Question
The nineteenth-century chemist Humphry Davy presented the results of his early experiments in his “Essay on Heat and Light”, a critique of all chemistry since Robert Boyle as well as a vision of a new chemistry that Davy hoped to found.
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
Humphry Davy was a 19th century chemist. He presented the results of his early experiments in his “Essay on Heat and Light”. This essay was:
- a critique of all chemistry since Robert Boyle
- as well as a vision of a new chemistry that Davy hoped to find
This is what the sentence intends. The sentence presents the two facts about the “Essay” using a modifier, which, in technical terms, is called an appositive.
The modifier has two elements: “a critique” and “a vision”, which are parallel, properly connected by “as well as”, and logically provide additional information about the “Essay”.
The sentence, therefore, has no errors.
Option Analysis
(A) Correct.
(B) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- “a critique” and “envisioning” are not entirely parallel. When an action noun exists (vision), we should avoid using the gerund form (envisioning) in parallel constructions with other nouns.
- “also” is redundant.
- “his” is also redundant since the latter part of the sentence says “that Davy hoped…”
(C) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- Error no. 1 of option B
- “as well” is redundant
(D) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- “critiquing” and “a vision” are not parallel. When an action noun exists (critique), we should avoid using the gerund form (critiquing) in parallel constructions with other nouns. In this option, “critiquing” is rather acting as a verb-ing modifier (modifying the preceding clause)
- “also” is redundant
- “from Robert Boyle forward” is an incorrect way to express “since Robert Boyle”
(E) Incorrect. This option is wrong for the following reasons:
- While “critiquing” and “envisioning” are presented parallel in a list using “as well as”, these elements cannot be parallel because while “critiquing” is acting as a verb-ing modifier, “envisioning” is acting as a noun. If “envisioning” were acting as a verb-ing modifier, the construction would be “as well as envisioning a new chemistry” and not as given “as well as envisioning of a new chemistry”.
- “his own” is redundant since the later part of the sentence says “that Davy hoped to find”
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Hello Sir,
1) For the second option you have mentioned that ‘also’ is redundant. Will the term “and also” always be redundant on gmat? I found a lot of instances where the same expression has been used on the wsj.com.
2) In the last option I found this phrase “critiquing all the chemistry done” a bit odd. Is it correct?
Redundancy is never a point on which you reject an option. This is a quality issue. No option on GMAT is going to be wrong for such a small thing. Besides, there have been a couple of official questions containing “and also”. So, we should notice it and think that it can be improved. But we shouldn’t reject an option entirely on this basis.
Yes, “all chemistry done” seems odd.
Hi CJ,
When reading a sentence like this, it is difficult for me to understand when a particular word is a verb-ing modifier, and when it is a gerund.
If you can explain how to differentiate between the two?
Sir
I do have the same question as that of Ananth
d)critiquing all chemistry from Robert Boyle forward and also a vision of
Critiquing X and Y
X=all chemistry from Robert Boyle
Y= a vision of a new chemistry that Davy hoped to found.
So can we say for this option , critiquing is acting as particple or verbing phrase modifying the entire previous clause.
Here, only a verb-ing modifier makes sense, given the way it is used. If it were used as a noun, it would be “a critiquing of all chemistry…”. Of course, a far better option would still be “a critique of all chemistry…”
If we replace “his envisioning of” with envisioning, would this sentence be correct ?
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