Many conservative voters who had previously supported the senator chan

Question

Many conservative voters who had previously supported the senator changed their minds when they learned that,  in addition to  his strong stance against sexual offenders, he is a lifelong collector of pornographic books and art.
 
(A) in addition to
(B) in spite of
(C) rather than
(D) in opposition to
(E) concurrently with

Verbal Question of The Day: Day 95: Sentence Correction 
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GMATNinja · Accepted Answer

Personally, I get a little bit nervous whenever I see these super-short GMAT questions. They can be really, really annoying, and I’m happier when there are multiple potential errors in the sentences. But this one isn’t so bad: just think really strictly and literally about the meaning of the sentence, and you’re all set.

This doesn’t quite make sense. His strong stance against sexual offenders would seem to contradict the senator’s penchant for porn, so “in addition to” can’t be right. Eliminate (A).

This looks good. Yeah, the senator collects porn in spite of his political stance against sexual offenders. Keep (B).

It’s hard to explain exactly why this is wrong. “Rather than” would indicate that the senator doesn’t actually hold a strong stance against sexual predators, and he collects porn instead. That clearly isn’t the intended meaning, and it doesn’t really make sense: why would we even be talking about the senator’s porn collection if he wasn’t being a hypocrite? (C) is out.

(Also: the content of this question is a little bit weird. Just saying.)

(D) doesn’t quite make sense, either. It wouldn’t make sense to say that his porn collection somehow “opposes” his strong stance on sexual offenders. (D) is gone.

Huh? This one makes no sense. “Concurrently” just means “at the same time”, and while it may be true that the senator simultaneously collected porn and had a strong stance against sexual offenders, it really isn’t the point of the sentence.

Only choice (B) correctly emphasizes that the senator held his political position despite his appetite for porn.

gmatexam439 · Answer

Many conservative voters who had previously supported the senator changed their minds when they learned that,  in addition to  his strong stance against sexual offenders, he is a lifelong collector of pornographic books and art.
 
(A) in addition to - We need to show contrast, hence wrong. 
(B) in spite of - Correct. Depicts the contrast correctly. 
(C) rather than - We are not comparing anything. "than" is unwanted here. 
(D) in opposition to - This option creates redundancy in the sentence. We already have "stance against" in the sentence. 
(E) concurrently with - We need to show contrast, hence wrong.

DharLog · Answer

The question is just about meaning of the sentence.
"strong stance against sexual offenders" and "lifelong collector of pornographic books and art" - we can say that these 2 thing contradictory in the view of voters.
They obviously like the first one and obviously do not like the second one.

The only option that shows contrast is B - this is the right answer.
(Option D "in opposition to" - it does not show the contrast).
(Option C "rather than" - there is no 1 thing instead another, there are 2 "contradictory in view of conservative voters" things)
(Options A, E - not even close to contrast)

subrataroy0210 · Answer

Many conservative voters who had previously supported the senator changed their minds when they learned that, in addition to his strong stance against sexual offenders, he is a .

(A) in addition to
(B) in spite of
(C) rather than
(D) in opposition to
(E) concurrently with

Meaning Analysis: The strong stance of the senator is in contrast to his collection.

Error Analysis: 'in addition to' does not bring in the contrast the situation demands.

(A) in addition to
 Wrong.

(B) in spite of

(C) rather than
 'rather than' has to be used between two parallel entities.  ...rather than his strong stance...,he . The option is drawing a parallel between two dissimilar entities.

(D) in opposition to
 'in opposition to' gives us the information that he is against his strong stance against sexual offenders. This is wrong and also fails to draw the contrast.

(E) concurrently with
 Unable to provide the contrast.

Thus, option B.

MHIKER · Answer

To compare the contrast of meaning we need "in spite of".

VerbalBot · Answer

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Many conservative voters who had previously supported the senator chan

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Many conservative voters who had previously supported the senator chan

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