In elucidating and ultimately decrying the various strains of nihilism

Question

In elucidating and ultimately decrying the various strains of nihilism endemic to his native Russia, the novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky  sought to edify the populace and to lead them from  the evil portended in a philosophy that denied all values.

A) sought to edify the populace and to lead them from
B) sought to edify the populace, to lead it away from
C) sought edification of the populace and a leading them away from
D) sought in edifying the populace to lead it from
E) sought to edify the populace and he was leading them from

samusa · Answer

Good and Unique question !!

The portion of the sentence after populace ...works like a modifier ..it describes the main clause

Correct me if I am wrong.

Pillarsofcreation · Answer

Chose the wrong option and immediately realised the mistake. One more careless mistake added to the bag.

pronoun error : A,C and E use them to refer to the populace. Should be it. It's a collective noun.

D is just a wretched statement filled with potholes.

B is the correct answer

dav90 · Answer

i could eliminate A C E immediately, but what's exactly wrong with D?

daagh · Answer

Simple parallelism in play. He sought 1. to edify and 2. to lead them; only A sticks to this basic norm. Populace is considered a plural in this context. 
( P.S) ‘from’ should be underlined

dominicraj · Answer

Hi,

Sought ... "to edify" and "to lead"..parallel

Populace is singular so "it" is rightly used in B.

Hence B.

Regards,
Dom.

daagh · Answer

Dom wrote; When there are only two items x and y, then there should be a conjunction ‘and’ between the x and y. B is missing that critical parallelism marker. Populace can be sometimes taken as plural. See the evidence below from “The Free Dictionary” https://www.thefreedictionary.com/populace Populace n (sometimes functioning as plural) 1. the inhabitants of an area 2. the common people; masses So ‘them’ is passable. But more importantly, the other choice D containing the singular ‘it’ is also not grammatical. Am I right, Dom? Regards

dominicraj · Answer

Hi Daagh, I dont know if you are trying to pull my leg but I think(and you know it too

) you are better judge of GMAT than me any day.

Yes IMO also populace can be singular or plural. In option D.. "sought in" looks like a wrong idiom.. "sought to" or in other sentences where it might be used "sought after" would be better IMO. Regards, Dom.

Pillarsofcreation · Answer

Confused again. What is the correct answer then?

daagh · Answer

Dear Dom,

I never intend to pull legs in a forum; I just wanted to point out that populace can be plural and that D isn't parallel, the points on which you relied on to choose B. Now, with the singular choices out of the way, it might be easier to hit the bull's eye. A now comes into limelight.

daagh · Answer

Pillarsofcreation

According to OA I am wrong; populace is singular as per Magoosh.Therefore B is the answer.

But 'to edify and to lead' are two distinct functions IMO; to co-ordinate both with a comma is unusual

dominicraj · Answer

Hi Daagh,

I think X sought to edify the populace.Why? So that he can lead them/it away from the evil...

I think it follows like a cause and effect principle..

In option A.. to edify and to lead.. makes it sound like both the actions are independent of each other..IMO.

Regards,
Dom.

KS15 · Answer

I think I can explain this. Here to sought to edify and to lead are not 2 functions. Please read Option B carefully.    He sought to edify TO lead it away color]. So the intended purpose of edifying is to lead it (populace) from something.

anupamadw · Answer

Hello Experts Please explain how B is correct answer? According to me A) sought to edify the populace and to lead them from --> to edify and to lead are || , but not sure what "them" refers to? according to sentence structure "the populace" is at object place, and "them" is also in object place so "them" refers to "the populace" ? but ...the populace is singular right? B) sought to edify the populace, to lead it away from if to edify and to lead are || then there should not be any comma , to lead it away from -- i don't understand its role in this sentence C) sought edification of the populace and a leading them away from again "them" for populace.. now sought is only main verb here hence it will be interpreted as sought edification of the populace and sought a leading them away from hence wrong D) sought in edifying the populace to lead it from the novelist sought to edify people , not in edifying to edify people was his aim, hence "to" is needed hence wrong E) sought to edify the populace and he was leading them from Two ICs joined just by "and" hence wrong I am unable to find any correct answer lolz am I missing something?

please correct me

Harley1980 · Answer

OE from Magoosh:

(A) “Populace” is a singular collective noun and should therefore takes the pronoun “it” not them. Also, the two actions “to edify” and “to lead” are closely related, one following from the other. The “and” makes them seem too distinct. Be wary of mechanically choosing parallelism.

(B) correctly uses the pronoun “it” and draws attention to the interconnectedness of the two actions by repeating the “to”. Such structure is rare in GMAT and will likely be found only at the higher levels of SC.

(C) “them” incorrectly refers in number to “populace”

(D) the omission of “away” changes the meaning

(E) “them” is incorrect.

daagh · Answer

Dom, 
Hi

In cause and effect situations when the effect is the consequence of the cause, the norm is to express the effect in an adverbial modifier form; the correct form would then be

Sought to edify the populace, leading it away from;

But as I see it logically, both are independent functions . Both need not go together or one need not lead to the other. Because, you see, there may be many edifiers but all of them may not lead and similarly there may be several leaders who may not all edify, but only lead; the passage doesn’t suggest that the Russian Statesman went on to lead because he edified before. He just happened to edify as well lead; that is the notion that I got from the passage. 
In the end, however, all my thinking is wrong; B is the answer. I am not even disputing it, although I have to make my stand clear. HTH

dominicraj · Answer

Hi Daagh,

Frankly speaking "Sought to edify the populace, leading it away from" should make proper sense ie. we will have a verb-ing modifier(leading) rightly modifying the previous clause.

But I think the fact that "away" is omitted in A and the fact that the two actions are happening independent of each other as per the " X and Y " should be enough for us to ignore A . IMO.

Regards,
Dom.

daagh · Answer

I have seen Magoosh's reasoning; we have to abide by that.

thangvietname · Answer

because we have to analyze meaning to go to the most logic choice, we have to understand the meaning of new words. if we do not know the meaning of new words, we fail on that sc problem

chesstitans · Answer

OE for B

“Populace” is a singular collective noun and should therefore take the pronoun “it” not them. Also, the two actions “to edify” and “to lead” are closely related, one following from the other. The “and” makes them seem too distinct and thus slightly changes the original. Be wary of mechanically choosing parallelism.

Finally the correct idiom is “sought to” not “sought in”.

B correctly uses the pronoun “it” and draws attention to the interconnectedness of the two actions by repeating the “to”. Such structure is rare in GMAT and will likely be found only at the higher levels of SC.

In elucidating and ultimately decrying the various strains of nihilism

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