GMATPREP- Hawthorne Works

[tarek99]

I just typed this question 2 mins earlier, but then couldn't find this post, so i'm typing it again:

In the mid-1920s the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electic Company was the scene of an intensive series of experiments that would investigate changes in working conditions as to their effects on workers' performance.

a) that would investigate changes in working conditions as to their effects on workers' performance

b) investigating the effects that changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance.

c) for investigating what the effects on workers' performance are that changes in working conditions would cause

d) that investigated changes in working conditions' effects on workers' performance

e) to investigate what the effects changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance



In this problem, I chose D, however, the OA is B. What's wrong with D and why is B the best answer choice?
thanks

[StaceyKoprince]

They both posted; I deleted the other one. You have to refresh the page - you may have just clicked "back" on your browser, which will only show you the old version of the page.

D says "changes in working conditions' effects"
The changes are in the working conditions, not the effects of the working conditions - this choice changes the original meaning of the sentence. The "effects" apply to what effect the changes (in working conditions) have on workers' performance. B maintains this meaning.

[eyunni]

How can experiments investigate on their own? Hawthorne Works of the Western Electic Company investigated the changes by experimentation. Right? If so, how is B correct? Please explain.

[StaceyKoprince]

The sentence is not saying that the experiments investigated on their own. "experiments investigating," in answer B, is not a subject-verb setup - "investigating" is not a verb. It is a modifer explaining what type of experiments were being done. What type of experiments? Ones that investigated the effects etc.

Words ending in -ing can be verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, participial phrases - they're pretty versatile. Unless you see some form of the verb "to be" immediately preceding the -ing form, it is not functioning as a verb. It's some other part of speech.

[eyunni]

Stacey, I understand that 'investigating' here is not a verb. You said: 'What type of experiments? Ones that investigate the effects etc.'

What does 'Ones' refer to? 'Ones' refer to experiments. Correct? Then do you mean: 'Experiments that investigate the effects'?

[RonPurewal]

Stacey, I understand that 'investigating' here is not a verb. You said: 'What type of experiments? Ones that investigate the effects etc.'

What does 'Ones' refer to? 'Ones' refer to experiments. Correct? Then do you mean: 'Experiments that investigate the effects'?

i think both of you are right. 'investigating' isn't a verb per se, here - it's a participle that's used as an adjective, like stacey said before - but it's used in a sense that's fapp* equivalent to 'experiments that investigate...'.

the final word on issues like this is to throw up our hands and say, 'that's the way the gmat uses the word.' remember that you're learning to speak a second (or third, or ...) language here, called gmat-speak, and that language sometimes uses words in ways that differ from what you're used to.

so: store, in your brain, the fact that the gmat considers this meaning of 'investigate' (i.e., experiments / tests / etc. can 'investigate' topics) to be perfectly ok. by the way, some brief searches on the internet reveal that lots of reputable sources also use the word in the same way (and nothing strikes me as unsavory about the usage, if my personal opinion is worth anything)

* = for all practical purposes

[Guest]

What about E? Looks perfect to me. No grammatical errors

[Guest]

Oh, OK, what the effects.... Wrong!

[rfernandez]

Looks like you answered your own question... it only took 2 minutes!

Rey

[roshan_aslam_engg]

the effects that changes in working conditions. is this not a S-V problem? or is 'changes' used as a noun here. if yes, do you have any tip on how to determine wether a word is a noun or a verb. ( i mean for these kind of verbs that are used both as both nouns and verbs)

[RonPurewal]

(b) is the best choice here.

(a) is vague because it's overly indirect: the meaning of "investigate changes ... as to their effects" is unclear. what's more, it's probably considered unidiomatic as well, at least in this sort of context.

(b) = correct
the participle "investigating" follows "experiments" immediately. no filler words are necessary; this is good concision.
the wording is clear; there are no awkward double possessives, etc., as in some of the other choices.
"would" is used properly here, as a past-tense form of "will". (i.e., if this sentence were translated into the present tense, it would read "...that changes ... will have")

(c) is ridiculously wordy; there's no way you should give this choice any serious consideration. if you don't realize pretty quickly that this choice is wrong, you should go back and read through a bunch of correct OG answers, trying to internalize the sights and sounds (the "vibe") of the correct answers.

(d) "changes in working conditions' effects" is at best awkward and vague, and at worst ambiguous: the intended meaning is the effects of the changes, but this sentence seems to indicated the effects of the conditions themselves. in other words, a literal reading of this sentence seems to indicate that the conditions themselves haven't changed - only their effects have. that's not the intended meaning of the original.

(e) "what the effects" is ungrammatical.
also, in constructions of this sort, "what" is generally redundant / unnecessary; it's better merely to say "to investigate X" rather than to say "to investigate what X is" (or other such wordy construction).

[RonPurewal]

the effects that changes in working conditions. is this not a S-V problem? or is 'changes' used as a noun here.

it's a noun.

if yes, do you have any tip on how to determine wether a word is a noun or a verb. ( i mean for these kind of verbs that are used both as both nouns and verbs)

the only way to do this is to think about the CONTEXT of the sentence -- just look at the way in which the word is used, and think about what it means.
there is not going to be any sort of strictly mechanical way to figure this out.

in this sentence, the context is that changes (noun) have some sort of effect. (nothing is actually changing in the current context of this particular sentence, so it doesn't make sense to consider "changes" as a verb.)

[jessietang1987]

the effects that changes in working conditions. is this not a S-V problem? or is 'changes' used as a noun here. if yes, do you have any tip on how to determine wether a word is a noun or a verb. ( i mean for these kind of verbs that are used both as both nouns and verbs)

Ron: I eliminate the choice E. But I don't know whether my reasoning is right. Plz correct me if not.
I think the biggest error in E is about "to investigate....". It seems to me that the purpose of "the company was the scene" is to investigate..... And that doesn't make any sense. So I eliminate this choice.

[RonPurewal]

Ron: I eliminate the choice E. But I don't know whether my reasoning is right. Plz correct me if not.
I think the biggest error in E is about "to investigate....". It seems to me that the purpose of "the company was the scene" is to investigate..... And that doesn't make any sense. So I eliminate this choice.

Not necessarily, since "to investigate" could make sense as a modifier of "experiments".

Analogy:
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, was the scene of the Wright brothers' first succsesful attempt to fly a heavier-than-air craft.

[lemonperb]

(d) "changes in working conditions' effects" is at best awkward and vague, and at worst ambiguous: the intended meaning is the effects of the changes, but this sentence seems to indicated the effects of the conditions themselves. in other words, a literal reading of this sentence seems to indicate that the conditions themselves haven't changed - only their effects have. that's not the intended meaning of the original.

Hi, GMAT instructors,
Why it is the effects that are being investigated but not the changes? Even after reading the whole sentence for several times I still don't understand why can't the changes be investigated? It makes sense.
Additionally, Ron explained that "a literal reading of this sentence seems to indicate that the conditions themselves haven't changed - only their effects have." I cannot see that conditions' effects have changed from the original sentence.