To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is gradually instilling the

Question

To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is gradually instilling the notion  that many of those who are just called “needy” actually have adequate resources; such a conclusion is unwarranted.

(A) To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is gradually instilling the notion

(B) To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is instilling the notion gradually

(C) To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is gradually to instill the notion

(D) Speaking habitually of the “truly needy” is to instill the gradual notion

(E) Speaking habitually of the “truly needy” is instilling the gradual notion

Swoosh617 · Accepted Answer

872.  To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is gradually instilling  the notion that many of those who are just called “needy” actually have adequate resources; such a conclusion is unwarranted.

(A) To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is gradually instilling the notion
 Incorrect:  Correct idiomatic structure would be "To speak habitually . . . is gradually to instill . . ." You need "to speak" to be parallel to "to instill." This choice uses "instilling" instead.

(B) To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is instilling the notion gradually
 Incorrect:  This also uses "to speak . . . is instilling" instead of "to speak . . . is to instill"

(C) To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is gradually to instill the notion
 Correct:  Correct idiomatic structure.

(D) Speaking habitually of the “truly needy” is to instill the gradual notion
 Incorrect:  Uses "Speaking . . . to instill" this is not parallel

(E) Speaking habitually of the “truly needy” is instilling the gradual notion
 Incorrect:  This sentence is parallel (speaking . . . is instilling), however the placement of "gradual" changes the meaning of the sentence. In the original sentence, it is the instilling of the notion that is gradual. This choice says that the notion itself is gradual.

daagh · Answer

Problem 1: if the adverb gradually is modifying instilling, is then instilling a verb; it is just a plain gerund on in other words a noun; the verb is represents the action of the subject “To speak habitually of the “truly needy” 
Problem 2: Some people complain that “To gradually instill” is in fact a split infinitive as you are splitting the infinitive - to split - and intruding with an adverb. That is the reason - gradually to instill - is said to be somewhat a notch above.

kraizada84 · Answer

I guess in this type of question we should just select the option having parallelism

To do X is to do Y.

shikhar · Answer

To Me too C seemed to be a little weird .

To gradually instill would have been wrong too because of infinitive split .
But i guess we just need to see the parallel structure.
Thanks Guys

metallicafan · Answer

+1 C

To X is To Y.

Gradually must be an adverb not an adjective (gradual).

devpanda · Answer

3 Things -- helped me eliminate the wrong ans.
1. notion that - most of the questions I 've done, notion follows that.
2. Idiom -To x is to y
3. Parallelism

daagh · Answer

When it comes to parallelism, it is either C or E; But E goes down due to the use of instilling gradual notion, which is not the same as gradually to instill the notion

siddheart22 · Answer

D & E have dangling modifier - Speaking.
Eliminated A because of awkwardness.

I was stuck between B and C and chose B despite realizing that C has better parellalism structure. 
Reason: I was trying to determine what does the adverb 'gradually' modify here, and felt 'instilling the notion' is what its trying modify. So, chose B because "is instilling the notion gradually"  sounds  more correct than "is gradually to instill notion". Experts please comment.

siddheart22 · Answer

Unfortunately, what you are looking for is not in the answer choices. But yes, "To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is to gradually instill" is a better way to put it.

qweert · Answer

To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is gradually instilling the notion that many of those who are just called “needy” actually have adequate resources; such a conclusion is unwarranted.

(A) To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is gradually instilling the notion -  gradually instilling the notion is incorrect 
(B) To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is instilling the notion gradually -  notion gradually is incorrect 
(C) To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is gradually to instill the notion -  Parallelism 
(D) Speaking habitually of the “truly needy” is to instill the gradual notion -  gradual notion is suspect  
(E) Speaking habitually of the “truly needy” is instilling the gradual notion -  gradual notion is suspect

Are you sure this is a 700 question?

C looks pretty straight forward though.

BillyZ · Answer

TIME magazine - May 24, 1982 | Vol. 119 No. 21

Essay: Watching Out for Loaded Words  (LINK)

Words can be impregnated with feeling by oversimplification. People who oppose all abortions distort the position of those favoring freedom of private choice by calling them proabortion. And many a progressive or idealist has experienced the perplexity of defending himself against one of the most peculiar of all disparaging terms, do-gooder. By usage in special contexts, the most improbable words can be infused with extraneous meaning.  To speak of the "truly needy" as the Administration habitually does is gradually to plant the notion  that the unmodified needy are falsely so. Movie Critic Vincent Canby has noticed that the 'word film has become imbued with a good deal of snootiness that is not to be found in the word movie. Moderate is highly susceptible to coloring in many different ways, always by the fervid partisans of some cause: Adlai Stevenson, once accused of being too moderate on civil rights, wondered whether anyone wished him to be, instead, immoderate.

Harsh2111s · Answer

GMATNinja   VeritasKarishma   AjiteshArun   AndrewN

What exactly is wrong with A ?
Meaning wise I don't see any issue.

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  Harsh2111s . I did not disfavor (A) because of its expressed meaning; rather, the infinitive  to speak  sets up an expectation that   will follow. Think of arguably the most famous line of Shakespeare:

To be, or not to be, that is the question.
—Hamlet , Act 3, Scene 1

Granted, the punctuation may seem a little off to our modern sensibilities, but the parallel infinitives do not. A line similar to choice (A) would read,

To be, or not being, that is the question.

Notice that of the five answer choices presented, only two fit a parallel construct, (C) and (E), and the latter  does  have a meaning problem in  gradual notion . (What makes a notion gradual, exactly? It is the instilling of a notion that may take time.)

I hope that helps. That is the best way I can think to explain it, relative to how I approached the question. Thank you for asking me about it.

- Andrew

RajdeepGM · Answer

Here, C also has a sentence framing error. "gradually to instill" is wrong. It should have "to instill gradually" or may be "to gradually instill".

But as we know that even the tiger is lame, he is the jungle's king...so here C is the right choice.🙂

Posted from my mobile device

Poojita · Answer

Could anyone please do a detailed POE for this qustion?  GMATNinja   egmat   VeritasKarishma   mikemcgarry  ??

KarishmaB · Answer

What the sentence wants to convey:
When people say "truly needy" habitually, they are gradually instilling the notion that many who are called just "needy" are not needy.

Parallelism requires us to use parallel elements - "To do X is to do Y".

The notion is not gradual. The notion is just this: many who are called just "needy" are not needy.
It cannot be gradual or speedy. So "gradual notion" is incorrect.

The speed at which we are installing the notion can be gradual. We want to say that by using "truly need" again and again, we are slowly instilling the notion that "needy" may not be needy.

Hence, only (C) qualifies. 
Since we don't split the infinitive, we can use "gradually to instil" or "to instil gradually".

Namangupta1997 · Answer

Hi  KarishmaB   AndrewN

Isn't there a slight meaning issue in C ? It seems like ,in option C, it is  a pre-defined goal  to gradually instill the given notion. In option A, the sentence seems to highlight that as we speak habitually of the "truly needy",  this particular practice of speaking results  in the gradual instilment of the mentioned notion.

Isn't option A closer to the intended meaning despite a parallelism flaw ?

AndrewN · Answer

Two points,  Namangupta1997 . First, I cannot see the  pre-defined goal  you are referring to in your interpretation of (C). In the construct  To X is to Y , element Y is simply the subject complement, one that either defines or describes element X. Perhaps you are reading too much into the infinitive and spinning it into something more like    to , but that is not what we see in the sentence at hand. You can replace the initial infinitive with a  when  clause and make slight alterations to the subsequent main clause to get closer to what I would say sentence expresses:

When we  speak habitually of the “truly needy,”  we gradually instill  the notion that many of those who are just called “needy” actually have adequate resources; such a conclusion is unwarranted.

We would still need to address parallelism in such a sentence, but above,  speak  and  instill  would pass the test.

The second point I would like to address is that  the intended meaning  is a subjective measure  if you are pointing to anything that is underlined . We can only look to the non-underlined portion of the sentence to glean intended meaning. Anything else can be negotiated, so be careful not to project onto the sentence what you want it to say.

In this particular sentence, the original version does have a flaw in parallelism, one that is addressed in answer choices (C) and (E), but the latter drops out of contention because a  gradual notion  is a nonsensical description, as I and others have discussed in earlier posts.

Thank you for thinking to ask me about the question.

- Andrew

KarishmaB · Answer

"To do A is to do B" means when you are doing A, you end up doing B, intentionally or unintentionally ("doing A is equivalent to doing B" or "doing A leads to doing B")

To love yourself is to love God.
To sing in the shower is to live really.

"To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is gradually to instill the notion" just means that speaking of "truly needy" leads to instilling this notion. There is no pre-defined goal. In fact, the idea is that one who is doing A perhaps doesn't even realise that B is happening.

Also, we don't know what the intented meaning is. The only reason why an option may be wrong because of meaning is "illogical meaning".

Namangupta1997

To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is gradually instilling the

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To speak habitually of the “truly needy” is gradually instilling the

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