Hello Everyone!
Let's take a look at this question, and narrow down the options quickly to find the correct answer! To get started, here is the original sentence with any major differences between each option highlighted in orange:
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 relievingAfter a quick glance over each option, only 2 major differences appear between each option:
1. The order of items in the beginning: customers + network / network + customers
2. Their endings: trying to relieve / that try to relieve / to try to relieve / to try relieving#1 on our list will eliminate the most options quickly (either 2 or 3), so let's start there. Let's look at what each sentence means when we switch around the order of the customers and network:
With the patience of the customers and its network strained to the breaking point = the
patience of the customers and the
patience of its network
This is the
WRONG option because it says that the patience of BOTH the customers and the network is strained, which doesn't make sense. The network is strained, but doesn't have the ability to be patient - it's not a person!
With its network and the patience of the customers strained to the breaking point = the network
is strained and the patience of the customers
is strainedThis is the
CORRECT option because it puts the emphasis on BOTH the network and the customers being strained, which is logical and true!
This means we can eliminate options A & B right away because they create an illogical parallel statement.Now that we're left with only 3 options, let's tackle #2 on the list: their endings. For this, we need to know the difference between "to try to" and "try doing" something:
to try to do something = to put in an effort to do something you already know can be successful / "I want
to try to learn the piano this year."
try doing something = to do something as an experiment; you're not sure it will be successful / "
Try adding more salt to your cookie batter."
For this sentence, it makes the most sense to say that they company created initiative
to try to relieve congestion because they know it's possible to do, but they just need to put in the effort. So let's see how each answer stacks up:
(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 relieveThis option is
CORRECT because the beginning of the phrase is in the correct order to make sense. It also uses the correct "to try to," which conveys the correct meaning that the company has to
put in an effort to fix the problem they know can be fixed.
(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 relievingThis option is
INCORRECT because it uses the phrase "to try relieving," which suggests that the company isn't sure their initiatives will be possible or even work. It's much stronger to say "to try to" do something because it shows that success is definitely possible.
(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 relievingThis option is
INCORRECT for a couple reasons. First, 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.
There you have it - option C is the correct answer!Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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