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Dear AnthonyRitz AjiteshArun IanStewart GMATGuruNY DmitryFarber VeritasPrepBrian,
Why is choice A. wrong?
Is "claim s.th." wrong?
According to https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/claim, "claim" can be followed by a noun object.
Why is choice A. wrong?
Is "claim s.th." wrong?
According to https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/claim, "claim" can be followed by a noun object.
Quote:
05 Mar 2020, 02:18
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Grrr. This is a tough question if you do not know the idiom for sure. But let’s see how we could go about this without that knowledge. I got this right in 1:06, but frankly, if you knew the idiom, this is a half minute question. Just one thing before we dive in: ALL the answer choices have the same portion enclosed in commas : “for his famous water-torture cell trick”. You can disregard this entirely. Just focus on the non-underlined portion and the end of second half of the answer choices.
Turn-of-the-century magician Harry Houdini claimed, for his famous water-torture cell trick, the ability to hold his breath for more than three minutes.
A. for his famous water-torture cell trick, the ability to hold his breath
Let’s look at this for a moment. Let’s cut and boil this down a little. Harry claimed the ability. Frankly that is ALL that this sentence is. But would you say that? I claimed the ability. He claimed the ability. I know this is a horrible way for a non-native speaker to go about things, but for native speakers it might help you out to think this way. If you absolutely must yellow flag this and move on. Do not fall in the blank-face abyss.
B. for his famous water-torture cell trick, he has the ability to hold his breath
Harry claimed he has the ability to hold his breath. This grammatically doesn’t pose any issues. I may have liked to see a THAT before HE but it isn’t terrible. The only problem here is one of MEANING. This is a bit cruel but the magician Harry Houdini mentioned is pretty famous in a way. You should know he passed away a number of years ago. You cannot have, tense-wise, the word HAS therefore. He is no longer alive. Yellow flag this if you are unsure.
C. for his famous water-torture cell trick, the ability of him holding his breath
Harry claimed the ability of holding him holding his breath. C’mon, people, this is pretty awkward. Let’s just leave it there. When I read this I immediately considered the ambiguity as to who HIM could refer to.
D. for his famous water-torture cell trick, to be able to hold his breath
Harry claimed to be able to hold his breath. Ah, nice and crisp. Sounds natural. CLAIMED works tense-wise. If it had been CLAIMS we might have had an issue. I also kind of suspected the phrase CLAIM(ED) TO to be more natural. He claimed to know a lot about Greece. I claim to know more than him, however. Flows off the tongue.
E. for his famous water-torture cell trick, being able to hold his breath
Harry claimed being able to hold his breath He claimed being able to jump. He claimed being able to sing. This sounds awkward. I cannot specify the issue at hand with absolute certainty, but there is some ambiguity here as well as a tense-issue. First BEING is used to describe something. David, being a professional blacksmith, has many hammers. The usage in the answer choice doesn’t fit that. Second BEING also has a present tense sense. That is probably more the issue at play here. Houdini passed away many years ago. How could BEING be used to describe this now. I know, people, I know. You want cut and dry mathematical ways to just eliminate this. Compare it with the other answers and choose the best one.
To reiterate a little, remember, you have to choose the best out of the bunch. Conciseness, clarity, redundancy, meaning... there are many things one may consider when it comes to SC. If you do find an absolute reason to eliminate something great, but it may be good to just realize you’re gonna have to play a bit of probability at some point. I, frankly, just “felt” the issues afoot. I didn’t go into GREAT specific detail when solving what the issue was. You are not simply fighting the answer choice – you are also fighting the ticking clock.
Some Kudos would be nice
Turn-of-the-century magician Harry Houdini claimed, for his famous water-torture cell trick, the ability to hold his breath for more than three minutes.
A. for his famous water-torture cell trick, the ability to hold his breath
Let’s look at this for a moment. Let’s cut and boil this down a little. Harry claimed the ability. Frankly that is ALL that this sentence is. But would you say that? I claimed the ability. He claimed the ability. I know this is a horrible way for a non-native speaker to go about things, but for native speakers it might help you out to think this way. If you absolutely must yellow flag this and move on. Do not fall in the blank-face abyss.
B. for his famous water-torture cell trick, he has the ability to hold his breath
Harry claimed he has the ability to hold his breath. This grammatically doesn’t pose any issues. I may have liked to see a THAT before HE but it isn’t terrible. The only problem here is one of MEANING. This is a bit cruel but the magician Harry Houdini mentioned is pretty famous in a way. You should know he passed away a number of years ago. You cannot have, tense-wise, the word HAS therefore. He is no longer alive. Yellow flag this if you are unsure.
C. for his famous water-torture cell trick, the ability of him holding his breath
Harry claimed the ability of holding him holding his breath. C’mon, people, this is pretty awkward. Let’s just leave it there. When I read this I immediately considered the ambiguity as to who HIM could refer to.
D. for his famous water-torture cell trick, to be able to hold his breath
Harry claimed to be able to hold his breath. Ah, nice and crisp. Sounds natural. CLAIMED works tense-wise. If it had been CLAIMS we might have had an issue. I also kind of suspected the phrase CLAIM(ED) TO to be more natural. He claimed to know a lot about Greece. I claim to know more than him, however. Flows off the tongue.
E. for his famous water-torture cell trick, being able to hold his breath
Harry claimed being able to hold his breath He claimed being able to jump. He claimed being able to sing. This sounds awkward. I cannot specify the issue at hand with absolute certainty, but there is some ambiguity here as well as a tense-issue. First BEING is used to describe something. David, being a professional blacksmith, has many hammers. The usage in the answer choice doesn’t fit that. Second BEING also has a present tense sense. That is probably more the issue at play here. Houdini passed away many years ago. How could BEING be used to describe this now. I know, people, I know. You want cut and dry mathematical ways to just eliminate this. Compare it with the other answers and choose the best one.
To reiterate a little, remember, you have to choose the best out of the bunch. Conciseness, clarity, redundancy, meaning... there are many things one may consider when it comes to SC. If you do find an absolute reason to eliminate something great, but it may be good to just realize you’re gonna have to play a bit of probability at some point. I, frankly, just “felt” the issues afoot. I didn’t go into GREAT specific detail when solving what the issue was. You are not simply fighting the answer choice – you are also fighting the ticking clock.
Some Kudos would be nice
13 Mar 2020, 21:27
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varotkorn
Did Harry Houdini "take as the rightful owner" the ability to hold his breath for more than three minutes? This is not logically what the sentence is trying to say!
We want the sense of "claim" that is "state or assert that something is the case, typically without providing evidence or proof," but A is not the proper construction to express this sense of the word.
