Before the Rural Free Delivery service, people living in rural areas

Question

Before the Rural Free Delivery service, people living in rural areas had no reliable way  in which they could get their mail collected and delivered

(A) in which they could get their mail collected and delivered

(B) to collect and deliver their mail

(C) of getting the mail collected and delivered

(D) of collecting and delivering their mail

(E) of getting their mail collected and delivered

frankgraves · Answer

(A) in which they could get their mail collected and delivered
Too wordy, and I think "way" does not go well with "in which" - Incorrect

(B) to collect and deliver their mail
It implies that the people living in urban areas will collect and deliver their mail as opposed to the Rural Delivery Services - Incorrect

(C) of getting the mail collected and delivered 
The mail? Is there any special mail which is unique? This option has problem with article "the". It should refer to all people's mail - Incorrect

(D) of collecting and delivering their mail
Same meaning with B in gerund form - Incorrect

(E) of getting their mail collected and delivered
Corrects all the flaws mentioned above. Proper use of gerund and "their mail" - Correct

prince11goyal · Answer

Before the Rural Free Delivery service, people living in rural areas had no reliable way  in which they could get their mail collected and delivered

Meaning : Before X service was implemented, people didn't have any means of getting their mail collected from them or delivered to them.

(A)  in which  they could get their mail collected and delivered. ("in which", here which seems to refer to "a reliable way". "IN" is not the correct preposition here. "By which" would have been better)

(B) to collect and deliver their mail. ( Distorts the meaning ; this means that people had no means to collect and deliver mails by themselves, that is there is no 3rd person providing this service)

(C) of getting the mail collected and delivered (getting the mail,  misses the fact about "whose' mail?)

(D) of collecting and delivering their mail ( distorts the meaning , this is similar to option B)

(E) of getting their mail collected and delivered. (communicate the same meaning as original sentence in a succinct manner)

NOTE : I am not an expert on GMAT verbal, please feel free to correct my analysis.

krndatta · Answer

Hoozan

The idiom that goes with way is   Ways to "verb" . 
 Ways of Verb-ing.

Now in the above question. People cannot collect and deliver their own email. So options B and D can be eliminated. 
"Ways in which" is wrong idiomatically.

Between options C and E, "their" mail is a better construction than "the mail", since "their mail" refers directly to the mail of the people. 
So option C is the correct answer

Can you share your reasoning for the above question?

Thanks

Hoozan · Answer

So you mean (E) is the correct answer, right?

krndatta · Answer

Hoozan

Yes.

Request you to share your reasoning for the same.

Mavisdu1017 · Answer

Hello expert,
 Can you help on B and D? 
Is there different meaning between B/D and E? For me they are the same meaning. Thanks in advance

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  Mavisdu1017 . The answer to the first part of the question is no. If you strip down each iteration of the sentence to its barebones, answer choices (B) and (D) convey a similar message:

(B) People had no way to collect and deliver their mail.
(D) People had no way of collecting and delivering their mail.

In both cases, the  people  themselves are understood to be collecting and delivering  their own  mail. The infinitive might get a slight nod in terms of grammatical structure—a verb form tends to be more direct than a prepositional phrase—but the meaning, again, is pretty much the same.

Answer choice (E) correctly invokes a separate agent, understood to be  the Rural Free Delivery service , to do the collecting and make the deliveries by way of the grammar. Examine the sentence in the same way as before:

(E) People had no way of getting their mail collected and delivered.

Now, we can be sure that the sentence does not mean to suggest that people were collecting and delivering their own mail. Rather, it is logically the Rural Free Delivery service that would be performing these tasks: the presence of  getting  makes all the difference.

Perhaps the question makes more sense now. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

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Before the Rural Free Delivery service, people living in rural areas

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Before the Rural Free Delivery service, people living in rural areas

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