The following text is adapted from a corporate compliance report. Sarah is a department manager responsible for enforcing company policies....
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
The following text is adapted from a corporate compliance report. Sarah is a department manager responsible for enforcing company policies.
Sarah spent considerable time each week reviewing employee timesheets, monitoring break durations, and ensuring that her staff followed every protocol outlined in the company handbook, yet she consistently arrived late to meetings and failed to observe the same punctuality standards she demanded from her team.
As used in the text, what does the word "observe" most nearly mean?
Watch carefully and monitor
Take into account and follow
Notice and become aware of
Celebrate and acknowledge
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Sarah spent considerable time each week reviewing employee timesheets, monitoring break durations, and ensuring that her staff followed every protocol outlined in the company handbook," |
|
| "yet she consistently arrived late to meetings and failed to observe the same punctuality standards she demanded from her team." |
|
Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Visual Structure Map: [SARAH'S STRICT MANAGEMENT] → Reviews timesheets, Monitors breaks, Ensures protocol compliance → [CONTRASTING REALITY] → Arrives late to meetings, Fails to observe same standards
Main Point: Sarah enforces strict standards on her employees but doesn't follow the same standards herself.
Argument Flow: The passage first establishes Sarah as a meticulous manager who carefully monitors every aspect of her employees' compliance with company policies. Then it reveals the ironic contradiction: despite her strict enforcement of rules on others, she fails to follow the same punctuality standards she demands from her team.
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
- Looking at our passage analysis, Sarah "failed to observe the same punctuality standards she demanded from her team."
- The key context here is that these are standards she "demanded" - meaning rules or requirements she expected others to follow.
- When someone fails to "observe" standards that are demanded or required, it means they're not following them, not complying with them, not adhering to them.
- The word "observe" in this context isn't about watching or noticing - it's about actually following or complying with the standards.
- Sarah knew what the standards were (she demanded them from others), so the issue isn't awareness or celebration - it's about her failure to actually follow the same rules she enforced on others.
Watch carefully and monitor
- "Watch carefully and monitor" focuses on observation in the sense of surveillance.
- This doesn't fit the context - Sarah already knew the standards and wasn't trying to watch them.
- The passage shows she failed to do something with the standards, not failed to watch them.
Take into account and follow
- "Take into account and follow" captures both understanding and compliance.
- This perfectly matches our context - Sarah failed to follow/comply with the punctuality standards.
- The phrase "take into account and follow" emphasizes that she should have both considered and adhered to these standards, just as she expected her team to do.
Notice and become aware of
- "Notice and become aware of" suggests the problem was lack of awareness.
- But Sarah clearly knew about punctuality standards since she "demanded" them from her team.
- The issue wasn't her awareness - it was her failure to follow what she already knew.
Celebrate and acknowledge
- "Celebrate and acknowledge" implies positive recognition or praise.
- This doesn't make sense in context - why would someone "celebrate" punctuality standards?
- The sentence structure "failed to observe" suggests she should have been doing something with the standards, not celebrating them.