Test: Sentence Correction- 2 - GMAT MCQ

Because ‘values’ is plural, you need the plural form of the verb ‘to be’. Eliminate A, B and C. The placement of the preposition ‘against’ in E is better than in D. Prepositions should not come at the end of phrases. Choice E is the correct answer.

The sentence excludes a subset or an event from a larger group. You can eliminate B, D an E because they convey the opposite meaning as they say the subset and the group have the same characteristics. A is wrong because ‘Except for’ should be followed by a phrase, not a sentence. Choice C is the only possible answer.

'Demanding’ is incorrect as it sounds as if the action is taking place now rather then during WW1. C changes the meaning and introduces an unclear pronoun, ‘their’. E also has an unclear pronoun, ‘them’. If the pronoun refers to the Russian state, it should be singular. Only D is correct.

The first thing you should consider here is whether to use rather or instead. Instead does not have an element of choice in it, merely an element of replacement. You would say, for example: I went instead of Jack. You would also say: He is a weak man rather than a timid man. Because this is not a case of replacement, you need the word ‘rather’. That leaves us with choices A, B and C as possible answers. A correct comparison is required. The planets are a ‘phenomenon... rather then a type’. You are correctly comparing two nouns so A can be eliminated. ‘Incidental of’ is an incorrect structure. ‘Incidental to’ is correct. Therefore only B is eliminates all these errors and is the correct answer.

The first thing you have to determine in this sentence is whether the verb ‘to have’ should be in the singular or plural form. To what does the verb ‘has’ refer? It refers to the attempts. You can shorten this sentence and isolate the core: the attempts (x) have done something (y). That means that only D and E can be possible answers. Choice E is too wordy. Choice D is the correct answer.

The first thing you should ask yourself is whether the programs have something or do something? They do something. They mandate something of somebody else. That means that choices D and E are incorrect. Now you have to determine which tense is correct. Do you mandate that someone do something, or that someone to do something? Clearly not to do something. That means choice B can be eliminated. Choice C has the wrong tense, the future. The subjunctive is required after the construction ‘mandate that’. Choice A is the correct answer.

'Convince about’ and ‘convince for’ are idiomatically incorrect. Eliminate C and D. The other issue in this sentence is parallel structure. The parallel structure is ‘join’ and ‘attempt’. A and E violate parallel structure. Choice B is the correct answer.

Choice E does not demonstrate the contrast in the original sentence because it does not use ‘although’ or a similar conjunction. Choice D is an incomplete comparison as it eliminates the necessary first ‘as’ from the phrase ‘as brilliant as’. However, choices A, B and C don’t particularly have errors of grammar or efficiency. However, stating that something will not be finished or that it is remaining unfinished does not make the necessary logical connection that he and he alone is responsible for the unfinished state of his thesis. Remember that active voice is preferred in the GMAT over the passive voice. C is the correct answer as it uses the active voice.

The pronouns ‘their’ and ‘them’ in A, B and E are ambiguous. In choice D there is a grammatical mistake: The verb does not refer to ‘drugs’, it refers to ‘abuse’ and therefore should be singular. Choice C is the correct answer.

This question has to do with tense agreement. Choice A uses the wrong tense. Because you have the word ended (past), you would have to say might have been, not may be. Choice B uses the wrong word, ‘able’. Choice C implies that the singers were decreasing their tips. Choice D also implies that the singers were actively decreasing something. The audience is responsible for the tips, even though it is never directly mentioned here. Choice E is the correct answer.

Group is a collective noun and therefore requires a singular verb. Consequently, choices B, D and E can be eliminated right away. Using the word should is incorrect. The subjunctive, as seen in option A, is necessary after the construction ‘it is important that...’. Choice A is the right answer

This question is all about parallel structure. The basic structure is this: Someone was advised of x, told y, and given z. The only answer choice that has this parallel structure is B. Every other choice introduces different verb forms among x, y and z. B is the correct answer.

The first thing you have to do is figure out what the basic structure of this sentence is. X is Y. Something is estimated. That is critical verb in this sentence. Therefore, you need to find an answer choice that has a matching order of words. Despite the fact that it appears to be fairly complex, there is only one answer that even comes close to that core structure. Choice E is the correct answer. Once you realize what the core is, eliminating the rest of the choices should be fairly simple.

There is a simple grammatical question. What thing/things is/are common? Praise is common. Praise is singular, so we say ‘is common’. That leaves us with choices D and E. It is correct to say that we associate x with y, not to y. ‘To’ often implies movement. As a plural noun ‘statistics’ requires the third person plural verb ‘show’. Choice D is the correct answer.

This question has to do with parallel structure. The correct structure is ‘grow’, ‘become’ and ‘threaten’. Only B has this combination.

Because he sees her in a dream at a given period of in time in the past, he sees her as she was, not as she had been. The simple past is correct. There is no need to use the past perfect. Choice C is not idiomatically correct. ‘Appear’ is the wrong word to use: it changes the meaning of the sentence by implying that she may only momentarily appear. Choice A is the correct answer

This sentence is a simple comparison. All you have to do is determine what is being compared. The colonies are being compared. Only choices C and E directly compare the colonies. Choice E is more complicated than choice C. Choice C is the correct answer; it directly compares a to b, or colonies to colonies.

X has happened, but y has also happened. Choices A, B and D eliminate the necessary verb. D does not provide for tense agreement as it uses the past tense. Choice C is the correct answer.

Does someone think of something to be something else or as something else? Do you think of movies as a form of entertainment or to be entertainment? ‘As a form’ is the correct idiomatic expression. Someone thinks of x as y. That leaves us with choices D and E. Choice E uses the passive. Choice D is the correct answer.

This is a question of order of relevance. Who or what is the subject here? Seven households. Knowing the subject makes this question very easy. Actor/agent usually comes first and that is the case here. B and D incorrectly use the singular verb form ‘owns’ with the plural subject ‘households’. C and E are passive. A, the correct answer, is active.

You have to determine whether to use seeming or seemingly. Because you are modifying the comparative adjective ‘less healthy’ you need an adverb. Seemingly is the adverb. ‘Seeming’ is therefore incorrect and we are left with B and D. Parallel structure, ‘permits’ and ‘forbids’, leads us to B as the correct answer. In addition, the use of ‘such...as’ in B is far more efficient than the wordy construction in D.

Is someone is doing x doing y, for doing y or to do y? What would you normally say? If you say doing x doing y or doing x for doing y, it implies a sequence, and lacks the element of causation that is necessary for this sentence. You want to use the infinitive form because it expresses causation. Someone is doing x (because) to do y. The inspectors are reviewing the weapons to do something. Choice E is the correct answer.

B implies all experiences in 30 percent of the men were homosexual. C implies more than 30 percent of men may have had homosexual experiences. That leaves A, D and E. D is the shortest, simplest and clearest and is therefore correct.

The verb needs to cover the period of time from the operation to now. Therefore the present perfect is necessary, not the simple past. Eliminate A and B. ‘Since’ is the correct accompaniment to the present perfect, rather than ‘after’ or ‘subsequently to’. C is correct.

A is simplest, shortest and clearest. It is correct. B and D are not complete sentences. C is too wordy. ‘It’ in E does not refer to anything.

This is a very simple question of a dangling modifier. Who is the student devoted to modern art? Fanny. Therefore, the part of the sentence after the first comma must begin with the word Fanny, who happens to do something. The only choice that does that is A, the correct answer.

This is a comparison. When you use ‘more’ you must use ‘than’. Eliminate A and B. You must compare like with like, songs with songs. Songs is a plural word. ‘That’ in C is singular. Eliminate C. E does not compare songs with songs. It either compares songs with people or implies that the songs are singing. D is the correct answer.

Choices B and E change the meaning. Choice C has a wrong order of words. It should read ‘how one can...’. Choice D implies that the problem lies in how to feed the cake to the family rather than in how to bake the cake. A is correct.

The idiom ‘from...to’ should be used here. That leaves A and D. There is no need to use the pronoun ‘it’ to repeat the subject. A is correct.

The first thing you have to realize in this sentence is that only the senior citizens are more likely to do or have something. Choice A implies that the senior citizens and their families are likely to die sooner. In C the verb form ‘runs’ is incorrect. That leaves B, D and E. B is simplest, shortest and clearest and is therefore the correct answer.