Although they are less obvious, termites does significantly

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended core meaning of this sentence is that termites do significantly more damage to homes than tree branches do.

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Pronouns + Meaning + Comparisons + Idioms

• "more" and "less" must have a logical sequence with "than"; in a comparison, "more/less...than" is the idiomatic construction
• A comparison must always be made between similar elements.
• The comparative forms are used to compare two elements and superlative forms are used to compare more than two elements.

A: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun "termites" with the singular verb "does". Further, Option A incorrectly compares the amount of damage "termites" do to homes to "branches from trees" rather than with the amount of damage "branches from trees" do to "homes"; please remember, a comparison must always be made between similar elements.

B: This answer choice uses the phrase "the most damage to significant homes", leading to an incoherent meaning; the use of the superlative form "the most" to compare two elements leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that termites do significantly more damage to homes than tree branches do; please remember, the comparative forms are used to compare two elements and superlative forms are used to compare more than two elements.

C: The sentence formed by this answer choice incorrectly uses the plural pronoun "they" to refer to the singular noun "the termite". Further, Option C incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction "more...as" rather than the idiomatic construction "more...than"; please remember, "more" must have a logical sequence with "than"; in a comparison, "more...than" is the idiomatic construction.

D: This answer choice incorrectly compares the amount of damage "termites" do to homes to "branches from trees" rather than with the amount of damage "branches from trees" do to "homes"; please remember, a comparison must always be made between similar elements.

E: Correct. The sentence formed by this answer choice correctly uses the plural pronoun "they" and the plural verb "do" to refer to the plural noun "termites". Further, Option E correctly uses the comparative form "more" to compare two elements, conveying the intended meaning - that termites do significantly more damage to homes than tree branches do. Additionally, Option E correctly compares the amount of damage "termites" do to homes to the amount of damage "branches from trees" do to "homes". Besides, Option E correctly uses the idiomatic construction "more...than".

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Please correct me if am wrong !
help me understand the meaning of this sentence.
According to manhattan SC guide, it says that it is OK to omit certain words in the second part of the comparison sentence.
In this question, I have a doubt wrt to the meaning that the sentence tries to convey i.e
Case 1 : termites do more damage to homes than to branches
OR
Case 2 : termites do more damage to homes than branches do to homes

If case1 -> then D should probably be right ( if we could eliminate the TO after THAN )

If case 2 -> then E should probably be right. But I had second thoughts on this. How can branches do damage to homes ? So I thought there was meaning issues with E and hence chose D.
Please help me understand this.

Posted from GMAT ToolKit

Case 2 is correct, branches in windy conditions can break windows.

The explanation that branches in windy conditions can break windows does not go well...
It seems to be out of context.

I was just giving an example of how branches could damage homes so srivats could understand the meaning of the original sentence, comparing the damage caused to homes by termites and branches. As he did not understand how branches could damage homes.

Even i suspect there might be an error in question

Firstly to daagh, nicely explained man... kudos to you for that wonderful refresher.

secondly i dint understand the question.

does the sentence intends to compare
termite damage to homes with termite damage to branches on trees
or
compare damage to homes by termites and by branches of trees?

general gmat hunch says it is the 1st comparison, to which i believe D would be the right answer
but if the comparison is on the the 2nd assumption, E should make more sense.

what say guys?

Even i thought so...but the OA is E.

@daagh:
I dont think there should be any error in the question, as this appeared in one of the test series provided by MGMAT. Even MGMAT justifies its ans E saying that the comparison is made between "damages done by termites" to the "damages done by branches" to homes.
My question is since D and E are both grammatically correct, how would you choose between the two. I felt the comparison made in choice D was logically more sound than that made in choice E. I just wanted to get more light on to this.

The way in which you can differentiate in this case by looking at the opening part of the sentence, which says:
Although they are less obvious

This draws the termites in to a comparison with a second object,
D fails to compare the termites to a second object so is incorrect as it compares termites against termites.

Nice discussion however the clue lies in the first part of the sentence which is Although they are less obvious.... this part sets the precedence that the discussion is on damage caused by termites vs damage caused by branches and therefore the Case 2 applies which establishes E as the correct answer

Do construct is required to clearly establish the paralleism

ok guys... i have a quick q.... so considering what Paresh and nammers had to say with the "althought they are less obvious part"

can someone re-write the sentence such that the comparison is between termites affecting branches and termites affecting trees?
i mean i know this is not what the sentence says, but im just attempting to look at how the sentence would read if on similar lines, it had to compare the termite effect on houses Vs trees

I am not even considering D here, becos, it is just comparing two objects of prepositions and not two actions, skipping the all-important //ism of the preposition, a serious grammatical flaw IMO.

However, In E, (in which the comparison is grammatically made between the damages done by termites to homes and damages done by branches to homes) are we comparing logically - comparable things?? Termite damage is a universal damage becos it is a way of life for the termite. The damage to home by branches is more of an accident, may be severe or may not be severe, and hence strictly not comparable, however grammatically correct the comparison be. In fact, there is more benefit rather than damage by the branch of a tree to a home
That apart, my problem with this sentence is because of the claim it is from MGMAT stable, which I revere. Look at his sentence’s beginning; It starts saying “although they are less obvious (I take that they refers to termites)” What is less obvious? termites or damages done by termites to home? As per E, the modification points to termites meaning that it is the termites that are less obvious rather the damages they do. Is that so? Any ponderings?

@ Daag

In the original sentence They(pronoun) refer directly nearest antecedent ,which is termites (proximity rule of pronoun ).
A and c---sub-verb and agreement issue .Termites are plural need plural auxiliary verb ......Out
B- most ....significant (adjective )home(noun)--seems awkward.most is modifying damage and significant home is nonsensical in this context.Significant must be significantly (adverb to modify damage )
d-solved adverb issue and s-v-Ag . issue ,But still confounding
Terminates do significantly more damage to homes than branches from trees (ambiguous .not clear branches is subject or object )
Without knowing what role are branches playing ,We can't get the exact meaning of this sentence.
E-clearly indicate that branches are object (and comparison is between object and object )
To homes than Do to branches

See Ron's explanation here ..
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/thursdays-with-ron/
May 13, 2010: SC: Parallelism and Placement of Helping VERBS

See the video from 01:16:47 to 01:41:28 below


Analysis:
Option (A)
* Termites (Plural Subject).. DOES (Signular VERB) .. WRONG !!!
Option (C) (B)
* We need the construction MORE .. THAN ..!! (NOT More .. as (OR) the most .. than)

Do we need the helping verb ? YES !!

Option (D) is Ambiguous meaning:
* Termites do more damage to homes than they do to branches ?
* Termites do more damage to homes than branches do (to homes)?
Option (E)
* The helping verb is placed BEFORE "branches + from trees", as required

ANSWER (E)

==============================
Some notes on Helping verbs
==============================

When do I need helping verbs in the 2nd half of a parallel construction ?

1. If they are required by 2-part parallel signals (Both ... and, either ... or, etc.,)
2. To resolve AMBIGUITY (i.e., to take a sentence with 2 possible meanings, and reduce to 1 meaning)

Where do we put the helping verb ? (can, will, do(es), could .. etc.,) - NOT ACTION VERBS !!!

1. WRONG: I know more about Shakespeare than my brother (Ambiguous meaning)
Meaning 1: I know more about Shakespeare than my brother know about Shakespeare
Meaning 2: I know more about Shakespeare than I know about my own brother

2. CORRECT: I know more about Shakespeare than my brother DOES
Usage of helping verb "DOES" makes the meaning clear.

3. CORRECT: I know more about Shakespeare than DOES my brother
In parallel constructions, helping verbs can precede their subjects.

4. CORRECT: I know more about Shakespeare than my highly educated brother DOES
Adjectives/ modifiers placed BEFORE the noun don't change anything

5. CORRECT: I know more about Shakespeare than DOES my highly educated brother

6. AWKWARD (NOT Totally correct): I know more about Shakespeare than my brother, who has not studied British literature, DOES
If the helping verb is separated from the noun by a modifier, that's considered AWKWARD

7. WRONG: I know more about Shakespeare than my brother DOES, who has not studied British literature
You can't place a verb between a noun and a noun-modifier .. Usage of "DOES" is wrong !!

8. CORRECT: I know more about Shakespeare than DOES my brother, who has not studied British literature
When the noun is FOLLOWED by a modifier, you should place Helping verbs before the noun+modifier

Like others I have narrow down choices to D and E

D. termites do significantly more damage to homes than- Comparison bw homes and branches
E. termites do significantly more damage to homes than do-Comparison bw termites and branches

E makes perfect sense as per meaning of sentence

Although they are less obvious, termites does significantly more damage to homes than branches from trees.
A. termites does significantly more damage to homes than - Subject-verb agreement issue
B. termites do the most damage to significant homes than do - Idiom issue -- more than is needed
C. the termite does significantly more damage to homes as do - Idiom issue -- more requires than

D. termites do significantly more damage to homes than
E. termites do significantly more damage to homes than do

Is D incorrect because of ambiguity since as per D, 2 meanings can be inferred?
1. termites do significantly more damage to homes than (to) branches from trees. -- Termites cause damage to both homes and branches from trees
2. termites do significantly more damage to homes than (do) branches from trees. -- Termites and branches from trees cause damage to homes

In absence of preposition(to) or the helping verb(do), either of the above two meanings can be inferred.

AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , MagooshExpert , GMATGuruNY , VeritasKarishma , DmitryFarber , ChiranjeevSingh , RonPurewal , VeritasPrepBrian , GMATNinjaTwo ,egmat - please enlighten

Skywalker18 That's a perfect breakdown...we should get that framed and put on GMAT studiers' walls!

just a couple things to add:

1) These parallelism situations are pretty common and I think the GMAT loves them because the words you need to make them parallel (do, to, in, of, by) are so small and easy to "hide." Whenever I see very close answer choices where the difference is the presence-vs.-absence of one of those small connectors that becomes a primary decision for me...you just know the Testmaker is betting on you overlooking that tiny structural word.


2) Meaning can be really important on these...it's not a matter of "always add the extra word" but more "make sure there's a clear, logical meaning. Like here, termites do damage to wood, so it's perfectly reasonable to do that double-take on "wait, are the termites doing more damage than the branches are, or is it that termites do more damage to houses than to branches?"

But it wouldn't take too much difference for that extra "do" to not be necessary. If you change, say, "branches from trees" to "flooding from hurricanes" then there's no real "danger" that people would think that termites are doing damage to flooding, so depending on the sentence structure and what else is going on in those answer choices, you may not need the extra "do." An example I use in class all the time is "LeBron is taller than Steph" - students who have gotten really into parallel comparisons often want another "is" after "Steph" (LeBron is taller than Steph is) but you don't need it because there's no ambiguity either way.

Now, note - the GMAT isn't going to force you to determine whether you need "is" or not after "Steph" there as a solo decision. What it'll do though is find situations where the extra verb/preposition/whatever isn't necessary and make that the right answer, but try to get you so adamant that you need the extra word that they sneak another egregious error past you (like "LeBron, who is taller than Steph is" vs. "LeBron is taller than Steph" where the first one gives you that "is" you want to see but by changing from verb to modifier doesn't actually have a complete sentence).

And my point there: I love this kind of decision as an actionable decision point *but* make sure you're considering meaning and if you don't see a lack of clarity, then hang on and look for other, more glaring errors.