In stating the argument that the President does not care about the pli

Question

In stating the argument that the President does not care about the plight of the poor,  a prominent Democrat inferred that Republicans have never been concerned about them.

(A) a prominent Democrat inferred that Republicans have never been concerned about them.

(B) a prominent Democrat inferred that Republicans have never been concerned about the poor.

(C) a prominent Democrat implied that Republicans have never been concerned about them.

(D) a prominent Democrat inferred that Republicans have never been concerned about it.

(E) a prominent Democrat implied that Republicans have never been concerned about it.

seekmba · Accepted Answer

I fell for B too..

But the below explanation should help. The keyword in the sentence is "stating"

In   stating   the argument that the President does not care about the plight of the poor, a prominent Democrat   implied   that Republicans have never been concerned about it    .

zoltan · Answer

I think E, because "it" refers back to plight.

unplugged · Answer

Will go with E

While stating one can 'imply' not 'infer'

debaranjansahoo · Answer

Corerct Verb is Imply..as the speaker himself trying to conclude. Infer is when someone makes a statement and another person tries to conclude or sum it up.
In this case the person is the same. So "imply" should be used.

so choice narrows to C and E.
Difference is "them" and "it" at the end.

The antecedent is plight of the poor not poor for the pronoun..
So "it" is the proper pronoun.

answer is E

jagdeepsingh1983 · Answer

The Answer is E

For Everyone Reference 
NFER vs. IMPLY

The best way to remember the difference between these two words is to think in terms of the model used by communications theorists. Communication consists of a message, a sender, and a receiver. The sender can imply, but the receiver can only infer. The error that usually occurs is that the word infer is mistakenly used for imply.

WRONG: Are you inferring that I am a fool? 
RIGHT: Are you implying that I am a fool?

If someone gets the idea from your behavior that you are a fool, then he is inferring that you are a fool. But if he is subtly letting you know that he thinks so, then he is implying that you are a fool. You, of course, can infer from his implication that he thinks you are a fool.

IMPLY = to put the suggestion into the message (sender implies)

INFER = to take the suggestion out of the message (receiver infers)

IMPLICATION = what the sender has implied

INFERENCE = what the receiver has inferred

thevenus · Answer

In stating the argument that the President does not care about the plight of the poor,  a prominent Democrat inferred that Republicans have never been concerned about them.

A  prominent democrat  will never  infer , he/she can only  imply  a new point in order to demean the  republicans  so implied is a better choice.

(A) a prominent Democrat inferred that Republicans have never been concerned about them.
 them-incorrect pronoun for "plight" 
(B) a prominent Democrat inferred that Republicans have never been concerned about the poor.
 incorrect - plight not poor 
(C) a prominent Democrat implied that Republicans have never been concerned about them.
 them-incorrect pronoun for "plight" 
(D) a prominent Democrat inferred that Republicans have never been concerned about it.
 inferred -incorrect 
(E) a prominent Democrat implied that Republicans have never been concerned about it.
 it   refers to the plight not the poor -correct

1terrific · Answer

In stating the argument that the President does not care about the plight of the poor, a prominent Democrat ( inferred syn;deduce,conclude,generalised,derived )/( implied syn;connoted,indirectly,latent,hidden etc ) that Republicans have never been concerned about them.
looking at the two infered and implied, and base on the augment about the president's negligence of the poor which is the plight(it)/trouble/condition/predicament. i will go for 'D'

pqhai · Answer

Hi 1terrific Welcome to gmatclub

D is wrong because "infer" is used incorrectly in the sentence's context. Let think this way. IMPLY vs INFER Communication consists of a message, a sender, and a receiver. The sender can imply , but the receiver can only infer . Very often, the word infer is mistakenly used for imply. For example: WRONG: Peter infers that he is the best student <-- Peter is the sender, he can only imply CORRECT: Peter implies that he is the best student. Back to the question, the prominent Democrat in stating blah blah... implied that............. <== because he is the sender of the message, thus he can only imply, not infer. Hope it helps.

cledgard · Answer

Why is that everyone forgets that the correct answer choice   must convey the intended meaning  ?
Let's look at the differences:
"Inferred" or "implied"
"them", "the poor", or "it".
Even though both terms "Inferred" and "implied" have a similar meaning, and the sentence will mean the same no matter which term we select, I believe that in this context, for the sake of clarity, "implied" fits better. However, I would not eliminate the other choice.

On the other hand, " them " clearly refers to  the poor , so the choice "the poor" is unnecessary. " It " refers to " the plight ". The question is: What is the author's intended meaning? The original sentence uses " them ", so  it refers to the poor . The sentence is logical, and the implication is that "republicans have never been concerned about the poor." 
" It " refers to  the plight of the poor ; it implies that "republicans have never been concerned about the plight of the poor"
 What is what republicans are not concerned with, "the poor" or "the plight of the poor"? 
I believe that " the poor " not only makes more sense, but also  is what the original sentence uses .
In conclusion, I find that  choices  A, B, and C  convey the original meaning  and are grammatically correct. My  preference is  C   because I prefer the term "implied" to the term "inferred".

I believe that   D and E are wrong   because they use the term "it", which refers to "the plight of the poor".   This is not what the original sentence states  , and there is no reason to believe that it is what the author intended.

hansdieter1 · Answer

When using "them" it may refer to the Democrats themselves, only when you use "it" the Clause has one meaning.

shinichikudo · Answer

This SC question is all about meaning !

Between infer and imply, we better choose ''imply'' because the prominent Democrate  wants to ''imply''   the Republicans (not infer the Republicans).

The use of about  them  is false because we want a pronoun that can replace the antecedent ''the plight'', so ''it'' is a good choice.

(about the poor is repeated so redundant !)

A,B,C is out !

We choose E because E uses ''imply'' & ''about it'', which is correct in meaning of the context . So we can eliminate D.

Answer E.

cledgard · Answer

Structural ambiguity is acceptable if the pronoun is clear by context. The moment I read the sentence I understood that the author referred to  the poor  because he used  them . I believe that if we change the pronoun to  it , we change the meaning of the sentence.

The question is: Republicans are not concerned about the  plight ? Or republicans are not concerned about the  poor ?
I believe that the intended meaning is the latter. 
If the intended meaning was  the plight , then the author has done a good job at fooling me.

Kkarami · Answer

I doubt that the answer can be E for several reasons.

Firstly, as mentioned by more respected users before me the meaning of the original question is altered by choice E.

Secondly, the arguments stating that the verb "infer" is substandard to "imply" because one cannot infer throughout his or her own rhetoric is probably not true but I might be wrong. Infer = to conclude or to deduce.

I believe C is correct as it correctly takes care of pronoun/antecedent issue and conveys the true meaning of the original sentence.

Lastly, I am slightly concerned with the integrity of the question as the source is "other".

Mohitstarc · Answer

First of all we have to refer back to the plight not the poor so use its rather than of their.
Sencondly inferred is used for the indirect statement but the statement is direct so use implied

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Posted from my mobile device

cledgard · Answer

The original sentence says   them  , and we should not change the meaning.
You state:
First of all we have to refer back to the plight not the poor so use  its  rather than of  their .
 Why?

VerbalBot · Answer

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