1000SC: Qn:254

Friday, April 21, 2006

Qn:254

Dr. Sayre’s lecture recounted several little-known episodes in the relations between nations that illustrates what is wrong with alliances and treaties that do not have popular support.

(A) relations between nations that illustrates
(B) relation of one nation with another that illustrates
(C) relations between nations that illustrate
(D) relation of one nation with another and illustrate
(E) relations of nations that illustrates

Official Answer: B

posted by Ravanan at Friday, April 21, 2006

There are 12 comments so far.

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Comments:

Unknown said...: I missed out

Episodes are constituents of one event

there fore B is the correct choice

i was more concerned about checking the grammar of the choices; March 04, 2008 4:35 AM
Anonymous said...: http://www.beatthegmat.com/dr-sayre-s-lecture-recounted-several-t10951.html; January 08, 2009 8:49 PM
dana said...: can someone explain the answer please; August 11, 2009 12:40 AM
Anonymous said...: can someone explain the answer please; August 11, 2009 12:41 AM
Anonymous said...: determine what governs the number of "illustrate" (i.e. what decides wether it is singilura or plural)

=> Then, you will be left with B & C

=> Then, check which one uses between correctly
between X and Y
and does the x and Y signify what that between is saying is correct; August 31, 2009 11:21 AM
Anonymous said...: use the link above , C looks like the best.; January 10, 2010 5:31 AM
Anonymous said...: pls donot just justify the oa; January 31, 2010 1:12 AM
Anonymous said...: Dr. Sayre’s lecture recounted several little-known episodes in the
[relation of one nation with another] that illustrates X and Y; June 16, 2010 12:32 PM
Anonymous said...: Option B is correct:

Reason:
(A) relations between nations that illustrates ---> Relations is plural,illustrates is singular, thus option is wrong.
(B) relation of one nation with another that illustrates ---> Correct
(C) relations between nations that illustrate --> Between is used to co-relate two things, but nations may imply more than 2, hence this is wrong.
(D) relation of one nation with another and illustrate --> relation is singular but illustrate is plural, hence this is wrong.
(E) relations of nations that illustrates --? relations is plural and Illustrates is singular, hence this is wrong.; June 10, 2011 11:55 AM
Wonder said...: the answer is C. here the answer B is definitely wrong!

consider: relationships? or relations? or relation?
right: illustrate/s refers to episodes (not to lecture, not to nation/s) hence several (pl) episodes (pl) illustrate (pl) (not illustrates)
right: between X and Y
right: between Xs (when Xs is a destinguishable object set such as books, nations..) --you can google the usage of between and among
right: relation of one nation TO another BUT relation of one nation WITH another is ALSO correct usage of idiom
consider: in original sent (option A) is BETWEEN and in B is AND - that changes meaning; August 09, 2011 4:42 AM
Anonymous said...: there is absolutely, positively no way that the official answer to this question is (b).
(c) is the best answer by a country mile.; July 05, 2012 4:32 PM
rajan said...: The episodes illustrate, not the relations. This is one of those rare cases where the noun does not sit right next to the modifier. You're allowed to have a short prepositional phrase in the middle IF that phrase is necessary to understand the meaning of the "main" noun (in this case, episodes). If we just use the word episodes without description, we don't really know what we're talking about - we need to describe episodes with "IN the relations between nations."

So, in B, "illustrates" doesn't match. "of one nation with another" is clunkier than "between" but notice that they don't make us decide just on "that sounds awkward." Even in D, which does correctly use "illustrate" - it changes the word "that" to "and," and that changes the original meaning of the sentence (the second part would now be some thing separate, like another thing he recounted during the lecture - and then it wouldn't be parallel).

here is absolutely, positively no way that the official answer to this question is (b).
(c) is the best answer by a country mile.

two things:
1) while this is still a good practice problem - it tests SV agreement, idiom, and clarity - it definitely sets off my "non-official radar". it's rare not only for real gmat problems to contain long, unbroken, difficult-to-follow sentences with NO internal punctuation, but also for them to contain relatively wordy / informal constructions (e.g. "what is wrong with" vs. the much more formal and concise "(the) problems with").

2) if this problem is taken from a source that indicates (b) as the correct answer, run, don't walk, away from that source. run for your life.
if you can set fire to it while simultaneously running for your life, all the better.
there is absolutely no way that this is an official problem with official answer (b), unless there's been a switch-up or typographical error (which does occasionally happen).

- ManhattanGMAT Staff; July 27, 2013 8:58 AM

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Friday, April 21, 2006

Qn:254

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