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805+ (Hard)|   Parallelism|      
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MrSheldonCooper
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The controversy has divided the Senate, caused strains in 13 Mar 2018, 13:16
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For starters, the split between 'causing' and 'caused' or 'provoking' and 'provoked' is a false split. Both can make sense. If we want to describe a cause-effect relationship, we can use 'comma + ing' construction. Another usage can be a list of events - caused, provoked etc. Blind parallelism here can be fatal.

Eliminate A for dual use of comma+ing. It is not clear what the cause is for the effect of provoking - the division of senate or strains in commission. The second clause should be separated by 'and' to make the meaning clear.

Eliminate B for the dangling modifier in the end - 'with private complaints ..'. This also violates parallelism. Note that two things are being provoked - public charges and private complainants. These two clauses should be parallel to convey the intended meaning.

Eliminate C for blind meaningless parallelism. The sentence says something provoked public charges by industry officials that private complaints that... which is non-sensical.

Eliminate D for missing 'and' before provoked.

The correct structure is divided X, caused Y, and provoked A and B.

E follows sensible parallelism and hence is the answer.
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The controversy has divided the Senate, caused strains in 28 May 2019, 19:48
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I am not convinced with 'E' because there must be a 'that' before private. Am I wrong?
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The controversy has divided the Senate, caused strains in 28 May 2019, 20:09
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rashwiniyer
I am not convinced with 'E' because there must be a 'that' before private. Am I wrong?
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We can read that part of option E like this:

The controversy has provoked (a) public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority and (b) private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”
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The controversy has divided the Senate, caused strains in 19 Aug 2019, 15:14
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Official explanation:

Explanation: This long sentence contains several structures that need to properly linked in a series. In (A) the participles causing and provoking could be correct if they link back to the fact that the controversy has divided the Senate. The “provoking….” does not link logically to that at all, however, and the “private complaints” at the end does not fit into the series. (A) is incorrect. (B) has almost identical problems and the “with private complaints….” at the end cannot be linked to the other structures. (C), (D), and (E) correctly show that the controversy did three separate things: divided the Senate, caused strains, and provoked. However only (E) gets the last part correct and shows that two things were provoked: public charges and private charges. In (C), the “provoked that private complaints that he is….” is clearly incorrect and in (D) you would need an “and” before provoked to show that the three things in the series have ended.
Answer is (E).
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The controversy has divided the Senate, caused strains in 26 Jun 2021, 11:36
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(A) causing strains in the commission, provoking public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority, and private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”

(B) causing strains in the commission and provoking public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority, with private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”

(C) caused strains in the commission, and provoked public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority and that private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”

(D) caused strains in the commission, provoked public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority and private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”

(E) caused strains in the commission, and provoked public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority and private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”


It's caused hence eleminate A and B
and provoked eleminate C
Towards the end it's and private complaints and not that hence IMO E
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The controversy has divided the Senate, caused strains in 24 Oct 2021, 09:25
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Hi AjiteshArun AndrewN

I have question about modifier.

The controversy has divided the Senate, (V.ing modifier1), and (V.ing modifier2).
In first example, both (V.ing modifier1) and (V.ing modifier2) modify preceding clause, The controversy has divided the Senate.


The controversy has divided the Senate, (V.ing modifier1), (V.ing modifier2).
In second example without and, does (V.ing modifier2) modify only (V.ing modifier1)?, or this sentence is considered grammatically incorrect?
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The controversy has divided the Senate, caused strains in Updated on: 08 Jan 2022, 04:37
Originally posted by AndrewN on 24 Oct 2021, 11:51.
Last edited by AndrewN on 08 Jan 2022, 04:37, edited 1 time in total.
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TorGmatGod
Hi AjiteshArun AndrewN

I have question about modifier.

The controversy has divided the Senate, (V.ing modifier1), and (V.ing modifier2).
In first example, both (V.ing modifier1) and (V.ing modifier2) modify preceding clause, The controversy has divided the Senate.


The controversy has divided the Senate, (V.ing modifier1), (V.ing modifier2).
In second example without and, does (V.ing modifier2) modify only (V.ing modifier1)?, or this sentence is considered grammatically incorrect?
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Good question, TorGmatGod. I think we can safely say that the second type of sentence would require a careful read. I am not going to say that a sentence could not be constructed in this manner. It could come down to a stylistic choice of the author. (Consider the case in which the conjunction might be omitted for a poetic purpose—He showed up to work early every day, hoping to improve his circumstances, aiming to climb one rung of the corporate ladder at a time. Yes, both modifiers would be understood to comment on the main clause. And in case you are curious, this stylistic choice has a name: asyndeton.) Nevertheless, I have yet to lay eyes on such a sentence on the GMAT™ as a correct answer to a Sentence Correction question. As such, I would not worry too much about this sort of potential sentence. If I did come across one as an answer choice, I would look to see how other options dealt with the same expression of meaning, no different from how I would look at any other SC question.

I hope you find this information and advice useful. Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew
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The controversy has divided the Senate, caused strains in 08 Dec 2021, 04:46
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The controversy has divided the Senate, caused strains in the commission, and provoked public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority and private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”


causing strains in the commission, provoking public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority, and private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”

causing strains in the commission and provoking public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority, with private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”

caused strains in the commission, and provoked public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority and that private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”

caused strains in the commission, provoked public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority and private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”

caused strains in the commission, and provoked public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority and private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”

I like B better. Cause and Effect. Divide in senate --> causing strain and provoking
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Doesn't option B ideally mean that the controversy has divided with the senate with the private complaints, which does not make any sense.
Hope it makes sense.
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The controversy has divided the Senate, caused strains in 08 Dec 2021, 04:53
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manugmat123
The controversy has divided the Senate, causing strains in the commission, provoking public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority, and private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”


(A) causing strains in the commission, provoking public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority, and private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”

(B) causing strains in the commission and provoking public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority, with private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”

(C) caused strains in the commission, and provoked public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority and that private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”

(D) caused strains in the commission, provoked public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority and private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”

(E) caused strains in the commission, and provoked public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority and private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”
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After drilling down to C and E, I chose C but I now understand why C is wrong and E is correct.
The sentence structure is something like -
divided, caused X, and provoked public charges by <someone> that <something> and <someone> that <something>
but option B wrongly phrases it as
divided, caused X, and provoked public charges by <someone> that <something> and that <someone> that <something>

Hope it helps.
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The controversy has divided the Senate, caused strains in 08 Jan 2022, 04:31
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AjiteshArun sir,
On what basis can we eliminate options A and B?
Not able to understand from the solutions offered.

Thanks
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The controversy has divided the Senate, caused strains in 09 Jan 2022, 05:59
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krndatta
AjiteshArun sir,
On what basis can we eliminate options A and B?
Not able to understand from the solutions offered.

Thanks
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Hi krndatta,

As best as I can tell, they're looking to test meaning in those options by asking us to take a call on whether we should go for a participle or a verb.
manugmat123
The controversy has divided the Senate, causing strains in the commission, provoking public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority, and private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn.”
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There's a controversy. That controversy has divided the Senate. We could reasonably expect such division to cause strains in a commission, but it's the part after that that we need to look at.

1. The controversy has divided the Senate, provoking public charges by industry officials that the banking chief is overreaching his authority...

It's unlikely that the dividing of the Senate would provoke public charges by industry officials about something related to the banking chief. Why would industry officials speak up only once the controversy divided the Senate? Instead, it's more likely that the controversy itself provoked those calls. We could use this to take both A and B out.
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The controversy has divided the Senate, caused strains in 09 Jan 2022, 06:12
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krndatta
AjiteshArun sir,
On what basis can we eliminate options A and B?
Not able to understand from the solutions offered.

Thanks
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Hello krndatta,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can help resolve your doubt.

The first error - mentioned by AjiteshArun - is a meaning error caused by the use of the "comma + present participle ("verb+ing"- “provoking” in this case)" construction; remember, the introduction of present participle ("verb+ing"- “provoking” in this case) after comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship.

Further, Option A incorrectly arranges "causing strains in the commission", "provoking public charges...his authority", and "private complaints that he is “reckless” and “stubborn" into the "A, B, and C" list construction; remember, only elements that play the same role in a sentence can be listed together in this structure, and the listed elements must be parallel.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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The controversy has divided the Senate, caused strains in 08 May 2025, 06:35
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