While most chefs view overcooking as a culinary failure, renowned chef Marcus Chen discovered that slightly charring vegetables in his...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
While most chefs view overcooking as a culinary failure, renowned chef Marcus Chen discovered that slightly charring vegetables in his signature dish ______ unexpected depth of flavor, transforming what seemed like a mistake into his restaurant's most requested appetizer.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
provided
corrected
eliminated
redirected
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "While most chefs view overcooking as a culinary failure," |
|
| "renowned chef Marcus Chen discovered that slightly charring vegetables in his signature dish _____ unexpected depth of flavor," |
|
| "transforming what seemed like a mistake into his restaurant's most requested appetizer." |
|
Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Chef Marcus Chen turned what most consider a cooking mistake (charring) into a successful technique that created his restaurant's most popular dish.
Argument Flow: The passage sets up the conventional wisdom that overcooking is bad, then contrasts this with Marcus Chen's discovery that charring actually enhanced flavor, ultimately leading to commercial success.
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, we see that Marcus Chen's charring technique created "unexpected depth of flavor" - this was a positive outcome that contrasts with the conventional view that overcooking is bad
- The missing verb needs to describe how charring accomplished this flavor enhancement
- The context tells us charring was the cause and "unexpected depth of flavor" was the effect
- So we need a verb that shows charring was responsible for creating or supplying this enhanced flavor
provided
- Creates the logical cause-and-effect relationship: charring provided the depth of flavor
- Matches our prethinking perfectly - charring supplied/gave the enhanced flavor
- Makes grammatical and logical sense in context
corrected
- This would mean charring fixed something about the depth of flavor
- Does not make sense - the flavor was not wrong and did not need correction
eliminated
- This would mean charring removed the depth of flavor
- Completely contradicts the positive outcome described in the passage
redirected
- This would mean charring changed the direction of the depth of flavor
- Does not fit the context - we are not talking about changing direction but creating something