Stymieing the Armada’s plans to meet up with the Duke

[rustom.hakimiyan]

Stymieing the Armada’s plans to meet up with the Duke of Parma’s army off the coast of Flanders, the reason for the defeat of the Spanish Armada was not only due to gale winds that favored the British but also the sacrificing of eight war ships as "fire ships," vessels filled with flammable materials and sent downwind toward the closely-anchored Spanish fleet.

A)Stymieing the Armada’s plans to meet up with the Duke of Parma’s army off the coast of Flanders, the reason for the defeat of the Spanish Armada was not only due to gale winds that favored the British but also the sacrificing

B)The defeat of the Spanish Armada, which stymied the Armada’s plans to meet up with the Duke of Parma’s army off the coast of Flanders, was not only due to gale winds that favored the British but also the sacrifice

C)The defeat of the Spanish Armada, which stymied the Armada’s plans to meet up with the Duke of Parma’s army off the coast of Flanders, was not only due to gale winds that favored the British but also the sacrificing

D)Stymieing the Armada’s plans to meet up with the Duke of Parma’s army off the coast of Flanders, the reason for the defeat of the Spanish Armada was not only gale winds that favored the British but also the sacrificing

E)Stymieing the Armada’s plans to meet up with the Duke of Parma’s army off the coast of Flanders, the defeat of the Spanish Armada was due not only to gale winds that favored the British but also to the sacrifice

I received this question in my MGMAT CAT:

I'm trying to figure out why C is wrong? Isn't "gale winds" parallel to "the sacrificing of" since the latter is a complex gerund?

The thing I do see wrong with it(as I was trying to dissect this statement) is that not only X(due to gale winds)...but also (this is missing "due to"?) Is that correct?

Lastly, for E -- "to gale winds" vs. "to the sacrifice". I thought that the "the" in "the sacrifice" ruined parallelism because it made the latter an infinitive. Why am I wrong? It seems as though the "the" always throws me off.

OA is E.

Thanks!

[RonPurewal]

I'm trying to figure out why C is wrong? Isn't "gale winds" parallel to "the sacrificing of" since the latter is a complex gerund?

I don't know what "complex gerund" means. (Weirdly, Google/the internet doesn't seem to know, either.)

"- If a verb has a specific noun form, then that form is better in parallel to another noun.
E.g., you'd take "the destruction", not "the destroying", in parallel to a noun.
Same with "the sacrifice" > "the sacrificing".

"- More importantly, these constructions are not parallel at all.
not only due to gale winds
but also the sacrificing
With "not only ____ but also ____", the "blanks" are in set places (after the signal words). You can't ignore the "due to", which ruins the parallelism regardless of the "sacrifice" issue.

[RonPurewal]

Lastly, for E -- "to gale winds" vs. "to the sacrifice". I thought that the "the" in "the sacrifice" ruined parallelism because it made the latter an infinitive. Why am I wrong? It seems as though the "the" always throws me off.

The GMAT has never tested "a"/"an"/"the", and almost certainly never will.
Ignore any differences that might involve "a"/"an"/"the". They are nothing more than distractions.

[JuanA115]

E)Stymieing the Armada’s plans to meet up with the Duke of Parma’s army off the coast of Flanders, the defeat of the Spanish Armada was due not only to gale winds that favored the British but also to the sacrifice

Ron, I would like to ask you the following:

Was the defeat that stymied the Armada´s plans?? That doesn´t make sense to me and that´s why I chose option B, knowing that the not only x but Y part is not paralell. But option E doesn´t seemed logical.

Thanks in advance

[RonPurewal]

what event got in the way of their plans?
the defeat did.

[RonPurewal]

I chose option B, knowing that the not only x but Y part is not paralell.

this is a bit mystifying, by the way. if you see something that's clearly a black-and-white error, don't pick it! ever!

[Binit]

Hi Ron,
That's a great piece of advice. I thought that I luckily got this correct but actually 'sacrificing' seemed so wrong to me that I only looked for parallelism and chose E, because other all choices had ll'ism errors.

~Binit.

[BuddyI826]

Hello Experts

I got this correct. I did notice the structure not parallel in Not only...But also

My query: I eliminated B & C because for 1 more reason.
The placement of WHICH is wrong here since its the defeat that stymied ..... NOT Armada.

Is my understanding correct?

I did not understanding the meaning of stymied but I think that's not a big issue.

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

no. "which" can stand for noun + preposition + other noun.
(see #29 in OG 13th/2015 edition.)

[Jov]

I recently got this question in test. I understand E is the best answer but i have one doubt about it.

Can we split "due to" which is a fixed expression.?

Stymieing the Armada’s plans to meet up with the Duke of Parma’s army off the coast of Flanders, the defeat of the Spanish Armada was due not only to gale winds that favored the British but also to the sacrifice.

Please give some example.

[elenas903]

no. "which" can stand for noun + preposition + other noun.
(see #29 in OG 13th/2015 edition.)

Ron,

Can you please advise how to approach step by step such cumbersome questions and get them correct in 1.5 min?
I did not understand to what the opening modifier related but focused on the reason for defeat vs defeat.
Am I correct saying that the approach should be more technical with lengthy sentences unless there is no play with meaning?

thanks
elena

[RonPurewal]

sorry, but, it's not possible to give an all-encompassing strategy for sentence correction problems in a single forum post.

"cumbersome" questions are not fundamentally different from other problems.
the FIRST step is still to understand the intended meaning of the sentence—after which you should look for "splits" or differences that are accessible to you.

[BenjaminD155]

Are both "the sacrificing" and "the sacrifice" correct in this context?

[RonPurewal]

"the sacrifice" is better. that's explained here
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... tml#p50089