Without fully understanding the problem, it was difficult to

Question

Without fully understanding the problem , it was difficult to explain to the mechanic.

a) Without fully understanding the problem
b) Because I didn’t understand the problem well
c) Because the problem wasn’t fully understood
d) Because of the lack of understanding of the problem
e) The problem which I didn’t understand well

why is A not the correct answer

tchang · Accepted Answer

This original sentence doesn't have a subject. WHO found it difficult to explain the problem to the mechanic? This sentence needs a subject. Eliminate A, C and D.

The word "because" makes more sense here and gives a reason WHY it was difficult to explain the problem.

Choose: B

t1000

Nilabh_s · Answer

I have followed all the rules before posting.
1. I searched but couldnt find the question.
2. I posted in SC
3. topic is give
4. only 1 question is posted
5. NA
6. NA
7. Done
8. Done
9. NA
10. NA
11. NA

Phoenix72 · Answer

Is this a GMAT like question? Adding 'I' in B changes the meaning of the sentence?

Nilabh_s · Answer

Yes it is from "GMATClub Grammar Book" page 186 question -23

fireinbelly · Answer

Here only A and B make some sense....others are un-necessary wordy and incorrect -

a) Without fully understanding the problem - there is no subject in this clause....hence meaning remains unclear...hence incorrect

b) Because I didn’t understand the problem well - correct tense and has clear meaning

c) Because the problem wasn’t fully understood - passive voice is usually avoided in gmat where active voice can be used

d) Because of the lack of understanding of the problem - awkward

e) The problem which I didn’t understand well - makes no sense.....awkward

hope you get it...

cledgard · Answer

But if the original sentence doesn't have a subject, why should we assume that the subject is "I". Couldn't the subject be "you" or "he"? The meaning in answer "B" is changed.

nipun21 · Answer

I chose option C. It has 'problem' as the subject and the pronoun 'it' is correctly referencing to the subject. This is how I reached option C. I felt there is no need to introduce a person as is done in option B since this may change the intended meaning. Kindly help.
Thank you.

spkumar · Answer

I too feel exactly the same. "It" is referring to the "problem" (as a subject). Please explain

ligamenttears · Answer

Here is another explanation:

Word like believe, understand, recognize, etc are non-continuous verbs. (Page 43, GMAT CLUB Ultimate Grammar 2v1)

For eg:
Correct: He understands the assignment
Incorrect: He is understanding the assignment

Keeping above rule in mind, we can eliminate A and D.

E has incorrect sentence construction, so we can eliminate that as well. We are left with B and C which have correct construction.

B = Mention of "I" which is assumed as the subject in the sentence ("I" is not there in the original sentence, this way we are straying away from the actual meaning of the sentence)
C= No mention of "I", the subject is "problem". Meaning also matches with the original sentence.

Now, I chose C thinking it is wrong to deviate from the meaning of the original sentence. However, B is marked correctly. According to my analysis of GMAT CLUB Grammar book questions, the correct answer always has right sentence construction, even though it is not implying the exact same meaning. The writer of the question would only choose B > C only if the word "problem" cannot be used as a subject.

Two questions for grammar experts:
1) Can we use words like "problem" as a subject?
2) In actual GMAT scenario, is it true that correct sentence construction of a phrase will be deemed more correct than actual meaning of the sentence? Because in OG this is not the case

Hope this helps!

Purvidebuka · Answer

Hi Experts,

Could you please explain why B is the correct answer? I found it quite peculiar.

AndrewN · Answer

Sure,  Purvidebuka , I will take a shot.

The problem with the original sentence is that  understanding  is a modifier, and the subject, the one who understands, should follow the comma, not  it — it  was not doing any thinking.  Without  is acting to negate the information that follows, and  fully  simply modifies  understanding ; if the sentence were to start with  understanding — understanding the problem, it... —I doubt many people would be fooled by this answer choice.

You have to keep in mind that anything that is underlined can be negotiated, so the sudden appearance of the subject  I  is not an inherent problem. Neither is the switch from  fully understand  to  understand... well  an issue. It is just another way to head the sentence. The only question is whether this beginning is functional. The answer is yes. An introductory or dependent clause leads into the main clause, and the meaning is fine— Because I didn't understand the problem well,   was difficult to explain...  This option is at least worth keeping in the running.

Now  this  is a completely debatable answer choice. The passive voice appears in several OAs to official questions, so we cannot say that an active construct is necessarily better. We need to find another way to separate this answer choice from our perfectly valid one above. You might point to the lack of a subject in this iteration, but remember, the subject appeared in the underlined portion. Who is to say that a room full of, say, physicists at a public presentation were not discussing a complex problem when a mechanic in the audience asked a question, and then the events that this sentence outlines transpired? Such an interpretation cannot be ruled out, and the answer choice remains on the table.

The diction here is what is lacking.  Because of the lack of  achieves nothing in the way of clarity that a more concise  without  does not. Neither can we get behind a change such as  Lacking an understanding...  since the same dangling participle that we saw in the original sentence would plague the grammatical construction. (Again,  it  cannot possess an understanding of anything.)

GMAC™ has stated in more recent OGs that a restrictive  which  versus  that  is  not  the sort of split that will be tested, so that point is a nonissue. However, the redundant  the problem..., it  cannot be overlooked, since the relative clause subordinates the information that follows (up to the comma). This fatal flaw should be easy to spot.

I guarantee that answer choices (B) and (C) would not appear as such on the GMAT™, side by side. I would say that (B) is the safer bet, but it really depends on the context, and that is a luxury we do not have with this question. My guess is that the person who wrote it intended to make a point about introducing a proper agent or doer of an action such as thinking in a sentence that goes on to talk about  explaining  something. In my view, either (B) or (C) could be defended.

As always, I would suggest studying official questions for Verbal preparation. (It is okay to have fun with side questions from time to time.)

- Andrew

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