Widely expected budget cuts forced by the ongoing state financial

Question

Widely expected budget cuts forced by the ongoing state financial crisis have begun to impact highway maintenance, the state pension fund, and a variety of popular  public services that have raised the number of granted or mandated work furloughs to almost double .

(A) public services that have raised the number of granted or mandated work furloughs to almost double
(B) public services that raised the number of granted or mandated work furloughs almost double
(C) public services that doubled the number of granted or mandated work furloughs
(D) public services and have already doubled the number of granted or mandated work furloughs
(E) public services and then doubled the number of granted or mandated work furloughs

fauji · Answer

Hi  linhmba , Please edit the question and underline the part to be corrected.
it would be helpful. Thanks!

bidskamikaze · Answer

Answer is D.
Choices A,B and C change the meaning of the sentence. These imply that popular public services have granted furloughs, but actually, the budget cuts have raised the number of granted or mandated work furloughs (furloughs = leaves) to almost double.
Choice E has tense and meaning error. It uses "then" to show a sequence which is not intended in the original sentence.

gvij2017 · Answer

It is budget cuts that have raised the number of granted or mandated work furloughs to almost double not public services.

So this parallelism error is corrected in D.

TarPhi · Answer

Can you please help me with this? I looked at D but rejected it because it changed the phrase from

ALMOST DOUBLE to DOUBLED?

Isn't that odd? Almost 100 isn't 100 right?

NunuBot · Answer

There is a common misconception that the correct answer should not change the meaning of the question prompt - that is incorrect.

When we say an option "changes the meaning of the sentence", we mean that the sentence is grammatically valid, but illogical (eg. misplaced modifiers).

For example:
- The snake with the gun killed the man

>> This sebtence is valid, just illogical
>> Clearly "with the gun" is intended to modify "the man" instead of "the snake". How can the snake have a gun?
>> Here we conclude that this construction changes the intended meaning of the author
>> IF this sentence were to be Option A (i.e. im the question prompt), it really wouldn't make sense to select it as the answer on the ground that "only in this option does the snake has a gun; all other options the man has it - changed meaning".

Few other examples:
- John is fat but he eats a lot
- Ocean tides causes the moon

DO NOT IMMEDIATELY eliminate an answer because it has a different meaning from the prompt. Always check grammar > meaning > economy of words first.

---

For this question, the phrase "raised ... by almost double" should jump out at you. Both raise and double implies an increase - it's redundent to use both in the sentence.

Either:
- X is (almost) doubled, or
- X is raised by (almost) two times

The almost doesnt matter.

Posted from my mobile device

ursus · Answer

Quick question: What is the source of this sentence? I'm surprised that GMAT should use "impact" as a verb. Just curious. Does anybody know? I can't find it in any official guide from the 10th edition on.

Nadeesh21 · Answer

VeritasKarishma 
 GMATNinja 
Is the usage of second 'and' in option D correct ? I'm confused - I feel the last two items in the list are not precisely parallel because of the usage of second 'and'.

tinbq · Answer

Hi experts,

In this question, I see that the test makers want students to predict answer choices, by using their own knowledge to decide whether public services or budget cuts double the mandated work. Would GMAC has any question that requires similar understanding like this one? I mean this differentiation is not quite straightforward to realize, especially for nonnative speakers. Thanks

rohit8865 · Answer

Nadeesh21 pl bifurcate the list ..1st "and " lists noun entity, whereas 2nd "and " is for parallel verbs for noun"budget"

hope it helps

KarishmaB · Answer

The last two items are not parallel. They are a part of different lists.

This is the correct sentence. 
Budget cuts ... have begun to impact highway maintenance, the state pension fund, and a variety of popular public services and have already doubled the number of granted or mandated work furloughs.

It has two lists in it:

Budget cuts ... 
- have begun to impact  highway maintenance, the state pension fund, and a variety of popular public services  
and 
- have already doubled the number of granted or mandated work furloughs.

What has doubled the number of granted or mandated work furloughs? Budget cuts. Not public services.

Budget cuts have done two things - begun to impact 3 services and doubled the number of furloughs.
The 3 services impacted are - highway maintenance, the state pension fund, and a variety of popular public services

VerbalBot · Answer

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Widely expected budget cuts forced by the ongoing state financial

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Widely expected budget cuts forced by the ongoing state financial

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