Oliver wasn t fond of 18th-century French novels because he

Question

Oliver  wasn’t fond of 18th-century French novels because he found them to be boring and didn’t like not being able to understand so many of the words.

A) wasn’t fond of 18th-century French novels because he found them to be boring and didn’t like not being able to understand so many of the words.

B) wasn’t fond of 18th-century French novels because of the fact that he found them boring and they contained many difficult words.

C) disliked 18th-century French novels because they were boring and contained many difficult words.

D) hated 18th-century French novels in that they were boring and he didn’t like not being able to understand so many of the words.

E) wasn’t fond of 18th-century French novels due to the fact that they were boring and contained many difficult words which he didn’t understand.

MacFauz · Accepted Answer

I dont agree with the OA. Only A doesn't distort the meaning. C suggests that the books themselves were boring. Oliver might have found them boring but the same might not be the case with everyone else.

gmatcallow · Answer

(A) Double negative which distorts the meaning
(B)"because of the fact that he found them" is too wordy
(C)No Problem.However I don't think it should not have been made such a shorter sentence
(D) 1."Hated" is not proper word to use.
 2."in that they were" not very clear"
 3. Double negative same as (A)
(E)"due to the fact that" is too wordy.

dheerajv · Answer

C is most precise and concise. Others are either too wordy or have double negatives.

Injuin · Answer

Isn't the meaning changed when you go from "not fond of..." to "disliked"? "Not fond of" could mean neutral while "disliked" means that there is a definite judgement.

DonQuixote · Answer

The position of being "not fond of" something implies that you dislike it, as opposed to merely being neutral.

I'm not really sure that I like this answer either, though. The sentence has gone from indicating that Oliver found 18th-century French novels boring, to stating outright that they are boring. It also goes from stating that Oliver could not understand many of the words in them, to saying that the words in them are difficult; what if Oliver is just terrible at French?

lotus · Answer

Initially, I was looking for an answer starting with 'wasn't fond of' but C seems to be the most clear and consice amongst all

aditya2288 · Answer

I am also not sure about this question. I think other options distort the meaning. What is the source of this question?
Is it from a good GMAT source

GMATBeast · Answer

Agreed.

C distorts meaning by saying that they just had difficult words when the original sentence is saying that he didn't like being able to understand the words.

Zatmah · Answer

I find this a terrible question !!! Only A does not distort the meaning but it is still grammatically incorrect !!

Choice "C" means that french literature is boring and difficult to read however, the original meaning is that Oliver found it boring and didn't understand some words.

dina98 · Answer

I like E but it has 'due to the fact'. C changes the meaning, but it looks better grammatically.

yasararshad · Answer

How could C be correct?

Oliver  wasn’t fond of 18th-century French novels because he found them to be boring and didn’t like not being able to understand so many of the words.

C) disliked 18th-century French novels because they were boring and contained many difficult words.

Isn't it generalizing French novels? It is completely changing the meaning.  Its not the case that, French Novels were boring as mentioned in Option C, its that, Oliver found them boring because of certain reason.  I dont really agree with this answer. E, though bit wordy, keeps the intention intact.

Mahmud6 · Answer

The OA seems to be controversial. Would you please confirm us?

sobby · Answer

I found only C grammatically correct ,but C changes the meaning ....

arvind910619 · Answer

A Parallelism is not maintained ans also didn’t like not being is wrong 
B because of the fact is wordy gain parallelism is not maintained 
C although correct but has omitted some information 
D Because is not there "not being able to " is wordy
E due to the fact is wordy

I think E is a better answer if we leave its wordiness aside.
Any suggestions?

sobby · Answer

In my opinion --
Due to is not correct as it modifies verb ..."because" is apt here ..
Second , although in many question we have seen "which" without a comma, but i guess GMAT not like this stuff much..

gmathelp101 · Answer

Latter part of the sentence states he didn't like not being able to understand so many of the words..
Whilst it is implied that many words were difficult, it is not clearly stated. Omission is okay in SC?

ydmuley · Answer

Hello,  mikemcgarry  - Considering we are getting a lot of controversial answers, could you please provide your reasoning for this?

ydmuley · Answer

Hello, @mikemcgarry - Considering we are getting a lot of controversial answers, could you please provide your reasoning for this?

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

This would never fly on the GMAT. First, if our only grounds for elimination is that some choices are "too wordy," we are already in trouble. The Official Guide certainly uses this dubious phrasing, but behind that, there is still generally a clear reason why some of those words need to be cut out!

Additionally, as a few people have pointed out, the meaning of C is quite different from the meaning of A. That's not inherently problematic; sometimes the right answer doesn't have the same meaning as A. But in this case, the meaning of A actually makes more sense. Unless we're narrating a novel, we don't want to describe someone's opinion as if it's a general fact, and we are not narrating a novel.

Besides, a real GMAT question would ever rely on a blanket assertion that an entire body of literature is boring

Oliver wasn t fond of 18th-century French novels because he

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

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

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Oliver wasn t fond of 18th-century French novels because he

Prep Toolkit

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

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards