* It is an oversimplified view of cattle raising

[Jamie]

It is an oversimplified view of cattle raising to say that all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them and to drive them to market when the time is ripe.

A. Same
B. all one has to do with cattle is to leave them alone to feed themselves, to corral them and
C. all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves and then corral them and
D. the only thing that has to be done with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and
E. the only thing that has to be done with cattle is to leave them alone while they feed themselves, to corral them, and

OA: C

well, i approached this problem using pronoun split. Since "they" (subject pronoun) had no antecedant (as "cattle" was used as an object for prep phrase), I crossed out choices C, D, E and chose B for the answer.

Firstly, can "cattle" be the antecedent for "they" even though it is in a prep phrase (i.e. "view of cattle raising")???
Secondly, could you please explain why B is a wrong answer?

I really appreciate all of your help. I hope to hear from you soon. My GMAT is scheduled for this Friday and it would be wonderful if you could enlighten me!

Thanks again,
Jamie

[Jamie]

Ron-- Please help :-((

Source: GMATPrep

It is an oversimplified view of cattle raising to say that all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them and to drive them to market when the time is ripe.

A. Same
B. all one has to do with cattle is to leave them alone to feed themselves, to corral them and
C. all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves and then corral them and
D. the only thing that has to be done with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and
E. the only thing that has to be done with cattle is to leave them alone while they feed themselves, to corral them, and

OA: C

well, i approached this problem using pronoun split. Since "they" (subject pronoun) had no antecedant (as "cattle" was used as an object for prep phrase), I crossed out choices C, D, E and chose B for the answer.

Firstly, can "cattle" be the antecedent for "they" even though it is in a prep phrase (i.e. "view of cattle raising")???
Secondly, could you please explain why B is a wrong answer?

I really appreciate all of your help. I hope to hear from you soon. My GMAT is scheduled for this Friday and it would be wonderful if you could enlighten me!

Thanks again,
Jamie

[dave]

I think it is testing parallel construction.

"...leave them...corral them...drive them..." in choice C are all parallel.

Choice B has "...to leave them...to corral them...drive them" Without the "to" before drive this is not parallel construction.

[RonPurewal]

I think it is testing parallel construction.

"...leave them...corral them...drive them..." in choice C are all parallel.

Choice B has "...to leave them...to corral them...drive them" Without the "to" before drive this is not parallel construction.

correct.

moreover, that particular list of 3 verbs is missing a comma after "to corral them". the gmat holds fast to the rule that there MUST be a comma after the penultimate item in a list of 3 or more things.
i.e.,
"X, Y and Z" = wrong;
"X, Y, and Z" = correct.

this rule is the subject of some debate, and is the precise opposite of the rule generally used in commonwealth ("british") english, but the opinion of the gmat is, as usual, a consensus of one.

[RonPurewal]

well, i approached this problem using pronoun split. Since "they" (subject pronoun) had no antecedant (as "cattle" was used as an object for prep phrase), I crossed out choices C, D, E and chose B for the answer.

Firstly, can "cattle" be the antecedent for "they" even though it is in a prep phrase (i.e. "view of cattle raising")???
Secondly, could you please explain why B is a wrong answer?

i see you're trying to extend the ridiculous "possessive poison" rule to cases other than possessives.
don't.

it's perfectly ok for the antecedent of a subject pronoun to appear in the object case. it's not the greatest thing in the world, and it will be wrong if there's any ambiguity whatsoever (i.e., if there's another possible antecedent anywhere), but it happens decently often.
and besides, remember that this is an official problem. if something happens in the official answer to an official problem, then it's de facto ok.

the only prohibited case crossing of which we know is that the antecedent of a subject pronoun apparently can't be in the possessive case (the ridiculous "possessive poison" rule). this "rule" is NOT important to know; it has been the decisive factor in precisely 0 official problems so far, and has only been mentioned a total of once, in passing, in one of the purple verbal guide solutions (either #68 or #86 - i can't remember).
if the possessive poison rule generates ANY confusion whatsoever regarding other cases, then DROP IT and never think about it again. (note that we've removed it from the latest version of our SC strategy guide.)

--

the reasons why (b) is incorrect ane explained above, both by me and by another poster.

[shobuj40]

is D wrong because of change in meaning

[sanjaylakhani]

what about use of THEN in C...

how do you explain the use of THEN...doesn't it violate parallelism

[JonathanSchneider]

D is wrong not so much because of a change in meaning but because of its awkwardness, relying on the passive voice. The active voice in C is prefered.

The "then" in C does not break parallelism. In fact, the "then" is necessary to denote the time/sequence of events. "Then" here basically means "thereafter."

[shobuj40]

Can anyone expalin the structure of C:

It is an oversimplified view of cattle raising to say that all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves and then corral them and drive them to market when the time is ripe.

because from the marked word it is appearing something awakward (run-on-sentence).
But the GMAC cannot wrong in their test. And i have some lackings in understanding the structure.

So pls explain.

[JonathanSchneider]

You are correct that the "is" is the verb here. I take your question to mean: what is the subject? The subject is actually the noun phrase "all one has to do." We could also write this as "all that one has to do," where the "that one has to do" functions as a modifier for the word "all." In this case, the word "that" is understood - an interesting situation that is atypical for GMAT problems.

[hberens18]

all one has to do with cattle is = active
the only thing that has to be done with cattle is = passive

I can't tell how one is passive and the other is active. Can someone elaborate?

[RonPurewal]

all one has to do with cattle is = active
the only thing that has to be done with cattle is = passive

I can't tell how one is passive and the other is active. Can someone elaborate?

i'm not sure i understand the question, but i'll answer what i think you're asking.

the definition of active voice is AGENT OF ACTION + TENSED VERB + OBJECT OF ACTION.
example: joe ate the pizza.

the definition of passive voice is OBJECT OF ACTION + FORM OF "BE" + PAST PARTICIPLE** (+ AGENT OF ACTION). note that the last part is optional; the agent of the action may or may not be known or mentioned.
examples:
the pizza was eaten by joe.
the pizza was eaten.

if you use these definitions, then it's clear that the first example is active and the second example is passive.

are you inquiring into anything regarding usage conventions, or is your question actually just "what qualifies this as active and that as passive?"...?

[hberens18]

Yes, my question is exactly just "what qualifies this as active and that as passive?"...?

It's confusing to me because 'cattle' is at the end of both of these sentence (as opposed to the 'joe ate pizza' and 'the pizza was eaten by joe' examples). Plus I have trouble identifying agent of action, verb, object etc. in both of these sentences.

all one has to do with cattle is = active
the only thing that has to be done with cattle is = passive

[RonPurewal]

"cattle" is neither the agent nor the object, in either of these constructions.
in both of the constructions, "cattle" is the object of a preposition ("with").

NOTE: the AGENT in PASSIVE voice is also the object of a preposition (in that case "BY"). however, that preposition is always the same ("BY"). the object of any other preposition is neither agent nor object of the construction.

all one has to do with cattle is = active

subject = one
verb = has to do
[object = all]

the only thing that has to be done with cattle is = passive

object = (the only) thing
FORM of TO BE + PARTICIPLE = has to be + done
agent = not named (there's no "by X")

[commit.gmat]

C. all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves and then corral them and
D. the only thing that has to be done with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and

Ron,

Between C and D.

D: Is there anything grammatically wrong with choice D or is it just bad because it is in passive voice.

C: Also in choice C I thought we have too many 'ands, rather than a list of things.

Can you please explain.

Thanks