The policy of “Nationalism” has been around since 1975 when officials

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION



• Split #1- BEGUN
-- begun is never a verb by itself. Alone, it is only a past participle (a verbED).
-- BEGUN must be accompanied by a helping (auxiliary) verb: had begun, would have begun, have begun

Options C, D, and E use begun. Eliminate them

• Split #2 - IF
-- we do not use IF to evaluate alternatives
Example: In context ABC, I worry about whether to stay silent or to say something.
Alternatives? → I WILL speak up or I will NOT speak up.
Wrong: I worry about if I should stay silent or speak up.

-- IF is used for conditionals and hypotheticals

-- The officials began to worry about whether the citizens felt enough patriotism or whether the the citizens did not feel enough patriotism.
(On the GMAT, whether OR NOT is redundant. Whether, by itself, implies an alternative.)

Option B incorrectly uses IF. Eliminate B.

The answer is A.

OTHER ISSUES

• time sequence?
In case you are wondering about time sequence, this sentence describes a regime that is still in power (think, e.g., North Korea). The policy of nationalism has been around since 1975 (it's still around).

•option C is too restrictive or not clear in meaning.
The other four options say
many of the officials

Option C says: "officials ... who equate..."
-- that construction probably means (1) all officials equate. But it could also mean
(2) only the officials who equate patriotism with XYZ began to worry.
If (2), are there many of them? Just two or three? We don't know. The idea that many of the officials worried gets lost.

• "worry about" is idiomatic, but "worry whether" is accepted in most high-level publications. I would not dismiss an option on the basis of "worry whether" unless I were down to two good answers and one said "worry about." I would pick the latter.

COMMENTS

Welcome, lacktutor to SC Butler.
Glad to see everyone.

Kudos to all.
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generis

Please indicate the underlined portion. Though obvious, its quite confusing while analyzing
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Done. Thank you.
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The policy of “Nationalism” has been around since 1975, when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest about whether the country’s citizens were patriotic enough.

(A) when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest about whether - correct answer

(B) when officials in the country—many ofthem equating patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest if

(C) when officials in the country who equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies begun worrying in earnest if - wrong modification

(D) when officials in the country—many of which equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whether

(E) when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whether - wrong tense

[quote="generis"]


The policy of “Nationalism” has been around since 1975, when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest about whether the country’s citizens were patriotic enough.

Issues - Whether Vs If ; to worry Vs worrying;

Whether - Used for comparing 2 things - Patriotic enough or not enough - Correct usage
If- used for conditional (if.. then..) of for comparing more than 2 - Incorrect usage

To worry - Since X, Began to worry - correct
Since X, begun Worrying - Incorrect

Whom (objective) is this correct? Any thoughts?

(A) when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest about whether - Correct, Unsure about the usage of whom

(B) when officials in the country—many of them equating patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest if - If error

(C) when officials in the country who equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies begun worrying in earnest if If error

(D) when officials in the country—many of which equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whethermany of which to refer to officials is wrong

(E) when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whether to worry is better[/color]

The policy of “Nationalism” has been around since 1975, when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest about whether the country’s citizens were patriotic enough.

(A) when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest about whether
correct

(B) when officials in the country—many of them equating patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest if
"began to worry in earnest" should be followed by whether since the statement implies "whether the country’s citizens were patriotic enough or not"
many of them is also incorrect

(C) when officials in the country who equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies begun worrying in earnest if
"began to worry in earnest" should be followed by whether since the statement implies "whether the country’s citizens were patriotic enough or not"
begun is incorrect. "since ...., X began" should be followed by past tense

(D) when officials in the country—many of which equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whether
many of which is incorrect, should be whom
begun is also wrong, same as C.

(E) when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whether
begun is wrong, same as in C, D.

Option A would be the answer.

Looks good, let's keep it for now.


The major concern is the usage of "if" instead of "whether". On the GMAT "if" is usually (maybe only) used in conditional sentences and we don't have any.

Furthermore, I wouldn't eliminate this choice solely because of "many of them" in place of "many of whom". The second option is a parenthesis that modifies exactly those "officials that began to worry" and IMO it's more accurate than the first option, which is simply a more general information, that many of them (officials) equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies.


It slightly changes the meaning. (C) says that the policy has been around since "officials who equate patriotism" (and only them) began to worry about X. It's not exactly what the sentence wants to convey. We want to say that the policy has been around since officials (in general) started to worry about X and the parenthesis between the dashes provides additional information that many of them equate Y with Z.

And we also have if vs. whether issue.


"Which" that modifies officials (humans) is not cool.



And we are left with (A) and (E) and that's the point where we have a problem.


The dilemma is between began vs. begun (which I purposely ignored earlier) and worrying whether vs. to worry about whether. "To worry about whether" seems to be redundant since IMO we'll do just fine with "worry whether". I saw a scientific article in U.S. National Library of Medicine and some articles in popular press (NYT, Guardian) in which "about" is not used. So, +1 point for (E).
The harder question is whether "begun" (Present Perfect tense) is wrong here. We could say that usage of it makes sense, since this action has begun in the past and it has a connection with present times. Although, IMO in this sentence this action just plays a role of a reference point in the past (the moment when the officials started to worry about), some action that is finished, and we don't need to use Present Perfect tense. Additionally, it'd be better with auxiliary verb "have" (have begun) that's needed in Present Perfect and I'm not sure whether we can borrow this "has" from the beginning of the sentence.

Not easy choice, but following the rule that grammar is more important than concision, I'd go with (A).

There are two parts of the sentences in which grammatical construction rules were used inappropriately:
One of them is using ‘if’ conditional clause. We need to use whether instead of it. Eliminate the answer choices B and C.
The other one is using past participle form of the verb ‘begin’. ‘Begun’ is used wrongly in D and E.
Answer choice is A. There is no grammatical construction issue in this sentence.

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The policy of “Nationalism” has been around since 1975, when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest about whether the country’s citizens were patriotic enough.

(A) when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest about whether - CORRECT

(B) when officials in the country—many of them equating patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest if - Usage of IF is not preferred over Whether

(C) when officials in the country who equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies begun worrying in earnest if - wrong modification - Usage of IF is not preferred over Whether

(D) when officials in the country—many of which equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whether - Which cannot modify people

(E) when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whether - wrongly used Tense

(A) when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest about whether
correct verb began and whether is correctly used to ask a question (CORRECT)

(B) when officials in the country—many of them equating patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest if
if is wrongly used here

(C) when officials in the country who equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies begun worrying in earnest if
if is used in the conditional sentence( use of if is wrong)......begun is wrongly used
whether is used for asking question

(D) when officials in the country—many of which equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whether
which is wrong here -which/that is not used to refer to people
begun -is a past participle we need a verb here began is the correct verb

(E) when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whether
begun is wrongly used here
we need a verb

Sentence Structure
Subject - Verb:

The policy of “Nationalism” has been around since 1975,

when officials in the country

—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—
began to worry in earnest about whether

the country’s citizens were patriotic enough.

Issues:

1) if VS whether
On the GMAT,

Use “if” in a conditional sentence to show that one thing will happen if something else happens.
Use “whether” to show that TWO alternatives are possible.
B and C Incorrect usage of if

2) Began is the simple past conjugation. Began is NOT used with any helping verb.
Begun is the past participle form. Begun MUST always have a helping verb to be correct.

If you have trouble deciding which word to use, remember that begun rhymes with ONE and ALWAYS needs ONE helping verb in grammatically correct English.
I have began attending art classes. – Incorrect
I have begun attending art classes. – Correct
I begun dancing when I was three years old. – Incorrect
I began dancing when I was three years old. – Correct
C, D and E ONLY begun - Gramatically incorrect

Answer choice analysis:

(A) when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest about whether

All issues check. A is the winner!

(B) when officials in the country—many of them equating patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest if

Incorrect usage of if

(C) when officials in the country who equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies begun worrying in earnest if

Incorrect usage of if
ONLY begun - Gramatically incorrect

(D) when officials in the country—many of which equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whether

ONLY begun - Gramatically incorrect
The usage of which to refer to people is wrong.

(E) when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whether

ONLY begun - Gramatically incorrect

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IMO A.

The policy of “Nationalism” has been around since 1975, when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest about whether the country’s citizens were patriotic enough.

(A) when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest about whether - Correct usage of whom and whether. Weather is used to indicate alternatives. Let's park the option

(B) when officials in the country—many of them equating patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest if - If is used incorrectly as it indicates the condition in the sentence.

(C) when officials in the country who equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies begun worrying in earnest if - Verb tense error, Third form of verb can never be used alone (without helping verb) and noun - worrying - incorrectly modifies verb , i.e. begun.

(D) when officials in the country—many of which equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whether - Verb tense error, Third form of verb can never be used alone (without helping verb) and which is incorrectly modifies to officials (human beings).

(E) when officials in the country—many of whom equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whether - Verb tense error, Third form of verb can never be used alone (without helping verb) and noun - worrying - incorrectly modifies verb , i.e. begun.

I have posted an interim official explanation HERE

Can you also explain idioms : Equate...with and equate...to?

Moubani
I'm not sure if one can "explain" idioms - they are what they are. But there's no point in trying to memorize all of them since GMAT always gives us other issues that help us eliminate incorrect answers.

Anyway, why do you want to compare "equate to" with "equate with"? Every answer choice uses "equate with", so there's no such split.

Can someone explain the use of "many of which", "many of whom" in general. Please

I think they are interchangable in common speech, but in general you use "many of whom" when referring to people and "many of which" when referring to things/objects.

generis, thanks for the explanation. Let me put my two cent in.

IMHO, there are much clearer problems in options B, C, and D compared to those that you highlighted (begun vs began). A non-native speaker, who is under the GMAT pressure, might completely miss the subtle difference between "begun" and "began".

There are clear problems in B, C, and D that one can spot easily:

(B) when officials in the country—many of them equating patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—began to worry in earnest if
- them is not appropriate, it is much better to use "whom" (option A); if is also wrong in GMAT when the sentence talks about the option / possibility, and not conditionality.

(C) when officials in the country who equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies begun worrying in earnest if
- if is a clear problem here. Also, one may spot the officials in the country who piece that is also cloudy. Does "who" refer to a noun phrase "officials in the country"?..

(D) when officials in the country—many of which equate patriotism with supporting the government’s policies—begun worrying in earnest whether
- many of which equate ... it is confusing and does not make a lot of sense... Officials should equate patriotism, not the country itself. So, the sentence should have "whom" instead of "which". The modifier is completely messed up here.

One can quickly eliminate the above three options. However, it is hard to decide between A and E in the end... I assume it is fine to say either "began worrying" or "began to worry", but the problem is in begUn in option E.

What are your thoughts? Thank you in advance!

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