Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
A. Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
B. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that worked well in the past, makes missing signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting ones likely when they do appear.
C. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action is likely to miss or misinterpret signs of incipient trouble when they do appear, especially if it has worked well in the past.
D. Executives’ being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear.
E. Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
Correct Answer Below (so you don’t see it while reviewing the question)
Explanation for: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action
I’d put this “heavy commitment” question into the modifiers bucket. You often see that sentences that are fully (or almost fully) underlined will have a modifier/order/proximity issue. Your job is to get related items together to ensure clarity.
Although the big flashing light says modifier there are other little issues to analyze that could be easier for you namely, pronoun ambiguity/agreement and use of apostrophe/possessive form.
As always, to excel at GMAT sentence correction: be flexible. Avoid going WWI trench warfare on one aspect of the sentence.
Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
(A) Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
Who is missing the signs or misinterpreting them? It’s very unclear that it is the executive.
(B) An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that worked well in the past, makes missing signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting ones likely when they do appear.
Who is missing the signs or misinterpreting them? It’s very unclear that it is the executive.
(C) An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action is likely to miss or misinterpret signs of incipient trouble when they do appear, especially if it has worked well in the past.
Especially if what has worked well in the past? This is describing the course of action but course of action is too far away.
(D) Executives’ being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear.
The possessive Executives’ doesn’t work. Also, the pronoun “them” is referring back to the possessive Executives’. That’s generally not OK on the GMAT. You need an appropriate target for them, preferably an actual group of people, executives not executives’.
(E) Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
Makes it very clear that it is the executive missing signs or misinterpreting them. Also makes it clear that it is the course of action that has worked well in the past. The order/proximity of related items makes this option the clearest.
Correct Answer: E
Summing it up: Heavy commitment by an executive…
-Lots of underline = high probability of modifier/proximity issue
-For modifiers, get things in the right order and group related things to ensure clarity
-On all GMAT SC: be flexible. 99% of the time there are multiple paths through a question. Take an inventory of errors and attack the easiest.
For some SC guidance, here’s a link to a breakdown of GMAT sentence correction.