The entrepreneurs credited the website that helped the owners of small

Question

Project SC Butler: Day 217: Sentence Correction (SC2) 
 For SC butler Questions  Click Here

The entrepreneurs credited the website that helped the owners of small businesses find suppliers  to keep their new enterprise viable when cash flow was neither ample nor steady .

A) to keep their new enterprise viable when cash flow was neither ample or steady

B) toward keeping their new enterprise viable at a time when cash flow was not ample or steady

C) with keeping their new enterprise viable when cash flow was neither ample nor steady

D) to keeping their new enterprise viable when cash flow was neither ample nor steady

E) with keeping their new enterprise viable when there was not ample or steady cash flow

generis · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Day 217: Sentence Correction (SC2)

• SPLIT #1 - credit TO/TOWARDS/WITH

In the non-underlined portion, we have the word  credit .
GMAC tests this idiom. 
( EDIT , the option A I originally typed contained a typo.
I will change option A to its original; option A ends with the incorrect phrasing, "neither ample OR steady."
That phrase would have allow early solvers to eliminate A on the basis that  neither  should be paired with  nor , not  or .)

A gymnast would credit her gold medal TO training for thousands of hours.
A gymnast would credit her thousands of hours of training WITH her gold medal.
 
In this question, the entrepreneurs are crediting the website  with  the success of their business.
Eliminate A(to), B (toward), and D (to).

• Split #2 - "rhetorical construction"

Option E unnecessarily introduces the passive and weak construction "there was."
"There was" and "It is" are called "expletive" constructions.
GMAC especially does not like "there was/were."

Option C is better.

The best answer is C

COMMENTS

Gmat700Knight  , welcome to SC Butler.

shameekv1989  , thanks for bringing up the issue of prepositions.
For the record, prepositions typically are the hardest territory to conquer in English.

Magoosh has a very good idiom book, for free,  here .
 
I try to avoid idiom-heavy questions, but occasionally I see one that I know GMAC tests (albeit rarely).

The best way to learn idiomatic preposition use is to read.
If the economic journals or newspapers bore you, read a novel.

Kudos to all.

aerograce · Answer

I would like to choose D.

Firstly, Credit something to something... Therefore, only left with A and D.
Then, because credit is in past tense, so was should be used.

zhanbo · Answer

I ended up choosing  (C)  after spending 1 minute and 21 seconds deliberating between (C) and (E).

Firstly, "Credit A with B" is an idiom. I narrowed my focus to C and E only.

Now, between (C) and (E), the only issue I can think of against (E) is the use of "there be". An effective writing can do without "there be", just as (C) demonstrates. So, I would prefer (C) to (E). I'll be the first to admit that this is not a particularly strong reason, but I have to make a call and move on to the next question.

eakabuah · Answer

I settled on C

The meaning here is illogical. The entrepreneurs credited the website to keep their enterprise viable when cash flow was...? No. It doesn't make sense to credit the website in the past to keep their enterprises viable (after they have been credited). It is more logical to credit someone with something they did in the past. But to credit someone to do something in the future? That doesn't seem logical to me. It would be more logical if the credit that the entrepreneurs ascribed to the website is for something that occurred in the past. To add to this, the sentence continues and further modifies the intention to keep their new enterprises viable  when cash was ? I hope there is a better option that makes sense.

The use of toward keeping their enterprises viable implies that the website was credited for something in the future. But when you read on, all you see is toward keeping their enterprise viable a time when cash flow was... Illogical. But maybe someone will say that this sentence is merely expressing something that happened in the past. The entrepreneurs credited the website(in the past) toward keeping their enterprise viable when cash flow was... So the entrepreneurs wanted the website to keep their enterprise viable and the keeping of their enterprise viable is something that was intended to happen later on although it is now in the past. Fine. Then and again, there is a subtle problem in B.  at a time when  is redundant. Eliminate B for the redundancy.

This is perfect. The meaning is much more logical. The entrepreneurs credited the website with keeping their new enterprise viable when cash flow was neither ample nor steady. Per the meaning, the crediting took place in the past. It is clear that the crediting occurred after the website kept their new enterprise viable when the enterprise had cash flow problems. It is likely that the website somehow promoted the enterprise when cash flow(of the enterprise) was neither ample  nor  steady. The meaning of this sentence is clear. Keep C and eliminate A.

Credited the website   to keeping ? No. It works better when the sentence reads  credited the website   with keeping . Eliminate D and keep C.

The idiom is used correctly in E. However, my only bone of contention with E is the use of the passive voice in the latter part of the sentence. The more direct form  when cash flow was neither ample nor steady  is better compared to the passive form  when there was not ample or steady cash flow.  Between C and E, C gets the nod from me.

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

This is probably a bad way to solve an SC but, I imagine, for test-taking purposes this might have been an ideal way to solve it. Immediately notice the word CREDITED and recognize it as one of those words that the GMAT tests (Magoosh even has an idiom list with it).

So, Credited works with TO or WITH. The idiom requires the use of CREDITED... WITH... due to the grammatical structure at play. I credit this to hard work. I credit him with trying so hard. The usage is different and fairly quickly you should narrow your search down to (C) and (E)

The entrepreneurs credited the website that helped the owners of small businesses find suppliers to keep their new enterprise viable when cash flow was neither ample nor steady.

A) to keep their new enterprise viable when cash flow was neither ample nor steady
Idiom problem

B) toward keeping their new enterprise viable at a time when cash flow was not ample or steady
Idiom problem

C) with keeping their new enterprise viable when cash flow was neither ample nor steady
Looks good. It also has the NEITHER / NOR pair at the end.

D) to keeping their new enterprise viable when cash flow was neither ample nor steady
Idiom problem

E) with keeping their new enterprise viable when there was not ample or steady cash flow
This one is wrong because of the end. Break the last part apart and check what the sentence turns into. I.e. ....when there was not ample cash flow — Clearly NO AMPLE CASH FLOW would be better. (C) is just better.

shameekv1989 · Answer

I am regularly getting SC questions that involve a subtle use of prepositions such as "for", "on", "in", "with", "of", "by", "at" etc in various choices. Is there any site someone can point to where I can get more information on the usages of these prepositions? I can't memorize so many idioms for sure. I would really appreciate the help.

Thanks,
Shameek

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  HERE .

iamdivs · Answer

Isn't option A always the same as the underlined portion of the question? (The question has nor)

Because I never fully read A, I thought neither nor made sense and apart from that I couldn't find any mistake with A.

Let's say we had nor in option A, is there something else in A which is wrong?

Thanks!

Posted from my mobile device

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

The entrepreneurs credited the website that helped the owners of small

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The entrepreneurs credited the website that helped the owners of small

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards