In the eighteenth century, the conservation ethic evolved to include t

Question

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In the eighteenth century, the conservation ethic evolved to include the core principles that human activity can cause damage to the environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations.

A) environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain

B) environment and people would have a duty to maintain

C) environment and people had a civic duty to maintain

D) environment, with people having a civic duty to maintain

E) environment and people have a civic duty for the maintaining of

generis · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC1)

THE PROMPT

Quote:

In the eighteenth century, the conservation ethic evolved to include the core principles that human activity can cause damage to the environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations.

The word and in the non-underlined portion is a fairly strong alert that the question is testing parallel structure.

If we re-read the whole sentence, we might notice the phrase the core principles that.
GMAC likes to test parallel structure with that.

In fact, if you were short on time, you could make a slam-dunk guess by noticing which options contained another that-clause.
Then you would check those options for parallel construction.

The core principles are
(1) that human activity can cause damage to the environment, and
(2) that people have a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations.

In this case, you would have one choice in which you would find the word that.

Yes, given enough time, it is always better to eliminate four wrong answers than to try to choose one best answer—but if you are running out of time, do whatever it takes to make a guess.

THE OPTIONS

Quote:

A) environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain

• that people have a civic duty to maintain the environment is parallel to that human activity can cause damage to the environment.
• I see no other errors
KEEP

Quote:

B) environment and [that] people would have a duty to maintain

• the writer is expressing a general truth in the form of historic fact
→ GMAC follows the modern convention of announcing general truths by using simple present tense
• The verb would is incorrect.
→ we use would in hypothetical situations and in reported/indirect speech (to backshift from present tense will to past tense would)
This situation involves neither. (If you have no idea what I mean by reported or indirect speech, start by reading this blog post.)
• parallelism is lost
. . . core principles
(1) that human activity can cause damage
and
(2) people would have a duty to main
ELIMINATE B

Quote:

C) environment and [that] people had a civic duty to maintain

• had is the wrong verb tense
→ as I noted above, when we report general truths, we use simple present tense: people have
• same parallelism problem as that in B
ELIMINATE C

Quote:

D) environment, with people having a civic duty to maintain

• principles is plural, and this "with people having" may be the second principle, but so far this second principle sounds awkward and it should be attached to the first principle with and, not with
• compare this option to option A. No contest. Option A is much clearer, is parallel, and is stylistically superior.
ELIMINATE D

Quote:

E) environment and [that] people have a civic duty for the maintaining of

• same parallelism problem as that in B
• the idiom is duty to, not duty for
• maintaining, a gerund (verbING), is not preferred to the dedicated noun, maintenance.
• duty for the maintaining of is unidiomatic and a stylistic disaster
ELIMINATE E

The correct answer is A.

COMMENTS

dharam9610 , welcome to SC Butler.

ShreyKapil08 , you wrote:
I think a colon (:) placed right after "...core principles" would make it clear that what follows is list of principles that were included. Thoughts?
You are correct about the effect of the colon. Nicely done.
Such a colon would make discerning parallelism a lot easier, though, a situation that is less than ideal in an SC question.

In fact, I wish that this question tested parallelism more strenuously.
(In other words, you all escaped hard parallelism questions because the verbs in the options were bad and allowed you to eliminate that not-parallel option.
On the other hand, these SC questions are really hard to write.)

I am glad to see everyone.
Answers range from very good to excellent. Kudos to all.

In fact, I wish that this question tested parallelism more strenuously. (In other words, you all escaped hard parallelism questions because the verbs in the options were bad and allowed you to eliminate that not-parallel option. On the other hand, these SC questions are really hard to write.) I am glad to see everyone. Answers range from very good to excellent. Kudos to all.

Shrey08 · Answer

The conservation ethic evolved to include the core principles.....

what were those core principles? (1)"...that human activity can cause damage to the environment" and (2)"...that people have a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations"

A) environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain  Correctly maintains the parallelism and the meaning

P.S. I think a colon (:) placed right after "...core principles" would make it clear that what follows is list of principles that were included. Thoughts?

aviddd · Answer

In the eighteenth century, the conservation ethic evolved to include the core principles that human activity can cause damage to the environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations.

A) environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain
 Nice parallelism going on here.   and  
 Correct so far in terms of noun-noun match and tense match.

B) environment and people would have a duty to maintain
 Changes the meaning by introducing "would"

C) environment and people had a civic duty to maintain
 Wrong tense. Had is past tesnse.

D) environment, with people having a civic duty to maintain
 You need "and" as a connector since the statement has "principles". Changing the second clause to "with" doesn't give us a clean list of two principles.

E) environment and people have a civic duty for the maintaining of
 breaks the parallelism. human activity can cause damage to... people have a civic duty for maintaining

Correct answer: A

zhanbo · Answer

I chose (A). It took me 52 seconds.

We can use parallelism to pick  A : its construct (including tense) parallels "that human activity can cause damage to the environment".

(B) "would have": the tense switch does not make sense.
(C) "had": the tense switch does not make sense.
(D) We need more than one core principle.
(E) "for the maintaining of" is wordy and unidiomatic. Prefer verb "maintain".

Ranasaymon · Answer

Meaning:  
Two things modify core principles 
1. that human activity can cause damage to the environment
2. that people have a civic duty to maintain the environment

Analysis:  
In this sentence, that is used here as a connector. Check the non-underlined part, it is in simple present form. So, the underlined part should be in simple present form to maintain parallelism.

Option A is the answer

POE: 
A) environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain

B) environment and people  would  have a duty to maintain

C) environment and people  had  a civic duty to maintain

D) environment,  with people having  a civic duty to maintain

E) environment and people have a civic duty  for the maintaining of

tyildirim92 · Answer

In the eighteenth century, the conservation ethic evolved to include the core principles that human activity can cause damage to the environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations.

A) environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain // seems fine

B) environment and people would have a duty to maintain // tense shift is not warranted.

C) environment and people had a civic duty to maintain // tense shift is not warranted.

D) environment, with people having a civic duty to maintain // In general, GMAT does not like the structure   +   +  . It sounds as if human activity possesses people.

E) environment and people have a civic duty for the maintaining of // indirect. to maintain is more concise and elegant.

Posted from my mobile device

ketanbhardwaj131 · Answer

In the eighteenth century, the conservation ethic evolved to include the core principles that human activity can cause damage to the environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations.

A) environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain (Parallel and logically correct)

B) environment and people would have a duty to maintain (Parallelism Error and Verb Tense Error)

C) environment and people had a civic duty to maintain (Parallelism Error and Verb Tense Error)

D) environment, with people having a civic duty to maintain ( Meaning Error)

E) environment and people have a civic  duty for the maintaining of  (Parallelism Error and Idiom Error)

harrywm · Answer

A) environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain - correct

B) environment and people would have a duty to maintain - would have is wrong, that is missing

C) environment and people had a civic duty to maintain - had is wrong , that is missing

D) environment, with people having a civic duty to maintain - not parallel, changes meaning

E) environment and people have a civic duty for the maintaining of - that is missing, duty to maintain is better than for the maintaining of

dharam9610 · Answer

Here is my thought process on this Q:

In the eighteenth century, the conservation ethic evolved to include the core principles that human activity can cause damage to the environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations.

The sentence doesn't seem to have any 'major' errors that pop-up so let's scan the choices

A) environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain

Let's keep this for now.

B) environment and people would have a duty to maintain

Wrong usage of 'would', besides parallelism issue: agreement with the plural 'core principles' is amiss.

C) environment and people had a civic duty to maintain

Wrong usage of 'had' - past perfect is not warranted

D) environment, with people having a civic duty to maintain

Wrong usage: 'with people having' - doesn't fit in with the plural 'core principles'

E) environment and people have a civic duty for the maintaining of

Wrong usage: 'for the maintaining of' - redundancy / concision e.g. 'for maintaining'

IMO - it's A

winterschool · Answer

In the eighteenth century, the conservation ethic evolved to include the core principles that human activity can cause damage to the environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations.

A) environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain   correct

B) environment  and people  would have  a duty  to maintain  Incorrect

parallelism error and missing 'civic', which changes meaning

C) environment  and people   had  a civic duty to maintain  Incorrect

parallelism error and tense problem, 'had' should not be use

D) environment, with people having a civic duty to maintain  Incorrect

meaning change, 'having' uses wrong

E) environment  and people  have a civic duty  for the maintaining of   Incorrect

parallelism error and 'for the maintaining of' is wrong

Sushil117 · Answer

A) environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain
 looks fine 
 
B) environment and people  would have  a duty to maintain

C) environment and people  had  a civic duty to maintain

D) environment, with people  having  a civic duty to maintain

E) environment and people have a civic duty for the  maintaining of 
IMO A

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  here.

monk123 · Answer

In the eighteenth century, the conservation ethic evolved to include the core principles that human activity can cause damage to the environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations.
 
POE:
Stop sign- 'and'; search for parallelism. 'that human.....and that'. Eliminate (B) (C) & (E).
Eliminate (D) - chnage of meaning.

A) environment and that people have a civic duty to maintain -   CORRECT

B) environment  and people  would have a duty to maintain

C) environment  and people  had a civic duty to maintain

D) environment , with people  having a civic duty to maintain

E) environment  and people  have a civic duty for the maintaining of

In the eighteenth century, the conservation ethic evolved to include t

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

In the eighteenth century, the conservation ethic evolved to include t

Prep Toolkit

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

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