Swimming and sunbathing by the public is prohibited on stretches of

Question

Project SC Butler: Day 63 Sentence Correction (SC1) 
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Swimming and sunbathing by the public is prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners; however, the land  extending up to the mean high tide line is in fact publicly owned and is open to everyone according to the public trust doctrine.

A) Swimming and sunbathing by the public is prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners; however, the land

B) Landowners, prohibiting the public to swim and sunbathe on stretches of private beach, even though the land

C) Landowners often prohibit the public from swimming and sunbathing on stretches of private beach; however, the land

D) Swimming and sunbathing by the pubic, prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners, are, however, part of the land

E) Landowners often prohibit swimmers and sunbathers from stretches of private beach; however, the land

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yash312 · Answer

IMO C

) Swimming and sunbathing by the public is prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners; however, the land---wrong,subject s plural and verb is singular

B) Landowners, prohibiting the public to swim and sunbathe on stretches of private beach, even though the land---wrong, no verb in sentence

C) Landowners often prohibit the public from swimming and sunbathing on stretches of private beach; however, the land---correct

D) Swimming and sunbathing by the pubic, prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners, are, however, part of the land---wrong, modifier and meaning error

E) Landowners often prohibit swimmers and sunbathers from stretches of private beach; however, the land---MEAnING CHANGE,no mention of public

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MahmoudFawzy · Answer

sharing my opinion:

A) Swimming and sunbathing by the public   is   prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners; however, the land
 I think it is the correct one 
  note:   for 'Swimming and sunbathing': when using 'and' with two gerunds which represent  one combined activity (also like 'Singing and walking), then they are dealt with as singular. but if the 2 gerunds represent  separate activities  (like 'babysitting and running'), then they are plural.

B) Landowners,  prohibiting the public   to  swim and sunbathe on stretches of private beach,  even though  the land
1- 'prohibiting' is a beginning of a participial clause which acts as an adjective for the noun 'landowner', leaving the noun 'landowners with no verb.
2- 'even though' means 'in spite of' which has a different meaning from 'however' which means 'but'.
3- the idiomatic preposition for 'prohibit' is 'from', not 'to'.

C) Landowners  often  prohibit the public from swimming and sunbathing on stretches of private beach; however, the land
1-'often' introduce a new meaning to the sentence (it infers occasion or frequency) which is not in the main paragraph

D) Swimming and sunbathing by the pubic,  prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners ,  are , however, part of the land
1- 'prohibited ...' is a participial clause which acts as an adjective for the noun 'Swimming and sunbathing'. This makes 'are' the verb for the subject 'Swimming and sunbathing' which wrongly interprets that 'Swimming and sunbathing' are part of the land.

E) Landowners  often   prohibit  swimmers and sunbathers  from stretches of private beach; however, the land
1-'often' introduce a new meaning to the sentence (it infers occasion or frequency) which is not in the main paragraph
2- omitting 'the public' from the sentence alters the meaning.

so   A

zubair123 · Answer

A) Swimming and sunbathing by the public  is  prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners; however, the land ( Plural subject but singular verb)

B) Landowners,  prohibiting  the public to swim and sunbathe on stretches of private beach, even though the land  (the sentence lacks a verb, here it should have been prohibit instead of prohibiting and no commas)

C) Landowners often prohibit the public from swimming and sunbathing on stretches of private beach; however, the land  (Correct)

D) Swimming and sunbathing by the pubic, prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners,  are , however, part of the land  (Swimming and sunbathing .... are part of the land. This statements distorts the intended meaning)

E) Landowners often  prohibit swimmers and sunbathers  from stretches of private beach; however, the land  (Distorts the meaning. Landowners do not prohibit swimmers and sunbathers, rather they prohibit public from swimming and sunbathing)

MofeBhatia · Answer

Apart from Subject verb agreement error in option A, Its a passive voice construction, which is not preferred in GMAT.
Moreover  Probhit X from Y  is the correct idiom. Thus option C is correct . Even the doer of the sentence Landowners is clearly mentioned. I agree 'often' in option C is not required and the sentence would have made a much better choice without it .

GKomoku · Answer

Swimming and sunbathing by the public is prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners; however, the land extending up to the mean high tide line is in fact publicly owned and is open to everyone according to the public trust doctrine. Meaning analysis: Private beach’s landowners prohibit people from swimming and sunbathing on their beaches. But some extending part of the beach is owned by public, and everyone is free to swim and sunbath. Error analysis : let’s see sentence structure Swimming and sunbathing by the public (main subject - plural) ………. is prohibited on stretches of private beach (main verb – singular, doesn’t agree in number with Subject) …………………………by landowners; (passive construction tells us that they do main action “prohibit”) however, (so second IC, semicolon is indicator of that, and we expect meaning direction change) …….the land extending up to the mean high tide line (main subject – land – singular, with modifier - extending) ………..is in fact publicly owned and is open to everyone according to the public trust doctrine. (two main verbs – also singular) So we have SV agreement error. Sentence is in passive voice, better and clear to use active construction with correct idiom prohibit X from Y . But without knowing this idiom we can still eliminate other answer choices on solid grounds.

POE A) Swimming and sunbathing by the public is prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners; however, the land B) Landowners, prohibiting the public to swim and sunbathe on stretches of private beach, even though the land (there is no verb for Landowners, "prohibiting" - modifier, prohibit X to Y - incorrect) C) Landowners often prohibit the public from swimming and sunbathing on stretches of private beach; however, the land (here doer perform main action of prohibition, we have beautiful ; semocolon connecting two IC, usage of "often" - is questinalbe, there is a slight change in meaning) D) Swimming and sunbathing by the pubic, prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners, are , however, part of the land ("are" agrees in number with our plural subject, but "Swimming and sunbathing" are not the part of the land, it distorts the intended meaning) E) Landowners often prohibit swimmers and sunbathers from stretches of private beach; however, the land (this sentence is grammatically fine, but distorts intended meaning, action of swimming and sunbathing is prohibited not swimmers and sunbathers themselves) So A and B are eliminated - SV agreement, D and E are eliminated - meaning change. Among 5 answer choices C is the winner.

shahidomer77 · Answer

The correct idiom is ' Prohibit X from -ing ' . 
2 independent clauses are connected with semicolon and subordinating conjunction.
So C is the correct answer

Kudos please

generis · Answer

Project SC Butler: Day 63 Sentence Correction (SC1) Swimming and sunbathing by the public is prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners; however, the land extending up to the mean high tide line is in fact publicly owned and is open to everyone according to the public trust doctrine. A) Swimming and sunbathing by the public is prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners; however, the land B) Landowners, prohibiting the public to swim and sunbathe on stretches of private beach, even though the land C) Landowners often prohibit the public from swimming and sunbathing on stretches of private beach; however, the land D) Swimming and sunbathing by the pubic, prohibited on stretches of private beach by landowners, are, however, part of the land E) Landowners often prohibit swimmers and sunbathers from stretches of private beach; however, the land OFFICIAL EXPLANATION • The idiomatic error in this sentence is prohibited on instead of the correct prohibited from eliminate options A and D. • Option B incorrectly uses prohibiting . . . to instead of prohibiting . . . from , so eliminate B • Choice C correctly arranges the sentence idiomatically, that is, Landlords prohibit X from doing Y. Option C puts the right subject in place. The correct subject of prohibit from is landowners. Landowners are the people who do the prohibiting Option C also correctly uses the verbal concepts swimming and sunbathing as the direct object of prohibit from • Choice E does correctly use prohibit . . . from , but uses the wrong direct object. The direct object of prohibit from in E is swimmers and sunbathers instead of the verbal concepts swimming and sunbathing , Eliminate E. • The correct answer is C. COMMENTS zubair123 , MofeBhatia , and shahidomer77 - I'm glad you decided to join us.

The OE is pretty good. The correct idiom is Prohibit X from doing Y. • Option A: subject/verb agreement? Leave the issue alone. At times, two ____ING words can form a singular subject. Correct: Drinking and driving has been stigmatized by MADD. These OE authors refer to swimming and sunbathing as A direct object, singular. We could easily make the case that the subject in this question is compound. Avoid the issue. Eliminate A, B, and D because all three use the wrong idiom. There are actors (landlords) who prohibit the public (X) from swimming and sunbathing (Y) The correct idiom, prohibit X from doing Y , is among the most common of the idioms tested by the GMAT. A, B, and D do not employ that idiom—and option C does. Use the multiple choice comparison to your advantage if you are not sure about prohibit . . . . on Option C is true to the idiom and correct in all ways. • Option C, "often" - Option C does not change the intended meaning. Options C and E use "often." Options A, B, and D do not. Why are people arguing that C changes the meaning? Option C does not change the intended meaning. It is the only grammatically correct answer, so the sentence in C is the intended meaning. ( Often does not make enough of a difference to exclude A, B, and D.) Original meaning is not determined by option A. This issue is subtle, but . . . Do not rely on a hard rule that option A tells us what the sentence is supposed to say. Better: if the correct option means something different from A, there is no problem. Mark that answer. Option A does not dictate what the meaning must be. GKomoku wrote the best answer. Kudos!

GKomoku · Answer

Hello generis Thank you for detailed explanation, carefully read everything

I’ve revised again about Simple tenses, and found characteristic words and phrases used with simple tenses. This words usually indicates usage of Simple tenses : always, ever, as a rule, never, every day (week, morning, year, etc), now and then, from time to time, generally, selfdom, usually, regularly, rarely, often, daily, sometimes. So (C) doesn’t change the intended meaning of the sentence, it just gives some additional information. About two gerunds that take singular subject I've come across with this for the first time, so googled extra information. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two gerund clauses coordinated with and are plural in agreement. Reading and listening to the television are two ways to improve your vocabulary. Emailing and texting are illegal activities for drivers behind the wheel. Walking and jogging have always been my favourite forms of exercises. A gerund clause is usually singular in agreement with the verb. Two clauses coordinated with or or nor are also singular in agreement. Texting while driving is dangerous. Texing or holding a phone is allowed when parked. Neither texting nor holding a phone is allowed while driving. Special case: gerunds that go together to form a unit of activity: drinking and driving, or texting and driving, etc. In those cases, when the point is the combined act, then a singular is nearly always used. Texting and driving is dangerous. Gerunds and other nouns also can take singular verb: Bacon and eggs is my favorite breakfast. But , at the moment, bacon and eggs are rather expensive' --------------------------------------------------- generis , could you please enlighten and give some extra information about gerunds (or simple nouns) taking singular subject, I mean when we can consider them as one combined activity? When we perform this actions simultaneously?

VerbalBot · Answer

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Swimming and sunbathing by the public is prohibited on stretches of

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