Last visit was: 20 Nov 2025, 04:35 It is currently 20 Nov 2025, 04:35
Home
GMAT
Messages
Tests
Schools
Events
Rewards
Chat
My Profile
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Go to My Error Log Learn more
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
Back to Forum
Create Topic
   1   2   3   4   5   6   
655-705 Level|   Meaning/Logical Predication|   Modifiers|   Parallelism|                     
User avatar
MBAB123
User avatar
Joined: 05 Jul 2020
Last visit: 30 Jul 2023
Posts: 563
Own Kudos:
318
 [2]
Given Kudos: 151
GMAT 1: 720 Q49 V38
WE:Accounting (Accounting)
Products:
My Reviews
GMAT 1: 720 Q49 V38
Posts: 563
Kudos: 318
 [2]
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 08 Aug 2021, 20:48
2
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
NareshGargMBA
Why is "to try to relieve" is idiomatic and "to try relieving" is not?
Show more

NareshGargMBA, both are idiomatic, but convey different meanings. GMATGuruNY's post above clearly points out the difference between the two.
User avatar
GMATNinja
User avatar
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Last visit: 19 Nov 2025
Posts: 7,443
Own Kudos:
69,788
 [1]
Given Kudos: 2,060
Status: GMAT/GRE/LSAT tutors
Location: United States (CO)
GMAT 1: 780 Q51 V46
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Products:
GMAT Club Tests Forum Quiz
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Posts: 7,443
Kudos: 69,788
 [1]
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 24 Aug 2021, 13:58
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Brian123
NareshGargMBA
Why is "to try to relieve" is idiomatic and "to try relieving" is not?

NareshGargMBA, both are idiomatic, but convey different meanings. GMATGuruNY's post above clearly points out the difference between the two.
Show more
You might also want to check out this post (in addition to @GMATGuruNY's post above).
avatar
Chitra657
avatar
Joined: 18 May 2021
Last visit: 15 Mar 2022
Posts: 41
Own Kudos:
7
Given Kudos: 51
Posts: 41
Kudos: 7
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 25 Aug 2021, 08:47
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
GMATNinja VeritasKarishma can you pls explain all the options?
avatar
OrAnGe80
avatar
Joined: 03 Oct 2021
Last visit: 19 Dec 2022
Posts: 3
Given Kudos: 299
Location: India
Schools: HEC Montreal ISB'22 Smurfit TCD MSBA "23
Schools: HEC Montreal ISB'22 Smurfit TCD MSBA "23
Posts: 3
Kudos: 0
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 13 Dec 2021, 02:10
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Hi,

Can anyone please help me with option c, how below 2 parts are parallel :

With its network : Starts with preposition
and
the patience of its customer : Starts with Noun

C. its network and the patience of its customers strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives to try to relieve
User avatar
AjiteshArun
User avatar
Major Poster
Joined: 15 Jul 2015
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,949
Own Kudos:
5,080
 [4]
Given Kudos: 732
Location: India
GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V169
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V169
Posts: 5,949
Kudos: 5,080
 [4]
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 13 Dec 2021, 08:14
4
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
OrAnGe80
Can anyone please help me with option c, how below 2 parts are parallel :
Show more
Hi OrAnGe80,

We should read that part of the sentence like this:

With {its network and the patience of its customers} strained to the breaking point...
avatar
rinkuda
avatar
Joined: 05 Jul 2018
Last visit: 07 May 2022
Posts: 11
Given Kudos: 13
Posts: 11
Kudos: 0
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 20 Feb 2022, 11:39
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
mikemcgarry
AbdurRakib

With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives trying to relieve the congestion that has led to at least four class-action lawsuits and thousands of complaints from frustrated customers.

A. the patience of its customers and with its network strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives trying to relieve
B. the patience of its customers and its network strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives that try to relieve
C. its network and the patience of its customers strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives to try to relieve
D. its network and with the patience of its customers strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of initiatives to try relieving
E. its network and its customers’ patience strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives to try relieving
Dear AbdurRakib

I'm happy to respond. :-)

I began focusing on the split at the end. The verb "try" most naturally takes the infinitive; "try" + [gerund] sounds casual. Also, the infinitive of purpose sounds more natural than a participle or a "that" clause. Therefore, (C) seems like the best choice.

Also, notice that we don't have to repeat the word "with," so (A) & (D) are out.

The phrase "its customers’ patience" in (E) is very awkward.

Rhetorically, when we have a preposition and then two elements, one long and one short, it often makes more sense to have the shorter one first so that we can see the relationship that both elements have to the preposition. Thus:
With its network and the patience of its customers = more preferable
With the patience of its customers and its network = less preferable

All of these work together to make (C) the best answer.

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)
Show more

egmat and GMATNinja

" With" is typically used as a preposition and it should always be followed with a noun. Preposition typically add additional information.Here the way the opening modifier is written, it seems that with is followed by a noun which is in turn modified. Not using the modifier (strained to the breaking point) will lead to an error.

Can you please help me understand if the usage of WITH here is correct?

P.S. The above is coming from an understanding that WITH cannot be used to introduce a new subject and participle. DC indicators are better suited to do that job. Thanks in advance.
User avatar
AjiteshArun
User avatar
Major Poster
Joined: 15 Jul 2015
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,949
Own Kudos:
5,080
 [2]
Given Kudos: 732
Location: India
GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V169
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V169
Posts: 5,949
Kudos: 5,080
 [2]
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 21 Feb 2022, 00:11
2
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
rinkuda
P.S. The above is coming from an understanding that WITH cannot be used to introduce a new subject and participle. DC indicators are better suited to do that job. Thanks in advance.
Show more
Hi rinkuda,

I've come across that advice before, but I can't say that I agree with it, as {with + noun + participle} is a very common pattern in English. More importantly though, once we see a structure used in an official question, we can be reasonably sure that that structure is (at a minimum) possible.
User avatar
ExpertsGlobal5
User avatar
Experts' Global Representative
Joined: 10 Jul 2017
Last visit: 20 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,198
Own Kudos:
4,771
Given Kudos: 43
Location: India
GMAT Date: 11-01-2019
Expert
Expert reply
Active GMAT Club Expert! Tag them with @ followed by their username for a faster response.
Posts: 5,198
Kudos: 4,771
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 21 Feb 2022, 06:30
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
rinkuda
mikemcgarry
AbdurRakib

With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives trying to relieve the congestion that has led to at least four class-action lawsuits and thousands of complaints from frustrated customers.

A. the patience of its customers and with its network strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives trying to relieve
B. the patience of its customers and its network strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives that try to relieve
C. its network and the patience of its customers strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives to try to relieve
D. its network and with the patience of its customers strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of initiatives to try relieving
E. its network and its customers’ patience strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives to try relieving
Dear AbdurRakib

I'm happy to respond. :-)

I began focusing on the split at the end. The verb "try" most naturally takes the infinitive; "try" + [gerund] sounds casual. Also, the infinitive of purpose sounds more natural than a participle or a "that" clause. Therefore, (C) seems like the best choice.

Also, notice that we don't have to repeat the word "with," so (A) & (D) are out.

The phrase "its customers’ patience" in (E) is very awkward.

Rhetorically, when we have a preposition and then two elements, one long and one short, it often makes more sense to have the shorter one first so that we can see the relationship that both elements have to the preposition. Thus:
With its network and the patience of its customers = more preferable
With the patience of its customers and its network = less preferable

All of these work together to make (C) the best answer.

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)

egmat and GMATNinja

" With" is typically used as a preposition and it should always be followed with a noun. Preposition typically add additional information.Here the way the opening modifier is written, it seems that with is followed by a noun which is in turn modified. Not using the modifier (strained to the breaking point) will lead to an error.

Can you please help me understand if the usage of WITH here is correct?

P.S. The above is coming from an understanding that WITH cannot be used to introduce a new subject and participle. DC indicators are better suited to do that job. Thanks in advance.
Show more

Hello rinkuda,

We hope this finds you well.

To help resolve your doubt, we would like to echo AjiteshArun's sentiments that the "with + noun + participle" structure is perfectly acceptable on the GMAT, even if it is not a preferred one.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
User avatar
Vubar
User avatar
Joined: 03 Sep 2021
Last visit: 13 Feb 2025
Posts: 96
Own Kudos:
153
Given Kudos: 16
Location: Australia
Schools: Harvard '24 LBS '24 Sloan '24 Stanford '24 Yale '24
GMAT 1: 690 Q42 V42
GMAT 2: 760 Q49 V42
GMAT 3: 770 Q49 V47
GMAT 4: 750 Q49 V44
Schools: Harvard '24 LBS '24 Sloan '24 Stanford '24 Yale '24
GMAT 4: 750 Q49 V44
Posts: 96
Kudos: 153
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 27 Jun 2022, 06:01
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
mikemcgarry Hello! In your below explanation you discuss the approach of asking the question, "who is doing the trying?", which makes sense to me.

That said, I think I'm getting a little caught on some issues with the language in the sentence. "announced initiatives to try"... did the company announce initiatives in order to try to relieve congestion? Clearly an announcement alone isn't what will relieve congestion, the initiatives are the things that will/try to relieve congestion.

If we say they announced something to try to do something, aren't we saying the announcement is their effort, rather than saying they announed the thing and then specifically describing what that thing is (which the relative clause would be doing)?

GMATNinja I'd love your insight also, given that Mike's post is several years old and there's no guarantee he's still about!

mikemcgarry
RooIgle
Hello Mike!

Would you be so kind as to explain me why the clause starting with "that" in choice B is wrong?

What I specifically mean is that, being supposed that the company didn´t try to relieve the congestion through announcing those initiatives BUT that, in fact, those initiatives were the ones directed to try to relieve such congestion, I don´t understand why the "that" as a vital-noun modifier is wrong here.

Thanks for your time and your attention!
Dear RooIgle,

I'm happy to respond. :-)

Think about it this way: who is doing the "trying"?

Of course, the "the on-line service company" is doing the "trying."

With this in mind, look at the answer choices.
(B) . . . the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives that try to relieve
(C) . . . the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives to try to relieve

Choice (C), in using the infinitive of purpose, correctly suggests that the "the on-line service company" is doing the "trying." By contrast, the "that" clause in (B) illogically suggests that the "series of new initiatives" is doing the "trying."

Does this make sense?
Mike :-)
Show more
User avatar
rikinmathur
User avatar
Joined: 14 Sep 2019
Last visit: 31 May 2024
Posts: 50
Own Kudos:
15
Given Kudos: 45
Location: United States
Schools: Columbia CBS '24 Sloan '24 Harvard '24 Wharton '24 Stanford '24
GMAT 1: 750 Q49 V42
Schools: Columbia CBS '24 Sloan '24 Harvard '24 Wharton '24 Stanford '24
GMAT 1: 750 Q49 V42
Posts: 50
Kudos: 15
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 04 Jul 2022, 14:35
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
AbdurRakib
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives trying to relieve the congestion that has led to at least four class-action lawsuits and thousands of complaints from frustrated customers.
Show more


Quote:
(A) the patience of its customers and with its network strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives trying to relieve
Show more
With the patience of its customers seems to be separated from strained to the breaking point, it would be better to say either “with the patience of its customers and its network strained to the breaking point” or with its network and the patience[…] strained to the breaking point. This option is conveying that the patience of its customers is itself responsible for the online service company announcing new initiatives.

Quote:
(B) the patience of its customers and its network strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives that try to relieve
Show more
This fixes the error in A by clearly stating that the both the patience and the network are strained to the breaking point but introduces a new error by adding a restrictive clause “that try to relieve” to initiatives. It is not the initiatives that are intending to try to relieve, it is the company itself.

Quote:
(C) its network and the patience of its customers strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives to try to relieve
Show more
This one looks good…the meaning about the patience of customers and its network strained is clear as well as the intention of the company is clear and the error in B has been fixed. Hang on to this one!

Quote:
(D) its network and with the patience of its customers strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of initiatives to try relieving
Show more

This brings back the error in A and now states that the network (in addition to the patience of the customers that is strained) is itself responsible for the online services company announcing a series of initiatives.

Quote:
(E) its network and its customers’ patience strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives to try relieving
Show more
This one looks like it fixes all the errors in A,B,D. However, customer’s patience is worse (more awkward) than “patience of its customers” in C and also, “try relieving” is inferior to “try to relieve” in C. When there is a clear intention from a subject, to + verb is better when the choices are otherwise identical (Note: this shouldn’t be a general rule of thumb, OG questions have used for + verb when there is an intention or a purpose but can be used as a tiebreaker). C is the winner!
User avatar
StringArgs
User avatar
Joined: 08 Dec 2021
Last visit: 06 Apr 2023
Posts: 53
Own Kudos:
13
Given Kudos: 39
Status:Patience
Location: India
Posts: 53
Kudos: 13
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 28 Jul 2022, 21:26
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives trying to relieve the congestion that has led to at least four class-action lawsuits and thousands of complaints from frustrated customers.


(A) the patience of its customers and with its network strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives trying to relieve - Trigger: 'and', with the patience parallel to with its networks ok, but 'the company announced initiative <trying> to relieve' is a tense weirdness as present continuous makes it weird.

(B) the patience of its customers and its network strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives that try to relieve - Trigger: 'and', Post the trigger we have 'its customers' so its parallel partner must be 'its network' are parallel. On connecting the stem [with the patience of] with [its network] we have an error in meaning.

(C) its network and the patience of its customers strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives to try to relieve - Trigger: 'and'. Post the trigger we have 'the patience' which can be parallel to (another noun) which i this case will be 'its network'. its network and the patience of its customers are parallel.

(D) its network and with the patience of its customers strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of initiatives to try relieving - Trigger: 'and'. with the patience parallel to with its network but issue of 'announced a series of initiative to try relieving' present continuous in a past tense makes the meaning awkward.

(E) its network and its customers’ patience strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives to try relieving - Trigger: 'and'. its customer's patience and its network are parallel nouns. I would say the issue is with 'announced a series of initiative to try <relieving>'. As the relieving hasnt happened yet but just been announced a continuous tense is uncalled for.

In E vs C, C is a much better option.
User avatar
woohoo921
User avatar
Joined: 04 Jun 2020
Last visit: 17 Mar 2023
Posts: 516
Own Kudos:
142
Given Kudos: 623
Posts: 516
Kudos: 142
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 30 Aug 2022, 16:59
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Question 1:
To clarify the parallelism in Choice A, is "With the patience" the root phrase of the parallelism and element one is "of the customers" and element two is " its network"?

Question 2:
For Choice E, EMPOWERgmatVerbal mentions the following "it's not necessary to use the apostrophe in "customers'" because it's not being followed by a plural word (for example "customers' chairs" would be okay). It also uses the incorrect "to try relieving" which conveys the wrong meaning."??--> I am a bit confused by this explanation. So, if it was a singular word e.g., chair, it would be customers's??chair? This comes up as incorrect in spell check automatically.

Question 3:
Why would "trying to relieve" be incorrect compared to "to try to relieve"? The OG says that "trying" could modify the company or initiatives as it is used in Choice A, but that does not make sense to me given that it right next to "initiatives".

Question 4:
Also, "patience of its customers" is superior to "customers’ patience" since the possessive quality doesn't exist. The patience doesn't belong to the customers. I am a bit confused on this explanation mentioned by KarishmaB.
For example, I were to say "Hannah's patience started to dwindle." Is this incorrect because "patience" cannot belong to Hannah? Do you need to say "The patience of Hannah started to dwindle."? This just seems awkward.

Thank you for your time in advance.
User avatar
RonTargetTestPrep
User avatar
Target Test Prep Representative
Joined: 19 Jul 2022
Last visit: 07 Nov 2022
Posts: 430
Own Kudos:
537
 [1]
Given Kudos: 1
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Posts: 430
Kudos: 537
 [1]
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 01 Sep 2022, 16:43
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
woohoo921
Question 1:
To clarify the parallelism in Choice A, is "With the patience" the root phrase of the parallelism and element one is "of the customers" and element two is " its network"?
Show more

Because there are two separate instances of "with", the two modifiers starting with "with"—
/1/ With the patience of its customers
and
/2/ with its network strained to the breaking point
—are separate modifiers that are parallel structures here. That doesn't make sense, because both of these things were "strained to the breaking point" (and so the first modifier in this structure, which does not contain the idea of being strained to the breaking point, doesn't have any sensible meaning).




Quote:
Question 2:
For Choice E, EMPOWERgmatVerbal mentions the following "it's not necessary to use the apostrophe in "customers'" because it's not being followed by a plural word (for example "customers' chairs" would be okay). It also uses the incorrect "to try relieving" which conveys the wrong meaning."??--> I am a bit confused by this explanation. So, if it was a singular word e.g., chair, it would be customers's??chair? This comes up as incorrect in spell check automatically.
Show more

If that's really what was written, it's definitely wrong.

• customer's = possessive form of ONE customer
• customers' = possessive form of MULTIPLE customers
These possessive forms do not depend at all on whether the thing(s) that are possessed by the customer(s) are singular or plural.
User avatar
RonTargetTestPrep
User avatar
Target Test Prep Representative
Joined: 19 Jul 2022
Last visit: 07 Nov 2022
Posts: 430
Own Kudos:
537
 [2]
Given Kudos: 1
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Posts: 430
Kudos: 537
 [2]
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 01 Sep 2022, 16:55
2
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
woohoo921
Question 3:
Why would "trying to relieve" be incorrect compared to "to try to relieve"? The OG says that "trying" could modify the company or initiatives as it is used in Choice A, but that does not make sense to me given that it right next to "initiatives".
Show more

First, figure out the correct answer to the question WHO/WHAT tried to relieve congestion?
The answer to that question is the company—NOT the initiatives themselves. (An initiative is a plan of action. A person, group, or entity can put an initiative into effect as a way of TRYING to accomplish some goal, but a plan or a set of actions cannot 'try' to do anything by itself.)

As a result, the forms of this modifier in choices A (no comma + "trying...") and B ("that try...") are nonsense, because they erroneously imply that the initiatives, rather than the company, were 'trying' to do something.



Quote:
Question 4:
Also, "patience of its customers" is superior to "customers’ patience" since the possessive quality doesn't exist. The patience doesn't belong to the customers. I am a bit confused on this explanation mentioned by KarishmaB.
For example, I were to say "Hannah's patience started to dwindle." Is this incorrect because "patience" cannot belong to Hannah? Do you need to say "The patience of Hannah started to dwindle."? This just seems awkward.
Show more

This is a stylistic difference (...as you've correctly identified by pointing out that 'awkwardness' is the issue). Stylistic differences and/or 'awkwardness' are NOT tested on this exam. (If the OG answer explanation says anything like this, that's just another instance of the dodgy quality of the OG answer keys—which quite often miss the actual issues tested in the problems completely, and occasionally contain statements that are flat-out incorrect.)

One difference that IS fair game, however, is the idiomatic split here: "try to + [verb]" is properly idiomatic, whereas "try + [verb]ing" is not.
User avatar
vaibu95
User avatar
Joined: 18 Aug 2022
Last visit: 14 Nov 2023
Posts: 4
Given Kudos: 35
Posts: 4
Kudos: 0
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 02 Sep 2022, 06:06
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Can someone please explain to me the parallelism in option C,
with the usage of the conjunction "and" option C is comparing "its network" with "the patience", how it's parallel and what is its stem?
User avatar
himanshu0077
User avatar
Joined: 18 Mar 2021
Last visit: 21 Nov 2023
Posts: 39
Own Kudos:
2
Given Kudos: 151
GMAT 1: 680 Q50 V31
GMAT 1: 680 Q50 V31
Posts: 39
Kudos: 2
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 06 Sep 2022, 06:59
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
In option C verb-ed modifier is next to customers . It modifies "customers" and appears customers are strained to the breaking point. Whereas in option E the error is corrected as verb-ed modifier is next to "patience" and correctly modifying it.
Please clarify
Due Regards
User avatar
GMATNinja
User avatar
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Last visit: 19 Nov 2025
Posts: 7,443
Own Kudos:
69,788
 [1]
Given Kudos: 2,060
Status: GMAT/GRE/LSAT tutors
Location: United States (CO)
GMAT 1: 780 Q51 V46
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Products:
GMAT Club Tests Forum Quiz
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Posts: 7,443
Kudos: 69,788
 [1]
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 07 Sep 2022, 10:06
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
himanshu0077
In option C verb-ed modifier is next to customers . It modifies "customers" and appears customers are strained to the breaking point. Whereas in option E the error is corrected as verb-ed modifier is next to "patience" and correctly modifying it.
Please clarify
Due Regards
Show more
In (C), "strained" is next to the noun phrase, "patience of its customers." Anytime you have a noun modifier (such as "strained") next to a noun phrase that contains multiple nouns, you have to use context to determine which noun is being described. Because it's perfectly logical for "patience" to be strained -- and it doesn't really make sense for the customers themselves to be strained -- the modifier is clear and logical.

Put another way: there is no "touch rule". More on that in this video.

Check out our earlier post about the problems with (E) and let us know if you still have questions!
User avatar
RonTargetTestPrep
User avatar
Target Test Prep Representative
Joined: 19 Jul 2022
Last visit: 07 Nov 2022
Posts: 430
Own Kudos:
537
 [1]
Given Kudos: 1
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Posts: 430
Kudos: 537
 [1]
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 08 Sep 2022, 01:39
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
himanshu0077
In option C verb-ed modifier is next to customers . It modifies "customers" and appears customers are strained to the breaking point.
Show more

GMAC's official correct answers are not wrong. No part of any GMAC correct answer will be written incorrectly.

Trying to claim that there's something wrong with an official GMAT correct answer is not a productive line of questioning. The answer every time will be "No, that's not an error."

Instead, a better way to ask about these kinds of gaps in your understanding is... "I thought that ____, but the correct answer does _____, which contradicts the idea I had. Where am I going wrong?"
(boldface on the part that's most important for successful learning)


The ___ED modifier in choice C is modifying the entire compound noun "its network and the patience of its customers".

It's worth keeping in mind that basically every type of modifier that modifies nouns can also modify...
...noun + SHORT MODIFIER (usually not a modifier that contains a verb of its own)
...ADJECTIVE + noun
...NOUN1 and NOUN2 (a compound noun)
...combinations of the above.
User avatar
GMATNinja
User avatar
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Last visit: 19 Nov 2025
Posts: 7,443
Own Kudos:
69,788
 [1]
Given Kudos: 2,060
Status: GMAT/GRE/LSAT tutors
Location: United States (CO)
GMAT 1: 780 Q51 V46
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Products:
GMAT Club Tests Forum Quiz
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Posts: 7,443
Kudos: 69,788
 [1]
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 26 Sep 2022, 11:52
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Vubar
mikemcgarry Hello! In your below explanation you discuss the approach of asking the question, "who is doing the trying?", which makes sense to me.

That said, I think I'm getting a little caught on some issues with the language in the sentence. "announced initiatives to try"... did the company announce initiatives in order to try to relieve congestion? Clearly an announcement alone isn't what will relieve congestion, the initiatives are the things that will/try to relieve congestion.

If we say they announced something to try to do something, aren't we saying the announcement is their effort, rather than saying they announed the thing and then specifically describing what that thing is (which the relative clause would be doing)?

GMATNinja I'd love your insight also, given that Mike's post is several years old and there's no guarantee he's still about!

mikemcgarry
RooIgle
Hello Mike!

Would you be so kind as to explain me why the clause starting with "that" in choice B is wrong?

What I specifically mean is that, being supposed that the company didn´t try to relieve the congestion through announcing those initiatives BUT that, in fact, those initiatives were the ones directed to try to relieve such congestion, I don´t understand why the "that" as a vital-noun modifier is wrong here.

Thanks for your time and your attention!
Dear RooIgle,

I'm happy to respond. :-)

Think about it this way: who is doing the "trying"?

Of course, the "the on-line service company" is doing the "trying."

With this in mind, look at the answer choices.
(B) . . . the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives that try to relieve
(C) . . . the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives to try to relieve

Choice (C), in using the infinitive of purpose, correctly suggests that the "the on-line service company" is doing the "trying." By contrast, the "that" clause in (B) illogically suggests that the "series of new initiatives" is doing the "trying."

Does this make sense?
Mike :-)
Show more
In (B), we have a noun modifier ("that try to relieve..."), so naturally we pair that modifier with the closest noun: initiatives. And as mikemcgarry pointed out, that's not great because the initiatives themselves aren't really TRYING to do anything -- instead, it's the people implementing those initiatives who are trying to relieve the congestion.

Can we figure out what's going on in (B)? Sure, but if we're being really literal, the wording suggests an illogical meaning.

In (C), we aren't stuck with a noun modifier. Instead, we have an infinitive ("to try to relieve...") that's a bit more flexible. That infinitive can logically modify the main clause of that sentence ("the on-line service company announced") -- so instead of being stuck with "initiatives" as the thing being modified, the reader is more inclined to tie the phrase "relieve congestion" back to the main verb ("announced") and the subject of that main verb ("the on-line service company"). And that's exactly what we want, meaning-wise.

(B) has another major weakness compared to (C): "With the patience of its customers and its network" makes it sound like the customers AND the network both have patience, and that doesn't make sense. The wording in (C) makes the logical meaning much clearer.

Do either of those issue make (B) wrong, in a vacuum? Maybe not. But with two solid votes in favor of (C) over (B) and no other differences to analyze, we can safely eliminate (B), since (C) is clearly better.

I hope that helps!
User avatar
himanshu0123
User avatar
Joined: 27 Mar 2016
Last visit: 20 Mar 2023
Posts: 190
Own Kudos:
5
Given Kudos: 101
Posts: 190
Kudos: 5
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to 28 Sep 2022, 08:20
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
please review my confusion below

(B) with the patience of its customers and its network strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives that try to relieve

''strained'' is an ed verbal so should it just modify the closest noun 'network' ?

(C) with its network and the patience of its customers strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives to try to relieve

how is the usage of ed verbal different from option B]

How do I pin point the difference of intended meaning b/w B] and C]. Please highlight how should I see this sentence

(D) its network and with the patience of its customers strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of initiatives to try relieving

is 'relieving the congestion' is an -ing noun form. Is ' to try relieving' a wrong grammatical construction. How to spot that?
   1   2   3   4   5   6   
Moderators:
GMATNinja
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
7443 posts
GMATNinjaTwo
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
231 posts
miag
189 posts