Dear Friends,
Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
izing wrote:
Young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits caused by the desire to be as thin as possible.
(A) Young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits caused by the desire to be as thin as possible.
(B) Good eating habits sometimes fail to be maintained by young female ballet dancers and gymnasts caused by desiring to be as thin as possible.
(C) Because they desire to be as thin as possible, good eating habits are sometimes not maintained by young female ballet dancers and gymnasts.
(D) Because they desire to be as thin as possible, young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits.
(E) Young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits because they desire to be as thin as possible.
Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that because young female ballet dancers and gymnasts desire to be as thin as possible, they sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits.
Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers + Pronouns + Awkwardness/Redundancy• In a “phrase + comma + noun” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun; this is one of the most frequently tested concepts on GMAT sentence correction.
A: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "good eating habits caused by the desire to be as thin as possible"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the
good eating habits that the ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain
are causedd by the desire to be as thin as possible; the intended meaning is that
because the ballet dancers and gymnasts desire to be as thin as possible, they sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits.
B: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “young female ballet dancers and gymnasts caused by desiring to be as thin as possible”; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the
ballet dancers and gymnasts were caused by the desire to be as thin as possible; the intended meaning is that the
ballet dancers' and gymnasts' failure to maintain good eating habits was caused by their desire to be as thin as possible. Further, Option B uses the passive voice construction “fail to be maintained”, rendering it needlessly indirect.
C: This answer choice incorrectly uses “Because they desire to be as thin as possible” to modify “good eating habits”, incorrectly implying that the
eating habits themselves desire to be as thin as possible; the intended meaning is that the
ballet dancers and gymnasts desire to be as thin as possible; please remember, in a “phrase + comma + noun” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.
D: Correct. This answer choice correctly uses “Because they desire to be as thin as possible” to modify “young female ballet dancers and gymnasts”, conveying the intended meaning- that
because young female
ballet dancers and gymnasts desire to be as thin as possible, they sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits - and avoiding the pronoun error seen in Option E. Further, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.
E: Trap. This answer choice suffers from pronoun ambiguity; it is unclear whether “they” refers to “ballet dancers and gymnasts” or “eating habits”.
Hence, D is the best answer choice.To understand the concept of "Phrase Comma Subject" and "Subject Comma Phrase" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
Can "eating habits" desire something? How can "they" refer to eating habits. It will be very upsetting if GMAT actually designs a sentence like this.
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22 Apr 2016, 09:38
