Pack 13 Q5: In the early 2000s, many parents found that requiring...

Question

Pack 13, Question 5 of 5:

In the early 2000s, many parents found that requiring cell phones to be put away and eating dinner as an unplugged family allowed for better communication and improved conversation,  without the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail or the  distractions of responding to text messages.
 
A. without the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail or the 
B. without the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail nor the
C. without the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail, or with the
D. with none of the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail, nor the
E. with none of the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail, or with the

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HoneyLemon · Answer

Is it A ? 
 Below is my reasoning. 
In the early 2000s, many parents found that requiring cell phones to be put away and eating dinner as an unplugged family allowed for better communication and improved conversation,  without the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail or the  distractions of responding to text messages.

Meaning : In the early 2000s, many parents found that X and Y allowed for better communication and improved conversation, without A (the pressure of C and D) or B (the distractions of E).

The sentence is grammatically as well as logically parallel . It has no ambiguity in meaning as well. The sentence is correct as it is.

A. without the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail or the
 -- Correct 
 
B. without the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail nor the

-- without ... nor is wrong idiom . It should be neither nor. Also use of nor changing the meaning of the sentence . out 
 
C. without the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail, or with the
 -- this is conveying illogical meaning . without the pressure .. or with the distraction . It seems like saying communication and improved conversation with the distraction .. so meaning issue .. Out

D. with none of the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail, nor the
 
 -- Similar reason as B - out

E. with none of the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail, or with the

-- with none .. or with .. is giving the same illogical meaning as we discussed in choice C. -- Out 
 
A could be my ans.

NiftyNiffler · Answer

In the early 2000s, many parents found that requiring cell phones to be put away and eating dinner as an unplugged family allowed for better communication and improved conversation,  without the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail or the  distractions of responding to text messages.

A. without the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail or the  -- CORRECT, "without" preposition is taken common in the sentence and when expanded makes for correct meaning 
B. without the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail nor the  -- the correct idiom is "neither... nor" or standalone "nor" 
C. without the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail, or with the  -- This changes meaning; It means as though the sentence expands to "eating dinner as an unplugged family ... with the distractions ..." 
D. with none of the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail, nor the  -- "none of" only applies to "pressures of checking social media notifications"; Sentence expands to "with none of the pressures of checking social media notifications, with e-mail, nor the..." 
E. with none of the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail, or with the  -- same as D; an additional error in both C and D is (notifications and email) are list-within-list but are not marked such by a conjunction

So, the answer should be  A .

thenikhilseth · Answer

Answer is  A option .

Area-  Parallelism and Redundancy

1)  Without+ Nor= Redundant 
Eliminate B and D

2) Parallelism-  Without The Presence......The Distractions 
C and E out with the addition of "with".

Moreover "AND" is needed in between Media notifications and E-mail

A. without the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail or the-  WINNER 
B. without the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail  nor  the
C. without the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail, or  with  the
D. with none of the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail,  nor  the
E. with none of the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail, or  with the

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aniket2045 · Answer

Answer is A....

First Split is without and with... without is clear winner here for keeping the meaning intact. WITHOUT is modifying improved conversation.

A. without the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail or the - No Error
B.  without  the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail  nor  the - boldfaced words breaks the parallelism. 
C. without the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail, or  with  the - unnecessary use of WITH. WITH changes meaning of sentence.
D. with none of the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail, nor the - with is problem here, as explained above.
E. with none of the pressures of checking social media notifications, e-mail, or with the- same as D.

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Official Explanation

In the early 2000s, many parents found that requiring cell phones to be put away and eating dinner as an unplugged family allowed for better communication and improved conversation,  without the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail or  the distractions of responding to text messages.
 
 A.  without  the pressures of checking social media notifications  and e-mail or the   
 B.  without  the pressures of checking social media notifications  and e-mail nor the  
 C.  without  the pressures of checking social media notifications , e-mail, or with the  
 D.  with none of  the pressures of checking social media notifications , e-mail, nor the  
 E.  with none of  the pressures of checking social media notifications , e-mail, or with the  
 
After a quick glance over the options, there are a couple key differences we can focus on:
 1. without / with none of (Conciseness)
2. how each option ends (Idioms & Parallelism) 
 
 Let’s start with #1 on our list: without vs. with none of.  This is an issue with wordiness. Both “without” and “with none of” mean the same thing here – so why use 3 words when 1 will do? The GMAT prefers concise wording wherever possible, so you should eliminate wordy options.  Let’s eliminate options D & E because they’re overly wordy. 
 
 Now that we have it narrowed down to 3 options, let’s take a closer look at how each option ends.  We need to make sure that the 2 items being described here (in this case, the 2 things that won’t happen if families put their phones away at dinner) are written using parallel structure. We also need to make sure that the word connecting to two items (or/nor) is used correctly. To make problems easier to spot, let’s add in the end of the sentence to check that everything is parallel:
 
 A. without  the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail  or  the distractions of responding to text messages  
This looks  CORRECT  for now. The two items are parallel in how they’re worded, and the word “or” connects them nicely.
 
 B. without  the pressures of checking social media notifications and e-mail   nor   the distractions of responding to text messages  
While this is parallel, it is still  INCORRECT  because the word “nor” doesn’t work unless it’s paired up with “neither.” Since this doesn’t follow the “neither X nor Y” idiom structure properly, let’s rule it out.
 
 C.  without the pressures  of checking social media notifications,  e-mail , or  with the distractions  of responding to text messages 
This is  INCORRECT  for a few reasons. First, the two items aren’t written using parallel structure (without the pressures….with the distractions…). It also doesn’t make sense to separate e-mail from the first item, unless you also made it parallel by saying something like “…the pressures of checking e-mail.” Since none of the now 3 list items are parallel, let’s also rule this one out.
 
 There you have it – option A was the best option all along! 
 
Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done  aniket2045 ! You cracked the code on this one! Kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done  thenikhilseth ! You cracked the code on this one! Kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done  NiftyNiffler ! You cracked the code on this one! Kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done  DasAshishAshutosh ! You cracked the code on this one! Kudos to you! Looking forward to seeing you back here next week for Pack 14!

VerbalBot · Answer

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Pack 13 Q5: In the early 2000s, many parents found that requiring...

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