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is this a possible error in one of the flash cards provided?

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davetzulin
 Post subject: is this a possible error in one of the flash cards provided?
 Post Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 4:12 pm 
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this was on one of the gmat flash cards I found on this website

rikita was late to pick up her cat from the vet after abandoning...

i thought perhaps it should have been written "rikita was late picking up her cat".

to me, the infinite "to pick" makes it sound like rikita was late in order to pick up her cat. as "infinitive of purpose" is described in the mgmat SC guide.

the back of the flashcard does not show this as one of the errors.


Last edited by davetzulin on Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

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davetzulin
 Post subject: Re: question about infinitive of purpose
 Post Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 9:59 pm 
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hi, i'd really appreciate some clarification here
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jnelson0612
 Post subject: Re: is this a possible error in one of the flash cards provided?
 Post Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 11:19 pm 
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davetzulin wrote:
this was on one of the gmat flash cards I found on this website

rikita was late to pick up her cat from the vet after abandoning...

i thought perhaps it should have been written "rikita was late picking up her cat".

to me, the infinite "to pick" makes it sound like rikita was late in order to pick up her cat. as "infinitive of purpose" is described in the mgmat SC guide.

the back of the flashcard does not show this as one of the errors.


Yes, this can be confusing! I think it will help if you consider what the logical meaning of the sentence is. Logically, the sentence means that she was late picking up the cat. It is a stretch and a leap to say that she was purposely late picking up the cat in order to accomplish something (what?). An infinitive of purpose is only applicable when there is a reasonable belief that someone had a purpose or intent in doing some action. Here, that is not the case; she happened to be late. The "to" in itself does not signal the purpose or intent. Hope this helps! :-)

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Jamie Nelson
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