Margaret Mead, the best-known anthropologist of the twentieth century,

Question

Margaret Mead, the best-known anthropologist of the twentieth century, helped  shape public opinion on fundamentally important areas like attitudes toward children and families, along with  relative merits of competition and cooperation.

(A) shape public opinion on fundamentally important areas like attitudes toward children and families, along with

(B) shape public opinion in such fundamentally important areas as attitudes toward children and families and

(C) to shape public opinion about such fundamentally important areas like attitudes toward children and families, also about

(D) the shaping of public opinion for fundamentally important areas such as attitudes toward children and families, and those toward

(E) the shaping of public opinion around fundamentally important areas like attitudes toward children and families, and those of

daagh · Accepted Answer

1. Excepting B and D all others uses  like  for denoting examples. Drop them ruthlessly. . 
2. D – ‘ helped the shaping’ , ‘ opinion for’  are unidiomatic. ‘ Helped (to) shape’  and ‘ opinion in ’ are correct idioms. So tick B and go to the next question.

neeshpal · Answer

B , imo

in such X as Y and Z - idiomatic

vaivish1723 · Answer

(A) shape public opinion on fundamentally important areas like attitudes toward children and families, along with - areas such as is required 
(B) shape public opinion in such fundamentally important areas as attitudes toward children and families and 
(C) to shape public opinion about such fundamentally important areas like attitudes toward children and families, also about - areas such as is required
(D) the shaping of public opinion for fundamentally important areas such as attitudes toward children and families, and those toward - those does not make sense
(E) the shaping of public opinion around fundamentally important areas like attitudes toward children and families, and those of - areas such as is required

cialit0506 · Answer

Hmm, good explanation ppl.

I did the same question in GMATPrep and chose D.

It appeared a logical choice, but as mentioned in the postings, "those" is wrong right?

Is it because "those" lacks an antecedent? Because "those" can refer to attitudes or areas, right?

Please confirm if this is correct.

Thanks alot.

angel2009 · Answer

Why you assume the word  attitude  should be placed before  relative merits of competition and cooperation  ?

kjumbala · Answer

IMO B: anyway not sure whether we need a comma after "families" so that it clearly separates "merits" out of the chain of " children and families"?

hamza · Answer

As a thumb rule, I will ALWAYS ALWAYS treat the pronouns (those, they, it) with suspicion.
I have encountered a no. of GMAT practice problems testing the same thing. (as in choice D)

thanks guys.,..

GMATPill · Answer

Some notes on this question as some students are focusing on small idiomatic issues when they miss what is really being tested in this question. https://www.gmatpill.com/practice-questi ... ar-errors/

Yalephd · Answer

helped shape public opinion...

I thought B was wrong because of the two conjugated verbs next to each other. I thought that it had to be  helped   TO   shape  public opinion.

Does anyone else see this as a flaw with answer choice B?

agdimple333 · Answer

in B, dont we need comma after families?

rphardu · Answer

Hi kjumbala and agdimple333,
Your doubt is genuine. This is because of idiom "such X as Y and Z".
so here X=fundamentally important areas 
Y= attitudes toward children and families 
Z= relative merits of competition and cooperation

I hope my explanation helped, if indeed please give me kudos.
---------------------------------------------------------

Here one more idiom is used wrongly:
Correct idiom is "opinion on" , which is only used in A. If anyone wants to advise on this

WishMasterUA · Answer

"such as" is more prefferable when present exampls than "like"
so eliminate A,C and E

D no clear refference for thoes

B is correct

jsahni123 · Answer

A. shape public opinion on fundamentally important areas  like  attitudes toward children and families,  along with

1)the sentence is trying to introduce an example here so such as should be used
2)Also along with the relative merits of competition and cooperation is acting as a modifier modifying public opinion on fundamentally important areas which is incorrect.

B. shape public opinion in such fundamentally important areas as attitudes toward children and families and
This option is correct

C. to shape public opinion about such fundamentally important areas  like  attitudes toward children and families,  also about 
Same reason as A

D.  the shaping of  public opinion for fundamentally important areas such as attitudes toward children and families, and  those  toward
1)helped the shaping of is unclear (as per my thinking)
2)Pronoun those does not have antecedent

E.  the shaping of  public opinion around fundamentally important areas like attitudes toward children and families, and  those of 
1)helped the shaping of is unclear (as per my thinking)
2)Pronoun those does not have antecedent 
3)Such as should be used to introduce example

mehtakaustubh · Answer

usually like is used for comparison (nouns, noun phrases) and such as used to give examples...
now A,C.E use like and B.D use such as....
This sentence says "Margaret Mead helped shape public opinion on areas"....followed by examples of those areas....so such as suits here...
In D those doesnot have antecedent also i feel helped the shaping is awkward....helped shape is better construction....so only one left is B. 
so eliminate all the options that do not contain such as....we are left with B and D....

mohnish104 · Answer

Clear B. I was a bit skeptical about the use of and in the last part but the rest of the sentences were clearly out of contention. :wall

soumya170293 · Answer

I think ans should be C. "
helped to shape.........."seems correct. though it has like which is not acceptable in GMAT to give example...
Why the OA is B ...Only for Such as...

Nightmare007 · Answer

Direct B - parallelism - attitude towards and relative merits of and such as for examples .

daagh · Answer

1. Dear Chemerical71: Will you kindly mark the underlining to make it easier to read and respond.

2.Let's first get rid of choices A, C and E for using like to denote examples. Such ... as is the correct idiom to use. Now between B and D:

D is wrong on a few counts as below. 
A. Helped the shaping of' is inferior to the bare infinitive 'helped (to)shape'. 
B. 'For' fundamentally important areas - is a wrong idiom; 'in' fundamentally important areas is a better one. 
C. In a list, when there are two items only it is not necessary to put a serial comma between the first and second items. 
D . The difference between ' such important areas as' and "important areas such as': 
When we say ' such important areas as' A and B, we mean that the cited A and B are the only two important areas. When we say, -important areas such as A and B ', we mean that there many more than those A and B. In this case, both facts could be true and hence, this split does not make a critical difference IMO. 
B, sans these pitfalls, is the clear winner. Beautiful question. Kudos to the poster.

mvictor · Answer

like for examples is incorrect. A, C and E are right away eliminated.
in C, also -> unknown what function it has here - and is more appropriate.
D - those - what it refers to? areas? attitudes? since it's ambiguous, it can be eliminated.

B stands!

Margaret Mead, the best-known anthropologist of the twentieth century,

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Margaret Mead, the best-known anthropologist of the twentieth century,

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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