SC set 27 Question 17 So dogged were Frances Perkins’investi

[hkvirk]

thanks for the reply. im still not completely comfortable with the solution. as in how does her refer to the FP's lobbying?

Oh.. I should have made it clear. Sorry for making you bit confused!

Actually it is not HER but as written in the sentence is "HER Lobbying" so "HER Lobbying" clearly refers to "FP's Lobbying"

Hope, I am making bit more clear?

aha... i think, now i understand the parallelism between FP's investigations and "her lobbying"

thanks.

[Willy]

You are welcome! :)

[tim]

let us know if there are any further questions on this one..

[visitdhiraj]

Hi Ron, this is a GMAT prep question can you please discuss this

None of the answers above are satisfactory or convincing

Please give your magical touch to the answer to this question

Dheeraj

[tim]

Sorry, you're going to have to do some work yourself on this one before we can help you. What didn't you understand about this one? What did you try? Where did you get stuck?

[vijitgpt]

Hi,

If the below was an option..will it be correct-

so dogged were Francis Perkins's investigations of industry and persistent lobbying for poor, that...

is persistent lobbying for poor is a complex gerund so as to make it parallel to action noun -investigations

Also is this also correct..

so dogged were Francis Perkins's investigations of industry and Martin's persistent lobbying for poor, that...

Thanks,
Vijit

[tim]

I would caution you against ever asking "what if" questions about changing parts of verbal questions, because there are often several interconnected parts that cannot be fully accounted for by a single change. Just focus on why the right answer is right and why all the wrong answers are wrong.

[vijitgpt]

Hi Tim,

Sorry for the post as I am new to the forum.I will keep that in mind.

I have one question,I have studied that

The sentences that have structure like the making of,the singing of are complex gerunds..also are making for his son,workign for the charity also are complex gerunds?

Thanks,
Vijit

[tim]

Sorry if it feels like I'm sidestepping your questions, but I feel in this case you're still focusing on things that are irrelevant. Remember, there is absolutely no need on the GMAT to be able to say whether something is a complex gerund. They don't test you on vocabulary, just on finding mistakes. And I think that in particular studying complex gerunds (whatever those are - neither Ron nor I know or care) often does more harm than good because it causes students to focus on obscure rules that have too many exceptions to be worth memorizing in the first place.

Bottom line: if anything you're doing when you study involves the words "complex gerund", you're doing it wrong.

[reotokate]

Hi,

Is "were" omitted in Choice E after "...her lobbying for wage and hour reform?" Because the second "were" is the same as the first "were".

[jlucero]

Hi,

Is "were" omitted in Choice E after "...her lobbying for wage and hour reform?" Because the second "were" is the same as the first "were".

Close. You're on the right idea, but the were should be was, and it would be more parallel to place this in front of "her lobbying":

So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations...
so persistent (was) her lobbying for wage and hour reform...

[reotokate]

Hi,

Is "were" omitted in Choice E after "...her lobbying for wage and hour reform?" Because the second "were" is the same as the first "were".

Close. You're on the right idea, but the were should be was, and it would be more parallel to place this in front of "her lobbying":

So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations...
so persistent (was) her lobbying for wage and hour reform...

Thank you!!

But will this structure create a run-on sentence w/o the "and"?~~~

[RonPurewal]

If it's a correct answer, it's a correct answer.

This is a really, really old problem (over 10 years old, if it's in "set 27"). The current GMAT won't test such oddly constructed sentences, so it's best to forget about this one altogether.

[reotokate]

If it's a correct answer, it's a correct answer.

This is a really, really old problem (over 10 years old, if it's in "set 27"). The current GMAT won't test such oddly constructed sentences, so it's best to forget about this one altogether.

Haha! Okay!~ Thanks for the note.

Looks like English has a "best-before" date as well! : )

[RonPurewal]

Looks like English has a "best-before" date as well! : )

That's not really the issue. (Yes, I understand that you're joking.)

This sentence is as legitimate today as it was 10, 50, or 100 years ago.
The problem is that it's an unusual sentence construction, one that violates the dominant patterns of usage. Essentially, it's one giant "idiom" with which you'd have to be familiar in advance -- it's not the kind of thing you can figure out as you go. As such, it unfairly favors native English speakers, who have had much more exposure to "weird but correct" English sentences than have non-native speakers. Basically, it's almost like taking English from Shakespeare, or Spanish from Cervantes, or Italian from Dante, and throwing them at modern-day second-language speakers of those languages. Not fair.

In recent years GMAC has been cracking down on just about all SC items that unfairly favor native speakers -- especially weird sentence constructions like this one. So, it's not any less correct than it previously was, but you don't have to worry about it on the test anymore.