The citizen didnt have no hesitation about apprehending the thief

Question

The citizen didn’t have no hesitation about  apprehending the thief that stole the old lady’s purse.

a) The citizen didn’t have no hesitation about 
b) There was no hesitation of the citizen for 
c) No hesitation was of the citizen about 
d) The citizen didn’t hesitate when 
e) None hesitation was shown by the citizen for

Zarrolou · Answer

The citizen didn’t have no hesitation about  apprehending the thief that stole the old lady’s purse.

a) The citizen didn’t have no hesitation about 
did  not  have  no : so they have hesitation. Wrong, double negation
b) There was no hesitation of the citizen for 
CORRECT
c) No hesitation was of the citizen about 
This is grammatically wrong. " was " is misplaced, but most important, the general order of the sentence is confused. also "of" is not appropriate, "by" should be better; and "about" doesn't fit in this situation
d) The citizen didn’t hesitate when 
The problems here are " when " and the verb: " The citizen didn’t hesitate (...) apprehending " is clearly wrong 
e) None hesitation was shown by the citizen for
Rule of SC: avoid passive if possible. Moreover "hesitation was shown for apprehending" is unidiomatic

mba201456 · Answer

Hi thanks for explanation.

However, Gmat Ultimate Grammer said it is d...

I was wondering if it is a bug...

RyanCJW · Answer

The citizen didn’t have no hesitation about  apprehending the thief that stole the old lady’s purse.

a) The citizen didn’t have no hesitation about

Incorrect. "didn't have no" is incorrect.

b) There was no hesitation of the citizen for

Incorrect. 'There was no hesitation of the citizen for apprehending the thief that stole the lady's purse' is saying that the citizen had no hesitation for the act of apprehending the thief - it changes the meaning of the sentence - this sentence isn't saying that the citizen apprehended the thief, it's just saying that he/she had no hesitation for the apprehension.

c) No hesitation was of the citizen about

"No hesitation was of" is incorrect.

d) The citizen didn’t hesitate when

This is correct. 'The citizen didn't hesitate when apprehending the thief that stole the lady's purse."

e) None hesitation was shown by the citizen for

This is incorrect. "No hesitation was shown by the citizen" would be the correct way to start that sentence but the "for" is incorrect as well.

It is my opinion that  D  is the correct answer, not B.

kanusha · Answer

sir,
pls explain the meaning of the sentence and options with a reason to eliminate

Narenn · Answer

Hesitation(noun) for ......ing would be the correct usage. The original choice uses double negative didn't and no and thereby distorts the intended meaning. Per the Choice A :- The citizen do have hesitation for apprehending the thief. This logically can not be the intended meaning.... why would a common citizen show hesitation for the apprehension of a criminal. So Choice A out. B) CORRECT :- This choice clears the above mistake by removing verb didn't and putting linking verb was instead. C) INCORRECT :- Sentence should start with there followed by linking verb was in the absence of clear subject. Confusing word order. D) INCORRECT :- Distorts the Intended meaning. as per intended meaning Citizen did not hesitate for apprehending the thief (for particular state of thief), whereas per this choice, citizen did not hesitate when (for particular time). This implies that at some another time they might hesitate. E) INCORRECT :- Passive structure. Hope that helps!

tk1tez7777 · Answer

First of all I would like to say that please mention the source of this questions. Second whatever the source is, its very bad. It been months since I have seen such a bad written SC.
Between B and D, if I have to pick I would go for D. Reason being is there is no idiom called hesitation of….its either hesitation over or hesitate to….moreover D sounds better.

Now for the people who are arguing about "when" in D. If you were to pick that error then I would say this whole sentence is faulty and should be delete as soon as possible. Now read the whole sentence not just the underline portion. apprehending the thief  that  stole the old lady’s purse. GMAT strictly uses WHO to refer to people. Whenever you see "that" to refer to people its just plain wrong and no argument about it.

So all the 5 choices are faulty but if you were to pick then Pick D. its active voice and has only 2 errors….usage of "when" and "that" now B has 4 errors…usage of "when", "that" "passive voice" and wrong idiom.

Overall this is very bad sentence and don't practise from this source.

PiyushK · Answer

Meaning in original choice and other choices is not matching because of double negation.
What is the source, I believe we must keep intended meaning from original choice as it is, while choosing grammatically correct option.
What is grammatically incorrect in A ?

mikemcgarry · Answer

I'm happy to respond. :-)

First of all, PiyushK , choice (A) has no grammatical error, but it has the logical error of a double-negative. Remember, ultimately, GMAT SC is about logic more than grammar. I agree this is a terrible question. I am not sure that the author of the question is fluent in English. I completely disagree with the OA given. Choice (D) sounds the most natural, although this is far too casual to be correct on the GMAT. In fact, (D) make the error of following a subordinate conjunction ("when") with a gerund instead of a full + structure. Choice (B), the purported OA, is an awkward trainwreck disaster. The " there was " structure is woefully indirect, and using the noun form (" hesitation ") instead of the verb form (" hesitate ") make the whole phrase longer and more flabby. Also, " hesitation ... for " is not idiomatically correct. A truly abysmal question. BTW, the grammatically correct way to say what the sentence unsuccessfully tried to say is either The citizen didn’t hesitate when they apprehended the thief that stole the old lady’s purse . or The citizen didn’t hesitate in apprehending the thief that stole the old lady’s purse . Here's a blog about choose verb forms over noun forms for the same word: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/active-verbs-on-the-gmat/ Here's an ebook on GMAT idioms https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-idiom-ebook/ Please let me know if anyone has any questions. Mike :-)

PiyushK · Answer

Thanks Mike,

I tried to simplify the original choice as following, do you also feel that original choice and other choices yield different meaning ?

a) The citizen didn’t have no hesitation about

no hesitation = confidence

a) The citizen didn’t have confidence about

didn’t have confidence = hesitated

a) The citizen hesitated about apprehending the thief that stole the old lady’s purse.

After simplification, above sentence tells that citizen hesitated, but other choices tell citizen did not hesitate, and as I understand we must preserve the meaning of original choice as it is in grammatically correct choice.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear PiyushK , Here's the funny thing, that can be a bit hard to appreciate if you are not a native speaker of English: On purely logical grounds, the sentence .... The citizen didn’t have no hesitation about X. ...means The citizen had hesitation about X. In a purely mathematical sense, that is the logical meaning of the sentence. But that's not the intended meaning. The trouble is, language is not mathematics, and the common mistakes that people make defy all logic. In practice, in especially colloquial American speech, people use double negatives as an intensifier --- it's grammatically and logically incorrect, but this is the common mistake people make. I don't want no broccoli . ( meaning : I have absolutely no desire for any broccoli .) The mathematical person might misinterpret that person as saying that he wants broccoli, but that is is a reading that, in attaching to the literalism, misses the meaning in context. In context, the mistake many native English speakers make is using the double negative when they mean a single negative. When folks make this mistake, their intended meaning is different from the logical/mathematical meaning. When those two diverge, the GMAT SC wants us to be faithful to the intended meaning, the meaning in context. GMAT SC is all about meaning, and in a truly good sentence, logic and meaning and grammar all work together and all support the same interpretation. This is a very poor question, so I would not take this as a model, but there are many official questions in which the prompt contains an error that, strictly logically, implies an absurdity, and our job is to figure out the sensible meaning intended and the logically consistent way to say it. On such a question, our job is most certainly not to try to maintain fidelity to the absolutely absurd thing the prompt literally implies, but to find a logically correct way to state the sensible thing the prompt was trying to say. If you get too mathematical with the "don't change the meaning" logic, that will get you in trouble. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

PiyushK · Answer

Oh thanks Mike, I got your point.
I have also read this double negation -colloquial style of conversation- in John Steinbeck's novel OF MICE AND MEN.
Now I can relate intended meaning, so double negation is almost always wrong in GMAT.

Mpuneet · Answer

A – Double negative so incorrect
B – Correct
C – sentence is mixed up, was in particular seems to be in the wrong place. Incorrect
D –‘when’ is the wrong verb form
E – passive voice makes it the second choice, also has unidiomatic phrasing. ‘hesitation was shown for apprehending.

RafZaf · Answer

OA in The Ultimate GMAT CLUB Grammar Book is D. The recorded OA is B.
I am confused between B and D. Which is the correct answer?

Posted from my mobile device

The citizen didnt have no hesitation about apprehending the thief

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

The citizen didnt have no hesitation about apprehending the thief

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