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avigutman
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The Quechuans believed that all things participated in both the materi 13 Feb 2023, 18:32
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JulieLama
avigutman

Here's an analogy:
(C) I get sunlight directly through this window.
(D) I get direct sunlight through this window.
Grammatically they're both perfectly fine. But they mean different things. Which of those do you think is the more likely, more sensible meaning?


avigutman
I think in this case C is the more sensible because it means that I get sunlight and the sunlight comes directly through this window. whereas I think D means we get direct sunlight as if thee could be indirect sunlight. In case of contact we can have direct contact and indirect contact but not in case of sunlight so option C seems better in this e.g
However, I'm really struggling to understand the difference in meaning between C and D in original question posted. I want to understand the difference in terms of meaning . Can you please help to understand it ? Thanks.
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Hi JulieLama, Here's an article in a medical journal with "direct sunlight" in the title.
Getting sunlight directly through a window doesn't have any meaning in my opinion. What would it look like to get sunlight indirectly through a window??
Regarding the original problem:
(C) people claimed to have contact with the mystical level of reality directly through a dream.
Can you try to explain what it means to have contact with something directly through a dream? perhaps in contrast with having contact with something indirectly through a dream?
I, for one, have no idea what that means nor how to explain the difference between the two. Seems like a nonsense statement to me (similar to getting sunlight directly through a window, in contrast with getting sunlight indirectly through a window).
(D) people claimed to have direct contact with the mystical level of reality by means of a dream.
This makes a lot more sense: you can have direct contact with things and you can have indirect contact with things (asking friends to give other people messages for you).
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The Quechuans believed that all things participated in both the materi 21 Mar 2023, 14:27
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GMATNinja could you please explain why the C option is not right here? I think there is a difference of meaning in options (C) and (D), but the meaning of the original sentence must be given higher priority?
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The Quechuans believed that all things participated in both the materi 22 Mar 2023, 06:43
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SAHILROXX
GMATNinja could you please explain why the C option is not right here? I think there is a difference of meaning in options (C) and (D), but the meaning of the original sentence must be given higher priority?
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Hi SAHILROXX,

If by "original sentence" you mean option A, there is nothing special about the underlined portion of the sentence. It is the nonunderlined portion that must be assumed to be correct.
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The Quechuans believed that all things participated in both the materi 27 Mar 2023, 07:25
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SAHILROXX
[url=https://gmatclub.com:443/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&un=GMATNinja%5D%5Bb%5DGMATNinja%5B/b%5D%5B/url%5D could you please explain why the C option is not right here? I think there is a difference of meaning in options (C) and (D), but the meaning of the original sentence must be given higher priority?
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I'll echo Ajitesh here: there's nothing special about (A). It's one of five options, and your job is to pick the best of the five.

And this question is a good illustration of why it wouldn't make sense to have to preserve the meaning of (A): it's less clear/logical than some alternatives! (What is "it" here?) We wouldn't want to preserve an error just because it happens to show up first!

The problem with (C), as the late, great Daagh pointed out, is the use of "directly." Because "directly" is an adverb, it has to modify a verb or an adjective. The only thing it could be describing here is the action "claimed." But it makes far more sense to talk about "direct contact" with a form of reality -- as we see in (D) -- than to say that they "claimed" directly.

So that's the problem with (C). It's less logical than (D), which is our answer.

I hope that helps!
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The Quechuans believed that all things participated in both the materi 24 Sep 2023, 06:02
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Option Elimination -

(A) contact with it directly with - "it" is ambiguous. "It" can refer to the "material level" or "the mystical level."
(B) direct contact with it by way of - "it" is ambiguous. "It" can refer to the "material level" or "the mystical level."
(C) contact with the latter directly through - Here; the verb is "claimed." "to have contact" is a verbal and not a verb. "Contact" is a noun. "Directly" is an adverb (adverb modifies verbs, adjectives, or another adverb), and adverbs never modify nouns. Moreover, there is a technical difference in using "through" and "by". "Through" suggests moving from one point to another, often indicating a journey. E.g., She made her way through the crowd. "By" suggests using a particular method to achieve a result. E.g., The report was sent by email. In this question, the method is a dream and not a journey. So "by" is preferred.
(D) direct contact with the latter by means of - "direct" adjective used to modify the noun "contact." "By" is preferred; suggest using a particular method to achieve the result.
(E) contact directly with the mystical level due to - the "directly" adverb to modify the noun "contact" is wrong. Moreover, "due to" is only used to modify nouns. In this option, "due to" or "because of" is incorrect. But as a thumb rule, "Because" of is used to modify actions, and "due to" is used to modify nouns (not necessarily the noun after it but before it as well).
"Due to" is an adjective phrase that modifies nouns or pronouns. It is used to explain the cause or reason for something. It is recommended to use "due to" only
1. when it directly follows a form of the verb "to be" (e.g., is, are, was, were) AND
2. modifies a Noun.
Eg. The cancellation (NOUN) of the event was due to bad weather. The "Due to" adjective phrase modifies the noun "The cancellation" and explains the reason for "bad weather."

"Because of" is a prepositional phrase that functions as an adverbial. It explains an ACTION or the reason for an ACTION.
Eg. The flight was delayed because of heavy traffic. Here, "Because of" explains the action of "delay," and the reason was " heavy traffic."
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