There are also, unfortunately, of the myriad of concerns

Mike,

Can you please explain, what's the difference between special and especial?


Thanks,

Thanks Mike..for detailed clarification

Don't you think removing "unfortunately" for option E is changing the meaning of the sentence? I was thinking B is nearest that keeps the meaning intact.

Dear Quantumdigitz,
I'm happy to respond.

Here's the text of the question again. Unfortunately, there seem to be a few mistakes in the way it was posted, and I can find no other copy on the web to make corrections.
There are also, unfortunately, of the myriad of concerns facing our nation, especial reason to be concerned about government corruption both within and without the legislative and executive branches these bodies require careful scrutiny and oversight by experts.
A) There are also, unfortunately, of the myriad of concerns facing our nation, especial reason to be concerned about government corruption both within and without the legislative and executive branches
B) Unfortunately, there are, of the myriad concerns facing our nation, especial reason for concern regarding government corruption both within and without the legislative and executive branches; the
C) Of the myriad concerns facing our nation, especially there is reason for government corruption both within and without the legislative and executive branches; these
D) Especially there is reason to be concerned over government corruption, out of the myriad concerns facing our nation, as it is both within and without the legislative and executive branches, the
E) Of the myriad concerns facing our nation, there is especial reason to be concerned about government corruption both within and without the legislative and executive branches as these

Choice (B) has a few problems
(a) The "There are ...." is a particularly weak and unimpressive opening, especially when the subject is halfway across the sentence
(b) The big issue: SV Agreement --- "There are ... especial reason"
(c) The word "especially" as an adverb sounds natural, if a little colloquial; but the corresponding "especial" sounds awkward.
(d) The ending & transition to the rest of the sentence --- "branches; the these bodies" --- I don't whether this was a mistranscription by whoever posted the question.
The point is, though, for all these reasons, (B) cannot possibly be the answer.

Does (E) change the meaning? I don't think so. You see, the fact that we are concerned about the major problem of "government corruption" ---- that's bad. We already know that's bad. We don't need the word "unfortunately" to tell us that it's bad, or to tell us that the speaker is gravely concerned with this problem. One could argue that, in the context of the whole sentence, the word "unfortunately" is redundant --- even if it's not, it really adds no new information to the sentence, to it's superfluous, and (E) wisely discards it.

Here's a free video lesson about redundancy on the GMAT SC:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/lessons/920-avoid-redundancy

Does this make sense?
Mike

A) There are also, unfortunately, of the myriad of concerns facing our nation, especial reason to be concerned about government corruption both within and without the legislative and executive branches
B) Unfortunately, there are, of the myriad concerns facing our nation, especial reason for concern regarding government corruption both within and without the legislative and executive branches; the
C) Of the myriad concerns facing our nation, especially there is reason for government corruption both within and without the legislative and executive branches; these
D) Especially there is reason to be concerned over government corruption, out of the myriad concerns facing our nation, as it is both within and without the legislative and executive branches, the
E) Of the myriad concerns facing our nation, there is especial reason to be concerned about government corruption both within and without the legislative and executive branches as these

Can I consider option A and B have MODIFIER phrase issue and no clear subject?
So eliminate A and B
E

Hello, rvcrackgmat31. I am guessing you already checked out this post above by Mike McGarry, who offered his take on each of the options. (If not, you should check to see whether the question makes more sense.) I will offer a brief analysis on how I approached the question, since it differs somewhat from what I see in that post.


I will be honest and say that I wrote off both the original sentence and (B) for making the same subject-verb agreement violation: there are, a plural subject that starts the main clause, needs to agree with a plural noun as the clause continues, but we get the singular reason instead. Note that the prepositional phrase (of... nation) does not continue the main clause, but breaks off of it to provide additional information. We can tell this by the use of the double commas. Thus, the main clause in (A) and (B) goes, There are... especial reason... There could be other issues, but once I know something is wrong in a sentence, I get rid of that option and see how other continuations might correct that issue.


Again, we see two answer choices that fall into a similar track and suffer from the same shortcoming. I like the opening phrase of (C), and there is reason is fine in terms of subject-verb agreement, but we see the unidiomatic and out-of-order especially there is reason. I did not bother getting into the subtle differences between special and especial, opting instead to interpret especially as particularly: particularly there is reason is not an acceptable way to convey this idea. You can say, there is particular reason or, slightly more antiquated (not that I would expect to see it on the GMAT™), there is reason particularly, but the adverb should not start the main clause. Once again, I have a compelling reason to cross off two answer choices without going past the first few words, so that is just what I do. All I hope at this point is that (E) makes sense.


The prepositional phrase works just as well as it did in (C), and now the adverb problem has been fixed: there is especial reason (or particular reason) is fitting. A quick check at the end to ensure that it would also work—as these bodies require careful scrutiny—and yes, I can see that as is used in a since capacity, and nothing stands out as being problematic. This is undoubtedly the best answer of the bunch.

If anything, I would like to stress that you do not need to have a complete grasp of every technicality or split in a Sentence Correction question to walk away with the correct answer. Neither does it have to be a laborious process. This question took me about half a minute in all, since I knew that (A) and (B) were definitely incorrect for subject-verb agreement violations, while (C) and (D) were off the mark for a shared misplaced adverb. A quick check of (E), and that was all the confirmation I needed.

Sure, I can accept that I am more well-versed in SC than a lot of GMAT™ aspirants. At the same time, I write a lot about working smarter, not harder, to arrive at the correct conclusion. If I approached each iteration of a sentence on its own merits, sooner or later everything would start to look the same. I get rid of what I know is wrong first, then I check for doubts, and finally I choose the answer with the fewest marks against it.

I hope that helps. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

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