It is important for aspiring comedians to be able to endure

Question

It is important for aspiring comedians to be able to endure criticism, as they will often encounter negative feedback on stage even when the material that they are testing will one day bring them success, and laugh at themselves; in many moments, they may be the only ones laugh

It is important for aspiring comedians
a) to be able to endure criticism
b) and laugh at themselves

This is the structure.

C changes the structure and is incorrect

(A) It is important for aspiring comedians to be able to endure criticism, as they will often

(B) For aspiring comedians, to be able to endure criticism is important, as they will often

(C) The ability to endure criticism is important for aspiring comedians, who will often

(D) For aspiring comedians, often it is important that they can endure criticism and

(E) For aspiring comedians, it is important to be able to endure criticism; they will often

mikemcgarry · Accepted Answer

Dear JusTLucK04 , I am quite well, thank you, and I am happy to respond to your p.m. :-)

Here's the question again: It is important for aspiring comedians to be able to endure criticism, as they will often encounter negative feedback on stage even when the material that they are testing will one day bring them success, and laugh at themselves; in many moments, they may be the only ones laughing. A) It is important for aspiring comedians to be able to endure criticism, as they will often B) For aspiring comedians, to be able to endure criticism is important, as they will often C) The ability to endure criticism is important for aspiring comedians, who will often D) For aspiring comedians, often it is important that they can endure criticism and E) For aspiring comedians, it is important to be able to endure criticism; they will often (A) is elegant and natural-sounding. Very nice. Choices (B) & (C) are quite awkward and incorrect. Part of what's tricky about this question --- when we look simply at the choices (D) & (E) themselves, we may or may not see problems, but there are big problems with how these two connect to the rest of the sentence. It's always important to consider how an answer choice plugs into the whole sentence, because sometimes the problem is not in the answer choice per se but in how it connects to the rest of the sentence. In (D) , the wording is certainly long-winded and awkward, which makes it suspect, but the real trainwreck is how it connects with the rest of the sentence: " For aspiring comedians, often it is important that they can endure criticism and encounter negative feedback on stage ..." This one is saying that it is important for the comedians to encounter negative feedback. Hey, comedians, go out there and actively seek out negative feedback! That's a radical change in meaning from the problem, which suggests simply that the negative feedback is inevitable and the comedians just have to learn to deal with it. This is why (D) is completely wrong. Choice (E) has the effect of creating a very choppy sentence. Among other things, it creates a sentence with two different semi-colon breaks. Having multiple semicolons is perfectly fine if, for example, one is listing complex items in series or something like that, but a sentence with (description)-semicolon-(more description)-semicolon-(more description) is too choppy. Furthermore, there's absolutely no reason to insert a semicolon break where a simple conjunction would do. Among other things, the break of the semicolon serves to make less clear the logical link between having to be able to enduring criticism and the inevitability of encountering negative feedback --- (A) puts those in a clear causal relationship, and this is less clear in (E) . For these reasons, (A) is much much better than (E) . That's why (A) is the best answer. As usually, this Veritas question is a high quality question. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

PiyushK · Answer

It is important for aspiring comedians to be able to endure criticism, as they will often encounter negative feedback on stage even when the material that they are testing will one day bring them success, and laugh at themselves; in many moments, they may be the only ones laugh

It is important for aspiring comedians
a) to be able to endure criticism
b) and laugh at themselves

This is the structure.

C changes the structure and is incorrect

A) It is important for aspiring comedians to be able to endure criticism, as they will often -- to be able to is perfectly fine -- as introduces subordinate clause 
B) For aspiring comedians, to be able to endure criticism is important, as they will often -- A is better construction -- B also looks fine.
C) The ability to endure criticism is important for aspiring comedians, who will often --To endure criticism is...comedians, who will encounter ... , and (who is missing) laugh -- further stated suggestion is specifically applying to comedians, who.. instead of all comedians in general.

D) For aspiring comedians, often it is important that they can endure criticism and -- can is not expressing similar meaning -- way awkward.
E) For aspiring comedians, it is important to be able to endure criticism; they will often -- same as B-- aspiring comedians is essential part of sentence which is placed in a prepositional phrase. -- not as good as A.

A is best among all, but each B and E needs further scrutiny.

shank001 · Answer

B and E have the same issue.
What is the subject/verb pair? 
For aspiring comedians(phrase) ,  to be able to endure criticism is important ,  as they will often...

also there are two things that are important for the aspiring comedians.
to be able to endure criticism
and be able to laugh at themselves.

these choices don't follow this structure.

shank001 · Answer

It is important for aspiring comedians to be able to endure criticism, as they will often encounter negative feedback on stage even when the material that they are testing will one day bring them success, and laugh at themselves; in many moments, they may be the only ones laugh

It is important for aspiring comedians
a) to be able to endure criticism
b) and laugh at themselves

This is the structure.

C changes the structure and is incorrect

It is important for aspiring comedians  
a) to be able to endure criticism
b) and laugh at themselves

This is the structure.

C changes the structure and is incorrect

JusTLucK04 · Answer

A & E both..look fine to me...B & D is out for parallelism & meaning...So it might be A for concision
I guess this one has something to do with initial modifier and ", and laugh at themselves" portions..

niyantg · Answer

Is it okay that a sentence starts with "IT" when it does not have any antecedent here ?

and please shed some more light on why is C wrong ?

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear niyantg , I'm happy to respond. :-)

The " it " at the beginning of the sentence is called the "empty it." This is a feature of more sophisticated writing --- the "antecedent" is an infinitive or gerund that follows the verb. See this article: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/the-empty- ... orrection/ Now, the problem with (C) --- think of it this way. Here's (A), the OA: (A) It is important for aspiring comedians to be able to endure criticism, as they will often encounter negative feedback on stage ,,, Now, here's (C) : (C) The ability to endure criticism is important for aspiring comedians, who will often encounter negative feedback on stage ... (A) is active and direct --- the action is an infinitive, a verb form --- " to be able to endure ..." but in (C) , the same structure is stated as a noun, " the ability to endure " --- less active, less direct, and less powerful. This is a classic GMAT SC mistake pattern --- changing action from a verb form to a noun form. See this article: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/active-verbs-on-the-gmat/ That's certainly something that makes us suspicious about (C) . Also, notice that (A) has a clear sense of causality. Enduring criticism is important: why is it important? Because comedians " will often encounter negative feedback on stage ." In (A) , the word " as " is a synonym for " because ." We get a direct and clear answer to why it is important. In (C) , that's more muddled --- we're told something is important, then we get a description of the comedians, and yes, it's implied that what is in the description will answer the question about why it is important, but it's left implicit, weak, not stated clearly and directly, as it is in (A) . Does this make sense? Mike :-)

mvictor · Answer

it's really easy to crack this bad boy just by understanding the meaning behind it.
it is important to be able to: 1 endure criticism and 2 laugh at themselves. since the 2 is in non-underlined, we must find the 1st to be written in such a way, that it would make sense with 2.
A does it perfectly. "as they..." describes the situations when the ability to endure criticism is needed.
verbs are parallel. and both make sense overall.

B. and laugh at themselves - what does it refer to?

C - and laugh - again - what role does it have here?

D - important that they can...confuses ability with capability - right away out. and laugh - again no idea what role it has here.

E. semicolon ends the IC and starts a new one...but we need a dependent clause, and then to continue with the IC.

so far, A is the best.

Bunuel · Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

(A). The controlling phrase in this question is far from the underlined portion, but it’s critical: “…and laugh at themselves…”. Because that phrase clearly has a preceding phrase, we need the underlined portion to be parallel. Only answer choice (A) sets up this parallel construction “it is important to be able to endure criticism…and laugh”. Choice C comes close, but note that in doing so the comma after “success” splices the phrase: “they will often encounter, and laugh”. The meaning of the sentence would be lost, also, were this construction of parallel verbs “encounter” and “laugh” even performed correctly. Choice D leaves the phrase “…and laugh” without a subject, making “endure” and “encounter” the two parallel phrases. And choice E garbles the structure, adding a second semicolon to the mix. Accordingly, choice A is correct.

VerbalBot · Answer

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It is important for aspiring comedians to be able to endure

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