Turn-of-the-century magician Harry Houdini claimed, for his

Question

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
B. for his famous water-torture cell trick, he has the ability to hold his breath
C. for his famous water-torture cell trick, the ability of him holding his breath
D. for his famous water-torture cell trick, to be able to hold his breath
E. for his famous water-torture cell trick, being able to hold his breath

pqhai · Accepted Answer

According to Manhattan Gmat - Sentence correction - idiom

CLAIM

Right: 
Claim that.........
Claim to be able to.............

Suspect: 
Claim the Ability to..........
Claim X can do......

Wrong 
Claim being able............

So D is correct.

amit2k9 · Answer

In the sentence the part enclosed in commas you can ignore that part temporarily first.
And see like this - 
Turn-of-the-century magician Harry Houdini claimed,the ability to hold his breath for more than three minutes.

Claim is Command Subjunctive usage such as Mandate or requested.

Claim needs either a that or to be, to link it with the dependent clause 'the ability to hold his breath for ....'.

Hence you should analyse with respect to the verb Claim here. Also the verb 'able' should be in its Base form and not the ability (noun) form.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question

A:  This answer choice uses the incorrect idiom construction "claimed...the ability to"; the idiomatically correct way to express that someone expressed, using the word "claimed", that they possessed an ability is "claimed...to be able" or "claimed that...". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect

B:  This answer choice uses the unidiomatic construction "ability of holding", rather than the correct phrase "ability to hold". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

C:  This answer choice repeats the error seen in Option B. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

D:  This answer choice maintains proper idiom use throughout the sentence. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

E:  This answer choice uses the idiomatically incorrect phrase "claimed...being". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

One important thing to remember here is that the phrase "for his famous water-torture cell trick" is presented between two commas and can, thus, be removed from the sentence to observe the sentence structure more clearly.

To understand the concept of "Use of Being on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2w9FNmjwtw

To understand the concept of "Extra Information Between two Commas on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdcgAqmg7bU

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

prab · Answer

claimed, to be able ...... makes a lot of sense.

Straight D.

aditya8062 · Answer

it has to be D  :  to be able to hold his breath

Zarrolou · Answer

"claime to be"  is the correct idiom, and only  D  has it.

IMO D

sdas · Answer

IMO D
A - wrong meaning claimed....the ability...
B - wrong idiom - ability of holding....
C - same as B
E - use of being is not a preferred option and is wordy

Hope this helps. Anyone has any better explanation please do share

mohit878 · Answer

IMO D....to be able to hold his breath

qw1981 · Answer

hi. I have a doubt. Would claimed not require a "that" after it.. As in the magician claimed that??

Nevernevergiveup · Answer

Even i have the same doubt. Also im confused between Ability to do sth & able to do sth which of them is correct and in what scenerios? I believe ability of doing sth is wrong. Please clairfy

HKD1710 · Answer

I would prefer able over the ability. and choice D seems to have no error. correct.

iliavko · Answer

Hi everyone,

Can somebody explain to me the structure of this sentence? What is the main clause, etc? 
I am confused about the construction of a dependent clause.

"He finally finished his novel, after months of research." -> here do we have a dependent clause? or "after months of research" is not a clause because it doesn't have a subject?

Thank you!

sayantanc2k · Answer

The basic structure of the sentence is as follows:
 Turn-of-the-century magician Harry Houdini   claimed   to be able to hold his breath for more than three minutes.

Subject:  Turn-of-the-century magician Harry Houdini  
Verb:  claimed 
Object:  to be able to hold his breath for more than three minutes   (nominal infinitive phrase)

Now add an adverbial phrase (NOT a dependent clause) " for his famous water-torture cell trick "  to say something more about the verb  "claim".... for what did he claim?

Thus the sentence becomes:

Turn-of-the-century magician Harry Houdini   claimed ,  for his famous water-torture cell trick ,  to be able to hold his breath for more than three minutes . (option D)

iliavko · Answer

Wow I think I wrote the question in the wrong place

Thank you for the time, I will try to figure out what I wanted to ask and where! Sorry! :X

ydmuley · Answer

Straight D - Correct usage is "  Claimed to be  "

namita_am · Answer

This helped me understand the correct usage of

X claims to be Y  and  X claims Z is Y .

X claims to be Y (and variations)
Laney claims to be an expert snowboarder.
Dr. Smith claims to be the inventor of the widget.
Company X claims to have been first to market.

X claims Z is Y (and variations)
Leo claims vanilla is the best ice cream flavor.
Vanilla is the ice cream flavor Leo claims is best.
Lydia claims the rumor is untrue.
The company unveiled what it claims is the world's smallest camcorder.

Soruce: Manhattan Forum

thangvietnam · Answer

let me try
choice A
what abilty, it is unclear. he claime her father's ability. A is gone
choice C
ability of him is wrong. his ability is correct. C is gone
choice E
claim doing is wrong. claim to do is correct. E is gone
how about B. I think B is correct but wordy.

C is left.

Prateek176 · Answer

KarishmaB  ,  GMATNinja  ,  Skywalker18

I can understand why D is correct but What is wrong with B??

KarishmaB · Answer

claimed can be used in different ways:

claimed + that 
... claimed that he had the ability ...

claimed + to infinitive 
... claimed to be able to ...

claimed with quotes
"I have the ...", claimed Houdini

Option (B) is not correct and needs to be put into one of these forms.

Turn-of-the-century magician Harry Houdini claimed, for his

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Turn-of-the-century magician Harry Houdini claimed, for his

Prep Toolkit

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

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My Rewards