you have to understand the message that the sentence is trying to convey. there is not going to be a formulaic approach.



this one would be wrong, unless a multinational corporation can soar through the air.



but that's not the message that the sentence is trying to convey. you have to use a certain amount of common sense to approach this stuff.
in this sentence, the speaker is very clearly not implying that he/she has never heard of bees themselves. instead, the speaker is implying that the fact that bees sting dogs is what's novel or unfamiliar.
so, your analysis here actually shows exactly why this version is wrong.



same problem as #3. the issue is not the sales themselves; the issue is the fact that the sales are bad. that message is not properly conveyed.



same issue.



if they "all appear correct", then you aren't thinking about the message of the original sentence.

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Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes

if you had to place a random bet in any particular instance, you would probably be better off betting that the construction is incorrect. however, as i pointed out, it's perfectly possible for the construction to be correct.

the way you're asking this question is troubling, in that your point of view seems unnecessarily hostile to actually thinking about the meaning of the sentence. in other words, it seems that you'd rather memorize almost uncountably many guessing guidelines -- things that are not even real rules -- then consider fairly straightforward aspects of meaning and context.
considering that meaning/context influences literally everything in sentence correction, this is not a good sign.

_________________
Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes

thanks Ron, I'll take that suggestion to heart.

I actually thought that EVEN IF preposition + noun + verbing is correct as far as meaning, it is inferior to a different construction, kind of like concision and the other lower priority things. I thought so because i found in more than one thread that you mentioned it was wrong and that it's rare to see it on an official problem.

then i got confused because there was a 100 Brutal SC question with a correct answer using that construction correctly.

but thanks to you i do understand how do make a conclusion on this construction based on meaning instead of just blindly eliminating any choice with it.

dave, you should keep a healthy distance away from free, anonymous third-party sources of sc problems downloaded from the internet. as the saying goes, those kinds of things are worth exactly what you pay for them.
in particular, the “1000sc” and “brutal sc” documents have SERIOUS issues -- as in “almost every single problem is wrong in some significant way” type of issues. using sources like that, you're going to un-learn a lot more than you're going to learn.

instead, you should stick to the official problems. even if you have solved all of them, i can guarantee you that you haven't done everything that you can do with them. for instance, with each problem, you should be able to insert the correct answer into the sentence -- thus making a sentence that is correct in every way -- and then justify EVERY construction in the resulting sentence, regardless of whether it is underlined.
for instance, if you see any modifier, anywhere, you should be able to point out exactly what noun or action is being modified by it. if you see any idiomatic construction, you should note how it is used and what it means. if you see any verb, you should be able to identify its subject. etc. etc.

don't use the random third-party sources.

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Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes

Hi Ron,

Many thanks for your reply.

I will focus on the message of the original sentence, and will consider prep + noun + verbing as wrong, if I need to guess.

Thanks again.

glad to hear it. and i can't echo Ron's admonition strongly enough: stay away from questionable problem sources!

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Ron,
I pondered over these examples and issues.
A generalization has stuck my mind:

1. (preposition) + NOUN + (TRANSITIVE VERB)ing is WRONG
2. (preposition) + NOUN + (INTRANSITIVE VERB)ing may be CORRECT

Please clear my mind. Thanks in advance.

i don't think this generalization follows at all from Ron's examples..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

We will solve this question by the method of elimination.

As pointed out by Ron, the following construction is wrong, i.e
Preposition+noun+verb(ing)
unless the noun is the object of the preposition and the verb(ing) is modifying the noun.

This eliminates option A and D
In option C, it appears that the stinger results...
This statement does not make sense as a noun cannot result in an action.
Option B is eliminated as the use of "as" is incorrect in this statement.

This leaves us with option E as the correct one.

This looks right.

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Joe Lucero
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

I can not understand how "with" phrase is used in E.

normally, "with" phrase can modify noun or clause.

when "with" phrase modifies a clause, I do not understand the meaning relation between the two. Ron, pls, explain the meaning relation so that I can realize the correct E next time when I see the "with" phrase used this way.

In this case, "with" does modify the entire clause. It's the reason that "resulting in X" also sounds right (and might be preferred, but not necessary).

In this case, the "with the result" answers the question, "what happens next?" It's an unusual idiom, but that's probably true of all idioms.

Also, one of our great instructors just did a blog post on this exact problem:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... rection-2/

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Joe Lucero
Manhattan GMAT Instructor