The poorly designed nuclear power generation facilities report

The poorly designed nuclear power generation facilities report, it nevertheless presented a clear picture of a dangerous situation.

A. The poorly designed nuclear power generation facilities report, it nevertheless presented(awkward)

B. As poorly designed as the report on nuclear power generation facilities was, it presented( keep)

C. Poorly designed, the nuclear power generation facilities in the report, yet presenting( poorly designed modifies the nuclear power generation facilities,no verb)

D. The report on nuclear power generation facilities, though poorly designed, yet it presented(what does first phrase modifies)

E. In the poorly designed nuclear power generation facilities report, it nevertheless presented( awkward)

What is the intended meaning?
Is the meaning
There is a report on poorly designed nuclear power generation facilities and the report presents a clear picture of a dangerous situation.
Or
There is a poorly designed report on nuclear power generation facilities yet the report presents a clear picture of a dangerous situation.
Or
The report is as poorly designed as nuclear power generation facilities are,t he report presents a clear picture of a dangerous situation.

Only option worth consideration is B

Experts please throw some light on this question.

Thanks

There is a misconception about Sentence Correction questions that is often repeated. That misconception is that the way to answer them is to determine the intended meaning of the sentence and then find the choice that best expresses that meaning. Sometimes is it said that this "intended meaning" is the meaning expressed by the original version of the sentence.

It is true that, in many Sentence Correction questions, all of the choices do seem to be meant to express the same meaning, and so finding the choice that most effectively expresses that meaning can work fairly well in some cases. However, it is also true that, in many Sentence Correction questions, the choices express a variety of meanings, some of them nonsensical.

The upshot here is that the way to locate the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question is not to look for a version that best expresses some "intended meaning." The way to find the correct answer to a Sentence Correction question is to find the one version that effectively and grammatically expresses a meaning that makes sense.

In the case of this question, as you have noticed, what meaning is meant to be expressed by some of the choices is unclear. Other choices seem meant to express a variety of meanings. Only one version effectively and grammatically expresses a meaning that makes sense.

In (A) and (E), the phrase "poorly designed" could be meant to modify either "nuclear power generation facilities" or "report." So, neither of those choices conveys a clear meaning. Also, in (E), the unclear meaning issue is further compounded by the fact that the pronoun "it" has no clear referent, and so, what "presented the picture" is not clear.

(D) is a complete mess. It seems to express that the report was poorly designed, but the sentence is so poorly constructed that it conveys no clear meaning.

(C) is not a complete sentence, but it does at least convey that the nuclear power generation facilities were poorly designed.

We are left with (B).

(B) is clearly about the report. The pronoun "it" clearly refers to "the report". The singular verb "was" can only work with "report" and not with "facilities."

The second clause in (B) effectively expresses the logical meaning that the report presented a clear picture of a dangerous situation.

So, we are left to discern the meaning of the first part of (B). Here's (B).

B. As poorly designed as the report on nuclear power generation facilities was, it still presented

The first part is not a comparison of the report with the facilities. The first part is a structure that conveys something similar to the following:

"Even though the report on nuclear power generation facilities was poorly designed"

We could shorten the version created via the use of (B) to the following to more clearly see how this structure functions.

As poorly designed as the report was, it still presented a clear picture.

So, the meaning expressed by the best version of the sentence is that, while the report on the facilities was poorly designed, it presented a clear picture.

Of course, had choice (B) been written using a simple dependent clause beginning with "while", close to 100 percent of people would have chosen it. So, like the correct answers to many sentence correction questions, choice (B) is written in a way meant to obscure that it is correct.

daagh please comment on this. OA is really indigestible . Meaning and otherwise. GMATNinja sayantanc2k chetan2u

Aditya
If one can't take a question, then skip it and go to the next. Who is compelling whom in the forum?

daagh
I just realized something and hence I would like to rephrase my comment.
Sir, may I know what made you comment this way? Is it the word "indigestible" ? If so then may I know what made you snap at me that way?

Indigestible meaning( Google) :

indigestible
adjective
1.
(of food) difficult or impossible to digest.
"haute cuisine was largely indigestible to the majority"
2.
too complex or awkward to read or understand easily.
"a turgid and indigestible book"

The second was my meaning and there is no other meaning to it unless someone wants to forge anew one. All I meant (explicitly) was that I m not able to understand this.

Now please tell me what facet or word of my comment made you say?
"If one can't accept... " This sounds too rude to me.

You seemed to be rude right now. But before I make my next comment / post the earlier one, I would like to clear out what you actually intended to say.

This kind of questions comes on GMAT. Am I wrong this exam is about measuring our knowledge, or trying to drive us crazy?

The above question may not be a perfect representation of the Sentence Correction questions that you will see on the GMAT.

All the same, it is a decent question, and you have to be clear about the following.

While knowledge of certain rules of grammar and effective expression can be useful when you are answering Sentence Correction questions, Sentence Correction questions are not meant to test knowledge. The questions are meant to test your skill in determining whether sentences are effective. So, you need to approach Sentence Correction questions appropriately, or yes, they will drive you crazy.

if you just say this ^^, then it make sense, but the problem is in the following comment.

The original poster is perfect scorer (most importantly, MartyMurray is an expert in this forum). If you mention other experts (or any other moderator) just to rectify the experts' post in this way, it looks awkward (somewhat NOT respectful way).

But, I can ensure you that you can mention any expert or moderator (whoever you like most) as there is a option to mention anyone in the forum.
Thanks__

Hey my honorable expert MartyMurray,
Your explanation is very clear to me, but I have still a query on A and E. How do someone convinced that "poorly designed" modifies BOTH nuclear power generation facilities and report" as a non-native?
The above quote helps me to understand the real scenario of this hard question. But, how do someone convinced that the choice B indicates "Even though...."
Thanks__

Even experts sometimes (not always) can make at least some error . I'm not saying this is question is wrong/right. The reason I asked daagh is because his validation is convincing for me. I meant no disrespect. I don't understand how you read English . "Please comment on this" means please have a look at it and present your opinion.

Now in what part of the world does - "please comment on this" mean disrespect. I respect every poster. But even the greatest tutors at magoosh and Manhattan come up with some odd question which MAY not reflect a GMAT standard (again i mean no disrespect) . daagh's explanation are convincing for me so I asked him I meant no disrespect towards Marty. And if he were offended , he would have responded.

Again - " please comment on this " in no world means disrespect.

Also daagh explained his point and he wasn't rude and that is why I asked him first if he was being rude. But he wasn't.

In future if you have any suggestion regarding whomsoever's behaviour , try to message them personally, there is an option available to PM. Please do not try to misinterpret my comment AND also lead others to think I meant what YOU think.

Thank you

Posted from my mobile device

Responses in green above.

Heartfelt thanks with Kudos for your creative example that helps me to understand whole the scenario.

AndrewN, would love to hear your take on this question.

All right, kntombat. In an effort to assist you and the larger community, I will offer my thoughts. I spent under a minute on this one, perhaps because I was tired at the end of a long workday, but perhaps because I find that shorter sentences often reveal errors without as much effort on my part.

Where to begin here? I mean, what is the sentence seeking to convey? Up to the comma, I am led to believe that facilities is the subject and report the verb of a main clause. I am anticipating a direct object (telling me what those facilities report) to follow, perhaps after some sort of interruption. But that direct object never comes. Instead, I get a second contender for a main clause: [The report] presented... I can spend time attempting to subordinate the earlier portion of the sentence, or I can just move on and seek a clearer alternative.

Now, the first portion of the sentence, the one in question from before, has morphed into a subordinate clause, and it can only refer to report, since both power and generation are used as adjectives to modify the plural facilities. The only lingering question is whether the verb could be placed closer to its noun, as in, As poorly designed as the report was.... How many words would have to fall between report and was to justify an earlier placement? This answer is a keeper while we assess the others.

This is another fine thicket of barbs and weeds. For starters, it is unclear what is poorly designed. Is it the facilities or the report on those facilities? Then, what are we to make of yet? What is being contrasted? When I jump across the comma and see yet, I am anticipating some aside as nonsensical as, yet existing in real life. If the sentence were looking to contrast some information with the earlier description of poorly designed, then I would expect yet to appear closer to the modifier: poorly designed, yet.... Finally, there is no sentence here. We get a modifier, a potential subject in facilities, a prepositional phrase, and another phrase that begins with presenting. In short, there is no verb, hence no predicate, in the entire jumble of words and phrases.

Though and yet serve in the same capacity to contrast, so there is a redundancy issue that cannot be ignored. Then, the pronoun it is unwarranted. The subject, the report, has just been named, so we need nothing more than a verb to follow: the report... presented. This should be another easy elimination.

This is a distant second best, and I mean distant. After the introductory phrase, we should get some insight into what the report contained, not another mention of the report itself. The shell of the sentence is saying, In the report, [the report] presented... What kind of a meta-report is this? (I am picturing someone holding a report up to a mirror in a room that has a mirror directly behind that person, creating an infinite series of reflected images.) Also, I let it skate by in (A), since there were other issues to discuss, but nevertheless should be addressed. If it is meant to oppose the earlier modifier poorly designed, then, once again, I would expect it to appear closer to that modifier. Consider how each of the following adds clarity to the sentence:

1) Although the report was poorly designed, it nevertheless...

2) The report, though poorly designed, nevertheless...

In the sentence we are testing, this floating nevertheless butts in in an awkward spot. All things considered, this cannot be our answer.

For the above reasons, (B) is the best choice of the bunch. I had a lot of fun on this one. Thanks to kntombat for bringing the question to my attention, and thanks to Marty Murray for posting it in the first place.

- Andrew

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