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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr 27 Mar 2017, 00:47
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62% (01:10) correct 38% (01:19) wrong based on 594 sessions

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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the country had no choice but to accept help from many other countries, including those with which they had less than friendly relations.
A. including those with which they had less than friendly relations
B. including those with which it had less than friendly relations
C. including the countries that they have unfriendly relations with
D. even the countries that they are unfriendly to
E. even from those countries that it has less friendly relations with

Source: McGraw Hill GMAT
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B
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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr 06 Apr 2017, 00:05
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can someone please help me out to understand the option B ,i chose E because i heard that correct idiom is relations with then why it is not mentioned in option B ?
please help !
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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr 06 Apr 2017, 07:30
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Quote:
The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the country had no choice but to accept help from many other countries, including those with which they had less than friendly relations.

B. including those with which it had less than friendly relations
E. even from those countries that it has less friendly relations with

i chose E because i heard that correct idiom is relations with then why it is not mentioned in option B ?
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"Relations with" is the correct idiom, but depending on the context, the preposition does not need to be placed immediately after the noun.

When writers want to avoid ending a sentence/phrase with a preposition, they can use the construction "preposition + which."

End of the sentence: The country was forced to accept help from other countries that it had less than friendly relations with.

Can be rewritten as:

Preposition + which: The country was forced to accept help from other countries with which it had less than friendly relations.
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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr 07 Apr 2017, 19:35
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Thanks thecriticaleader 1, for putting some new knowledge in my dictionary ?

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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr 10 Jun 2017, 10:30
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thecriticalreader1
Quote:
The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the country had no choice but to accept help from many other countries, including those with which they had less than friendly relations.

B. including those with which it had less than friendly relations
E. even from those countries that it has less friendly relations with

i chose E because i heard that correct idiom is relations with then why it is not mentioned in option B ?

"Relations with" is the correct idiom, but depending on the context, the preposition does not need to be placed immediately after the noun.

When writers want to avoid ending a sentence/phrase with a preposition, they can use the construction "preposition + which."

End of the sentence: The country was forced to accept help from other countries that it had less than friendly relations with.

Can be rewritten as:

Preposition + which: The country was forced to accept help from other countries with which it had less than friendly relations.
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so which is the correct form of sentence writing, because you mentioned it can be rewritten as option B makes both of them correct.
correct me if am wrong.
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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr 15 Jun 2017, 12:14
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Here ,
Including is not a verb+ing modifier, Don't mistake the word for verb+ing - Including is used to showcase examples of just preceding noun.
Here it is for countries.
Hence, B is apt.
Coming to E.
E. even from those countries that it has less friendly relations with - don't you think its a bit awkward and changing meaning - from giving examples to emphasizing or trusting on the countries changing the tone. Moreover, Everything was in past tense in the Question. So why to make it present tense it is saying as if. Till now it has less friendly relations with those countries.
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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr 15 Jun 2017, 14:45
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A,C and D are out as 'they, is wrong antecedent for 'country'.
When we compare B and E.
In B., less than friendly relation is awkward
So E is good ans

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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr 15 Jun 2017, 15:05
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egmat, GMATNinja
Do you think the comma at the end of the first clause wrong here?
The correct statement, in my view, would be:
The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the country had no choice but to accept help from many other countries including those with which it had less than friendly relations.
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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr 16 Jun 2017, 19:52
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sevenplusplus
egmat, GMATNinja
Do you think the comma at the end of the first clause wrong here?
The correct statement, in my view, would be:
The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the country had no choice but to accept help from many other countries including those with which it had less than friendly relations.
Show more
If you gathered 20 professional editors and English style experts into a room, there would be 20 slightly different opinions on when, exactly to use commas. So the GMAT really doesn't waste much time testing the nuances of comma rules -- and it's not something that you need to be terribly worried about, unless the commas clearly affect the meaning of the sentence somehow.

In this particular case, I personally think that the sentence works much better with the comma, but I'm not sure that it would be wrong to omit it. In any case, don't lose much sleep over it -- it's a non-official question, and a comma in this situation would never be the deciding factor on an official GMAT question.
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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr 08 Oct 2017, 00:30
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iMyself
The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the country had no choice but to accept help from many other countries, including those with which they had less than friendly relations.
A. including those with which they had less than friendly relations [they refers to "the country". It should be used.]
B. including those with which it had less than friendly relations [Correct. Uses correct pronoun- it- for The country]
C. including the countries that they have unfriendly relations with [same issue as A; also, this option distorts the meaning completely by saying unfriendly relations, whereas the actual sentence says less friendly relations.]
D. even the countries that they are unfriendly to [same issue as A, also they are unfriendly to - changes the meaning]
E. even from those countries that it has less friendly relations with [that - is not required. This construction is unnecessary wordy]

Source: McGraw Hill GMAT
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B is the only correct answer.


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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr 08 Oct 2017, 00:32
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nks2611
can someone please help me out to understand the option B ,i chose E because i heard that correct idiom is relations with then why it is not mentioned in option B ?
please help !
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This question has less to do with idioms. If you look closely, it not a idiom issue at all. It has everything to with the pronoun use. I have explained above if that helps.

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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr 25 Jan 2021, 12:44
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TheUltimateWinner
The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the country had no choice but to accept help from many other countries, including those with which they had less than friendly relations.
A. including those with which they had less than friendly relations
B. including those with which it had less than friendly relations
C. including the countries that they have unfriendly relations with
D. even the countries that they are unfriendly to
E. even from those countries that it has less friendly relations with

Source: McGraw Hill GMAT
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Isn't "it" reference ambiguous ? Can't "it" refer to the disaster ?
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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the countr 30 Jan 2021, 00:30
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UdayPratapSingh99
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The natural disaster was of such devastating magnitude that the country had no choice but to accept help from many other countries, including those with which they had less than friendly relations.
A. including those with which they had less than friendly relations
B. including those with which it had less than friendly relations
C. including the countries that they have unfriendly relations with
D. even the countries that they are unfriendly to
E. even from those countries that it has less friendly relations with

Source: McGraw Hill GMAT

Isn't "it" reference ambiguous ? Can't "it" refer to the disaster ?
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UdayPratapSingh99, pronoun ambiguity arises when the pronoun can refer to 2 logical antecedents. It makes absolutely no sense to say that the disaster had friendly relations with some nations. So, there is no ambiguity here IMO.
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