The number of vehicles on the road classified as "light trucks" in the

A revisit to the functions and forms of various verbs may help to resolve the confusion.

1. Action verb--- Somebody does something and puts up some effort to do it. --- EX: Jack and Jill danced all day long

2. Linking verb: A verb that connects the subject with the predicate. It is called status verb, extant verb because it just indicates a status.

EX: Jack & Jill appear nervous. Here Jack and Jill do not do the action of appearing nervous.

3. Helping verb: This verb cannot act independently. It always combines with another verb to complete the meaning. Is, are, am, do, does, has, have, and being etc are few of the helping verbs etc

EX: Jack has been struggling with GMAT for nearly two years as he is finding the verbal tough.
In between, you will find that some verbs are both action and linking verbs. Examples of such dual verbs are:

EX: 1. appear 2.become 3.feel 4.grow5.look 6.remain 7.seen 8.smell 9.sound 10. stay 11. taste 12. turn 13. prove and some more.

EX: The musician increased the tempo in the last stage of the song.-- active voice.

The tempo of the music increased in the last stages. This verb has no doer, and it is a linking verb in the context.

EX: The ambient temperature increased from25 degrees to 35 degrees.

Take away: Do not expect a doer for every verb.

Official explanation from veritas:

Explanation: In answer choice A, "twice," an adverb, is incorrectly used as the object of the preposition "by." Answer choice B introduces ambiguity by implying that the number of vehicles increased on more than two separate occasions, which does not make very much sense. Answer choice D uses the passive voice and suggests some unnamed agent (who did the doubling.) Answer choice E incorrectly uses the past perfect tense (had). "Had" is only used when verbs within the same sentence refer to different time periods. Because there is only one verb in this sentence, there is no use for the verb "had." The correct answer choice is C, which succinctly expresses the growth.

VeritasKarishma chetan2u sayantanc2k
Can you please explain how doubled can be verb here ?
IMO the number cannot double itself so I thought D should be correct .
Can you please breif where I went wrong

Let me break down the sentence for you..

The number of vehicles -> NOUN-
on the road -> prepositional phrase
-classified as "light trucks" in the United States ->Modifier
more than -> Adverb
doubled -> Verb
from 1980 to 1992.

Let us remove unwanted phrases and deal with subject and verb..
The number of vehicles DOUBLED from 1980 to 1992.
now let us add the adverb - The number of vehicles MORE THAN DOUBLED from 1980 to 1992.

Thanks for your reply
Secondly shouldn't subject should be doer of the action verb ?
here subject is the number of vehicles
verb doubled
But the number didn't double itself so how come it is verb ?

Hey daagh how we will differentiate between a verbed modifier and status verb ?
In the EX The tempo of the music increased in the last stages , increased can be assumed as verbed modifier then there is no actual verb in the sentence

teaser

1. It will be easy to fall into the verb trap if you do not follow the word's implication threadbare.

2. If there is a subject of the Ed word, then it will be only a verb and not a modifier. If it is a modifier, then a comma from the subject should have separated the 'Ed'. Here in the given case, the tempo increased and therefore it is certainly a verb and not a modifier. Whether it is a status verb or an action verb is the next point.

Therefore, there is no way that 'increased' can act as a modifier in the given example.

3. Please go into the aspect of various types of verbs by googling. There are some verbs, which are both action and status verbs.
Status verbs emanate from within while action verbs require some effort. For example,

1. Appear ---- The witness appeared (status) nervous when he appeared (action) in the court


2. Feel ---- He felt(S) excited when he felt the soft touch of his newly born baby.

3. Grow --- The plant grew luxuriantly when the experienced gardener grew in his backyard.

4. Look -- When we looked (A) at the distant mountains from the window of our hotel, they all looked(S) verdant.


5. Remain --- He remained(S) calm as he remained (A) waiting for the exam results.


6. Smell --- The jasmine flower smelt(S) strong as I smelt (A) it form closeby.


7 Sound ---- The alarm sounded(S) ominous, as the siren sounded (A) loud from the lighthouse top.


8. Taste -- The Mulgoba mangoes from Salem, India tasted(S) sweet when I tasted (A) them along with my family

9. Double: The gas doubled(S) its volume when Tom doubled (A) the electricity input into the apparatus.

You can see that some verbs are both status and action verbs. You must study the context to distinguish whether the result is due to an effort or is from within.

The number of vehicles on the road classified as "light trucks" in the United States more than doubled from 1980 to 1992.

Could you help me understanding this please? How can the sentence hold without a verb as double is not a verb in this sentence? I understand that GMAT does not prefer passive tense but why C is incorrect when increased by is implied?

Thanks.

where we can use two fold and where we can use twice?

The number of vehicles on the road classified as "light trucks" in the United States increased by more than twice from 1980 to 1992.

(A) increased by more than twice -- 'by more than twice' is incorrect

(B) increased more than two times -- 'more than two times' is incorrect

(C) more than doubled

(D) was more than doubled -- 'was' is incorrect. This sentence is comparing 'number' with doubled'

(E) had more than doubled - past perfect is incorrect. We're not comparing one past action with another past action here.

Why is option A incorrect? Did not understand the concept of not to use an adverb after 'increased by'. Kindly explain the concept and reason for elimination for all the options.

EducationAisle
Can you explain why option A is incorrect in detail?

Thanks

Hello krndatta,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, Option A is incorrect because the construction "increased by more than twice" fails to convey a coherent meaning; this construction does not answer the question "increased by more than twice of what?".

We hope this helps.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

This post gives a good explanation.

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