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605-655 Level|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|   Parallelism|   Verb Tense/Form|                     
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GMATNinja
I see different calls for help in at least three different posts, so I'll try to address everything in one big, fat explanation:

Quote:
(A) benefits, letting employees pick those most important to them
"Those" is just a plural pronoun here, so we should look for some plural noun that it can refer back to. "Benefits" makes sense, right? "...letting employees pick the benefits most important to them." So we're good there. (And for more on demonstrative pronouns, check out our Topic of the Week or our YouTube video about the many uses of "that.")

And yes, "benefits" is an object, but there's no reason why a pronoun can't refer back to an object. There's some weird myth going around about that, and I'm not sure where it's coming from. Pronouns can refer to subjects or objects.

"Letting" is used as a modifier here (click here for more on "-ing" modifiers), and that makes sense: "letting employees pick (the benefits) most important to them" is giving us more information about what happens when "companies are offering a wider range of benefits." So it makes sense for "letting" to be a modifier, not a verb. Keep (A).

Quote:
(B) benefits, letting employees pick the most important of them to themselves

"Themselves" is a reflexive pronoun. Correct uses of reflexive pronouns:

    Mike was proud of himself when he successfully surfed a 25-foot wave.
    Bogdan and Souvik admired themselves in the mirror after crushing the GMAT.

But I don't think we can justify using "themselves" in the original sentence. Employees can pick the benefits that are most important to them -- but there's no need for the reflexive "themselves." (And for whatever it's worth: I can't think of another official GMAT question that draws any sort of distinction between reflexive and non-reflexive pronouns.) Also, I think it's a little bit confusing to have "them" refer to "benefits", while "themselves" refers back to "employees" -- but either way, (B) is out.

Quote:
(C) benefits and letting employees pick the most important to themselves
I think I could live with the parallelism here: "letting" follows "and", so we need to find something that's parallel to "letting." How about "offering"? So "some companies are offering..." and "some companies are letting..." I guess that's OK, though I think the sentences works a little bit better if "letting" is a modifier, but I wouldn't automatically eliminate (C) because of that.

But the "themselves" is wrong again - "them" would be fine. Eliminate (C).

Quote:
(D) benefits and let employees pick the most important to them
Now there's a clear parallelism issue. "Let" is a verb, and I guess it could be parallel to "are offering" -- but if that's the case, why are they in different tenses? That can't be right. The only other option is "attract", and that would make any sense, either. Eliminate (D).

Quote:
(E) benefits and let employees pick those that are most important to themselves
Same parallelism error as in (D), and the same error with "themselves" as in (B) and (C).

So (A) wins.
Show more
GMATNinja, can we eliminate B, C and D because the absence of "those"?
(What are they picking?)

I did eliminate because of this and I see that a lot of people did the same problem, but is this right?
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Can someone please explain what's the difference between comma and the word "and"? In other words, if everything is the same, what's the difference between "benefits, letting..." and "benefits and letting"?
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To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wi 13 Apr 2021, 19:07
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plaverbach

GMATNinja, can we eliminate B, C and D because the absence of "those"?
(What are they picking?)

I did eliminate because of this and I see that a lot of people did the same problem, but is this right?
Show more
While I'd certainly prefer the sentence include "those" to make it as clear as possible what the employees are picking, I wouldn't necessarily say it's a definitive error to leave "those" out.

A more concrete reason to eliminate (B) and (C): the inappropriate usage of the "themselves." To see why this construction is incorrect, see here.

A more concrete reason to eliminate (D): faulty parallel construction. "Let" needs to be parallel to another action in the sentence, but there's no other verb that could logically work.

However, if you'd missed those issues and decided that because "those" creates a clearer meaning in (A), you'd prefer it to the options that drop "those," I wouldn't say your approach is unreasonable. Just know that, in general, you'd rather rely on concrete errors if you can find them.

I hope that clears things up!
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GMATNinja
I see different calls for help in at least three different posts, so I'll try to address everything in one big, fat explanation:

Quote:
(A) benefits, letting employees pick those most important to them
"Those" is just a plural pronoun here, so we should look for some plural noun that it can refer back to. "Benefits" makes sense, right? "...letting employees pick the benefits most important to them." So we're good there. (And for more on demonstrative pronouns, check out our Topic of the Week or our YouTube video about the many uses of "that.")

And yes, "benefits" is an object, but there's no reason why a pronoun can't refer back to an object. There's some weird myth going around about that, and I'm not sure where it's coming from. Pronouns can refer to subjects or objects.

"Letting" is used as a modifier here (click here for more on "-ing" modifiers), and that makes sense: "letting employees pick (the benefits) most important to them" is giving us more information about what happens when "companies are offering a wider range of benefits." So it makes sense for "letting" to be a modifier, not a verb. Keep (A).

Quote:
(B) benefits, letting employees pick the most important of them to themselves
"Themselves" is a reflexive pronoun. Correct uses of reflexive pronouns:

    Mike was proud of himself when he successfully surfed a 25-foot wave.
    Bogdan and Souvik admired themselves in the mirror after crushing the GMAT.

But I don't think we can justify using "themselves" in the original sentence. Employees can pick the benefits that are most important to them -- but there's no need for the reflexive "themselves." (And for whatever it's worth: I can't think of another official GMAT question that draws any sort of distinction between reflexive and non-reflexive pronouns.) Also, I think it's a little bit confusing to have "them" refer to "benefits", while "themselves" refers back to "employees" -- but either way, (B) is out.

Quote:
(C) benefits and letting employees pick the most important to themselves
I think I could live with the parallelism here: "letting" follows "and", so we need to find something that's parallel to "letting." How about "offering"? So "some companies are offering..." and "some companies are letting..." I guess that's OK, though I think the sentences works a little bit better if "letting" is a modifier, but I wouldn't automatically eliminate (C) because of that.

But the "themselves" is wrong again - "them" would be fine. Eliminate (C).

Quote:
(D) benefits and let employees pick the most important to them
Now there's a clear parallelism issue. "Let" is a verb, and I guess it could be parallel to "are offering" -- but if that's the case, why are they in different tenses? That can't be right. The only other option is "attract", and that would make any sense, either. Eliminate (D).

Quote:
(E) benefits and let employees pick those that are most important to themselves
Same parallelism error as in (D), and the same error with "themselves" as in (B) and (C).

So (A) wins.
Show more

GMATNinja aren't (C), (D), (E) structurally incorrect? Use of "and" shows that both of these things are offered, while actually only multiple benefits are offered, and employees are allowed to choose from those benefits only. I am not sure on my assertion. Would request your views.
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To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wi 21 May 2021, 13:05
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adityaganjoo

GMATNinja aren't (C), (D), (E) structurally incorrect? Use of "and" shows that both of these things are offered, while actually only multiple benefits are offered, and employees are allowed to choose from those benefits only. I am not sure on my assertion. Would request your views.
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I wouldn't say "incorrect" so much as unnecessarily confusing. After all, if a sentence began, "The store offered dog-owners a discount and denied entry to cat-owners," I might read the part in red and anticipate that I'm about to see a second thing offered to the dog-owners.

Of course, that's not what follows. Instead of seeing a second thing offered to dog-owners, we get a second action, "denied," performed by the store. But "offered" and "denied" are parallel verb forms, so there's nothing technically wrong here, even though it takes a little extra work to understand the meaning.

Similar situation with (C), (D), (E), at least so far as strict parallelism goes. Yeah, it's true that you might initially think that we're about to see a second item that the companies are offering, and then have to reread to see that the actual parallelism is "offering" and "letting" in (C), and "are" and "let" in (D) and (E). But those constructions aren't inherently wrong.

But as we mentioned in an earlier post, we've got other problems here. In (C), and (E), "themselves" is incorrect, and in (D) and (E) we have the incoherent verb tense switch from the present "are" and the past "let." So it's best to dig a little deeper and consider the logic before eliminating.

That said, if I didn't see another concrete issue, and I had to use the potential confusion caused by the use of "and" as a tie-breaker, I'd be comfortable doing that.

I hope that helps!
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To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wi 21 May 2021, 21:48
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Hey, wht cant i see the question in the beginning of this post

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To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wi 22 May 2021, 05:19
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LaveenaPanchal
Hey, wht cant i see the question in the beginning of this post

Posted from my mobile device
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This thread has 3 pages. Check the first post on page 1: https://gmatclub.com/forum/to-attract-t ... l#p1862957
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Thankyou Bunuel..

To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wider range of benefits, letting employees pick those most important to them.


(A) benefits, letting employees pick those most important to them. Correct. It is a modifier describing the previous sentence

(B) benefits, letting employees pick the most important of them to themselves.

(C) benefits and letting employees pick the most important to themselves

(D) benefits and let employees pick the most important to them

(E) benefits and let employees pick those that are most important to themselves
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GMATNinja
adityaganjoo

GMATNinja aren't (C), (D), (E) structurally incorrect? Use of "and" shows that both of these things are offered, while actually only multiple benefits are offered, and employees are allowed to choose from those benefits only. I am not sure on my assertion. Would request your views.
I wouldn't say "incorrect" so much as unnecessarily confusing. After all, if a sentence began, "The store offered dog-owners a discount and denied entry to cat-owners," I might read the part in red and anticipate that I'm about to see a second thing offered to the dog-owners.

Of course, that's not what follows. Instead of seeing a second thing offered to dog-owners, we get a second action, "denied," performed by the store. But "offered" and "denied" are parallel verb forms, so there's nothing technically wrong here, even though it takes a little extra work to understand the meaning.

Similar situation with (C), (D), (E), at least so far as strict parallelism goes. Yeah, it's true that you might initially think that we're about to see a second item that the companies are offering, and then have to reread to see that the actual parallelism is "offering" and "letting" in (C), and "are" and "let" in (D) and (E). But those constructions aren't inherently wrong.

But as we mentioned in an earlier post, we've got other problems here. In (C), and (E), "themselves" is incorrect, and in (D) and (E) we have the incoherent verb tense switch from the present "are" and the past "let." So it's best to dig a little deeper and consider the logic before eliminating.

That said, if I didn't see another concrete issue, and I had to use the potential confusion caused by the use of "and" as a tie-breaker, I'd be comfortable doing that.

I hope that helps!
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GMATNinja This made it so much clearer. Thanks a lot! You are a rockstar :)
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GMATNinja
I see different calls for help in at least three different posts, so I'll try to address everything in one big, fat explanation:

Quote:
(A) benefits, letting employees pick those most important to them
"Those" is just a plural pronoun here, so we should look for some plural noun that it can refer back to. "Benefits" makes sense, right? "...letting employees pick the benefits most important to them." So we're good there. (And for more on demonstrative pronouns, check out our Topic of the Week or our YouTube video about the many uses of "that.")

And yes, "benefits" is an object, but there's no reason why a pronoun can't refer back to an object. There's some weird myth going around about that, and I'm not sure where it's coming from. Pronouns can refer to subjects or objects.

"Letting" is used as a modifier here (click here for more on "-ing" modifiers), and that makes sense: "letting employees pick (the benefits) most important to them" is giving us more information about what happens when "companies are offering a wider range of benefits." So it makes sense for "letting" to be a modifier, not a verb. Keep (A).

Quote:
(B) benefits, letting employees pick the most important of them to themselves
"Themselves" is a reflexive pronoun. Correct uses of reflexive pronouns:

    Mike was proud of himself when he successfully surfed a 25-foot wave.
    Bogdan and Souvik admired themselves in the mirror after crushing the GMAT.

But I don't think we can justify using "themselves" in the original sentence. Employees can pick the benefits that are most important to them -- but there's no need for the reflexive "themselves." (And for whatever it's worth: I can't think of another official GMAT question that draws any sort of distinction between reflexive and non-reflexive pronouns.) Also, I think it's a little bit confusing to have "them" refer to "benefits", while "themselves" refers back to "employees" -- but either way, (B) is out.

Quote:
(C) benefits and letting employees pick the most important to themselves
I think I could live with the parallelism here: "letting" follows "and", so we need to find something that's parallel to "letting." How about "offering"? So "some companies are offering..." and "some companies are letting..." I guess that's OK, though I think the sentences works a little bit better if "letting" is a modifier, but I wouldn't automatically eliminate (C) because of that.

But the "themselves" is wrong again - "them" would be fine. Eliminate (C).

Quote:
(D) benefits and let employees pick the most important to them
Now there's a clear parallelism issue. "Let" is a verb, and I guess it could be parallel to "are offering" -- but if that's the case, why are they in different tenses? That can't be right. The only other option is "attract", and that would make any sense, either. Eliminate (D).

Quote:
(E) benefits and let employees pick those that are most important to themselves
Same parallelism error as in (D), and the same error with "themselves" as in (B) and (C).

So (A) wins.
Show more

GMATNinja

I have a question. In D, Is it an absolute rule that different tense is automatically wrong? I used to see "Past tense" parallel with "Present tense".
I eliminate this choice because of "the most important". (Should it add "benefits or pronoun that refers to benefits?)

Please, correct me If I'm wrong.

Thank you
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To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wi 29 May 2021, 20:33
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Tanchat
Actually, all of the verbs in each choice are in the present tense (or present continuous). I mean, "let" is the same in both past and present, but there's no compelling reason to read it as past tense here.

The problem is that "offering" by itself is not a verb at all (-ing words never are). Rather, it forms part of the verb phrase "are offering." Therefore, if we use "and" to create parallel phrases (as C-E do), we need "letting" (to be parallel with "offering") or "are letting" (to be parallel with "are offering"). IF we went for "are offering" and "let" as our parallel verbs, we'd have an odd difference in presentation. One way to see this is to notice that "are offering" is present continuous (ongoing current action), while "let" is simple present (general statement of current status). This provides a bit of a contrast and doesn't make it clear that the second part (letting people choose) is part of the same plan as the first part.

More generally, it's fine to switch tenses in parallel verbs if that's what the meaning requires: "Laura was born in Egypt and now lives in Canada." However, in most SC answers, this shift is made for no good reason and creates a flaw.
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Tanchat
Actually, all of the verbs in each choice are in the present tense (or present continuous). I mean, "let" is the same in both past and present, but there's no compelling reason to read it as past tense here.

The problem is that "offering" by itself is not a verb at all (-ing words never are). Rather, it forms part of the verb phrase "are offering." Therefore, if we use "and" to create parallel phrases (as C-E do), we need "letting" (to be parallel with "offering") or "are letting" (to be parallel with "are offering"). IF we went for "are offering" and "let" as our parallel verbs, we'd have an odd difference in presentation. One way to see this is to notice that "are offering" is present continuous (ongoing current action), while "let" is simple present (general statement of current status). This provides a bit of a contrast and doesn't make it clear that the second part (letting people choose) is part of the same plan as the first part.

More generally, it's fine to switch tenses in parallel verbs if that's what the meaning requires: "Laura was born in Egypt and now lives in Canada." However, in most SC answers, this shift is made for no good reason and creates a flaw.
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DmitryFarber

I got it, thank you :)

I have another question. What is about "the most important" ? Is pronoun (refer to benefits needed?
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To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wi Updated on: 30 Aug 2021, 00:17
Originally posted by DmitryFarber on 30 May 2021, 18:39.
Last edited by DmitryFarber on 30 Aug 2021, 00:17, edited 1 time in total.
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Tanchat
I don't quite follow your question. Are you asking what "the most important" means in D? That can be a tricky game to play, since in an incorrect answer there may be parts that simply don't convey any clear meaning. If we wanted to create a correct answer, we'd probably say something like "pick the most important ones," so that "most important" would just be a modifier (important is an adjective). Sometimes, however, we used a comparative adjective to imply the noun, as in "I selected the larger of the two" or "You can try all three, and then decide on the best." In those cases, "one" or "ones" is implied after larger/best. We can even add a modifier that narrows down what we are talking about: we said "the larger of the two," and we could say "the best of the available options." However, if we add some *other* kind of modifier, we should have a clear noun for it to apply to. In other words, we can't say "pick the most important for your situation," but we can say "pick the most important benefits for your situation." (I'm avoiding using the same wording from D, since almost all of it is problematic.)
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Tanchat
I don't quite follow your question. Are you asking what "the most important" means in D. That can be a tricky game to play, since in an incorrect answer there may be parts that simply don't convey any clear meaning. If we wanted to create a correct answer, we'd probably say something like "pick the most important ones," so that "most important" would just be a modifier (important is an adjective). Sometimes, however, we used a comparative adjective to imply the noun, as in "I selected the larger of the two" or "You can try all three, and then decide on the best." In those cases, "one" or "ones" is implied after larger/best. We can even add a modifier that narrows down what we are talking about: we said "the larger of the two," and we could say "the best of the available options." However, if we add some *other* kind of modifier, we should have a clear noun for it to apply to. In other words, we can't say "pick the most important for your situation," but we can say "pick the most important benefits for your situation." (I'm avoiding using the same wording from D, since almost all of it is problematic.)
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DmitryFarber

Thank you, I got it !
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To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wi 04 Jul 2021, 16:09
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Letting is modifying the verb "are offering" in option A. Is that a logical use?
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To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wi 10 Jul 2021, 10:43
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Rasalghul853
Letting is modifying the verb "are offering" in option A. Is that a logical use?
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In this case, the phrase, "letting them pick those most important to them" appears to be giving context to the previous clause, "some companies are offering a wider range of benefits." So in the first clause, we learn that more benefits are available to employees, and in the "-ing" modifier, we learn that these employees have some say about which of these options they receive. Perfectly logical.

The takeaway: anytime you see the construction "full clause + comma + -ING modifier," ask yourself whether the -ing modifier is giving a consequence of the previous action, or providing context for the previous action. If it does either, the modifier is fine, and you want to move on to other issues.

I hope that helps!
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To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wi 18 Jul 2021, 23:05
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To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wider range of benefits, letting employees pick those most important to them.

Meaning: In order to attract the most talented workers, some of the companies are offering a wider range of benefits to their employees. Thus because of the availability of wider range of benefits, the employees are able to pick those benefits that are most important to them (employees).

Errors: There are no errors in the sentence. The pronoun "those" correctly refers to "benefits" and "them" correctly refers to "employees". Hence Option A is the correct answer choice.



(A) benefits, letting employees pick those most important to them - Correct

(B) benefits, letting employees pick the most important of them to themselves - Incorrect
"Them" logically refers to "employees" but this leads to a distorts the meaning of the sentence. How can employees pick the most important employees to themselves. Hence this is an incorrect answer choice.


(C) benefits and letting employees pick the most important to themselves - Incorrect
This changes the meaning of the sentence by bringing a parallel structure. This sentence says that, the companies are offering a wider range of benefits and the companies are letting employees pick the most important to themselves. This does not make sense. Also we do not know what the company is letting the employees to pick.


(D) benefits and let employees pick the most important to them - Incorrect
This contains the same error as option C. Also this forms an incorrect parallel structure


(E) benefits and let employees pick those that are most important to themselves - Incorrect
This contains the same error as option C. Also this forms an incorrect parallel structure
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To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wi 28 Aug 2021, 05:42
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Can we say that in option (C), the verb “pick” misses an object and that is why it is incorrect option?

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To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wi 01 Sep 2021, 10:42
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bahruz1992
Can we say that in option (C), the verb “pick” misses an object and that is why it is incorrect option?

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You're not the only one to wonder about this! Check out our response here and let us know if you still have questions.
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To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wi 04 Sep 2021, 10:55
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Hi there,

I am a bit confused on the modifier of choice A, "letting employees pick those most important to them".

How is it structured? Should it be letting employees pick those "that are" most important to them? Or we can leave "that are" in this case as it is the modifier?

If so, how about in a normal sentence? Can we say "Companies let employees pick benefits most important to them." or "Companies let employees pick benefits that are most important to them." ?

Thank you!
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