The 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner, a certai

Question

The 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner, a certain television station in a country somewhere in Mid-sea continent, reporting favorable news depends hugely and undeniably on Xanadu government's donating huge and often scandalous sums of money to the Audio-vision council of South-eastern Xanadu which is a very rich country in a very rich continent; this seriously calls into question the criteria used by the Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party in recognizing television stations in Mid-sea continent.

A.The 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner, a certain television station in a country somewhere in Mid-sea continent, reporting favorable news depends hugely and undeniably on Xanadu government's donating huge and often scandalous sums of money to the Audio-vision council of South-eastern Xanadu which is a very rich country in a very rich continent; this seriously calls into question the criteria used by the Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party in recognizing television stations in Mid-sea continent.

B. The 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner's reporting of favorable news depends hugely and undeniably on Xanadu government donating huge and often scandalous sums of money to the Audio-vision council of South-eastern Xanadu calls into question the criteria used by the Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party in recognizing television stations in Mid-sea Continent.

C. That the 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner's, Xanam Television Station in south-eastern province of Xanadu, reporting of favorable news depends hugely and undeniably on Xanadu government's donating huge and often scandalous sums of money to the Audio-vision council of South-eastern Xanadu, a very rich country in a very rich continent, often seriously calls into question the criteria used in the Mid-sea continent by the Journalist Tea Party to recognize television stations in Mid-sea Continent.

D. That the 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner's reporting of favorable news depends hugely and undeniably on Xanadu government's donating huge and often scandalous sums of money to the Audio-vision council of South-eastern Xanadu, a very rich country in a very rich continent, calls into question the criteria used in the continent by Mid-sea Journalist Tea Party at recognizing television stations in Mid-sea continent.

E. That the 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner's reporting of remarkable and favorable news depends hugely and undeniably on Xanadu government's donating huge and often scandalous sums of money to the Audio-vision Council of South-eastern Xanadu, a very rich country in a very rich continent, seriously calls into question the professional criteria that are used in the continent by the aforementioned Mid-sea Journalist Tea Party to recognize television stations in Mid-sea continent.

Dont look at the OA. IF you get this question in less than 3 minutes, then you can get anything.

Fabiocafarelli · Accepted Answer

I would ignore this question. It is unrepresentative of the kind of question that you will get in your GMAT. The length of the sentence itself, the absence of articles where they would be required, the unnecessary piling-up of adjectives and adverbs, the modification problem that exists even in the best answer (option E), the abuse of the adjectival genitive (1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner: impossibly bad), and the lack of any clarification as to what TO RECOGNIZE actually means here, make this a question that you simply do not need to consider.

Option E is the best answer, but only because all the others are worse. I don't know what your source is for this question, but if the question is representative of the source, you might want to think about using another.

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Option E is the best answer, but only because all the others are worse. I don't know what your source is for this question, but if the question is representative of the source, you might want to think about using another.

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stevekeating · Answer

The structure of A could be simplified to “the winner…reporting news;”. This is not a full sentence. Eliminate A. B has “Xanadu government donating”. You need a possessive before a gerund. It should be “Xanadu government’s donating”. Eliminate B. C adds “Xanam Television Station”. Eliminate C. D has “the criteria used … at recognizing”. This is incorrect. Only E remains. Such a long sentence can be simplified down to its essential structure, enabling you to solve the question more quickly.

Ekland · Answer

CLUE
Let's say  ME REPORTING  A GOOD NEWS DEPENDS ON  YOUR GIVING ME MONEY  do not agree in structure. the later is gerund form (right), the former doesnt sound good at all. A out.

B repeats the same error by exchanging the form. still unparallel structure.

C brings an interegnum between a winner's and what folllows it. WRONG grammar

D said used  at  recognizing, wrong use.

E. seems to remove the errors. though it seems longer, no grammatical error detected yet.  (the fact)that the winner's reporting of news depends on government's donating of money, calls the award criteria(plural of criterion) into question.

Ekland · Answer

Firstly, that the question is not a rep of what u get in GMAT is rather not true.
When I read that question first I was pissed off like you are.
But I calmed down. let me help u out.
(Midsea Continent Journalist Tea Party) is clearly the name of a group which is singular. You didn't observe they are in capital letters
(The 1996 Midsea Continent Journalist Tea Part Award winner)
That is not wrong.
Is it wrong to say ( The 2002 Nobel Prize winner)?
Nobel Prize is the name of the award coming from a group called Nobel.
So Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award is the award from a body called Mid-sea ... whatever.

Trying to prove a question is wrong is a waste and a wrong learning strategy. You wouldn't learn it like that.

I suggest you go check out Manhattan GMAT guys.
They'd give you more devilish +700level questions.

Fabiocafarelli · Answer

Well, thank you for your offer to help me out and your suggestion about consulting Manhattan. But I'm afraid I have to stand by my objections. I don't, however, intend to enter into controversy about either the question or what I have said about it, so if the question seems fine to you, and my statements unjustified, well and good. I'd simply make a more general point: that there is quite a lot of questionable material around, and that one of the objectives of this forum is to help students to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

Ekland · Answer

Hi  Fabiocafarelli ,
No one wants to obliviously establish oneself as a fluke prep tutor guy, which I'm certain you are not(cos there is no fluke expert in gmatclub).
I'm no expert, but saying that THE 1996 NOBEL PRIZE WINNER is a wrong grammar, could make us hold doubts about your ground.

Nightfury14 · Answer

In option (E) the statement says "remarkable and favorable news" ..
the work remarkable in not present in any of the other options and all options talk about favorable news only.
I presume GMAT wouldn't add a word without any reason. But i am not able to understand why remarkable is added. I eliminated (E) on this basis.

sobby · Answer

E is answer...colored part is a gigantic subject ....and criteria to recognize is better that criteria at(in D)

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

A - 
If we remove the intervening non-essential modifier, the sentence we get is this - 
"The 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner  reporting favorable news " -

Here, "reporting favorable news" serves as a modifier to "tea party award winner", not as an action/verb. 
this implies that there is a "specific" kind of "the 1996 Mid-sea continent journalist tea party award winner".

"South-eastern Xanadu  which  is a very rich country in a very rich continent"
"which" must be preceded by commas.

"this seriously calls into question the criteria ..." 
"this" cannot refer to an entire clause.

B - 
"Xanadu government  donating  huge and often scandalous sums of money"
this implies that there is a "specific" kind of Xanadu government, one that donates huge sums of money.

"...reporting of favorable news  depends  ... calls  into question the criteria ..."
two verbs in the main clause.

C -
"Journalist Tea Party Award  winner's , Xanam Television Station..."
"Xanam television station" cannot refer to the possessive noun "winner's".

D -
"criteria used ... at recognizing television stations ..." is unidiomatic.

E - 
seems to fix other errors.
"Tea Party Award winner's reporting ..." Note that "reporting" is preceded by a possessive noun. And here too - 
"... Xanadu government's donating huge and often scandalous sums of money ..."

sayantanc2k · Answer

Yes, I agree. The issue seems to be an oversight at the question writer's end.

RahulSingh13 · Answer

I have a few doubts regarding this question and the correct answer. Shouldn't the possessive be 'Xanadu government's donation of' instead of 'Xanadu government's donating'? or it can simply be 'Xanadu government donating' without the possessive. 
The second issue I have with the OA is the modifier ' a very rich country in a very rich continent' that seems to be modifying ' the Audio-vision Council of South-eastern Xanadu'.

AjiteshArun · Answer

You have to make allowances for the bad English used in this question while you're solving it. The use of the possessive with  donating , however, is fine.

Donating  is a gerund (here) and it is  much  more likely that the GMAT will go with  the government's donating  than with  the government donating . The second one puts the focus on the  government . It sounds as if the  reporting  depends on a particular  government  (the one that is donating). The sentence is trying to say that the  reporting  depends on the  donating  by the government.

Using  a very rich...  should also be okay. It might lead to loss of clarity, but its use is not incorrect when there really is no better option.

RahulSingh13 · Answer

Hello Ajitesh,

Thank you so much for the explanation. Could I ask you for some further clarification on the issue of the possessive noun?

1) John's donating to the charity is an act of kindness.

2) John's donation to the charity is an act of kindness.

3) John donating to the charity is an act of kindness.

Are all the above usages correct and if so, which of the three would be preferred on the gmat?

AjiteshArun · Answer

The first two are possible. You can put either a noun or a gerund after a possessive. You should not try to prefer one of these two as the choice is highly dependent on context.

Nightmare007 · Answer

OMG got answer in 3 min 22 seconds its E. Kept A on hold Eliminated all B C D and then E was better than A. If this type of question comes in GMAT, I will just guess b/w D and E and move on.

Splendiid · Answer

In Answer choice E, is the subject verb in agreement?

E. That the 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner's reporting of remarkable and favorable news depends hugely and undeniably on Xanadu government's donating huge and often scandalous sums of money to the Audio-vision Council of South-eastern Xanadu, a very rich country in a very rich continent, seriously calls into question the  professional criteria that   are    used in the continent by the aforementioned Mid-sea Journalist Tea Party to recognize television stations in Mid-sea continent.

sunny91 · Answer

Ruled out option E and chose D as I thought that criteria is singular. Later I found out that criterion is singular. Wow, quite a question.

gmatexam439 · Answer

The 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner, a certain television station in a country somewhere in Mid-sea continent, reporting favorable news depends hugely and undeniably on Xanadu government's donating huge and often scandalous sums of money to the Audio-vision council of South-eastern Xanadu which is a very rich country in a very rich continent; this seriously calls into question the criteria used by the Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party in recognizing television stations in Mid-sea continent.

A.The 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award  winner , a certain television station in a country somewhere in Mid-sea continent, reporting favorable news depends hugely and undeniably on Xanadu government's donating huge and often scandalous sums of money to the Audio-vision council of South-eastern Xanadu  which  is a very rich country in a very rich continent; this seriously calls into question the criteria used by the Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party in recognizing television stations in Mid-sea continent.
 We need possessive noun for reporting 
 a "," (comma) is required before which

B. The 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner's reporting of favorable news depends hugely and undeniably on Xanadu government donating huge and often scandalous sums of money to the Audio-vision council of South-eastern Xanadu  calls  into question the criteria used by the Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party in recognizing television stations in Mid-sea Continent.
 Conjunction is required before "calls"

C. That the 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award  winner's, Xanam Television Station  in south-eastern province of Xanadu, reporting of favorable news depends hugely and undeniably on Xanadu government's donating huge and often scandalous sums of money to the Audio-vision council of South-eastern Xanadu, a very rich country in a very rich continent, often seriously calls into question the criteria used in the Mid-sea continent by the Journalist Tea Party to recognize television stations in Mid-sea Continent.
 Wrong modifier

D. That the 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner's reporting of favorable news depends hugely and undeniably on Xanadu government's donating huge and often scandalous sums of money to the Audio-vision council of South-eastern Xanadu, a very rich country in a very rich continent, calls into question the criteria used in the continent by Mid-sea Journalist Tea Party  at recognizing  television stations in Mid-sea continent.
 Unidiomatic

E. That the 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner's reporting of remarkable and favorable news depends hugely and undeniably on Xanadu government's donating huge and often scandalous sums of money to the Audio-vision Council of South-eastern Xanadu, a very rich country in a very rich continent, seriously calls into question the professional criteria that are used in the continent by the aforementioned Mid-sea Journalist Tea Party to recognize television stations in Mid-sea continent.
 CORRECT

thaya · Answer

In option B , DONATING can also be a modifier. in that case the usage will be correct?

The 1996 Mid-sea Continent Journalist Tea Party Award winner, a certai

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