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Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink]
 05 Apr 2006, 06:39
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Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people,it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.
A. Pacific has a population of only a few million people,it is
B. Pacific has a population of only a few million people,they are
C. Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is
D.Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless
E. Pacific, is populated by only a few million people, yet they are
Please provide explanations as well...
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Director
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I am going with A.
constellation is singular and so it should be refered as "it"
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Intern
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I did choose 'A' as well. However OA is given as 'B'. This is from GMATPrep.
Any thoughts ?
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Manager
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The small islands are home to 6,000 langauges, not the constellation. Vast constellation modifies small islands.
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Director
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I am really getting confused here...
Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people,it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.
When has refers to constellation, shouldnt it also refer to constellation ?
Initially I had a doubt as to how a constellation can be home to these people. The island had to be home. But because of the structure of the sentence I went for A as I have seen similar structures where the answer leads to A. I have to dig that out from somewhere.
Can someone explain this please.
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Ethan wrote: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people,it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.
A. Pacific has a population of only a few million people,it is
B. Pacific has a population of only a few million people,they are
C. Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is
D.Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless
E. Pacific, is populated by only a few million people, yet they are
Please provide explanations as well...
My choice: A.
A - Looks good. keep. S- V sgreement . vast constellation - has
B - pronoun andecedant failure. 'they' has no logical andecedant
C - no need for and when sentece startes with 'although'.(I don't know the technical grammatical term for this!)
D - wrong verb tense - having
E - Although - yet. Clearly wrong
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VP
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If small islands is the subject then should'nt
Pacific has a population of only a few million people be
Pacific have a population of only a few million people ?
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VP
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A. Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.
subject = the vast constellation; verb = has
subject = it; verb = is
it refers to 'the vast constellation'.
Last edited by Professor on 05 Apr 2006, 19:09, edited 1 time in total.
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Senior Manager
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kripalkavi wrote:
My choice: A.
A - Looks good. keep. S- V sgreement . vast constellation - has
B - pronoun andecedant failure. 'they' has no logical andecedant
C - no need for and when sentece startes with 'although'.(I don't know the technical grammatical term for this!)
D - wrong verb tense - having
E - Although - yet. Clearly wrong
Agree with A,
just FYI
In C although works as subordinating conjuction... and if we use and it will becode coordinating conjuction...
http://wwwnew.towson.edu/ows/conjunctions.htm
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Director
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Professor wrote: A. Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.
subject = the vast constellation; verb = has
subject = it; verb = is
it refers to 'the vast constellation'.
Professor I answered 'A' as well (the same reason as you explained).
But the OA is 'B'.
I'm confused. 
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VP
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M8 wrote: Professor wrote: A. Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.
subject = the vast constellation; verb = has
subject = it; verb = is
it refers to 'the vast constellation'. Professor I answered 'A' as well (the same reason as you explained). But the OA is 'B'. I'm confused. thats true. i too overlooked cuz it doesnot clearly refer to "the constallation". since there are two singular nouns, so "it" could refer to "south pacific" as well. therefore A is incorrect.
but "they" has only one referent i.e. "small ilands". therefore B is perfect.
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Director
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Professor wrote: M8 wrote: Professor wrote: A. Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.
subject = the vast constellation; verb = has
subject = it; verb = is
it refers to 'the vast constellation'. Professor I answered 'A' as well (the same reason as you explained). But the OA is 'B'. I'm confused. thats true. i too overlooked cuz it doesnot clearly refer to "the constallation". since there are two singular nouns, so "it" could refer to "south pacific" as well. therefore A is incorrect. but "they" has only one referent i.e. "small ilands". therefore B is perfect. very good explaination 
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Senior Manager
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I'm going to bring this one back from the dead b/c my GMATPrep test gives an OA of A.
I initially chose A for singular S-V agreement...a constellation of small islands..has and is - this seemed correct to me, that "is" refers to the constellation of small islands and not to the people.
HOWEVER, I had seen this post and chose B b/c I thought it was the OA. 
Attachments
pacific.jpg [ 131.31 KiB | Viewed 574 times ]
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Director
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Professor wrote: M8 wrote: Professor wrote: A. Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.
subject = the vast constellation; verb = has
subject = it; verb = is
it refers to 'the vast constellation'. Professor I answered 'A' as well (the same reason as you explained). But the OA is 'B'. I'm confused. thats true. i too overlooked cuz it doesnot clearly refer to "the constallation". since there are two singular nouns, so "it" could refer to "south pacific" as well. therefore A is incorrect. but "they" has only one referent i.e. "small ilands". therefore B is perfect. What if,
instead of few million people if we have another plural noun (few million peopls is also a plural noun) for eg:- few million trees they will still be ambiguous..
Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a vegetation of few million trees, they are home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.
Need some helping hands...
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Senior Manager
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I think the answer should be A because the referrent for "they" is ambiguous. It could refer to islands, and it could refer to people (although not logically).
Using "it" clearly refers to the singular subject - Group of small islands.
Its a little scary that I can easily talk myself in and out of these answer choices. I dont know which way is up anymore.. I wish GMATPrep would pick an answer and stick to it.
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SVP
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Will go with B.
The subject is plural here. Agree constellation is singular but notie the word "dot" this implies that the subject is small islands not constellation. Hence use of they is required.
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SVP
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How can OA be B?!!!
I don't think the use of "they" is correct for it avoids the ambiguousity of two singular nouns. The sentence expresses the contrasting features of a common subject that is the constellation, so the use of "it" is not ambiguous, people can easily tell that "it" points to discussed subject.
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Current Student
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I would have argued (A) to the end. constellation of ~ is singular.
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Manager
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laxieqv wrote: How can OA be B?!!!
I don't think the use of "they" is correct for it avoids the ambiguousity of two singular nouns. The sentence expresses the contrasting features of a common subject that is the constellation, so the use of "it" is not ambiguous, people can easily tell that "it" points to discussed subject.
I believe it should be A.
two have two dependent clauses, one must logically refer to the other. the subject of the first clause is constellation...it can't be island which is part of the prepositional phrase and not island because it comes after the relative pronoum "that". "it" refers to constellation, which is singular.
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SVP
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I would have voted for "A".
"A" looks better in a smooth flow of the sentence than "B".
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