Though initially opposed to the measure, the governor approved the new

Question

Though initially opposed to the measure, the governor approved the new needle exchange program  at the urging of his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of  some 20 social action groups.

A. at the urging of his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of

B. as a consequence of having been urged by his own doctor, his advisers, and a coalition of

C. on account of being urged by his own doctor, chief advisers, and a coalition of

D. as he was urged to do by his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of

E. as his own doctor was urging him to do, along with his chief advisers, and a coalition of

TommyWallach · Accepted Answer

Hey All,

I got asked about this by PM (but don't PM me anymore, because I'm tying up all my forum loose ends and then taking a break). So here I am. Quickly:

a) as above
CORRECT: Yes, "at the urging of" is a common idiomatic usage.

b) as a consequence of having been urged by his own doctor, his advisers, and a coalition of some
PROBLEM: "A consequence" is illogical. It's not as if there were multiple consequences of the urging. The ONLY consequence was that he did it.

c) on account of being urged by his own doctor, chief advisers, and a coalition of
PROBLEM: Never pick answer choices with "being" unless you see three or more answer choices with "being" in them. It's a horrible way to construct a sentence, and GMAC pretty much always makes it wrong.

d) as he was urged to do by his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of some
PROBLEM: "As" can be unclear, because it can have the meaning we expect here ("As expected, he took the bait."), OR be related to time ("As he opened the door, he realized he was in the wrong apartment."). It's unclear which this one is.

e) as his own doctor was urgning him to do, along with his chief advisers, and a coalition of 
PROBLEM: Same as D, also the parallelism is messy, because the "along with" is unnecessary.

Hope that helps!

-t

daagh · Answer

The essential problem in D is the unparallel active and passive voice construction. Secondarily ‘ urged to do’  leaves a void in the flow;  ‘urged to do so’  would be more elegant. But still the un//ism rules out the choice.Choices B C and E are just fillers and not worth looking at.
A is the eventual winner.

sasen · Answer

a) as above..looks CORRECT,"at the urging" is a correct usage form
b) as a consequence of having been urged by his own doctor, his advisers, and a coalition of some..WORDY
c) on account of being urged by his own doctor, chief advisers, and a coalition of...ON ACCOUNT OF is not appropriate
d) as he was urged to do by his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of some...
MAKES IT SEEM AS IF HE WAS URGED TO OPPOSE INITIALLY AND LATER APPROVE
e) as his own doctor was urgning him to do, along with his chief advisers, and a coalition of
WAS URGING is incorrect tense usage

d3thknell · Answer

lets break the sentence into sequence of events
-governor initially opposes the program
-doctors,advisors,etc urge him to change his view
-governor approves the program

all these actions have happened in the past, so the correct sentence should be able to tell us the sequence in which these happened
in option D "urged" is used, which is incorrect because this is not giving us any reference which event( approval or urging) occured first.

"i was walking on the pavement when i was hit by a truck" - walking was first event and hit by a truck was second
"at the urging of doctors, governor approved the bill" - urging was first event and approval was second

OreoShake · Answer

In A, is the repitition of 'his' correct? - his doctors, his advisors.... isnt 'His' initially used before doctors modifying advisors and action groups as well???

sayantanc2k · Answer

It depends whether you consider "his" outside or inside the parallel structure. If considered outside, using once is alright. But if considered, inside it has to be repeated. Since with  X and Y  construction one can decide where the parallel structure begins, both are correct.
His (X and Y)... correct
(His X) and (his Y)--- correct

In option A "his" is used inside (since used twice) - the coalition of action groups does not belong to him.

abhimahna · Answer

Though initially opposed to the measure, the governor approved the new needle exchange program at the urging of his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of some 20 social action groups.

a) at the urging of his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of  --> CORRECT 
b) as a consequence of  having been  urged by his own doctor, his advisers, and a coalition of
c)  on account of being urged  by his own doctor, chief advisers, and a coalition of
d)  as he was urged to do by  his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of
e) as his own doctor was urging him to  do, along with his chief advisers, and a coalition of

anje29 · Answer

The answer as per Kaplan is (A)and the explanation is as follows:

"Here, all the choices except (A) add unnecessary words. In (B), as a consequence of having been urged doesn't add anything. In (D), as he was urged to do is not so obvious, but still longer than it needs to be. At the urging is the most compact and elegant version."

I am not yet convinced by the explanation to eliminate D. I was stuck between A and D , picked D as 'at the urging' seemed less clarifying to me.

egmat need help , please explain.

leanhdung · Answer

Though initially opposed to the measure, the governor approved the new needle-exchange program  at the urging of his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of some  twenty social action groups.

a)  at the urging of  his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of some

b)  as a consequence of having been urged  by his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of some

c)  on account of being  urged by his own doctor, chief advisers, and a coalition of

d) as he was urged  to do  by his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of some

e) as his own doctor was urging him  to do , along with his chief advisers, and a coalition of

Bunuel · Answer

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

Here, all the choices except (A) add unnecessary words. In (B),  as a consequence of having been urged  doesn't add anything. In (D),  as he was urged to do  is not so obvious, but still longer than it needs to be.  At the urging  is the most compact and elegant version.

MissionWin · Answer

Interesting question here.

A seems to be the correct option. B has a logic problem, it says ‘as a consequence…’, implying that there were multiple consequences of the governor being urged but there was only one. C I am going to straight away discount. Choices with ‘being’ in them are almost always wrong. In D the issue is that ‘as’ invites ambiguity. It can be related to time (at the same time as) or it could mean ‘because of’. E has the same problem as D, it is also needlessly wordy.

Yes, A is the right answer.

hiranmay · Answer

Though initially opposed to the measure, the governor approved the new needle exchange program  at the urging of his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of  some 20 social action groups.

A. at the urging of his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of -->  correct

B. as a consequence of  having  been urged by his own doctor, his advisers, and a coalition of --> meaning change

C. on account of  being  urged by his own doctor, chief advisers, and a coalition of --> same as B

D. as he was urged  to do  by his own doctor, his chief advisers, and a coalition of --> "he was urged to do" what?

E. as his own doctor was urging him  to do , along with his chief advisers, and a coalition of --> same as D

Dvaishnav · Answer

I was confused between A and D and decided to choose D. In A, 'at the urging..' seem odd to me.

I read through the thread but am failing to appreciate the reasons behind D being the wrong answer. Some have pointed out that the use of 'as' introduces ambiguity. It can refer to time ("As she set down, she remembered that she needed to switch off the gas"). Some others mentioned that the use of passive voice in D is wrong.

However, we can take the following example: "Apply ointments and take medicines at regular intervals as instructed by the doctor." Here, I don't sense any ambiguity. The sentence does not imply that you need to apply ointment while the doctor is instructing you.

I agree that D can be improved further by replacing 'to do' with 'to do so'. But it seemed like a minor point. So, I selected D.

DmitryFarber · Answer

I'm not sure that "most compact" is a good enough reason to select one answer over the others. However, D also creates a different kind of adverbial modifier. "At the urging" directly modifies the action, while "as he was urged to do" adds an explanation in clause form. This kind of modifier would need to be preceded by a comma.

I stayed home at the urging of my doctor.
I stayed home, as I was urged to do by my doctor.

I stayed home at the urging of my doctor.
I stayed home, as I was urged to do by my doctor.

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Though initially opposed to the measure, the governor approved the new

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