Verbal questions from any Manhattan Prep GMAT Computer Adaptive Test. Topic subject should be the first few words of your question.
vishalsahdev03
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Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by vishalsahdev03 Mon Oct 05, 2009 5:17 am

Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.
(A) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.
(B) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, which they admit they lack, many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.
(C) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, analytical skills bring out a disinclination in many people to recognize that they are weak to a degree.
(D) Many people, willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills, are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.
(E) Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical skills.

I am not sure between D and E !
Please comment.
Thanks in advance !
Last edited by vishalsahdev03 on Tue Oct 06, 2009 5:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
sunny.jain
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Re: Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by sunny.jain Tue Oct 06, 2009 4:46 am

IMO:D

E changes the meaning ...it means

many ppl have a X while willing to Y.

means, while doing some action they have X, not always.

so D should be the answer.
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Re: Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by RonPurewal Sat Nov 07, 2009 8:57 am

vishalsahdev03 Wrote:Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.
(A) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.
(B) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, which they admit they lack, many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.
(C) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, analytical skills bring out a disinclination in many people to recognize that they are weak to a degree.
(D) Many people, willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills, are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.
(E) Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical skills.

I am not sure between D and E !
Please comment.
Thanks in advance !


* "have a disinclination to recognize" is wordy/unidiomatic, and is definitely inferior to "are disinclined to recognize".

* if you're going to use "while" with an adjective phrase (while willing to...), then that adjective phrase should precede the main verb.
i.e., many people, while willing to... , are disinclined to...

* there's also a slight change in meaning.
"recognize that their ... skills are weak" just means that the people should know that they have weak skills.
"recognize the weakness..." means that they should actually be able to point out the specific weakness.
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Re: Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by sanidhya510 Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:09 am

(D) Many people, willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills, are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.
(E) Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical skills.


Between D and E, where got stuck. I choose D because the construction of E with
"to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills" it implies that people would be trying to recognise the magnitude of the weakness. D is more absolute and succintly describes the admission of many people of the of lack computer skills or other technical skills, and disinclination to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.

Is this a valid / logical reason or have i just got lucky.
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Re: Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by Ben Ku Thu Jan 28, 2010 3:31 am

Between D and E, where got stuck. I choose D because the construction of E with
"to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills" it implies that people would be trying to recognise the magnitude of the weakness. D is more absolute and succintly describes the admission of many people of the of lack computer skills or other technical skills, and disinclination to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.



In (E), I would not say "to recognize the weakness of their analytic skills" refers to the magnitude of the weakness, as it does the specific weakness they have. This wording seems to imply that the person would be able to say "One weakness of my analytic skills is X." However, the intent of the sentence is not necessarily to point out the specific weaknesses, but rather to recognize that in general, these skills are weak.

(D) is definitely more clear than (E), by creating a sentence structure that compares "recognizing" and "disinclined."
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maren.j13
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Re: Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by maren.j13 Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:32 pm

I rejected E because to me it looks like saying "many people" have disinclination for one thing only when (because of "while") they are willing to admit the second thing.

Is this reasoning incorrect ?
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Re: Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by mschwrtz Tue Jun 29, 2010 4:04 am

No, I'm afraid that reasoning is incorrect. It would be perfectly fine for people to be "disinclined" to do one things, while being "willing" to do several others. "I am disinclined to run errands, but I am willing to cook and clean." No grammatical issue there.
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Re: Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by akhp77 Sun Jul 04, 2010 2:05 am

I have a doubt about correct option D.

Many people, X, are disinclined ...

X = willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills

X is an ING modifier and set-off by a pair commas and acting as a noun modifier. Is this the correct use of ING modifier when set-off by a pair of commas? I believe that in such case it act as adverbial modifier. Can you please clarify that where I am lagging?

Similar things, I found like this.
Plural noun, including ..., ....
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Re: Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by tim Sun Aug 01, 2010 1:09 pm

Think of it as an appositive if you have to in order to deal with the commas issue. Bottom line is, unless you can point to what you do think it modifies, you’re not allowed to question the obvious interpretation.. :)
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413297591
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Re: Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by 413297591 Mon Oct 11, 2010 9:07 pm

why not select C?
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Re: Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by tim Tue Nov 16, 2010 9:36 am

primarily, it makes no sense to say that analytical skills help people recognize that they are weak. in order for the sentence to make sense, it needs to identify the domain in which people are weak, as opposed to suggesting a general weakness..
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Re: Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by gmat.acer Thu Sep 06, 2012 10:01 pm

mschwrtz Wrote:No, I'm afraid that reasoning is incorrect. It would be perfectly fine for people to be "disinclined" to do one things, while being "willing" to do several others. "I am disinclined to run errands, but I am willing to cook and clean." No grammatical issue there.


Hello!
(E):Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical skills.

I rejected (E) because I thought the use of 'while' in it is wrong.

I believe some of the ways 'while' can be used are:
(1) similar to 'even though'.
"I am disinclined to run errands, while I am willing to cook and clean."
Here I believe 'while' is used similar to 'even though'.
"I am disinclined to run errands, even though I am willing to cook and clean."

(2) similar to 'in the process of' or 'at the same time'
I remember Stacey's example from some forum
"I can twiddle my toes while playing piano"
In this sentence I believe 'while' is used in the manner similar to 'in the process of' or 'at the same time'. I can twiddle my toes when I am in the process of playing piano.

Basic structure of (E)-
Many people have a disinclination to do X while willing to admit Y.

I thought the 'while' in (E) is used as #2 above. So I interpreted (E) to mean that people are disinclined to recognize X only when they are willing to admit Y. Or in other words, they don't have disinclination to do X when they don't admit Y. This interpretation didn't make sense to me and thus I crossed out (E).

Is this reasoning correct to reject (E)?
How is "while" used in (E) - Is it used as in (1), or (2) above, or in some alltogether different way?
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Re: Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by tim Wed Sep 26, 2012 10:52 am

you're reading too much into the use of "while". "while" just means that two things both happen in this context. if you find yourself tempted to make a decision on the nuances of words that have multiple meanings, you've probably missed a bigger issue somewhere else..
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Re: Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by thanghnvn Fri Nov 15, 2013 7:05 am

vishalsahdev03 Wrote:Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.
(A) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, there is a disinclination on the part of many people to recognize the degree to which their analytical skills are weak.
(B) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, which they admit they lack, many people are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.
(C) Unlike computer skills or other technical skills, analytical skills bring out a disinclination in many people to recognize that they are weak to a degree.
(D) Many people, willing to admit that they lack computer skills or other technical skills, are disinclined to recognize that their analytical skills are weak.
(E) Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical skills.

I am not sure between D and E !
Please comment.
Thanks in advance !



I have 2 questions regarding "willing" in E.

first,

if "willing" in E is a verb/verbal as it is in "I will to sing", the use of "willing" is correct or not. I think this pattern is inferior because "willing..." is far from the noun/subject.

Am I correct?

second.

what is difference in meaning between "while " clause and "comma+doing". ? specifically, what is the difference between

1. willing to admit they lack computer skill, persons are disinclined to recognize that they lack analytical skill

and

2. while they will to admit that they lack computer skill, persons are disinclined to recognize that the lack analytical skill

in the first sentence, "willing..." shows the condition of the main clause. in the second sentence, "while..." shows the second action which happen at the same time as the main clause.

HOwever, I still do not fully understand the difference, pls, explain
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Re: Unlike computer skills or other technical skills,

by RonPurewal Fri Nov 15, 2013 10:22 am

"I will to + verb" is not a valid English construction.

"Willing" is not a verb-derived form. It's an adjective, used in much the same way as "able".

(There are other words that work the same way, too. For instance, a table can be missing a leg, but a table can't "miss a leg".)