Unlike the lives of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, subjects

Unlike the lives of Pushkin,Gogol,Tolstoi and Detoevski,subjects of other Troyat biographies, Chekhov belongs to the twentieth century, an age of fretfulness and melancholy skepticism.

A. Unlike the lives of Pushkin,Gogol,Tolstoi and Detoevski,subjects of other Troyat biographies, Chekhov belongs -lives compared to Chekhov
B. Chekhnov, unlike the other Troyat biographies of Pushkin,Gogol,Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belongs - Chekhov compared to biographies
C. The life of Chekhnov,unlike the lives of the subjects of other Troyat biographies Puskin,Gogol,Tolstol and Dostoevski,belongs - correct, The life of Chekhnov is compared to the lives of the subjects of other Troyat biographies Puskin,Gogol,Tolstol
D. chekov and his life, unlike that of the other Troyat biographies-Puskin,Gogol,Tolstoi, and Dostoevski,belong - funny but seems that chekhov and his life are separate things, that is singular which is wrong, becauыe lives of Puskin,Gogol,Tolstoi,and Dostoevski are compared
E. The life of Chekov , unlike that of other Troyat biographies of Puskin,Gogol,Tolstoi,and Dostoevski,belongs - that is singular which is wrong, becauыe lives of Puskin,Gogol,Tolstoi,and Dostoevski are compared

that - singular
those - prular.

Before we delve, let us appreciate that five arms of the lives of some people are being compared with one arm namely the life of Chekhov and not just four arms as many seem to interpret. The five arms of the first part are 1. the lives of the subjects of other Troyat biographies 2. the life of Pushkin 3. the life of Gogoi 4. the life of Tolstoy and 5. the life of Dostoevsky. The first four arms have to be separated by ‘a comma’ and conjunction ‘and’ from the last arm.
If you want to just refer to only four arms, then there is no need to say other Troyat biographies. Secondly if you intended only four arms, then the right way to say that is: The life of Chekhov, unlike those of Troyat biographies of people such as Pushkin, Gogoi, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky, belongs


(A) Unlike the lives of Pushkin, Gogoi, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky, subjects of other Troyat biographies, Chekhov belongs ….. Both serial //ism and comparison are wrong

B) Chekhov, unlike the other Troyat biographies of Pushkin, Gogoi, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky, belongs …. Wrong: comparing a person with biographies

(C) The life of Chekhov, unlike the lives of the subjects of other Troyat biographies, Pushkin, Gogoi, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky, belongs….. Life compared with lives. Right choice.

(D) Chekhov and his life, unlike that of the other Troyat biographies -Pushkin, Gogoi, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky, -belong …. 1. ‘[color=#0040FF]Unlike that of’ is wrong – you need to say ‘unlike those of’ 2. ‘The other biographies’ seems to describe the four others. This is wrong representation.
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(E) The life of Chekhov, unlike that of other Troyat biographies of Pushkin, Gogoi, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky, belongs ….. [color=#0000FF]‘Unlike that of’ is wrong as in D.


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@ daagh
Your lucid explanation made me to look through this SC differently.

But doesn't that change the meaning intended in original sentence? In the original sentence, the placement of "lives of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski," just next to "subjects of other Troyat biographies" intends that the first 4 fingers(lives of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski) specified category of fingers "subjects of other Troyat biographies"

From your perspective, the sentence C looks good to me now.

Also one more thing, if I need to correct B and I go by your last comments on B, then will it seem something like::>
B) The biography of Chekhov, unlike the other Troyat biographies of Pushkin, Gogoi, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky, belongs

Please let me know your version for B

A major correction: I would like to present a major correction in my stand. I had not known what a Troyat biography was. When I googled for Troyat biographies, I learnt that the phrase stands for the biographies on the lives of famous Russian celebrities including Chekhov written by the French author Troyat. So I agree that the word ‘other’ simply stands for differentiating Chekhov from other similar Russians. Therefore the second part comprises only four arms, which are all Troyat biographies. I thoroughly agree with ‘joshnsit’ on both his points. (‘joshnsit’ :Your revised B choice is perfectly amended)
I mistook Troyat biographies as if they are some special kind of literary pieces that differed from other ordinary biographies. Wouldn’t it have been better to call them biographies by Troyat?

That ignored, this is simply a question of comparing similar things and so there is no change in the answer choice C. My comments on individual choices stand good except for the muddled thinking on Troyat biographies.

About the contention that in C, the life of Chekhov is being compared with biographies may not be right. Look at the wordings: “The life of Chekhov, unlike the lives of” C just compares life with lives. Life is being compared neither with subjects nor with biographies. Perfect

Unlike the lives of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, subjects of other Troyat biographies, Chekhov belongs to the twentieth century, an age of fretfulness and melancholy skepticism.

(A) Unlike the lives of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, subjects of other Troyat biographies, Chekhov belongs
--> wrong comparison

(B) Chekhov, unlike the other Troyat biographies of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belongs =======================
--> wrong comparison Chekov is compared to biographies

(C) The life of Chekhov, unlike the lives of the subjects of other Troyat biographies, Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belongs
--> CORRECT

(D) Chekhov and his life, unlike that of the other Troyat biographies—Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belong
--> WRONG COMPARISON

(E) The life of Chekhov, unlike that of other Troyat biographies of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belongs
--> wrong comparison

I will go with C .

Let me take a hack at this :

First off, anticipate many false comparisons. That is we want to be comparing Pushkin to other authors or the life of Pushkin to those of other authors -----> author vs. authors; life of author vs. life of authors

Unlike the lives of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, subjects of other Troyat biographies, Chekhov belongs to the twentieth century, an age of fretfulness and melancholy skepticism.

(A) Unlike the lives of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, subjects of other Troyat biographies, Chekhov belongs

Chekhov is being compared to the 'lives of' -----> Incorrect

(B) Chekhov, unlike the other Troyat biographies of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belongs

Chekhov is being compared to biographies ------> Incorrect

(C) The life of Chekhov, unlike the lives of the subjects of other Troyat biographies, Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belongs

Life of Chekhov is being compared to 'the lives of subjects' (life vs. lives) so we have a valid comparison. ANSWER

(D) Chekhov and his life, unlike that of the other Troyat biographies—Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belong

A couple of things wrong here. First off, Chekhov AND his life are being compared to other biographies. Secondly, the dashes should enclose. Here, instead of a second dash we have a comma. ------> Incorrect

(E) The life of Chekhov, unlike that of other Troyat biographies of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belongs

Here it is being implied that all of Troyat biographies have one life, "unlike THAT of other Troyat biographies..." where THAT refers to 'life.' -----> Incorrect

Comparisons must be between "like" things. So the "kind/nature" of the things being compared, and not the number, matters.
For example, you cannot say:
Jack's house is bigger than Jill.
But you can say:
Jack's house is bigger than his friends' (houses).

If the latter comparison weren't allowed, then you would need to write a separate sentence for each "life" comparison!


--Prasad
EnterMBA.in

I think C is the best choice.It has the correct comparison between life of Chekhov and the lives of subjects in other novels.

Hello,

Why can't Chekhov be the name of the biography? I couldn't eliminate B because of that.

A - Compares the lives of the people to Chekhov (comparison error)
B - compares Chekhov to belong to the twentieth century (comparison error)
D - Compares Chekhov and his life to the biographies of other people (doesn't make sense)
E - Compares Chekhov's life to biographies of other people (comparison error)

C is the correct choice

Can we say a sentence is incorrect on the basis of the usage of "that of" and "those of" ? Is this distinction strictly followed ?
I felt we need to know what are Troyat biographies so as to answer this correctly?

Please explain.

Regards,
Arup Sarkar

Hi AndrewN sir,

I am far behind reaching at correct answer in this one as I faced multiple questions while solving this SC. I really need your help here in listed 5 questions below.



Question1:
Can not Chekhov be biography? In this case Chekhov vs biography – seems right.
What if Chekhov is really biography then would this sentence structure be ok?


Question2:
Life vs lives :
I was in impression that Noun, unlike Plural noun is not ok.
It means with like and unlike : singular can be compared with plural? No exceptions here?
Any comments?


Question3:
Why can’t the structure be: Checkhov and [his life vs life of other] belong( Chekov + his life) to xx
Both can belong to 20th century, right? [Both : Life and biography or both: life and subject]

Questio3b: If multiple subjects and multiple objects with them. E.g.: Boys have toys.
Can I infer that each boy has toy? What if a boy has toys? What I want to ask is : in such cases, we assume each has one element or it can be multiple depending on context( toys can be multiple; but life can be one . We only know Multiple boys in total have multiple toys in total. That’s all )


Question4:
I choose this as an correct answer because life of C, unlike life of P, life of G , life of T and Life of D , belongs ( singular, unlike singular)
What If in some question , the structure is
Unlike X of Y, XX of YY,XX1 of YY1 and XX2 of YY2, belongs – this construction should be ok? Your comments please.

Hello, imSKR. Since you have so many questions, I will respond in-line below:


Chekhov can be the subject of a biography, but the person and the book are not one and the same. If the title of the work were Chekhov, it would need to be italicized or underlined, and to my knowledge, such a fine grammatical point goes beyond the scope of what is tested on the GMAT™. So to answer your second question here, yes, the following sentence would be fine:

Chekhov, unlike the other Troyat biographies of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belongs...


Evidently, your understanding of this type of comparison is incorrect. You have to let context guide you to a correct assessment. Yes, this is a life-to-life comparison, even if it falls into a grey area. It would be awkward and incorrect to say, the life of the subjects and go on to name four other people, unless those four (nonsensically) shared the same life. It is okay to place an answer choice on hold if you are unsure of something, but you should not be too quick to eliminate.


In question 3), that of is a stand-in for the life of, and we just discussed how that comparison cannot be made when A is being compared to a B that has four internal subjects, not to mention that this comparison is actually between Chekhov and his life, A, and B, [the life] of the other Troyat biographies. A life should not be directly compared with a biography. This one is a mess.

In your sample sentence, you would be able to infer that in general, a boy will possess at least one toy. Whether one boy had multiple toys or another boy had none, we really cannot say. The context does not provide enough information, unlike what we see in the original sentence above. That is why your sample sentence would not be a GMAT™ question (that tested the exact point about which you are asking).


Here again, we see a dissimilar comparison between the life of a person and the life of biographies. We need not examine it any further. The GMAT™ is downright draconian when it comes to comparing like entities. Instead of focusing on smaller points such a singular-plural comparison, you would be better served looking for a proper noun-to-noun comparison. Hypothetically speaking, your sentence with all the X's and Y's could work, but we would need to see it on the screen along with four other options before I could offer a full analysis.

I hope that helps. Thank you for thinking to ask me about this one.

- Andrew

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

This sentence is intended to contrast the life of Chekhov with the lives of several other subjects of biographies by Troyat. To express the intended meaning correctly, the noun phrases used to express this contrast must be parallel in structure and meaning—lives of subjects should be contrasted only with other lives of subjects.

Option A: This inappropriately contrasts the lives of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski with Chekhov, rather than with Chekhov's life.

Option B: This inappropriately contrasts Chekhov with the other Troyat biographies of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski. That makes no sense, because Chekhov was not himself a Troyat biography.

Option C: Correct. This appropriately contrasts the life of Chekhov with the lives of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, other subjects of Troyat biographies. This makes sense, indicating that Chekhov himself was among the subjects of Troyat biographies.

Option D: This inappropriately contrasts Chekhov and his life with that of the other Troyat biographies. Grammatically, that must refer back to life, conveying the absurd meaning the life of the other Troyat biographies.

Option E: This inappropriately contrasts The life of Chekhov with that of other Troyat biographies. Grammatically, that must refer back to life, conveying the absurd meaning the life of other Troyat biographies. The use of other absurdly implies that Chekhov himself was a Troyat biography.

The correct answer is C.

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.

Unlike the lives of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, subjects of other Troyat biographies, Chekhov belongs to the twentieth century, an age of fretfulness and melancholy skepticism.


(A) Unlike the lives of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, subjects of other Troyat biographies, Chekhov belongs

-- Comparing the 'lives of Pushkin, Gogol, ..' to Chekhov. Non-sense.

(B) Chekhov, unlike the other Troyat biographies of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belongs

-- Comparing Chekhov to 'other biographies'. Non-sense.

(C) The life of Chekhov, unlike the lives of the subjects of other Troyat biographies, Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belongs

-- Looks good. The life of Chekhov vs the lives of the subjects of other Troyat biographies.

(D) Chekhov and his life, unlike that of the other Troyat biographies--- Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belong

-- 'the life of other Troyat bigraphies' makes no sense.

(E) The life of Chekhov, unlike that of other Troyat biographies of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and Dostoevski, belongs

-- 'the life of other Troyat bigraphies' makes no sense.

Hi AndrewN VeritasKarishma egmat

I could not digest the meaning. How can "life" belong to 20th century? Some one can belong to 20th century, not life of some.

Yes, shanks2020, that is true, but the topic of a biography—the life of someone, not someone himself—can be compared in such a manner. In this case, we have a comparison between one biography, written on the life of Chekhov, and earlier biographies written by the same author, those about the lives of the other writers.

That is the best way I can think to explain it. I hope that helps clarify the matter. Thank you for requesting my input.

- Andrew