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555-605 Level|   Grammatical/Rhetorical Construction|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|   Modifiers|                        
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 07 Sep 2017, 07:19
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Shiv2016
GMATNinja, mike, and @e-gmat

In the official answer, its written that direct modifiers like with......should be close to what they modify. But with the ultimate goal is not close to the entity it modifies.
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The prepositional phrase modifiers are similar to present participle modifiers - they have two usages:

1. Noun modifier (without comma - modifies the noun it touches):

Present participle: I have a friend working in that company. (underlined modifier refers to "friend")

Prepositional phrase: I have a book with brown cover. (underlined modifier refers to "book")

2. Verb modifier (with comma - refers to the verb of the preceding clause):

Present participle: I walked along the river, whistling my favourite song. (underlined modifier refers to "walked")

Prepositional Phrase: The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most popular resorts, with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ Service. (underlined modifier refers to the verb "has conducted".)

Unlike noun modifiers, verb modifiers can be placed away from the verb they refer to.
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 29 Apr 2018, 10:31
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jaganpani
Here is my reasoning:


A) with the ultimate goal of reducing the guests who end up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the service in the hotels -> The number of guests can be reduced. The guests themselves cannot be reduced. On a funny note, you cannot really reduce their height or something :D So, eliminate.

B) with the goal to ultimately reduce the number of guests who end up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service -> Incorrect modifier 'ultimately'. This modifier should modify 'goal' and not 'reduce'. So, eliminate.

C) ultimately with the goal to reduce expressions of overall dissatisfaction by the guests with the hotel service -> 'goal to reduce expressions' totally distorts the meaning. So, eliminate.

D) in an ultimate attempt to reduce the number of guests that ends up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service -> 'that' cannot be used to refer to people (i.e. guests). So, eliminate.

E) with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service -> By POE, this is the right answer. Though I am not very convinced about the usage of 'with' here. Going by the rule, 'with' should modify resorts here. Resorts don't have any ultimate goal.
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for option B, Why can ultimately not be used before reduce? (comparing B and E)
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 30 Apr 2018, 00:01
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siddreal
for option B, Why can ultimately not be used before reduce? (comparing B and E)
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Hi siddreal, this is because in the original sentence, ultimate modifies goal (implying that the end-goal of surveys is to reduce dissatisfied guests).

B slightly changes the meaning, since ultimately modifies reduce in B (and not goal, as is the intent of the original sentence).
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 26 Oct 2019, 09:32
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soumya170293
E looks more concise and better contender to be the potential answer .

But I 've a doubt

the number of guests - who express /es -- Because 'The number of' is always singular opposed to ' A number of ' which is always plural .
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Hi soumya170293, whether it should be express or expresses, depends on what who is modifying: if who is modifying guests, then the correct verb is express; if who is modifying the number, then the correct verb is expresses.

From the intended meaning of the sentence, it is quite clear that the ultimate goal of is to reduce the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service.

So, reduce which guests?

Answer: Those who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service.

Hence, who is intended to modify guests. Hence, the correct verb is express.
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 01 May 2020, 05:38
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Hi experts,

If I have understood correctly, using with as a conjunction or with + participle phrase to describe an action is in poor style according to GMAT. But the OA does just that.

Going along with the same approach, isn't C a right choice. Why is it wrong to reduce the level of dissatisfaction instead of the number of guests who are feeling dissatisfied.

Have I got this wrong?

Please help.
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 23 May 2020, 13:16
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AkashM
Hi experts,

If I have understood correctly, using with as a conjunction or with + participle phrase to describe an action is in poor style according to GMAT. But the OA does just that.

Going along with the same approach, isn't C a right choice. Why is it wrong to reduce the level of dissatisfaction instead of the number of guests who are feeling dissatisfied.

Have I got this wrong?

Please help.
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Sadly, as I say all the time, there are very few concrete, black and white grammar "rules" that you can blindly apply to GMAT SC. Just because ", with..." doesn't work in some incorrect answer choices doesn't mean that it's always wrong. And if you wanted to eliminate (E) JUST because it uses ", with", you'd have to eliminate (C) as well -- it also uses a ", with" construction (the addition of the modifier "ultimately" doesn't change the function of the "with").

Reducing the LEVEL of dissatisfaction among guests would make some sense... but that's not what we have in (C). Instead, we have, "... the goal to reduce expressions of overall dissatisfaction by the guests with the hotel service."

  • You can reduce a LEVEL of dissatisfaction, but it's illogical to reduce the "expressions" themselves. We don't have that problem in choice (E), so that's one vote against (C).
  • Also, "... by the guests with the hotel service" is a bit confusing -- "with the hotel service" seems like it could modify "guests" here, and that wouldn't make any sense. The intended meaning is clearer in choice (E).
  • Lastly, "ultimately with the goal" modifies the preceding clause ("The tourism commission has conducted surveys..."). But what would it mean to "conduct ultimately"? Does it mean it's the final time they'll ever conduct a survey? It's far more logical for "ultimate" to describe the "goal."

So if you compare all the logical problems in (C), to the more coherent meaning in (E), it's clear that (E) is our winner.

I hope that helps!
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 11 Jul 2020, 02:34
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does "expressing" in option "a" act as a gerund? Which noun does it modify? also, since there is no "to be" verb it can't act as a verb
It seems expressing is acting like a verb, can we eliminate a on basis of this fact?
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 15 Jul 2020, 01:34
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Experts, please help.

Lots of great explanations, however there is something that I need to understand.

Goal already means “purpose” , so using “goal” and “to” together creates redundancy?

The original sentence would mean the same if I say — “the tourism commission conducted surveys to reduce the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service.”

Also, shouldn’t it be hotels’ services(plural of service) ??

AjiteshArun GMATNinja

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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 15 Jul 2020, 03:44
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INSEADIESE
Experts, please help.

Lots of great explanations, however there is something that I need to understand.

Goal already means “purpose” , so using “goal” and “to” together creates redundancy?

The original sentence would mean the same if I say — “the tourism commission conducted surveys to reduce the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service.”

Also, shouldn’t it be hotels’ services(plural of service) ??

AjiteshArun GMATNinja
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Hi INSEADIESE,

1. This is not that to (to has a number of uses, and it does not always mean "in order to"). Here are a couple of quick examples in which goal is immediately followed by to:
a. It was his goal to hit six boundaries in one over. ← "To hit six boundaries in one over was his goal"
b. ... communicate their goal to the rest of the company during... ← "communicate X to Y"

2. This particular service is a non-count noun. If we were looking at ~types of work, we could certainly go with services ("the company offers multiple services"), but when we're looking at just "serving" customers (esp. hospitality/retail), service is non-count.
c. The service at the restaurant was great! ← This is the kind of service that we are looking at in this question.
d. The services at the restaurant were great! ← This is a completely different service.
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 07 Aug 2020, 15:07
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Quote:
does "expressing" in option "a" act as a gerund? Which noun does it modify? also, since there is no "to be" verb it can't act as a verb
It seems expressing is acting like a verb, can we eliminate a on basis of this fact?
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Interesting question, but there are better reasons to eliminate (A) here. To see how the phrase, "end up + -ing" works, consider a simpler example:

    If Tim remains their legal guardian, his kids will surely end up becoming sugar-addicted zombies.

Here "will... end up" seems to function as the main verb of that second clause. "Becoming" certainly isn't a verb, but whether we call it a gerund that functions as an object for "end up" or a participle that functions as an adverb isn't important here. All we care about is that there's no good reason to argue that the construction is wrong.

Now take another look at (A):

    The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most popular resorts, with the ultimate goal of reducing the guests who end up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the service in the hotels.

The phrase "who end up expressing" is functioning as a modifier for "the guests." Within the modifier, "who" is the subject, and "end up" is the verb. I wouldn't worry too much about what to call "expressing," but there's no reason to believe it's an error.

It's more useful to recognize that "reducing the guests" is illogical. Are they making the guests physically smaller? It makes far more sense to write that they're reducing the number of guests. Because (A) has a nonsensical meaning, it's out.

Put another way, if a sentence is illogical, there's no reason to agonize over the grammar. So if you're unsure about one element of a sentence, look for others you're more confident about.

I hope that helps!
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 19 Aug 2020, 19:27
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Hi GMATNinja,

Could you please help explain (B)? I still had troubles understanding the difference in meaning between "the ultimate goal of reducing the number of guests" and "the goal to ultimately reduce the number of guests."

Thank you!
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 17 Sep 2020, 12:47
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skycastle19
Hi GMATNinja,

Could you please help explain (B)? I still had troubles understanding the difference in meaning between "the ultimate goal of reducing the number of guests" and "the goal to ultimately reduce the number of guests."

Thank you!
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The difference between the two phrases comes down to what "ultimate" or "ultimately" is modifying. "Ultimate" means "final," so the "ultimate goal" would be the final goal. That makes perfect sense in this context. Maybe there are intermediate goals along the way, and the final one is to limit the number of unhappy guests. This is what we have in (E).

In the phrase "the goal to ultimately reduce," "ultimately" appears to modify "reduce." Now the meaning is a little muddier. Does the phrase mean to finally reduce, as though they'd been trying to reduce the number of unhappy guests for some time? Does the phrase suggest that there have been multiple reductions and this is the last one? Neither interpretation is as clear or logical as the "ultimate goal." That's enough to kill (B).

However, if you were still on the fence, (B) also contains the phrase, "guests who end up expressing overall dissatisfaction." The "end up" seems problematic. So the guests don't express their dissatisfaction at the time of their stay, but "end up" expressing dissatisfaction later? Wouldn't it be more clearer to just say that they're trying to reduce the number of guests who express dissatisfaction in general? Again, this is the construction we get in (E), so we have two pretty good reasons to eliminate (B).

I hope that helps!
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 23 Sep 2020, 12:14
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Anyone else find use of word "ultimate" somewhat redundant? "ultimate goal" should just be "goal" in my opinion.

(E) with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 23 Sep 2020, 21:32
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800GMAT2019
Anyone else find use of word "ultimate" somewhat redundant? "ultimate goal" should just be "goal" in my opinion.

(E) with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service
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Hi 800GMAT2019,

Maybe, but I think it's a common way to say that there may be other objectives here, but this is the main (final) goal.
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most Updated on: 13 Feb 2021, 00:16
Originally posted by TheUltimateWinner on 12 Feb 2021, 01:50.
Last edited by TheUltimateWinner on 13 Feb 2021, 00:16, edited 3 times in total.
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Quote:
The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most popular resorts, with the ultimate goal of reducing the guests who end up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the service in the hotels.

(A) with the ultimate goal of reducing the guests who end up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the service in the hotels

(B) with the goal to ultimately reduce the number of guests who end up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the hotels' service

(C) ultimately with the goal to reduce expressions of overall dissatisfaction by the guests with the hotel service

(D) in an ultimate attempt to reduce the number of guests that ends up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the hotels' service

(E) with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels' service
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Hi Honorable Experts,
MartyTargetTestPrep, GMATNinja, GMATGuruNY, AjiteshArun, VeritasPrepHailey, AnthonyRitz, BrightOutlookJenn, DmitryFarber,
Quote:
(E) The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most popular resorts, with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels' service.
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In choice E, it seems that The tourism commission is reducing the number of guests NOT directly reducing the guests. But, 'dissatisfaction' is shown by 'guests' NOT 'the number of guests'. It is absurd to see that 'dissatisfaction' is cause by 'guests' but we're NOT reducing 'guests'-we're reducing 'number'! Isn't it weird?
Thanks__
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 12 Feb 2021, 19:56
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Hi TheUltimateWinner,

Who refers to guests, not the number of guests:

... the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction...

One way to confirm that is to look at express, which is a plural verb. The number is singular, and we would have used a singular verb like expresses with it. Here's another quick example:

... reduce the number of accidents that involve large vehicles... ← This is ~ "bring down the number of {accidents of a particular type}".
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 13 Feb 2021, 00:09
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AjiteshArun
Hi TheUltimateWinner,

Who refers to guests, not the number of guests:

... the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction...

One way to confirm that is to look at express, which is a plural verb. The number is singular, and we would have used a singular verb like expresses with it. Here's another quick example:

... reduce the number of accidents that involve large vehicles... ← This is ~ "bring down the number of {accidents of a particular type}".
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AjiteshArun
Could you check question again-I've edited that part. Actually, my question was something different!
Thanks__
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 13 Feb 2021, 21:48
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Could you check question again-I've edited that part. Actually, my question was something different!
Thanks__
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Hi TheUltimateWinner,

I understand that you feel E sounds a little strange, but I'm not able to see why. Let's take another look at the example in my previous post:

... reduce the number of accidents that involve large vehicles... ~ reduce [the number of {accidents that involve large vehicles}]

If we're looking at reduce accidents vs. reduce the number of accidents, I'd say that both are possible. But between reduce guests and reduce the number of guests, I'd go for reduce the number of guests, because I don't think I've ever heard "reduce guests" before.

... reducing the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service ~ reducing [the number of {guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service}]

I understand that I may not have answered your question. This is the sort of thing that I would anyway advise you to get a second opinion on, so you may have to tag everyone again. My apologies for that.
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 14 Apr 2021, 22:08
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While I agree that E is the most appropriate answer here, the option should have said 'hotels' services' instead of 'hotels' service'. Because we are talking about multiple hotels and each of them provide their own kind of service. It can't be that all hotels are providing the same service. Is this line of thinking correct?
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The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most 14 Apr 2021, 22:20
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vatsal323
While I agree that E is the most appropriate answer here, the option should have said 'hotels' services' instead of 'hotels' service'. Because we are talking about multiple hotels and each of them provide their own kind of service. It can't be that all hotels are providing the same service. Is this line of thinking correct?
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Hi vatsal323,

This particular service is a non-count noun. If we were looking at ~types of work, we could certainly go with services ("the company offers multiple services"), but when we're looking at just "serving" customers (esp. hospitality/retail), service is non-count.

1. The service at the restaurant was great! ← This is the kind of service that we are looking at in this question.

2. The services at the restaurant were great! ← This is a completely different service.

3. The services at the restaurants were great! ← This is like (2).
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