...installing Y... Eliminate (D) for the last part of the clause: "...carrying through a duct waste heat..."? Should be "carried". Between A and E now. Eliminate (E) because it is structured as a list but the last part of the list doesn't work. Putting...,installing...,and a duct? Nope. Left with A. A tells us he saved dough by putting in x and installing n and m that carried waste heat... Sentence A provides us with a correctly placed restrictive clause for m (aka a duct).

GMATBLACKBELT · Answer

Btwn A and E for me. I choose A.

B is akward no need for he.
C: isnt || with "putting"
D: sounded to me like the owner is carrying "it" through the duct, just seemed akward to me.
E: no good explanation for this one, I just chose A

vineetgupta · Answer

A is the best of all evils.
It would be clear if we have an 'and' before then to make it a complete sentence...right now I think its a sentence fragment.

He saved money on heat by X(putting...),then Y(installing two fans and a duct...).... and ??

sidbidus · Answer

Prefer  A  over D for the reason stated above.

aanchoo · Answer

799. The owner of Steele’s Grocery in Osage, Ohio, saved $600 monthly on heat during the winter by putting all his refrigerator air compressors together in an insulated compartment,  then installing two fans and a duct that carried  waste heat from the compressors into the main part of the store.
(A) then installing two fans and a duct that carried
 Implies that Two fans and a duct together carried waste heat  

(B) then he installing two fans and a duct that carried
 Grammatically incorrect. "then he installing" 

(C) then two fans were installed with a duct that carried
 Fans were NOT installed with a duct. Incorrect. 

(D) installing two fans, and then carrying through a duct
 Seems RELATIVELY correct although it implies what tsaditya said. 

(E) installing two fans, and a duct carrying

 See reasoning below. 

In A, B, C, E the construction is 
"...putting X together, then installing Xand Y....."
We are missing an "AND" here before "then".

I agree with tsaditya that it seems as if the owner himself carried the heat but based on the reasoning above, I go with D

alexpiers · Answer

Guys!
Everything is fine with A, except "then".
I think it is not a correct SC problem. If we use then, we should also use first or initially etc...

"First" we did X, "then" Y and Z.

Any ideas?

Capricorn369 · Answer

I'll go with A as mentioned by other folks.

sguptashared · Answer

Clearly A. I don't know who is carrying through the duct in D.

daagh · Answer

Let me analyze A:

How many arms are there in the list?

Let us first say three

1. by putting - a present participle -, 2/ by installing – a present participle 3. And a duct – but duct is not a participle; it is a noun. So where is the parallelism? 
 
Alternately, let us say there are only two.

1. by putting --2. by installing two fans and a duct. Ok so far so good. But if there are only two, then there should be the conjunction ‘and’ between the first and the second arm, namely, after compartment. But it is not there. Is that right?

For the same reason I rule out E.

D maintains the participle forms for all the three arms; although as tsadithya has pointed out, it weirdly suggests that the owner himself carried the waste heat. Still the best of the damn devils

sguptashared · Answer

Here is the Ron's explanation for this question: https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/100 ... t1733.html He also suggested that "AND" be there in A. But D definitely doesn't make any sense.

gautammalik · Answer

Tricky one.
I found answer (A) by POE
(B) Incorrect - then he installing
(C) Incorrect - Passive
(D) Incorrect - fans and duct were installed
(E) Incorrect - incorrect placement of commas

VerbalBot · Answer

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