1). Some patients who do not respond therapies of depression may simply have received inadequate treatment, having, for example been prescribed a drug as a dosage too low to be effective or having been taken off a drug too soon.

A -- having, for example been prescribed a drug as a dosage too low to be effective or having been
B -- having, for example, a drug prescription that was ineffective because the dosage was too low, or being
C -- as, for example, having too low of a dosage of prescribed drug for it to be effective, or being
D -- when they have, for example, been prescribed too low a drug dosage for it to be effective, or were
E -- for example, when they have a drug prescription with a dosage too low to be effective, or been


The answer is A.

I picked E - can someone explain why is E incorrect -

It looks like there are some typos in the original:
who do not respond TO therapies FOR depression?

In any case, the verb tenses are inconsistent in E:

"for example, when they have a drug prescription with a dosage too low to be effective, or been"

To shorten it: "...when they have X and been Y". It doesn't work. It should be something like "when they have been X and have been Y" or "having been X or having been Y" as in A.

Some patients who do not respond therapies of depression may simply have received inadequate treatment, having, for example, been prescribed a drug as a dosage too low to be effective or having been taken off a drug too soon.

A -- having, for example, been prescribed a drug as a dosage too low to be effective or having been
B -- having, for example, a drug prescription that was ineffective because the dosage was too low, or being
C -- as, for example, having too low of a dosage of prescribed drug for it to be effective, or being
D -- when they have, for example, been prescribed too low a drug dosage for it to be effective, or were
E -- for example, when they have a drug prescription with a dosage too low to be effective, or been

I guess BD are incorrect because
B-having a drug prescription is not parellel with being taken off
D-they have been is not parellel with were taken off


but I am not sure. Is there any other mistakes in these two choices?

thanks.

C would be incorrect because of Parallelism as well. Note that "as" creates a comparison, which is a special case of P-ism. Here the "as" connects "having too low a dosage" with "treatment." The same is the case with E, in a way, as the example give is not an example of a "treatment."

Can you explain more about A? I'm not really sure if Ive understood it.

(a)Some patients who do not respond therapies of depression may simply have received inadequate treatment, having, for example, been prescribed a drug as a dosage too low to be effective or having been taken off a drug too soon.

"for example" here seems like a non-essential modifier that can be dropped from the sentence. So the rest of the sentence become:
...have received inadequate treatment, having been prescribed...or having been taken off...
does the "having...or having..." part function as a adverbial modifier here to modify the verb “have received..."?

if there is one more option (F)
Some patients who do not respond therapies of depression may simply have received inadequate treatment, When they have, for example, been prescribed a drug as a dosage too low to be effective or been taken off a drug too soon.

Which one is better between A and F?

Thanks!

Ron

Could you please help me understand the construction of the right option here.

I thought all options with "comma having" are wrong.

I think I have not understood the concept you described herehttp://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/post39471.html#p39471

Please help

This is a very interesting case.

Notice, first, that the comma -ing phrase having... been prescribed a drug... does one of the two jobs that comma -ing constructions are supposed to do: it describes the manner in which patients... may...have received inadequate treatment.

As for Ron's injunction against comma having, well, the thread in which Ron offered that injunction ends with another counterexample. So.... Well, the GMAT is never wrong about the GMAT, so I guess we'll have to qualify Ron's claim.

One thing that might seem to justify "having..." as an adverbial modifier is that "have" shows up in the main verb as well. I don't think there's much to that, though. Perhaps more important is the passive construction. Since something was done to the patients--they weren't agents--we might be stuck with the patients "having been prescribed drug..." or with the patients "being prescribed a drug...," which is even worse.

OK. I've talked myself into that explanation.

Ans A reserves the parallelism & modifier closely placed. But never forget attack the ans in GMAT SC under the following criteria:
1) Correct Grammar
2) Proper Meaning
3) Superior style

On the basis of priority.

BR

GMAT BLASTER

True that.

But a couple of emendations: First, even after you've tended to every grammatical issue, you need to preserve the original meaning of the sentence only if that original meaning is coherent. Second, "style" is a pretty narrow consideration; as a last resort you can eliminate answer choices that are redundant or use specific awkward expressions.

what about " when they have been x and been y" ?

(NOTE: none of this discussion applies to the problem at hand, since the problem at hand does not contain two "have been" constructions.)

that wouldn't be incorrect, but it would be ... weird; i can't think of a construction in which that sort of repetition would be necessary.

i.e., in shorter constructions you'd probably just see when they have been X and Y. if construction were long enough that the reader would have a hard time placing "Y" in a parallel structure, then you would probably see something like when they have been X, xxxxxxxxx blah blah blah xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, and have been Y.

Is choice D wrong because the phrase "been prescribed too low a drug dosage to be effective" is incorrect? It should be "been prescribed a drug at a dosage too low to be effective" as is in choice A.

Could you please point out other errors in (D)?

Thanks.

D -- when they have, for example, been prescribed too low a drug dosage for it to be effective, or were

Three flaws in D
1. "It" is ambiguous (original sentence without "It" sounds better)
2. Lack of parallelism "have been" not parallel to "were"
3. "too low a drug dosage" sounds awkwardly at least.

Agreed.

_________________
Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor

Hi everyone,
Just to add on , For eliminating option D can we say its a fragment.
because the sentence construction is
(Independent clause-1),example (independent clause-2)
In option d, The independent clause-2 is actually not independent or standalone.
Teachers Please comment.

Thanx..!!