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Jamie
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Post subject: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be...  Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:30 am |
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Hello--
a SC question for ya,
Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be indistinguishable at first from ordinary fluctuations in the financial markets.
a. same
b. so gradual so that they can be indistinguishable
c. so gradual that they are unable to be distinguished
d. gradual enough not to be distinguishable
e. gradual enough so that one cannot distinguish them
I liked "so...that" construction, so i chose c. Is this question testing concision?
The correct answer is A.
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kylo
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Post subject: Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 8:05 am |
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i think C changes the intended meaning of the sentence.
C gives a feeling that economic shifts want to be distinguished among the various fluctuations.
hence C is incorrect.
Thanks!
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RonPurewal
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Post subject: Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 8:37 am |
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| ManhattanGMAT Staff |
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if this is an official problem, then i guess the issue boils down to the fact that the incorrect answer (c) is substantially more wordy than the correct answer (a).
i don't see anything strictly ungrammatical in (c).
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Jamie
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Post subject: Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 7:13 pm |
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RPurewal wrote: if this is an official problem, then i guess the issue boils down to the fact that the incorrect answer (c) is substantially more wordy than the correct answer (a).
i don't see anything strictly ungrammatical in (c).
Ron, thanks so much for your clarification! Hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
yup, this problem was from my GMATPrep verbal.
-Jamie
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RonPurewal
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Post subject: Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:54 am |
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| ManhattanGMAT Staff |
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Jamie wrote: Hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
same to you.
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Lisa
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Post subject: Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 2:59 pm |
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I just A because it fit with the idiom: so X as to Y.
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ddwilli
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Post subject: idioms Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 5:20 pm |
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Lisa, that was a great catch!
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RonPurewal
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Post subject: Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:24 am |
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i also find something a bit awkward about the use of "unable" to describe something that's not actually an inability of the subject.
here's what i mean:
this plant is unable to perform photosynthesis.
legitimate, because this actually describes an inability of the plant itself.
this sentence:
they (= major economic shifts) are unable to be distinguished...
i don't like this, because we're not actually talking about an "inability" possessed by the economic shifts themselves.
if we'd said something like "economic shifts are unable to destroy your equity", then i'd find that more appealing.
this is all completely off the top of my head.
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rahul_bitsp
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Post subject: Re: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be... Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:46 am |
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Hello.
Option A says "so gradual as to be indistiguishable". Doesn't the "so as to be" construction denote negation? (e.g. so good to be true). I think the correct construction should be "so gradual as to be distiguishable'.
Can you pls clarify?
Many thanks!
Rahul.
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goelmohit2002
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Post subject: Re: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be... Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 12:46 pm |
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Can some one please tell what is wrong with D and E ?
B I think is breaking the idiom...so .....so that
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arielle.bertman
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Post subject: Re: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be... Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:05 pm |
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Hi Ron - I am still a little unclear how i would approach a similar sentence in the future. In terms of splits we have
so gradual vs. gradual enough
indistinguishable vs distinguished (depends on the rest of the sentence but is one correct or not)
so gradual as/so/that.....
can you walk through your approach? i too struggled with a vs. c.
thanks!!
arielle
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goelmohit2002
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Post subject: Re: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be... Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 4:12 pm |
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Can someone please share his/her thoughts....how to reach to correct answer ?
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sunny.jain
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Post subject: Re: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be... Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:27 am |
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Here are my views:
A. so gradual as to be indistinguishable
Generally in Idiom "X...so ...as to be Y", Y refers to X, Which is true in this case. So its not ambiguous. I did not find any other problem so i moved forward.
B. so gradual so that they can be indistinguishable
So...so that.... : Incorrect Idiom : OUT
C. so gradual that they are unable to be distinguished
i found "be" is not required here, If it were 'so gradual that they are unable to distinguish", I would have choosen this, as it is more clear, But again Here it seems like economic shifts are doing some kind of action. Which is awkward.
editor: no. "they are unable to distinguish" is wrong for at least two MAJOR reasons.
first, it would mean that the economic shifts themselves are able to distinguish between things. this is clearly not the meaning of the sentence, nor is it at all reasonable.
second, you'd be left with just "distinguish from X", which is unidiomatic.
D. gradual enough not to be distinguishable
Correct idiom : enough..to.., usage is right here but "not to be distinguishable" is more wordy than indistinguishable. But still I will keep this in my pocket.
editor: i'm not sure whether "enough not to..." is idiomatic. see below.
E. gradual enough so that one cannot distinguish them
Incorrect Idiom : enough...to ?, so Out.
Out of A and D, I found A is more clear, using less Pronoun/Noun than D.
So I choose A.
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RonPurewal
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Post subject: Re: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be... Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:36 am |
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| ManhattanGMAT Staff |
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rahul_bitsp wrote: Hello.
Option A says "so gradual as to be indistiguishable". Doesn't the "so as to be" construction denote negation? (e.g. so good to be true). I think the correct construction should be "so gradual as to be distiguishable'. no. you're confusing it with " too ADJ to be...", which indeed denotes negation. " so ADJ as to be..." (note the presence of as, which you didn't appear to notice) is an affirmation, not a negation.
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RonPurewal
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Post subject: Re: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be... Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:40 am |
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| ManhattanGMAT Staff |
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goelmohit2002 wrote: Can some one please tell what is wrong with D and E ?
B I think is breaking the idiom...so .....so that (e) is unidiomatic. you can't mix "enough" and "so that". the correct idiom is "enough to...". you can't "double up" with another idiom. as for (d), i'm not sure whether you're allowed to insert "not" between "enough" and "to". i don't think that you are. if anyone has seen a legitimate source in which this happens (i.e., "enough not to..."), please let us know.
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