The Petroleum distillates were so viscous,.. MGMAT

Question

In MGMAT, there is a question to fix the following setence:
The petroleum distillates were so viscous, the engineers had to heat the pipe by nearly 30 degrees.

The solution as per MGMAT is:
The petroleum distillates were so viscous that the engineers had to heat the pipe by nearly 30 degrees.

Is the following sentence grammatically and meaning-wise correct?

" The petroleum distillates were so viscous; therefore, the engineers had to heat the pipe by nearly 30 degrees."

---- Thanks

Blackbox · Answer

This is an idiom related sentence. "So x... that y"

The idea behind the idiom is to stress the gravity of the situation in the first clause and its result in the second clause. In your example, by separating the two clauses with a semicolon, you have essentially broken their relationship.

Madhavi1990 · Answer

One break is 'so x that y'
The other is to drop therefore and retain semi colon - that would be correct too.

elegantm · Answer

The solution provided by MGMAT is perfectly correct. However, the option created by you is both grammatically and logically incorrect.
 
 "The petroleum distillates were so viscous; therefore, the engineers had to heat the pipe by nearly 30 degrees."
 
 Use of SO in first part leads to a FRAGMENTED sentence.

surojitganguli007 · Answer

There is a question in the Manhattan SC guide as follows:

The petroleum distillates were so viscous, the engineers had to heat the pipe by nearly 30 degrees.

The correct answer in the book is given as:

The petroleum distillates were so viscous that the engineers had to heat the pipe by nearly 30 degrees.

The book states that the original sentence is a run - on

My questions are:
1) What is the grammatical reason behind using 'that' in the correct answer?
2) Isn't the part before ',' a dependent clause and the part after ',' an independent clause?
3) Why is the original statement a run-on?
4) Is there any suggestion on how to know whether to use 'that' in a sentence or not?

I will be extremely grateful if someone can share any input on the above questions.

Nikhil · Answer

All you need to know about "that" is explained by GMATNinja here https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 43686.html

ErikLewe · Answer

This would probably be very easy for a native speaker, as it would probably sound better if something connected the two fragments of the sentence. One key rule for that (especially when used vs which) is that the part that follows the "that" is essential information 1. John passes on beverages that are far too sugary. 2. John passes on beverages, which are far too sugary. See the difference? https://gmat.economist.com/gmat-advice/ ... l-which-vs

The Petroleum distillates were so viscous,.. MGMAT

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