In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding,

I’ve always kind of hated this question. It’s not that it’s illegitimate or anything like that. It’s just a spectacularly annoying question, because fundamental grammar rules aren’t terribly useful for dealing with most of the answer choices. We have to fight with some goofy meaning issues that aren’t very straightforward.

So I’ll approach this particular explanation differently than usual. Instead of launching right into the answer choices, we’ll use a few stripped-down sentences to illustrate the principles at work in this question. So take a look at these puppies first:

1. Arpit studies hard so that he should get a good GMAT score.
2. Arpit studies hard because he should get a good GMAT score.
3. Arpit studies hard because of getting a good GMAT score.
4. Arpit studies hard in order to get a good GMAT score.
5. Arpit studies hard to get a good GMAT score.

The first three are all at least a little bit illogical if you think strictly and literally about the meaning of the sentences. “Should” implies some sort of value judgment, and that’s not appropriate here: Arpit studies in order to obtain a good GMAT score, NOT because he “should” get a good GMAT score. For that reason, #1 & #2 are wrong.

Similarly, Arpit doesn't study hard “because of getting a good GMAT score.” If we think about that phrase literally (in sentence #3), the sequencing is wrong, because it suggests that getting a good GMAT score is the cause, and “Arpit studies hard” is the effect. And that makes no sense at all.

But #4 and #5 both make plenty of sense, because they clarify that Arpit studies in order to achieve the goal of a good GMAT score. We probably don’t need the phrase “in order to”, when just “to” would suffice. But either #4 or #5 are fine.

If you feel clear about everything I just wrote, then stop, and retry the original question above. If it still doesn’t work for you, then keep reading…


Before we get into the meaning stuff, there’s a nice parallelism error that we can work with: “…in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding…” That’s not pretty.

And perhaps more importantly, the meaning makes no sense here, largely because of the word “should.” (See example #1, above.) So (A) is out.


(B) has the same parallelism error as (A): in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers and partly because crossbreeding…” That’s still not pretty, and it’s enough to eliminate (B).

For whatever it’s worth, I’m also not crazy about the phrase “for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers.” You wouldn’t say “Arpit studies hard for getting a good GMAT score”, right? It makes much more sense to say “Arpit studies hard to get a good GMAT score” – and it would make more sense to say “cattle breeders have used crossbreeding… to acquire characteristics in their steers…”

In any case, the parallelism is enough to eliminate (B), and we definitely have better options below.


(C) has exactly the same problem as example #3, above. (C) seems to get the causality confused, because it suggests that the steers acquired certain characteristics first, and because of that, ranchers decided to use crossbreeding. That’s illogical: the steers acquired characteristics because the ranchers used crossbreeding, and not the other way around.

So (C) is gone.


(D) has the same problem as examples #1 and #2 above. The use of “should” is just wrong here, because it implies some sort of value judgment: maybe my wife thinks that I “should” be more efficient at changing dirty diapers, or maybe you think that I “should” eat less bhindi masala. (Personally, I think that I “should” eat more bhindi masala, but that’s just my opinion.)

But that makes no sense in this case: ranchers are using crossbreeding in order to accomplish something, not because they “should” accomplish something. For that reason, (D) can be eliminated.


Here we go, this one looks more like #5 in our examples above. The parallelism is fine now (“partly” and “partly” are parallel), and it’s clear that the ranchers are crossbreeding for the purpose of acquiring characteristics in their steers.

It sounds terrible, in my opinion. (But by now you probably know that your ear is not your friend on GMAT SC, right?) Because (E) is the only answer choice that makes logical sense, it is the correct answer.

Hey GMATBull,

See my explanation on this. Your explanation is not correct. It would be nice if answer choice E gave us the parallel of "partly to acquire" and "partly to provide", but that isn't how parallel works. The fact that both parallel elements (the stuff after "partly") happens to have a form of the infinitive somewhere ("to acquire" and "to provide") is sheer coincidence. The part that we would typically want to be parallel should come right after the marker. For the parallel you want to be important to exist, it would need to say "partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers and partly to provide vigor." The "because crossbreeding is said" ruins the parallel you're thinking about, because the "to" that comes before provide is actually part of the idiom "said to", entirely different from the "to" we get after "partly". Hope that makes sense!

-tommy

In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.

(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics
(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers
(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics
(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers
(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of the crucial part of this sentence is that cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, partly for the purpose of acquiring new characteristics in their steers.

Concepts tested here: Parallelism + Grammatical Construction + Meaning + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• Any elements linked by a conjunction (“and” in this sentence) must be parallel.
• “should” is used to convey a sense of obligation/desirability.

A: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “should acquire certain characteristics”; the use of the word “should” incorrectly implies that cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding partly because it is necessary/desirable that their steer acquire certain characteristics; the intended meaning is that cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, partly for the purpose of acquiring new characteristics in their steers; please remember, “should” is used to convey a sense of obligation/desirability. Further, Option A fails to maintain parallelism between “in part that their…steers” and “partly because…vigor”; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction (“and” in this sentence) must be parallel. Additionally, Option A uses the needlessly wordy phrase “in part that”, leading to awkwardness.

B: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between “in part for the…steers” and “partly because…vigor"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction (“and” in this sentence) must be parallel. Further, Option B uses the needlessly wordy phrase “in part for the acquisition of”, leading to awkwardness.

C: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics”; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding partly because their steers have already acquired certain characteristics; the intended meaning is that cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, partly for the purpose of acquiring new characteristics in their steers.

D: Trap. This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “certain characteristics should be acquired”; the use of the word “should” incorrectly implies that cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding partly because it is necessary/desirable that their steer acquire certain characteristics; the intended meaning is that cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, partly for the purpose of acquiring new characteristics in their steers; please remember, “should” is used to convey a sense of obligation/desirability. Further, Option D uses the passive voice construction “certain characteristics should be acquired”, rendering it needlessly indirect and wordy.

E: Correct. This answer choice uses the phrase “partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers”, conveying the intended meaning- that cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, partly for the purpose of acquiring new characteristics in their steers. Further, Option E maintains parallelism between “partly to acquire…steers” and “partly because…vigor”. Additionally, Option E is free of awkwardness and redundancy.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding (for 2 reasons)...partly to acquire certain characteristics and partly to provide hybrid vigor.
E does it nicely, parallel, and retains the original meaning.

We can eliminate A and B as they contain the incorrect idiom 'in part".

In C,D and E

'their' in C is ambiguous.

We can eliminate D because of the passive construction.
E is correct as it has 'to acquire' is parallel with 'to provide'

Hi dasa2013,

Thanks for posting your question here.

You have a doubt that confuses a lot of people who solve this question. You have understood the meaning of the sentence well. There are two reasons why the cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding:

a. to acquire certain characteristics in their steers and
b. to provide hybrid vigor.

However, the second reason is not a sure condition. It is believed that crossbreeding provides hybrid vigor to cattle. Hence, it is not possible that these two reason can be written in perfect identical parallel structures. The word "partly" before both the reasons are enough to make the two reasons parallel.

A thing to note here is that this is a very one of its kind questions and such usages are not very common on GMAT.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
SJ

Hello. I saw a lot of debates between D and E. Here is my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.

(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics
Wrong.

(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers
Wrong.

(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics
Wrong. Parallelism problem.

(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers
Wrong. D has meaning problem. Logically, cattle breeders use crossbreeding TO acquire good characteristics in their steers. Their current steers, living animals, CAN'T acquire anything.
For example, is your dog able to acquire good characteristics from other dogs. Absolutely NOT, how can a living dog acquire characteristics form other dogs? you can only acquire good characteristics in your dog TO create a new kind of dog that has good characteristics as those of your dog. Thus, D can't be correct.

(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers
Correct.

Hope it helps

Hi GMATNinja

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Yet I still miss the point, how these two parts are parallel.

In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, (1) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers partly and (2) partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.

First one is a prepositional phrase with infinitive of purpose
"partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers partly"

AND

Second one is a prepositional phrase with full set of NOUN+VERB
"partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor"

Can I infer a general rule that two parts can be parallel no matter what if they are of the same part of the speech?
E.g. simple adverb AND adverbal phrase/clause, prepositional clause AND prepositional, noun AND noun modified by relative clause etc

Thanks!

Good question! In most instances, thinking about the sentence logically will serve you better than trying to internalize the vast array of constructions that can be linked by conjunctions such as "and."

In this case, "and" connects two phrases that describe why cattle breeders use cross-breeding. Anything that describes why an action is happening is an adverb, since it modifies a verb. So the word "and" links two parallel modifiers (adverbial modifiers, if you enjoy jargon):

1) partly to acquire characteristics in their steers
2) partly because cross-breeding provides hybrid vigor

Put another way: you don't want to get thrown off by the fact that these two phrases look different. Instead, you want to see that they're doing the same thing: describing why an action is taking place. So it's perfectly reasonable to say that these elements of the sentence are parallel.

I hope that helps!

I do not think that it would be advisable to eliminate an option just because it has passive construction. The answer should be E but your reasoning can be dangerous.

Parallelism and, mostly, meaning


In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.


(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics ---- "in part" is not completely parallel to "partly". Additionally, "should" is wrong, as the cattle breeders are using crossbreeding, not giving an option to the steers as to whether they can acquire the characteristics but FORCING THEM to acquire those characteristics.

(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers ---- "in part" is not completely parallel to "partly". Additionally, "to acquire" is more direct and, thus, preferable to "for the acquisition"

(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics ---- The steers do not acquire the characteristics by themselves, rather the breeders force these characteristics into them.

(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers ---- "Should" is wrong, as the cattle breeders are using crossbreeding, not giving an option to the steers as to whether they can acquire the characteristics but FORCING THEM to acquire those characteristics.

(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers --- CORRECT

Isn't this a bit strange use of 'acquire' ? Doesn't 'acquire' mean to take/obtain/get something ? Here it is used as to give/instill/provide. The opposite of how 'acquire' is generally used. Is this an idiomatic usage ?

Hi altairahmad,

I'm not very sure about this, but "get/obtain" is exactly how I read that acquire. The animals would be considered the property of the breeders, so perhaps the sentence is actually trying to tell us that the breeders are obtaining something (the something being "certain characteristics in their steers"). It'd be great to get more opinions on this though.

Request Expert Reply:
Q1:
In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, partly (because crossbreeding is said) to acquire certain characteristics in their steers and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.

Is this the example of 'ellipsis'?

Q2:
I choose D, because it seems that 'and' the parallel marker and passive form ('...should be acquired' and '...crossbreeding is said') is used to make parallel each other.

Hi

The first sentence can not be said to be an ellipsis. The "acquire certain characteristics" is definite and is not subject to any doubt as per the original sentence. Including "said" in that portion brings in some uncertainty which would not be consistent with the meaning of the sentence. Also, for ellipsis, the omitted word(s) must already have occurred earlier in the sentence (for example: Amanda’s dress is prettier than Sandra’s (dress)) which is not the case here.

Option (D) has a meaning problem. The "should" distorts the intended meaning of the sentence. Cattle breeders cross breed because they want certain characteristics (the intent is shown by the word "to acquire") and not because the steers "should" acquire anything.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for the explanation.
At first I was confused between D and E, like a lot of people perhaps , but now I understand the reason for choosing E.
Out of curiosity, is "in part" grammatically correct? can we use "in part" instead of "partly"?
Thanks!

in part: prepositional phrase
partly: adjective phrase

for sentence to be in right parallelism , both of them either should be in part or partly , but not together at the same time.