V02-37

Question

Our understanding was that she would continue to cover the costs of studies,  which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay.

A. which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay.
B. which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family. 
C. of which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay.
D. both of which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family.
E. both of which she agreed to pay with the rest of the family verbally.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Solution:

Our understanding was that she would continue to cover the costs of studies,  which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay.

A. which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay.
B. which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family. 
C. of which she agreed verbally with the rest of the family to pay.
D. both of which she verbally agreed to pay with the rest of the family.
E. both of which she agreed to pay with the rest of the family verbally.

This sentence requires the correct placement of the adverb  verbally , indicating the way in which the agreement was made, and the correct use of phrases indicating with whom ( the rest of the family ) the agreement was made.
 
 A. CORRECT.  The adverb  verbally  comes immediately after the verb  agreed , indicating their correlation, and the placement of the phrase  with the rest of the family  makes it clear that the agreement was between the two parties.
 
B. This option conveys the wrong meaning. The phrase  with the rest of the family  is misplaced, making it sound as if the subject of the sentence and  the rest of the family  were planning to pay the fees together.
 
C. The word  of  is unnecessary and confusing.
 
D. The phrase  with the rest of the family  is misplaced, making it sound as if the subject of the sentence and the family were planning to pay the fees together; also the word  both  is unnecessary and confusing.
 
E.  Verbally  is misplaced, making it sound as if the promised payments will be made by speaking.

Answer: A

Bunuel · Answer

The question has been revised and edited. Thank you  sayantanc2k  !!!

Abhishek008 · Answer

I think this is a  poor-quality  question and I don't agree with the explanation.

sayantanc2k · Answer

Thank you, feedbacks are always welcome because they give us a chance to improve the quality of our questions. However, unless you mention why you consider this a poor quality question and why you do not agree with the explanation, not many constructive or corrective actions can be taken from our end.

Hence I would request you to elaborate more on your concerns, so that either we can explain to you in case you are going wrong in your thoughts or we can modify the question/explanation in case there is really a problem.

nidhihiremath · Answer

I think this the explanation isn't clear enough, please elaborate. Hi!
I marked second. Here is my take.

D & E are clearly wrong as they use "both" and there are no two things happening.
C would e wrong due to the usage of - "of"

Amongst A & B - A seems to be telling the family paid the cost whereas aren't we looking at saying it is something she paid?

You would verball agree to do something - as in this case pay. You don't verbally agree with someone.

Please help me understand where I am going wrong

sayantanc2k · Answer

Let's try to break up the second part in option A the following way:

Basic structure:
She agreed to pay the costs of studies.
With whom did she agree? With the rest of the family.
How did she agree? verbally (meaning, the agreemnt was verbal - there was no written agreement).

There is no problem with the above contsruction - the meaning is clearly conveyed.

Now looking at option B:

Basic structure:
She agreed to pay the costs of studies.
With whom did she agree? Not clear.
With whom did she (agree to) pay? With the rest of the family: wrong meaning, implying that the payment was to be done jointly, by her and her family.
How did she agree? verbally (meaning, the agreement was verbal, but with whom, not clear).

Thus meaning wise, option A is better than option B.

jcabrerab · Answer

I think this is a  high-quality  question and I agree with explanation. is agreed verbally preferred over verbally agreed?

kavitaverma · Answer

why is the original sentence mentioned in option B?  Bunuel   sayantanc2k

MorseCode2212 · Answer

Option A does not match underlined portion

Bunuel · Answer

Fixed the issue. Thank you both!

wickedvikram · Answer

Hi Sayantanc2k,
I chose option B, which I agree is incorrect. The issue, I have with option A, is it looks to mean that her agreement is that family is going to pay. This perhaps is because of placement of "to pay". With non-underlined part, it is pretty clear that she is the paying. B made sense to me since the "to pay" is placed next to the noun. B definitely alters the meaning of underlined part, however A alters the non-underlined part, which is a bigger sin.
Could you check few precedents in gmat official questions in order to give us an absolute clarity on our approach in the future.

Thanks for your help.

kavitaverma · Answer

There is still issue with the second half of options A and B.  Bunuel

Bunuel · Answer

Thank you! Hope it's fine now.

shubhamkr · Answer

Kindly explain what "Which" is referring back to?

getsetfly · Answer

sayantanc2k

what is "which" referring to ? please explain.....is it not referring to studies/study ?...and still using "which" is making sense?

V02-37

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