The following text is adapted from a 2020 business communication study. During the quarterly planning session, urgent client updates began...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
The following text is adapted from a 2020 business communication study.
During the quarterly planning session, urgent client updates began arriving. The regional manager's phone kept receiving multiple messages from her team members at the external meeting site. Despite her concentration on budget spreadsheets, she could hear each notification alert.
As used in the text, what does the word "receiving" most nearly mean?
Sending
Getting
Deleting
Forwarding
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "During the quarterly planning session, urgent client updates began arriving." |
|
| "The regional manager's phone kept receiving multiple messages from her team members at the external meeting site." |
|
| "Despite her concentration on budget spreadsheets, she could hear each notification alert." |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: A regional manager's phone continuously receives messages during a planning session, creating audible distractions despite her attempts to focus on work.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes a business meeting context, then identifies the specific interruption (phone receiving messages from team members), and concludes by showing how these interruptions affected the manager's concentration through the audible alerts.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- In this context, we're talking about a phone and messages
- The phone "kept receiving multiple messages" - so we need a word that describes what a phone does when messages are sent to it
- The phone is obtaining or taking in messages that are being sent from the team members
- So the right answer should describe the action of obtaining or taking in messages that are being transmitted to the phone
Sending
✗ Incorrect
- "Sending" means transmitting messages outward to others
- This is the opposite of what the phone is doing - it's getting messages, not sending them
- Trap: Students might confuse the direction of communication
Getting
✓ Correct
- "Getting" perfectly captures what the phone is doing - obtaining messages sent to it
- This matches our prethinking about the phone taking in or obtaining messages
Deleting
✗ Incorrect
- "Deleting" refers to removing or erasing messages
- Nothing in the passage suggests the messages are being deleted - they're causing notification alerts that the manager can hear
Forwarding
✗ Incorrect
- "Forwarding" means sending messages along to someone else
- The passage doesn't mention the phone sending these messages to anyone else