Making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime,

Question

Making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime,  if affordable , is one of the five obligations of devout Muslims.

(A) if affordable

(B) when it can be afforable

(C) if they can afford it

(D) when affordable

(E) if it should be affordable

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/02/world/400-die-iranian-marchers-battle-saudi-police-mecca-embassies-smashed-teheran.html

Making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime,  if it can be afforded , is one of the five obligations of a devout Moslem, and the annual hajj occupies an important place in the Islamic world.

mikemcgarry · Accepted Answer

I'm happy to respond.

The GMAT Paper Tests are an excellent source of further practice problems, especially for SC and Quant. Choice (A) could be interpreted as grammatically correct, but it has a casual feel. Only choice (C) has the appropriate academic feel. As with all official questions, this is a well-designed question. It's in fact an element of sophisticated writing, an elegant rhetorical move, to have a pronoun precede its antecedent. Here the " they " correctly refers to and anticipates " devout Muslims ." This might be a slightly less likely topic to appear on the GMAT today, only because GMAC is scrupulous about avoiding anything that could be interpreted as controversial, and quite unfortunately, the absolutely beautiful and noble religion of Islam is a controversial topic right now in the US, mostly because of the jaw-dropping ignorance of some of my fellow Americans. Those are my thoughts. Let me know if you have any questions. Mike

daagh · Answer

My dear young colleague Bishal

If you want good responses to your queries, please make the life of the responders simple by providing the actual verbatim text of the example and please also provide why you think what is given is correct or wrong.

This will show that you have already deliberated on the issue. Nobody likes to respond to a casual dabbler.
 
This is just a suggestion.

In the given case, you will do well to produce the actual choice A and explain why you think A is correct when GMAT says that it is wrong.
 
Now on to your query:

The reduced phrase 'if affordable' has been placed in the middle of the sentence. Such middle phrases modify the proximate noun, those just in front. In this case, it absurdly modifies the noun in front "lifetime". The actually modified noun is the 'Muslims', which actually is the object of the preposition 'of'.

The actual subject of the clause is the substantive phrase 
"Making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime" and the verb is the singular 'is'.

In C, the subordinate clause 'if they can afford it' makes it clear that it is the Muslims who are the referent of the pronoun' they" and it refers to the pilgrimage.

atalb · Answer

'If affordable' is too far from 'pilgrimage' to be used a its modifier.

Here, it looks like 'if affordable' is modifying 'lifetime'. More over the subject of the sentence is 'Muslims' so C is the winner.

Nevernevergiveup · Answer

Making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime, if affordable, is one of the five obligations of devout Muslims.

given sentence correctly uses if since there is a condition that if pilgrimage is affordable then making it is one of the five obligations of Muslims.

making the pilgrimage if affordable is not clear in meaning as it does not explain whom does it refer to.
affordable to whom...............answer is Muslims and that is nowhere indicated or mentioned.

b) when it can be affordable.............using when to refer unspecified time(once in lifetime) is incorrect usage.

c) if they can afford it................solves the problem by using pronoun they to refer Muslims.

d) when affordable..............same as A and B.

e) if it should be affordable............we cant use should in if clause and to whom is also not mentioned.

I hope this helps

dominicraj · Answer

Hi Mechmeera,

Muslims follows after they right.. what is your take on that? I have never seen a sentence where the pronoun precedes the antecedent. Can you kindly elaborate?

Regards,
Dom

Nevernevergiveup · Answer

If the pronoun contains one and only antecedent which is correct meaning wise, 
then it is not important whether the pronoun precedes or succeeds the antecedent.

we generally prefer cases where pronoun appears after and closer to the antecedent.
but this is just a preference if available in options and not a rule to follow.

There are plenty of such cases where pronoun precedes the antecedent. This usage is correct.
You can get quite a few examples from OG itself.

ashitaporwal · Answer

Please provide a better explanation for this answer choice. I am unable to understand the exact logic behind such questions.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear ashitaporwal , I'm happy to respond.

My friend, I am going to chide you. What you have written is not a thoughtful or thorough question. First of all, it probably didn't take you very long to write and post this question--right there is an indication of the problem. Your education depends first and foremost on your effort: anything which doesn't involve that much effort for you probably is not going to involve that much learning. This thread has multiple posts about this question: did you read through these? Your question doesn't make that clear. A high-quality question would be very clear about exactly what you do and don't understand. A high-quality question would involve extensive reflection on your own understanding, because such reflection is crucial for learning. Writing excellent questions take a great deal of effort precisely because it is one of the habits of excellence. See: Asking Excellent Questions I am going to challenge you to read that blog, then read & study every entry in this thread, and integrate all this information to write the highest-quality question about this SC problem. If you do that, I will be happy to answer it. Does all this make sense? Mike

Bishal123456789 · Answer

daagh  Why option A is wrong?

ARIEN3228 · Answer

Usage of IF and When on the GMAT.

In conditional statements, ‘if’ and ‘when’ can be used interchangeably – but only in certain cases.

‘If’ and ‘when’ can be used interchangeably when we present conditions in which the outcome is definite or the outcome is a general fact. i.e. if event A happens, event B happens.

Example : We know as a general fact that water evaporates when it is heated.

If you heat water, it evaporates. – CORRECT
When you heat water, it evaporates. – CORRECT

When can you not use ‘when’ in place of ‘if’?

When ‘if’ conditional statement is used to express a situation in which the outcome is a possibility and not a certainty, ‘when’ cannot be used in place of ‘if’.

Example: Possibility of going to fair

Morgans may go to the fair, if the weather is bright and sunny. – CORRECT
Morgans may go to the fair, when the weather is bright and sunny. – INCORRECT

key takeaways

If the conditional statement expresses a general fact ‘if’ and ‘when’ can be used interchangeably.
If the conditional statement expresses a possibility, ‘when’ cannot be used in place of ‘if’.

Source credit: https://e-gmat.com/blogs/if-vs-when/

Applying the concept to solve this question:

We cannot use when here because we do not know for certain whether the outcome making the pilgrimage is certain.

Left with A C E.

affordable(adjective) vs afford(verb)

Dictionary meaning of affordable is inexpensive; reasonably priced.

As per the meaning of the original sentence, Making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime, if affordable inexpensive or reasonably priced, is one of the five obligations of devout Muslims.

Who decides whether the pilgrimage is affordable or not?

Who reckons whether they can afford the affordable pilgrimage?

This option does not answer those questions. Option C answers it and therefore is the winner.

ArupRS · Answer

Option C says .

what is the antecedent of it ? To me, It refers to . This is wrong usage. Kindly explain.

Regards,
Arup

vasuca10 · Answer

VeritasKarishma  mam Kindly explain why Option A is incorrect?

TarunKumar1234 · Answer

Making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime, if affordable, is one of the five obligations of devout Muslims.

(A) if affordable

(B) when it can be afforable

(C) if they can afford it

(D) when affordable

(E) if it should be affordable

Show Spoiler

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/02/world/400-die-iranian-marchers-battle-saudi-police-mecca-embassies-smashed-teheran.html

Making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime, if it can be afforded, is one of the five obligations of a devout Moslem, and the annual hajj occupies an important place in the Islamic world.

Redwhite387 · Answer

It is mentioned in the threads above that 'if affordable' in option A modifies the closest noun - lifetime. With that logic, shouldnt option C also modify lifetime.
How are we sure that the 'it' in option C is modifying 'making pilgrimage..'

TBT · Answer

Lifetime is singular noun. "They" cannot refer to it. Pronoun they makes it very clearn that the phrase refers to muslims.

Fdambro294 · Answer

Hence, C is the clearest option.

Posted from my mobile device

Taulark1 · Answer

egmat  , 
I Don't understand how option A is wrong here, i get why option C is correct.
Doesn't 'if affordable' refer to the 'pilgrimage'. So can't we say something like - Making the journey, if the journey is affordable, is one of the obligations of devout muslims.

Making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime,  if affordable , is one of the five obligations of devout Muslims.

(A) if affordable
(C) if they can afford it

Raman109 · Answer

Making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime,  if affordable , is one of the five obligations of devout Muslims.

Option Elimination -

(A) if affordable - it's a prepositional phrase that can be used to modify nouns or action verbs. But in this case, due to its vicinity to "a lifetime," it seems to modify "a lifetime," which doesn't make sense. On the other hand, if we take it adverbially, it should modify the action verb, which we don't have in this sentence. We have a linking verb "is" here. On a side note - We can use prepositional phrases with linking verbs, but it adds information to the subject in that case. E.g., - He is in the park. "in the park" adds more information about the subject's location. In our case, "Making the pilgrimage" is too far, which would not be a problem if we had an action verb, but as we have a linking verb here, we need the modifier as close to the noun. Wrong.

(B) when it can be affordable - "when" is a time marker first, indicating certainty. E.g., When it rains, the streets get wet. (It means that the rain is expected to occur and when it occurs streets will get wet). The sentence's intended meaning is that it is not certain that every devout Muslim can make a pilgrimage to Mecca. So, a better conditional here is "if." E.g., If it rains, we will stay indoors. (in this sentence, the rain is uncertain; if it happens, we'll stay indoors).

(C) if they can afford it - perfect. It is a proper if-then conditional. For clarity, here is what it means - If devout Muslims can afford it, making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime is one of their five obligations.

(D) when affordable - same issue as described in A and B.

(E) if it should be affordable - Adding "should be" adds unnecessary uncertainty. The intended meaning is not a matter of "should" but rather a matter of whether the devout Muslims have the financial means to afford the pilgrimage. C is a much superior option than E.

Making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime,

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime,

Prep Toolkit

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