An individual will find it difficult to campaign successfully for publ

Question

An individual will find it difficult to campaign successfully for public office  if there is an absence of support from political action committees.

(A) if there is an absence of support from political action committees

(B) if the support of political action committees is absent

(C) there being an absence of support from political action committees

(D) when political action committee support is absent

(E) without the support of political action committees

souvonik2k · Answer

E is the most concise and avoids unnecessary word.

IdiomSavant · Answer

E.

All the others make it sound like the support of the committee is absent but the committee itself may still be there. They read as if the committee might show up and slack off when this sentence wants to read like the committee is not behind the candidate.

vaibhavanant · Answer

E 
 'office if' Incorrect... A & B ruled out.
'Office there' and 'Office When' also incorrect so C& D ruled out.

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harshalc4 · Answer

I am confused between B and E options, but I think B might be a better solution.

With option E, the statement reads completely as:  An individual will find it difficult to campaign successfully for public office  without the support of political action committees .

Doesn't the term 'Without the support of political action committees' above act as a noun modifier modifying the noun public office? The right sentence should have a comma just before 'without'.

Or I think the following should also do:

Without the support of political action committees , an individual will find it difficult to campaign successfully for public office.

Overall, option E may lead one to think that the public office is without the support of the political action committee. Thus, option B seems better in this view.

Please correct if I am missing something.

pra1785 · Answer

Can someone explain why option B is wrong?

Scorpi0n · Answer

If there is an absence of support from ... If the support of ... is absent It seems GMAT prefers "Without the support of" to the ones above. As expressed in the OE of the question below, the preposition "without", easily replaces the awkward "if there is an absence of", and at least is less colloquial. https://gmatclub.com/forum/linguists-ar ... 66684.html

ydmuley · Answer

One reason for sure is  concision  when you can say the same sentence in -  without the support of x  there is no need to use  if the support of x is absent

Also - I have not see the usage of -  support of x is  .... usage more often (I may be wrong)

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

The problem with B is really more about meaning. An absence of support means a lack of support. But if we say that something is absent, we often mean that it exists but is not where we expect it to be. For instance, an absent student still exists; she just isn't in class. Similarly, if I return to the parking lot to find that my car is absent, it has most likely been driven away by a thief. But what would it mean for support to be absent? Either there is support or there isn't. If there is support, then it can't be absent. If there is no support, then it's odd to say that the support is absent. Rather, the support doesn't exist.

aaba · Answer

Kaplan agrees that OA is E.

(A) if  there is  an absence of support from political action committees

(B) if the support of political action committees is absent -> same to D

(C) there  being  an absence of support from political action committees

(D)  when   political action committee support is absent -> passive & wordy

(E) without the support of political action committees

robertwidmore · Answer

Don't we lose the conditional meaning when we drop using   if  ?

Bunuel · Answer

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The phrase if there is an absence of support is indirect enough to make you very suspicious of it, but make sure that you have a better option before you eliminate it. (B) is no better, and perhaps no worse. (C) doesn't make sense in the context of the sentence, so take it out. (D) tries to be more active by changing the original to political action committee support, but the change creates an unidiomatic phrase; in this case, the support of political action committees is better. (E) is the best choice because it is grammatically correct and avoids the passive and/or wordy constructions in the other options. Now you can eliminate (A) and (B) and click the bubble next to (E).

VerbalBot · Answer

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An individual will find it difficult to campaign successfully for publ

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An individual will find it difficult to campaign successfully for publ

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