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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 09 Apr 2017, 06:14
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"Enhance athletes performance" is wrong diction. It should be "athletes' performance" with an apostrophe. In addition, "them" refers to the programs rather than the athletes as already pointed out.
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 14 Aug 2017, 23:47
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mikemcgarry
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Hello. mikemcgarry,
Another one...
I was hesitating between C and E.
I couldn't find meaning differences between them, and picked C. As I found it concise.
Why is C wrong?

Thanks again.... and again... :)
Dear nahid78,

I'm happy to respond. :-) Here's the question with (C) & (E).

The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex where final tryouts are held for athletes representing the United States in the Olympics, is geared toward enhancing athletes' performance and toward their preparation for international competition.

C) are geared to enhance athletes' performance and their preparation

E) are geared toward enhancing the performance of athletes and preparing them

Part of this is the parallelism and part of this is the idiom.

In the original, notice there are two actions
(1) enhancing athletes' performance
(2) their preparation
The prompt does not do a good job of presenting those two in parallel. Choice (E) does an excellent job of putting them in parallel, whereas (C) changes their relationship--in (C), the action of "enhancing" applies to both parts, "athletes' performance and their preparation." This is a small change to the meaning.

Also, when the verb "gear" is used metaphorically, it idiomatically takes the preposition "toward." The construction "geared toward" sounds natural, whereas the construction "geared to" sounds awkward. I want to emphasize that this is an idiom that appears relatively infrequently--one might take 100 GMATs in a row and never see a question involving this particular idiom.

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)
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Dear Mike,
I have a doubt in C. I think 'their' is properly referring to athletes here as possessive pronoun can refer to possessive noun. Please confirm.
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 15 Aug 2017, 17:27
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anje29
Dear Mike,
I have a doubt in C. I think 'their' is properly referring to athletes here as possessive pronoun can refer to possessive noun. Please confirm.
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Dear anje29,

I'm happy to respond. :-)

Yes, the possessive pronoun "their" has, as its antecedent, the possessive noun "athletes'." Usually, possessive nouns can't be antecedents, but they can be antecedents of possessive pronouns.

Mike :-)
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 16 Aug 2017, 07:48
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The sports medicine programs of the Olympic Training Centre is geared toward enhancing athletes' performance and toward their preparation for international competition.

a) ....
b) is geared to enhance performance of athletes and to prepare them.
c) are geared to enhance athletes' performance and their preparation.
d) are geared toward the enhancement of athletes' performance and toward preparing them.
e) are geared toward enhancing the performance of athletes and preparing them.
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 27 Dec 2017, 12:57
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I am very confused.
There is a rule that complex and simple gerund phrases are never parallel.

I thought that 'enhancing the performance' is a complex gerund, and 'preparing them' is a simple form of it. Isn't that true?

Can you explain please?
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 27 Dec 2017, 14:53
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maria14ac
I am very confused.
There is a rule that complex and simple gerund phrases are never parallel.

I thought that 'enhancing the performance' is a complex gerund, and 'preparing them' is a simple form of it. Isn't that true?

Can you explain please?
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Hello maria14ac,

I will be glad to help you out with this one. :-)

The very basic principle of parallelism is that those elements make a parallel list that has the same role in a sentence.


Now, the rule says that a conventional noun entity CANNOT be parallel to a verb-ing form of the noun (commonly known as gerund). The reason is that a conventional noun denotes a person, place, or thing. But a gerund denotes an action.


However, this is not the case we find in Choice E of this official sentence.

Choice E says: XYZ are geared toward
    enhancing the performance of athletes and
    preparing them for international competition


Both the entities are gerunds and hence, are parallel. There being gerunds is enough to make them parallel.


Hope this helps. :-)
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 04 Jun 2018, 06:38
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mikemcgarry
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Hello. mikemcgarry,
Another one...
I was hesitating between C and E.
I couldn't find meaning differences between them, and picked C. As I found it concise.
Why is C wrong?

Thanks again.... and again... :)
Dear nahid78,

I'm happy to respond. :-) Here's the question with (C) & (E).

The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex where final tryouts are held for athletes representing the United States in the Olympics, is geared toward enhancing athletes' performance and toward their preparation for international competition.

C) are geared to enhance athletes' performance and their preparation

E) are geared toward enhancing the performance of athletes and preparing them

Part of this is the parallelism and part of this is the idiom.

In the original, notice there are two actions
(1) enhancing athletes' performance
(2) their preparation
The prompt does not do a good job of presenting those two in parallel. Choice (E) does an excellent job of putting them in parallel, whereas (C) changes their relationship--in (C), the action of "enhancing" applies to both parts, "athletes' performance and their preparation." This is a small change to the meaning.

Also, when the verb "gear" is used metaphorically, it idiomatically takes the preposition "toward." The construction "geared toward" sounds natural, whereas the construction "geared to" sounds awkward. I want to emphasize that this is an idiom that appears relatively infrequently--one might take 100 GMATs in a row and never see a question involving this particular idiom.

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)
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Dear mikemcgarry,
I seem to encounter a problem regarding the noun "Special Training Programs". Although i know that programs is a plural, on a deeper look, I observed that the first letter of the 3 words start with a capital. Special Training Programs. This means that "Special Training Programs" is a singular noun. So I moved on to options A and B. Please clarify. I need your help in this.
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 15 Jun 2018, 14:00
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tarek99
The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex where final tryouts are held for athletes representing the United States in the Olympics, is geared toward enhancing athletes' performance and toward their preparation for international competition.

(A) is geared toward enhancing athletes' performance and toward their preparation

(B) is geared to enhance the performance of athletes and to prepare them

(C) are geared to enhance athletes' performance and their preparation

(D) are geared toward the enhancement of athletes' performance and toward preparing them

(E) are geared toward enhancing the performance of athletes and preparing them
Show more


Correct Answer E.

The Sports Medicine Programs.....are - SV agreement

enhancing......and preparing - Parallelism


Thanks,
GyM
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 16 Jun 2018, 02:35
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Split: is / are.
Here is the subject is "The Sports Medicine Programs" which is plural. So, we should use are.

(A) is geared toward enhancing athletes' performance and toward their preparation - Incorrect SV agreement

(B) is geared to enhance the performance of athletes and to prepare them - Incorrect SV agreement

(C) are geared to enhance athletes' performance and their preparation - parallelism problem

(D) are geared toward the enhancement of athletes' performance and toward preparing them - parallelism problem

(E) are geared toward enhancing the performance of athletes and preparing them -
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 14 Dec 2018, 06:33
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VeritasKarishma
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hey


If I were to re word it... Athletes ' performance and athletes ' preparation ( Choice C )

Their is possessive pronoun .. so certainty refers to athletes ' ....

So why is this not PARALLEL ?

Kindly explain

Responding to a pm:

Look at the main sentence (remove the modifiers, bring it down to essentials)
The programs are geared to enhance athletes' performance and their preparation for international competition.

The programs can enhance performance of the athletes but they cannot enhance the preparation of the athletes. The programs can prepare the athletes for international competition. Focus on the meaning.
Hence the parallel elements have to be 'enhancing the performance of athletes' and 'preparing them'
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why (C) is wrong? I think it is grammatically correct. how does (c) changes meaning?

Posted from my mobile device
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 23 Jan 2019, 05:39
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daagh
Since there is apostrophe in C how it is wrong ?
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 23 Jan 2019, 06:48
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teaser

Quote:
The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex where final tryouts are held for athletes representing the United States in the Olympics, is geared toward enhancing athletes' performance and toward their preparation for international competition.

(C) are geared to enhance athletes' performance and their preparation

(E) are geared toward enhancing the performance of athletes and preparing them
Show more

The programs do two things
1, enhancing the performance
2. preparing the athletes.

Both of them separate issues as signified in choice E.
However, C deviates from this perception

C says -- The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex where final tryouts are held for athletes representing the United States in the Olympics are geared to enhance athletes' performance and their preparation for international competition.

1. The Sports Medicine Programs are geared (to enhance athletes' performance)
2. and The Sports Medicine Programs are geared their preparation.

Therefore, when read with the non-underlined part, the second part doesn't make sense.

You can also parse the same sentence in another way.

1. The Sports Medicine Programs are geared to enhance (athletes' performance)
2. and The Sports Medicine Programs are geared to enhance their preparation ---Here enhancing their preparation is not correct.
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 09 Mar 2019, 13:50
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tarek99
The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex where final tryouts are held for athletes representing the United States in the Olympics, is geared toward enhancing athletes' performance and toward their preparation for international competition.

(A) is geared toward enhancing athletes' performance and toward their preparation - SV agreement error: The Sports Medicine Programs... is?

(B) is geared to enhance the performance of athletes and to prepare them - SV agreement error: The Sports Medicine Programs... is?

(C) are geared to enhance athletes' performance and their preparation - "their" can't refer to athletes, because it's not in the sentence!

(D) are geared toward the enhancement of athletes' performance and toward preparing them - "them" can't refer to athletes

(E) are geared toward enhancing the performance of athletes and preparing them - Correct!
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Answer is E
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 26 May 2020, 20:45
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ANS-E



A,B out because of SV agreement issues.



C,D,E--------- the correct usage is gear toward/s more idiomation.



C) out.



D vs E....



D) issues with parellelism.. 'the enhancement' is an action noun.. and preparing is a simple gerund...... out.



E) correct choice.
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 25 Jan 2021, 02:55
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex where final tryouts are held for athletes representing the United States in the Olympics, is geared toward enhancing athletes' performance and toward their preparation for international competition.

(A) is geared toward enhancing athletes' performance and toward their preparation Singular "is" incorrectly used for plural subject "The Sports Medicine Programs". Eliminate.

(B) is geared to enhance the performance of athletes and to prepare them Singular "is" incorrectly used for plural subject "The Sports Medicine Programs". Eliminate.

(C) are geared to enhance athletes' performance and their preparation The correct idiom is "geared toward" and not "geared to". Eliminate.

(D) are geared toward the enhancement of athletes' performance and toward preparing them "enhancement" and "preparing" are not parallel. Eliminate.

(E) are geared toward enhancing the performance of athletes and preparing them Correct answer - above errors corrected and no new errors introduced.

Hope this helps.
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 27 Nov 2021, 07:06
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EducationAisle isn't "The Sports Medicine Programs" is a proper noun right? so shouldn't a proper noun be treated as a singular one?
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 27 Nov 2021, 08:38
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Hoozan
EducationAisle isn't "The Sports Medicine Programs" is a proper noun right? so shouldn't a proper noun be treated as a singular one?
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Yeah..if that were the case, I would, at the very least, have expected "The Sports Medicine Programs" to be either in quotes or italicized.
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 27 Nov 2021, 21:26
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yellowjacket
Since the subject of the sentence is "The Sports Medicine Programs", you correctly identified that the corrected sentence needs to begin with "are". So, that narrows it down to C,D,E.

As for the question of C vs. E

C: "Athletes' performance and their preparation" is incorrect because it should be "Athletes' performance and preparation"

D: Similar issue to D, since it uses them

In E, there are no issues and thus it's the correct answer.
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I dont think so. both "is" and " are " is good because if we consider the first phrase is a proper name, " is" can be good.
so, if we focus on meaning , we dont have to think about "is" or "are" and gmat will never test us this point. gmat test the basic points though this basic can be hard .

"geared to do" is not idiomatic. this phrase is no sense too. because the program can not enhance but it is geared to enhancing.
paralelism is needed ,so, choice e is good
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 30 Nov 2021, 21:10
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mikemcgarry

Hello sir,
My question is that in “Sports Medicine Program” P is in capital letters so should not it be treated as singular?

Thanks and regards
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The Sports Medicine Programs of the Olympic Training Center, a complex 30 Nov 2021, 23:09
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Hoozan ramuramu1838

Has someone been telling you that proper nouns are always singular? That is in no way true. It is very common for names of bands (The Beatles), teams (The Yankees), geographical features (The Himalayas, The Great Lakes), and other proper nouns to be plural. However, it depends on the exact type of word and the situation. For instance, countries are generally singular even when their names seem plural. We'd say "The Marshall Islands is a beautiful country," but if we were talking about the islands themselves, we might use a plural: "I have visited several of the Marshall Islands." Similarly, we use a singular for titles, but that's because if we say "Star Wars is not realistic," we are talking about the movie (or movie franchise), not the actual wars or the entire set of movies (for that, we'd have to say "The Star Wars movies"). There are also well-known collective nouns that are referred to in singular. We say "The CDC is recommending that . . . " even though the name of the organization is the Centers (plural!) for Disease Control.

In the case of the sentence at hand, we are talking about a set of programs. "The Sports Medicine Programs" is not the title of a book or film, for example. Honestly, I don't see why the capitals are there. If that's really in the official question, I'd say it's a questionable choice. Even if we want to capitalize the name of the field (Sports Medicine), it doesn't make sense to capitalize "programs." So that may be feeding in to the confusion, but all the same, if we have multiple programs, we need a plural verb.
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