The proximity of wealth and of poverty in the downtown centers of

Question

The proximity of wealth and  of poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplifies  the income inequality that has inspired grassroots political movements across the globe.

A. of poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplifies

B. of poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a block with a luxury high rise and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplify

C. poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplifies

D. poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplify

E. poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a block with a luxury high rise and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplifies

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VeritasPrepBrian · Accepted Answer

Here's where meaning is so important. Proximity refers to closeness, so you can't have just one item related to "proximity" - you need two things to be close to each other. That extra "of" in (A) means that each item has its own "independent" proximity...but that doesn't make logical sense since the intent of the sentence is to say that wealth and poverty are close to each other (sharing "one" proximity).

So as a counterexample, if you said:

The founders of Google and of Nike are Stanford alumni.

You're using that extra "of" to show that the groups of founders are separate for each company (Sergey and Larry didn't found Nike, and Phil Knight didn't found Google).

That can't logically apply to "proximity" because if you say that wealth and poverty each have their own proximity, it's an incomplete thought...what are they each close to?

militarytocorp · Answer

The proximity of wealth and of poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplifies the income inequality that has inspired grassroots political movements across the globe.

A. of poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplifies

B. of poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a block with a luxury high rise and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplify

C.  poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplifies......usage of of poverty is unnecessary....exemplifies...right usage    correct

D. poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplify

E. poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a block with a luxury high rise and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplifies

BARUAH · Answer

The proximity of wealth and  of poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplifies  the income inequality that has inspired grassroots political movements across the globe.

A. of poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplifies
C. poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplifies

B. of poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a block with a luxury high rise and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplify
D. poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplify

C. poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next—exemplifies : Correct.

D. poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next— exemplify  : SV error.

E. poverty in the downtown centers of many metropolises—there can be  a block with a luxury high rise and a homeless encampment on the next —exemplifies : Meaning error : The contrast is one block with high rise and another is encampment. Here this sentence means one block with the difference. So, C is a better expression.

dollytaneja51 · Answer

Subject in this sentence is proximity not wealth and poverty. Even after knowing this, selected the wrong option.

C is the correct answer because of correct Subject Verb agreement and parallelism.

I know my basics but I still make these blunders. Please somebody suggest me ways to avoid these errors.

Posted from my mobile device

VeritasPrepBrian · Answer

dollytaneja51  if you're saying that you didn't realize until afterward that the subject was proximity (and that you chose an incorrect answer because you treated the subject as "wealth and poverty") one nice way to check for that is to identify modifiers near the verb. Here "of wealth and poverty" is a prepositional modifier (because it starts with "of"...similar if it's "in" or "on" or "by") so you can then point the modifier back to the noun it describes, which is "proximity."

When subject-verb agreement is being tested, the Testmaker *loves* including a handful of noun-containing modifiers so that there are more nouns for you to consider as potential subjects. That's when it's important to take a half-step back from the problem, identify all your modifiers, and set them aside so that you can find the noun that's the subject.

subhsngh0 · Answer

Between A & C the only difference is the use of 'of' before poverty that is not wrong grammatically, so t=in accordance with GMAT rules shouldn't the answer be A instead of C.

Adi88 · Answer

Essentially, the difference among the options has been pivoted on three issues:
1. S-V: The Proximity ... exemplifies is the correct option, therefore eliminate Option B & D.

2. Another point that should be noticed is the Appositive. 
 "there can be a luxury high rise on one block and a homeless encampment on the next"  this is the correct option, so eliminate Option E.

3. the last point is difference between "Proximity of X and Y" and "Proximity of X and of Y".
The proximity of X and of Y makes it sound as if the sentence is discussing two proximities. i.e one proximity of X and another proximity of Y. Whereas the sentence intends to mean that there is only one proximity: the proximity of X and Y.
Thus Option C is correct.

Thanks,

GMAT0010 · Answer

Hi,
Idiomatically ,
P exemplifies Q
Now , we don't need the extra "of" in the first part of the underlined sentence. This is wordy and changes the meaning.
Hence A is correct.
In E , the part in em dashes suffers from improper parallelism.
Hope this helps!

kdevin323 · Answer

Posted as a 600-700 here but it's a 700-800 on MGMAT

VerbalBot · Answer

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The proximity of wealth and of poverty in the downtown centers of

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The proximity of wealth and of poverty in the downtown centers of

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