ShekGMAT
Hello,
First thing first, whoever quoted this question, committed a series of typos; it's "simulates" and not "stimulates" everywhere. I have requested moderators to correct that.
Now, A vs E issue. A is superior for two reasons.
1. "a game simulating" means that the game is "currently simulating"; a "game that simulates" means that the game can/generally simulate. Of course, latter is correct. E wins.
2. "helpful to simulate" vs "helpful in simulating"; "helpful" is an adjective; present participle (simulating) is used to modify nouns and adjectives, infinitives (to simulate) are used to modify verbs. A different way of looking at it is that the present participle is preferred for displaying quality and the infinitive is preferred for displaying "intent of action". Hence, the usage of present participle is better. E wins.
Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Hi
ExpertsGlobal5 MaxximusCan I rephrase your point 2 and say that infinitives are used to show intent/plan/purpose/desire etc. etc., hence option A incorrectly says that Virtual stock exchange (a game) has an intent to teach real world share trading. How can a game has an intent? The manufacturer of the game has an intent.
Is my apprehension right? Please do answer my question. This question has appeared in my
Experts global mock and I couldn't find satisfactory explanation for it.
Br Abhishek
Hello
ShekGMAT,
We hope this finds you well.
To answer your query, your reasoning is largely correct, but we would like to offer one point of correction; the incorrect meaning implied by Option A is that the game proved itself, generally, helpful in order to teach real-world share trading; the intended meaning is that the game proved itself helpful, specifically, for helping teach real-world share trading.
To understand the concept of "Infinitives" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minutes):
All the best!
Experts' Global Team