To end violent tendencies in young children, mothers want peaceful con

Hello itzmyzone911

To end violent tendencies in young children, mothers want peaceful conflict resolution,
readily available counseling, and decreasing the prominence of television
shows that contain abundant and often casual violence.

First split: You need to maintain parallel structure: mothers want X, Y, and Z. Because X and Y are NOUNS, Z must be noun too. Thus, option A, B are out because they use adjective form - decreasing. C, D, and E remains

Second split: C is clearly awkward because the verb-ing modifier "containing as they do often...." does not make any sense here. It does not modify a previous clause in any way. C is out immediately.

Third split: You have two ways to eliminate E.

(1) Back to the structure X, Y, and Z ==> Logically, Z should be a noun phrase, NOT a clause. Option E, however, uses a relative clause "THAT.....". If you are familiar with GMAT parallel structure, you can skip E very quickly. Please note parallel structure must be maintained strictly.

(2) Second approach, E is out because it changes meaning, the original sentence use phrase "abundant and often casual violence", but E uses "abundant but often casual violence. E conveys a contrast idea that "abundant violence" is good, but "casual violence" is not. This is not the intended meaning that both "abundant violence" AND "casual violence" are not good. ==> E is out. Only D left and is correct.


(A) decreasing the prominence of television shows that contain abundant and
often casual violence
Wrong.

(B) decreasing the prominence of television shows containing often casual but
abundant violence
Wrong.

(C) a decrease of the prominence of television shows, containing as they do often
casual violence in abundance
Wrong.

(D) a decreased prominence of the abundant and often casual violence contained
in television shows
Correct.

(E) a decreased prominence of television shows that contain abundant but often
casual violence
Wrong.

Hope it helps.

My 2 cents on this. Please share your inputs.

I believe 99% of the time we take original sentence as a reference and we avoid any answer choices, which move away from the base logic.
But an exception is made to this rule whenever original sentence doesn't sound logical.

Now, D Vs E: The reason why i choosed D over E is, the difference in intended meaning.
(D) a decreased prominence of the abundant and often casual violence contained in television shows
(E) a decreased prominence of television shows that contain abundant but often casual violence

D says a decreased prominence of something bad contained in the television show. As they r trying to end violence tendencies in their children.Whereas E focuses on a decreasing prominence of television shows that contains something bad. Now this means shows will still be there with bad contents but the eminence of such shows would be reduced.

IMO, reducing the importance of bad content with shows makes more sense compared to that of the show with bad content.
Also "abundant but often casual violence" is something i cant absorb even after multiple try.
Overall D is clear in its meaning compared to E.

mothers want something with the purpose to end violent tendencies in young children.
this something is:
peaceful conflict resolution
readily available counseling
a decrease of smth.


(A) decreasing the prominence of television shows that contain abundant and
often casual violence
A can be eliminated, because the first 2 entities of the lists are nouns while the third one is an action. this is incorrect.

(B) decreasing the prominence of television shows containing often casual but
abundant violence
similar error as in A.

(C) a decrease of the prominence of television shows, containing as they do often
casual violence in abundance
ing modifier is incorrect.
mothers want smth by containing smth.. no
mothers want smth and as a result smth else is contained
no.
as they do often casual violence in abundance - they illogically refers to mothers.
C is out.


(D) a decreased prominence of the abundant and often casual violence contained
in television shows
looks good. entities of the list are parallel.

(E) a decreased prominence of television shows that contain abundant but often
casual violence
subtle change in meaning - abundant BUT often casual. no, the intended meaning is that TV shows contain abundant and casual violence content. BOTH in the same time.

D should be the correct answer.

The original talks about decreased prominence of the shows, probably by not showing them in prime time, or showing them at times when they go to schools, not showing them on weekend etc so that children may not be induced to have a go at those programs.

The text does not talk about the prominence given to the violence itself. In D, the meaning is substantially shifted from the prominence given to the shows to the prominence given to the nature of the violence.
I do not know whether E is the best because of the use of the word ‘but’ instead of ‘and’. At least, that does not the change the meaning as D does.

2. But to the point that in E, the third item in the list is not a noun but a relative clause:

E. a decreased prominence of television shows that contain abundant but often casual violence

Isn’t E essentially a noun ( shows ) that is modified by a relative clause and as such, as a noun and a noun modifier, the choice sticks to the parallel list like the other two items that are also nouns?
_________________

The emphasis is on the prominence of "violence", not on the prominence of "TV shows". It is true that introducing "violence" with an essential modifier "that" defines which TV shows are referred to, yet direct reference to "violence" is more clear.

A) not parallel to "resolution" and "counseling"
B) The word "but" makes no sense here. The "(adjective) but (adjective)" template should only be used when the words contrast with each other, and "casual" and "abundant" do not fit this category.
C) "containing" + "as they do" = redundant. The comma is not needed.
D) Yes, correct. It prioritizes a decrease in violence over a decrease in television shows that contain violence, and the most important terms should be mentioned first.
E) Close, but not quite. Again, the word "but" is not necessary. Another issue (also mentioned in the line above) is that Choice E is focused more on the shows than on the violence, which is the real issue here.

In sum, I agree with the OA here.

MANHATTAN REVIEW OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

This question deals with parallel structure. Mothers want a resolution, something available, and a decreased prominence or a decrease. This is the parallel structure. Eliminate A and B. The original sentence has the phrase ‘abundant and often casual violence’. D repeats that wording. C and E change that wording and so change the meaning of the original sentence. Choice D is the correct answer.
_________________

can you also modify the source to MANHATTAN. Tags help in easy search
_________________

I think D changes the meaning of the sentence.But E does not.The only major flaw in option E is the use of but instead of and.

Posted from my mobile device

The answer is between D and E. But I have a doubt.

In the question stem, mothers want a decreased prominence of television shows that .......
Can we switch the TVshows with abundant and often casual violence contained in TV shows?

E is wrong because of abundant but often causal violence

Pl help

Parallel List: peaceful conflict resolution, readily available counseling and [] - [] has to be of the form an Adverb modifying the noun.

A and B do not follow that.

In C we have a verb-ing modifier and then the usage of "as they do" is incorrect.

D and E both maintain Parallelism but E distorts the meaning. E says mothers need decreased television shows but that is not the case. Mothers need a decreased prominence of violence in the television shows.

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.
_________________