Question
With the patience of its customers and with its network strained to the breaking point, the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives trying to relieve the congestion that has led to at least four class-action lawsuits and thousands of complaints from frustrated customers.
Option A
Option B
Option C
Option D
Option E
(This question is from Official Guide. Therefore, because of copyrights, the complete question cannot be copied here. The question can be accessed at GMAT Club)
Solution
Sentence Analysis
Here’s the sentence structure:
- With the patience of its customers (Prepositional phrase modifying the main clause)
- and with its network (Second prepositional phrase modifying the main clause)
- strained to the breaking point, (Verb-ed modifier modifying ‘network’)
- the on-line service company announced a series of new initiatives (Subject: company, Verb: announced)
- trying to relieve the congestion (Verb-ing modifier modifying ‘initiatives’)
- that has led to (Relative clause modifying ‘congestion’. Subject: ‘that’, Verb: ‘has led to’)
- at least four class-action lawsuits (First object of the verb ‘has led to’)
- and thousands of complaints from frustrated customers. (Second object of the verb ‘ has led to’)
- that has led to (Relative clause modifying ‘congestion’. Subject: ‘that’, Verb: ‘has led to’)
- trying to relieve the congestion (Verb-ing modifier modifying ‘initiatives’)
The sentence ‘intends’ to say that with two things (‘patience of its customers’ and ‘its network’) strained highly, the company announced some initiatives in an effort to bring down the congestion; this congestion has led to two things: at least 4 class-action lawsuits and thousands of customer complaints.
However, as is, the sentence says:
- With ‘the patience’ and with ‘its network strained…’, the company announced…
While the second prepositional phrase ‘with its network strained…’ makes sense with the main clause, the first prepositional phrase ‘with the patience’ doesn’t make sense. Clearly, the following sentence doesn’t make any sense:
- With the patience of its customers, the company announced new initiatives.
Another problem in the sentence is the use of ‘trying’ without a preceding comma. As is, ‘trying’ modifies ‘new initiatives’, meaning that new initiatives ‘are currently trying’ to relieve the congestion. This construction introduces two meaning-based errors:
- First, we don’t want to say that something is currently happening. The sentence talks about something in the past – ‘announced’, not in the present continuous.
- Second, it’s not that the initiatives are trying something. The company is trying to do something ‘through’ these initiatives.
Thus, the sentence has two errors, as explained above.
Option Analysis
(A) Incorrect. For the reasons explained above.
(B) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- ‘that try’ is incorrect since it’s not the initiatives that try something; it’s the company that is trying to achieve something through the initiatives.
- Quality issue – As is, one can read the sentence as:
- the patience of
- its customers
- and its network
- the patience of
In this case, the sentence would mean that the patience of its customers and the patience of its network were strained. Clearly, that is not the intended meaning.
However, one can argue that the sentence needs to be read in a way that ‘the patience of its customers’ and ‘its network’ are parallel. In this case, the sentence would make sense.
Thus, this is not an error, just a quality issue – the structure in option C doesn’t have a scope of any confusion and is thus preferred.
(C) Correct. This option corrects both the errors of the original sentence without introducing any new errors.
(D) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- In this option, the two parallel elements are ‘with its network’ and ‘with the patience of its customers strained to the breaking point’. While the second element will make sense with the main clause, the first element will not make any sense. The following sentence doesn’t make any sense:
- With its network, the company announced some initiatives.
- ‘to try to relieve’ is preferred over ‘to try relieving’, which is more colloquial in nature.
(E) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- ‘the patience of its customers’ is preferred over ‘customers’ patience’.
- Same as point 2 of option D.
Sir your solutions are amazing ! I believe I have gone through each question of OG and reviewed your solutions along and the clarity they provide is awesome.
Sir i have the below question related to this SC.
Choice A) With the patience of its customers and with its network strained…
[With the patience of its customers and with its network] strained.
So If i distribute strained to both prep phrases wont it be correct to say strained applies to both ?
or is it that its not possible because strained can only modify a Noun and not Preposition phrase therefore such way of distribution is incorrect ?
Further,
if x and y are nouns and I have a which or that for eg.
x & y, which “are”…..
or x&y, which “is”……
does which apply to both x & y
If it does then which verb is correct do we take the plural or the singular.
Similarly in absolute phrases,
if the noun + noun mod applies to a compound noun for eg.
ball and bat, gifts that are awesome.
here gifts = ball & bat, is there ambiguity ?
ball and bat, a gift that is awesome.
here gift = ball or bat ambiguity.
Thank you for your explanation in advance.
Good questions, Kanishka!
You are right. Since “strained” is modifying nouns, not prepositional phrases. It cannot modify a noun in another prepositional phrase. For it to modify two nouns, the two nouns need to be parallel. In this case, the two nouns are not parallel; rather, they are part of two separate prepositional phrases.
In your example, which or that can refer to both x&y OR just y, depending upon the context.
Similarly, in absolute phrases as well, the absolute phrase can modify both the nouns or just one noun, depending on the context. So, you should remain open to both the possibilities.
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