A neutron star, as small as 12 miles in diameter but containing half

Take another look at (C) in its entirety: "A neutron star, 12 miles in diameter but it contains half as much matter as the Sun , has a gravitational force at its surface about 67 billion times greater than that on Earth."

The part in blue, "12 miles in diameter" is functioning like an adjective, describing "a neutron star." That's fine. The word "but" connects this adjective to the part in red, "it contains half as much matter as the Sun," which is an independent clause. There are a lot of fun ways we can modify a noun, but using an independent clause to do so isn't one of them.

Take a silly example: "The clown, happy on the surface but dying inside, decided halfway through his show to abandon his performance and go into management consulting, confusing a room full of three-year-olds." The two phrases in red are both functioning as adjectives describing this tortured clown. That's fine. However, if I write, "the clown, happy on the surface but he is sad inside," I've now made the same error we see in (C), using an adjectival phrase (in red) and a full clause (in blue) as modifiers. That's a no-no.

I hope that helps!
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D/E are wrong because it says a diameter which modifies the neutron star and star is not a diameter.

B changes the meaning to nonsense one by saying matter of sun. Hence wrong.
C : the clause after BUT is incorrectly used here in the modifying phrase. A correctly uses the modifying construction hence is correct

Hope this helps..!!

A neutron star, as small as 12 miles in dismeter but containing half as much matter as the Sun, has a gravitational force at its surface about 67 billinon times greater than that on Earth.

a) correct

b) 12 miles in diameter but contains half the matter of the Sun.(Phrase has to be participial otherwise will create a fragment )

c) 12 miles in diameter but it contains half as much matter as the Sun (same as above)

d) a diameter of 12 miles but containing half as much matter as the Sun's (sun's usage is wrong)

e) a diameter of 12 miles but contains half the Sun's matter (looks like the start has taken half of sun's matter)

Can you pls explain the difference between A and D.

Hi Ashutosh,

D is essentially saying ...contains half as much matter as the Sun's (matter). So that is matter of matter. This is non sensical. So use A over D.

Hi GMATNinja chetan2u

Whats the problem in C here? Can you please help.

Thanks!

GMATNinja chetan2u daagh @mikemcgerry

Can you comment help understand OA? 'as much as' should compare tow clauses but here is compares adjective ' containing ........' and 'Sun'. I assumes there is omitted verb in the clause 'the sun contains or does'.

No, it does not compare containing with sun...
The portion after the COMMA modifies the noun prior to the comma and that is neutron star.
So the neutron star is being modified by two phrases - as small as 12 miles in diameter and containing as much matter as sun..
BUT has been used to show the contrast in the two phrases..

So if I read the 2nd phrase directly onto the noun it modifies..
A neutron star, containing as much matter as the Sun,....
So ' as much as' compares the matter that star contains with the matter that the sun contains...
So comparison is between sun and the neutron star.

And of course, contains after sun has been omitted ...
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At the beginning of the underlined portion, we have a split between "12 miles in diameter" and "a diameter of 12 miles"
A neutron star can be "as small as 12 miles in diameter" because 12 miles refers to size.
You can't be "as small as a diameter of 12 miles"
Eliminate D and E.

In C, it doesn't make sense to add "it" because of the phrase between the comma is a descriptive phrase:
This breaks the parallelism of "as small as... but it" and doesn't make much sense to repeat the subject again.
Eliminate C

Between A and B: B warps the meaning with "contains half the matter of the Sun"
It's basically saying that neutron stars literally contain half of the matter of the sun, which is illogical.
We want to say that neutron stars contain half of the matter that the sun has, and A does that very well.
We can also argue that "contains" in B breaks the parallelism because it's not an adjective
While in A "as small as 12 miles... but containing" both are adjectives.

A is the Answer!

Why sun's matter is omitted in (A) for correct comparisons with the star?

Hi Lakshya, you answer your own question: the comparison is with the star.

So, we can logically only compare sun with the star; it would be illogical to compare sun's matter with the star.

On the other hand, following improvised sentence would correctly compare star's matter with sun's matter:

A neutron star's matter is half as much as the Sun's matter.
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GMATNinja
Why did you eliminate option D and E on the basis of 'a diameter of 12 miles', when both 'a diameter of 12 miles' and '12 miles in diameter' are units of length.
Could you please explain on this.

Hi DivyanshuGupta61
Here D and E are not eliminated because of units but the placement of "diameter" in sentence.
A neutron star, as small as what ?
1. Diameter- As small as diameter ???
Diameter itself doesn't quantify anything hence wrong.

2.12 miles- As small as 12 miles in diameter
Correct meaning.

Hope it helps

Here's the official explanation provided by the GMAC for this question:

The sentence describes features of neutron stars: they are much smaller than both Earth and the Sun but can contain half as much matter as the Sun and have gravitational force much greater than that of Earth. The sentence correctly conjoins two parallel adjectival phrases with but and is otherwise clear and correctly formed.

Option A: Correct. This version is a coherent and grammatically correct sentence. In the phrase containing … the Sun, the verb form containing functions correctly as an adjectival modifier of a neutron star.

Option B: Given the verb contains, the portion following but is not an adjectival modifier. It is nonparallel to the adjectival phrase preceding but and cannot be correctly conjoined with it. This flaw undermines the structural and grammatical integrity of the sentence as a whole.Furthermore, the wording with of confusingly suggests that the matter contained in a neutron star includes half of the Sun's matter.

Option C: The portion following but is an independent clause and cannot be correctly conjoined using but with the adjectival phrase preceding but. This flaw undermines the structural and grammatical integrity of the sentence as a whole.

Option D: The phrasing as small as a diameter … nonsensically compares a star with a diameter. The possessive form Sun’s is incorrect; the intended comparison is between a neutron star and the Sun with respect to the quantity of matter each contains.

Option E: The phrasing as small as a diameter … nonsensically compares a star with a diameter. Given the verb form contains, the portion following but is not an adjectival modifier. It is nonparallel to the adjectival phrase preceding but and cannot be correctly conjoined with it. This flaw undermines the structural and grammatical integrity of the sentence as a whole. Moreover, contains half the Sun’s matter absurdly suggests that a neutron star contains a portion of the matter that is contained in the Sun.

The correct answer is A.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.

please explain
how is the word contains understood from the context??

the word contains is not written earlier anywhere in the sentence.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi

A neutron star, containing half as much matter as the sun, has
The adjective ‘containing half ..’ tells us that we are talking of matter contained in the two, but the comparison is between the neutron star and the sun.
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Hello! In this question A choice, phrase "containing half as much matter as the sun" doesnt seem correct. this doesnt seem to make a logical comparison. If it would have been, "containing half as much matter as the sun does/contains" would make a logical comparison, but here without this it seems wrong to me. is there a hidden ellipsis? Please tell where I am going wrong. GMATNinja DmitryFarber AndrewN

Hello, pk6969. I think you are overlooking the relationship established by the modifier and the as comparison marker, the one that in the sentence compares a noun to another noun. There is no ambiguity surrounding what is being compared, so the repetition or substitution of the action contains is unnecessary. Consider the following parallel sentence: The elephant, weighing as much as two SUVs, can cause significant damage during a stampede. There is, again, no doubt about what is being compared, weight to weight, noun to noun. Contrast this with another, somewhat similar sentence: Bankers, often carrying as much money as accountants, make prime targets for pickpockets. Here, we cannot qualify whether the comparison is between the amount of money that bankers carry versus the amount carried by accountants or between the amount of money, as opposed to accountants, that bankers carry (silly though that interpretation may be). Thus, a substitution for the verb carry would be appropriate: Bankers, often carrying as much money as do accountants, make prime targets for pickpockets. (The GMAT™ often prefers the placement of the substituted verb ahead of the noun.)

I hope that helps clarify the matter. Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew
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Shouldnt we be comparing Matter of the star with the matter of the sun? as in D