V11-48

Question

Just as reading Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist made 19th century Londoners aware of the evils of workhouses for under-aged children and do something about them,  so John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance” made American citizens more empathetic to the Vietnam War and gave them an anthem for their peace rallies.

A. so John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance” made American citizens more empathetic to the Vietnam War and gave them an anthem for their peace rallies. 
B. John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance” made American citizens more empathetic to the Vietnam War, giving them an anthem for their peace rallies.
C. listening John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance” made American citizens more empathetic to the Vietnam War, giving them an anthem for their peace rallies.
D. so listening to John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance” made American citizens more empathetic to the Vietnam War, giving them an anthem for their peace rallies.
E. so did listening to John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance” made American citizens more empathetic and gave an anthem to the Vietnam War peace rallies.

souvik101990 · Answer

Official Solution:

Just as reading Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist made 19th century Londoners aware of the evils of workhouses for under-aged children and do something about them,  so John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance” made American citizens more empathetic to the Vietnam War and gave them an anthem for their peace rallies.

A. so John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance” made American citizens more empathetic to the Vietnam War and gave them an anthem for their peace rallies. 
B. John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance” made American citizens more empathetic to the Vietnam War, giving them an anthem for their peace rallies.
C. listening John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance” made American citizens more empathetic to the Vietnam War, giving them an anthem for their peace rallies.
D. so listening to John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance” made American citizens more empathetic to the Vietnam War, giving them an anthem for their peace rallies.
E. so did listening to John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance” made American citizens more empathetic and gave an anthem to the Vietnam War peace rallies.

(A) This sentence is built around the comparison just as x, so y. In the original sentence, x (reading Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist) is not parallel to y (John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance”)
 
(B) The comparison structure just as x, so y has been broken by not including so. No verb for John Lennon’s famous song means that the first verb reading is applicable to John Lennon’s famous song, which does not make logical sense.
 
(C)The comparison structure just as x, so y has been broken by not including so. The verb listening is always followed by the preposition to when referring to music.
 
(D)  Correct  The comparison structure just as x, so y is properly maintained; parallel elements are compared in both x (reading...) and y (listening to...) and awareness and action of Londoners in part one is balanced properly by empathy and rallies of Americans in part two.
 
(E) Verbs made and gave should be in present tense after the past tense verb did. The end of the sentence makes it sound as if American citizens became more empathetic to the peace rallies, thus changing the meaning of the sentence.

Answer: D

nealz · Answer

In Option E word Pace is used while in the explanation, it is used as "Peace". Kindly correct the Option E with the correct word.

sayantanc2k · Answer

Thank you for pointing out. We have corrected the typo.

gwge92 · Answer

Isn't the modifier "giving them an..." misplaced since it is a noun modifier modifying the song.

sayantanc2k · Answer

No, "giving them an..." is not a noun modifier, but a present participle modifier referring to the entire preceding clause "listening ... made Americans more empathetic to..." .

vishalkumar4mba · Answer

U understand the "giving them an anthem for their peace rallies." is a present participle modifier and it modifies the entire presiding clause.

But should not this makes sense with the subject of the presiding clause??

For example " Messi scored 3 goals,  making his team win .

here the present participle modifies the entire clause and at the same time makes sense with the subject of the main clause/

Sikka after being appointed as the CEO brought many reforms , increasing his pay significantly.

The above sentence is grammatically correct but absurd .

On the similar lines "so  listening    to John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance” made American citizens   more empathetic to the Vietnam War ", --> listening can't give an anthem ???

x3zhong · Answer

Is option D missing a "did" between so and listening. "so listening to ..." sounds very awkward to me.

MWithrock · Answer

So Listening Doesn't really Jive with me. Since we're comparing verbs doesn't the So need a verb as well?

Just as Gretzky Scored 50 goals, so DID Ovechkin.

Am I way off and missing something?

Please help.

OhsostudiousMJ · Answer

Yeah, same here. "so DID..." sounds right to me. But there's always this saying that what sounds right isn't necessarily right in GMAT.

vinayakvaish · Answer

GMATNinja  kindly help me with this. I feel option d requires 'did' after 'so'. Just as reading Dickens made londoners aware, so did listening to elton made Americans empathatic

Posted from my mobile device

RK007 · Answer

Hey, did u find an answer to Ur question?

aniket16c · Answer

May be I can help:

The main structure here is "just as X so Y". Thus we need to maintain parallelism between X and Y.

Here, X = Reading Oliver Twist made. Y should be on similar lines. Hence, Y's structure should be similar to = Doing something made.. 
This is exactly what option D offers. Hence use of "did" is not required and will be wrong in this context.

Please comment if there are any flaws in my explanation!

gaurav2m · Answer

i am also having the same qustn.

can anyone please throw any light on this

egmat  or  sayantanc2k  or any other verbal expert

AnirudhaS · Answer

Any verbal experts, please help. 
As has been asked a few times before, I feel that there should be a helping 'verb' after 'so'

just as X so Y -

just as X so  did  Y - this is the sounding better

GMATNinja   sayantanc2k   souvik101990   daagh   VeritasKarishma

Abhishekrao12 · Answer

As has been asked a few times before, I feel that there should be a helping 'verb' after 'so'

just as X so Y -

just as X so  did  Y - this is the sounding better

In the above idiom , X and Y both stand for a clause. ' As' is used to comparing clauses. So did is not necessary in this construction.

snehak93 · Answer

I was aghast, like many here, when I discovered it was D, and not E. While it may not sound correct to us, here's a mistake in E that makes a reasonable case for elimination:

E. so  did  listening to John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance”  made  American citizens more empathetic and gave an anthem to the Vietnam War peace rallies.

The usage of two verbs is redundant in this sentence. Hence, D.

I can hear Charles'(GMAT Ninja) voice echo now saying:

- GMAT is about eliminating four wrong choices
- "Sounds good" doesn't always work well on the GMAT

Sapnilbhatnagar · Answer

Let me give you an intuitive and meaning based approach to get to the correct answer without Grammar as GMAT doesnt say that we want to test Grammar.
So here it is, We can easily narrow down to choices D and E on the basis of 'Just as X so Y'. So the real fight is between D and E.
Now, D says :  "Listening"  to John Lennon's famous song made americans more empathetic (Makes sense) and as a result of the same - "Giving" them an anthem for peace rallies. - PERFECT

Now let's analyze E :  "Listening"  to John Lennon's famous song made americans more empathetic (Makes sense) and "Listening" to John lennon's famous song gave them an Anthem Blah .. Blah.. Blah..
 Listening to something cannot give you an anthem!! so here is the meaning flaw!

GMATNinja   Souvik  : Please add to the above if you feel there is scope of improvement !

Kudos are FREE .. Please post them!

fireagablast · Answer

There is NO chance "so listening" is gramatically correct.
Should either be "so did listening to" or simply "listening to".

Gonna have to assume there's a typo here..

hritvikpatel · Answer

Here, re-phrase the option:
so   listening  to John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance”   made  American citizens more empathetic to the Vietnam War
To
so  made    listening  to John Lennon’s famous song “Give Peace a Chance”  American citizens more empathetic to the Vietnam War

This sounds more intuitively correct, and I'm hoping this would help understand why this option is correct:)

V11-48

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