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655-705 (Hard)|   Clauses|      
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NickHalden
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State ownership of major economic enterprises allows the government to Updated on: 15 Oct 2018, 03:42
Originally posted by NickHalden on 29 Aug 2015, 11:08.
Last edited by Bunuel on 15 Oct 2018, 03:42, edited 1 time in total.
Renamed the topic and edited the question.
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B
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

Difficulty:

65% (hard)

Question Stats:

54% (02:05) correct 46% (02:16) wrong based on 1174 sessions

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State ownership of major economic enterprises allows the government to control variables that will influence the tempo of economic growth, reduce inequalities that will cause increased hardship among people less able to compete in the marketplace for jobs and among people seeking employment who might otherwise wind up in need of state assistance.


A. reduce inequalities that will cause increased hardship among people less able to compete in the marketplace for jobs and among people seeking employment who

B. reducing inequalities that will cause increased hardship among people less able to compete in the marketplace for jobs and among people who are seeking employment who

C. to reduce inequalities that will cause increased hardship among people less able to compete in the marketplace for jobs and among people who seek employment that

D. for reducing inequalities that will cause increased hardship among people less able to compete in the marketplace for jobs and among people seeking employment who

E. for the reduction of inequalities that will cause increased hardship for people less able to compete in the marketplace for jobs and people who are seeking employment that
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B
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State ownership of major economic enterprises allows the government to 30 Aug 2015, 01:34
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What does the modifier, ‘who might otherwise wind up in need of state assistance’ modify? Is it modifying those who are seeking employment or those less able to compete in the marketplace or both of the categories? If it modifying the job-seekers as a whole, it is a fallacy to assume that just because somebody seeks a job, he might wind up seeking state assistance on the contrary if it is modifying the less able people, why is it not placed next to them?
Or if it is modifying both the categories, the proximity rule that a pronoun modifies a noun that is in front of it or close to it is fouled. The only salvation is either to shift the less able people to the second part before the relative clause the clause or to shift the relative clause next to the 'less able people'.
All the choices carry through this error. This is a stylistically flawed question basically. If this point is clarified, it will be useful to analyze each of the choices, and conclude why all of them are either syntactically or semantically erroneous.
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State ownership of major economic enterprises allows the government to 29 Aug 2015, 23:32
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You can get this one simply by focusing on the parallelism of the verbs "influence" and "reduce". One first read it seems that the sentence is listing out things that the variables will cause (ie - the variables will influence XXX, reduce YYY, and something ZZZ).

However, reading the rest of the sentence, it's clear that this structure is broken and that the verb 'reduce' is not meant to be part of list, but rather acts as an offshoot from the verb 'influence'. In other words, the meaning seems to convey that the influence of the tempo of economic growth is causing a reduction in XXX.

Of the answer choices, only choice B adheres to this construction of 'reduce'.
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State ownership of major economic enterprises allows the government to 30 Aug 2015, 00:14
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How do you justify the use of 'people who are seeking employment who' ???
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State ownership of major economic enterprises allows the government to 12 Sep 2015, 00:32
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Can anybody justify the use of " WHO ARE " in the answer choice B... and among people who are seeking employment who
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State ownership of major economic enterprises allows the government to 15 Oct 2018, 03:39
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Official explanation Kaplan

Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors:

On initial reading, this sentence appears to contain a series of results of the variables: "will influence the tempo ..., reduce inequalities ...." However, the series is not completed. In fact, the intent of the sentence is that influencing the tempo of economic growth will have the further effect of reducing inequalities among two groups of people. "Reduce" should be replaced with "reducing" to make the part of the sentence after the comma into a modifying phrase.

This sentence also tests knowledge of the use of who verus that. In general, use who (as well as whom) to refer to people and use that (and which) to refer to things.

Scan and Group the Answer Choices:

Each answer choice provides an alternative form of reduce. There is, however, a 3-2 split at the end of the choices between "that" in (C) and (E) and "who" in (A), (B), and (D). In this sentence, the antecedent is “people” (not “employment”), clearly requiring the use of “who.”

Eliminate Wrong Answer Choices:

(A) uses the incorrect "reduce," implying a series of actions beginning with "influence."

(C) and (E) are wrong because they use "that." (E) may also be eliminated because it begins with the awkward phrase "for the reduction of." (C) may also be eliminated because the use of "to reduce" after the comma suggests that a list is in progress: "to control . . ., to reduce . . . ." However, there is no third "to" item to complete the list. The use of the infinitive also subtly changes the meaning of the sentence, implying that the reason for the control of the variables is the reduction of inequalities.

(D) includes the awkward and unnecessary "for" before "reducing." There's no need to use both a conjunction and a participle verb.

(B) correctly uses "reducing" and "who" and does not introduce any other errors. Note that the repetition at the end of the underlined portion of "who" is a little grating stylistically, but it is not wrong. Since all other choices have errors, (B) is the winner.

TAKEAWAY: Longer sentences can have multiple errors. Choose any one error to start eliminating choices instead of reading for all possible errors at once.
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State ownership of major economic enterprises allows the government to 15 Oct 2018, 14:19
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mayursurya
Official explanation Kaplan

Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors:

On initial reading, this sentence appears to contain a series of results of the variables: "will influence the tempo ..., reduce inequalities ...." However, the series is not completed. In fact, the intent of the sentence is that influencing the tempo of economic growth will have the further effect of reducing inequalities among two groups of people. "Reduce" should be replaced with "reducing" to make the part of the sentence after the comma into a modifying phrase.

This sentence also tests knowledge of the use of who verus that. In general, use who (as well as whom) to refer to people and use that (and which) to refer to things.

Scan and Group the Answer Choices:

Each answer choice provides an alternative form of reduce. There is, however, a 3-2 split at the end of the choices between "that" in (C) and (E) and "who" in (A), (B), and (D). In this sentence, the antecedent is “people” (not “employment”), clearly requiring the use of “who.”



Eliminate Wrong Answer Choices:

(A) uses the incorrect "reduce," implying a series of actions beginning with "influence."

(C) and (E) are wrong because they use "that." (E) may also be eliminated because it begins with the awkward phrase "for the reduction of." (C) may also be eliminated because the use of "to reduce" after the comma suggests that a list is in progress: "to control . . ., to reduce . . . ." However, there is no third "to" item to complete the list. The use of the infinitive also subtly changes the meaning of the sentence, implying that the reason for the control of the variables is the reduction of inequalities.

(D) includes the awkward and unnecessary "for" before "reducing." There's no need to use both a conjunction and a participle verb.

(B) correctly uses "reducing" and "who" and does not introduce any other errors. Note that the repetition at the end of the underlined portion of "who" is a little grating stylistically, but it is not wrong. Since all other choices have errors, (B) is the winner.

TAKEAWAY: Longer sentences can have multiple errors. Choose any one error to start eliminating choices instead of reading for all possible errors at once.
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Sorry but I don't understand: In b reducing (present participle after comma) should refer to the subject of the preceding clause "variables" but the ownership is reducing and not the variables. Please explain!.

Thank you
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State ownership of major economic enterprises allows the government to 10 Mar 2019, 03:50
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D can be eliminated right away because ‘for reducing’ is awkward. C and E are wrong because they use ‘that’. The use of ‘reduce’ in A is also incorrect. This means that B is the right choice.
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State ownership of major economic enterprises allows the government to 13 Mar 2019, 02:02
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Official explanation Kaplan

Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors:

On initial reading, this sentence appears to contain a series of results of the variables: "will influence the tempo ..., reduce inequalities ...." However, the series is not completed. In fact, the intent of the sentence is that influencing the tempo of economic growth will have the further effect of reducing inequalities among two groups of people. "Reduce" should be replaced with "reducing" to make the part of the sentence after the comma into a modifying phrase.

This sentence also tests knowledge of the use of who verus that. In general, use who (as well as whom) to refer to people and use that (and which) to refer to things.

Scan and Group the Answer Choices:

Each answer choice provides an alternative form of reduce. There is, however, a 3-2 split at the end of the choices between "that" in (C) and (E) and "who" in (A), (B), and (D). In this sentence, the antecedent is “people” (not “employment”), clearly requiring the use of “who.”



Eliminate Wrong Answer Choices:

(A) uses the incorrect "reduce," implying a series of actions beginning with "influence."

(C) and (E) are wrong because they use "that." (E) may also be eliminated because it begins with the awkward phrase "for the reduction of." (C) may also be eliminated because the use of "to reduce" after the comma suggests that a list is in progress: "to control . . ., to reduce . . . ." However, there is no third "to" item to complete the list. The use of the infinitive also subtly changes the meaning of the sentence, implying that the reason for the control of the variables is the reduction of inequalities.

(D) includes the awkward and unnecessary "for" before "reducing." There's no need to use both a conjunction and a participle verb.

(B) correctly uses "reducing" and "who" and does not introduce any other errors. Note that the repetition at the end of the underlined portion of "who" is a little grating stylistically, but it is not wrong. Since all other choices have errors, (B) is the winner.

TAKEAWAY: Longer sentences can have multiple errors. Choose any one error to start eliminating choices instead of reading for all possible errors at once.

Sorry but I don't understand: In b reducing (present participle after comma) should refer to the subject of the preceding clause "variables" but the ownership is reducing and not the variables. Please explain!.

Thank you
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A dependent clause preceded by a comma and starting with a VERB+ing, in this case "reducing", can be used to show the result of an independent clause. Another example "I ate a large meal, making my stomach blow up"
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State ownership of major economic enterprises allows the government to 04 Apr 2019, 06:25
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Should we avoid practising this question since all the options are flawed ?

Posted from my mobile device
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State ownership of major economic enterprises allows the government to 25 Sep 2020, 13:49
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Quote:
What does the modifier, ‘who might otherwise wind up in need of state assistance’ modify? Is it modifying those who are seeking employment or those less able to compete in the marketplace or both of the categories? If it modifying the job-seekers as a whole, it is a fallacy to assume that just because somebody seeks a job, he might wind up seeking state assistance on the contrary if it is modifying the less able people, why is it not placed next to them?
Or if it is modifying both the categories, the proximity rule that a pronoun modifies a noun that is in front of it or close to it is fouled. The only salvation is either to shift the less able people to the second part before the relative clause the clause or to shift the relative clause next to the 'less able people'.
All the choices carry through this error. This is a stylistically flawed question basically. If this point is clarified, it will be useful to analyze each of the choices, and conclude why all of them are either syntactically or semantically erroneous.
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Your are absolutely right, this question is a flaw.
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State ownership of major economic enterprises allows the government to 05 Oct 2020, 07:57
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no doubt that B is the only possible answer
but "WHO are seeking employment WHO" ????
really?
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State ownership of major economic enterprises allows the government to 16 Mar 2023, 22:56
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