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555-605 Level|   Comparisons|   Grammatical/Rhetorical Construction|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|                           
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A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more cof 01 Oct 2018, 20:38
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Is this solution correct? As far as I know- there is an idiom-the more X the more Y

Please someone help me on this question.
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A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more cof 08 Oct 2018, 17:10
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Is this solution correct? As far as I know- there is an idiom-the more X the more Y

Please someone help me on this question.
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kanthaliya , you are correct.

This idiom exists: "the more the X the more the Y."

This idiom also exists: "the more the X the greater the Y."

Both idioms exist.

To learn more about the structure of the idiom, see
Magoosh, The GMAT Idiom Book, under "Quirky Idiom," at page 71:

“the” (comparative adjective or adverb) (independent clause about A), “the” (comparative adjective or adverb) (independent clause about B)

Not quite as accurate but easier to remember: the ________er, the _________er
(There is no such word as "morer." The idea is parallel comparison, contrast, or equality.)

Examples:

The more I learn about you, the more I like you.

“. . . it is ages since books have claimed me. For a long time now I have practically ceased to read. But the taint is still there. Now people are books to me. I read them from cover to cover and toss them aside. I devour them, one after the other. And the more I read, the more insatiable I become. There is no limit to it. There could be no end, and there was none, until inside me a bridge began to form which united me again with the current of life from which as a child I had been separated.”
-- Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn (1934)
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A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more cof 13 Jun 2019, 22:30
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SS18, if you're being really strict and literal with the meaning here, (A) and (C) are both just a little bit illogical.

In (C), the clearest issue is that the verb tense is a little bit off. "... the more coffee the doctors drank, the more they would have a likelihood to have coronary disease." One problem is "would have" -- the phrase conditional, which doesn't make much sense here. We're looking at facts of a study: "the more x occurred, the more y occurred". Since these are facts, it wouldn't make sense to say: "the more x occurred, the more y would have occurred." There's simply no need to make the second part of the phrase conditional.

In (A), it doesn't make much sense to say "the more they had a likelihood." It makes sense to talk about the degree to which something is likely to occur: "a higher likelihood" or "a greater likelihood." But this is subtly different: (A) is saying "the more they had a likelihood" -- which seems to express "likelihood" as a binary thing, that you either have or you don't -- so now (A) seems to say that the more the physicians drank, the higher the odds of having a likelihood. And that doesn't make much sense. (C) suffers from the same problem, too.

I hope this helps!
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Dear GMATNinja,

I am convinced with option D as right answer.
I have query regarding the use of "their" and "they" in the respective options. I feel that "they"/"their" has more than 1 antecedent- doctors and physicians.
So, correct answer should be "greater was doctors's likelihood of having coronary disease". Kindly clarify

A. more they had a likelihood of coronary disease
B. more was their likelihood of having coronary disease
C. more they would have a likelihood to have coronary disease
D. greater was their likelihood of having coronary disease
E. greater was coronary disease likely

Thanks in advance,

GMATNinja generis VeritasKarishma EMPOWERgmatVerbal
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A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more cof 22 Jun 2019, 14:23
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priyanshu14

Dear GMATNinja,

I am convinced with option D as right answer.
I have query regarding the use of "their" and "they" in the respective options. I feel that "they"/"their" has more than 1 antecedent- doctors and physicians.
So, correct answer should be "greater was doctors's likelihood of having coronary disease". Kindly clarify
Show more

Quote:
A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more coffee these doctors drank, the more they had a likelihood of coronary disease.

A. more they had a likelihood of coronary disease
B. more was their likelihood of having coronary disease
C. more they would have a likelihood to have coronary disease
D. greater was their likelihood of having coronary disease
E. greater was coronary disease likely
Show more
For starters, pronoun ambiguity isn't an absolute rule on the GMAT. More on that in this video.

More importantly, think about the meaning of the sentence in this case: "A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more coffee these doctors drank..." The doctors ARE the physicians! So it really doesn't matter whether "their" (or "they") refers to "the doctors" or "the physicians" -- they're the same people anyway.

I hope this helps a bit!
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A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more cof 07 Sep 2019, 22:53
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A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more coffee these doctors drank, the more they had a likelihood of coronary disease.


(A) more they had a likelihood of coronary disease

(B) more was their likelihood of having coronary disease

(C) more they would have a likelihood to have coronary disease

(D) greater was their likelihood of having coronary disease

(E) greater was coronary disease likely


[textarea]The Official Guide for GMAT Review 2017

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sayantanc2k, daagh, AjiteshArun

The usage of past perfect 'had' is incorrect in original sentence because it makes sequencing of occurrence of coronary disease and drinking of coffee illogical.
That is, the actual intention of the sentence is that the doctors first drank coffee and then the likelihood of the disease increased. Now because of the 'had' the sequencing is the likelihood of the disease increased even before the doctors drank coffee.

Am I correct in my reasoning ?

If not can you please help me in understanding what is incorrect in using the past perfect in option 'A'. I didn't really got what GmatNinja explained.


Thanks
Saurabh
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Saurabh
The 'had' in the original text is not a past perfect. It is the simple past of 'have'.
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Hi All,
I Need your help on the below question,

A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more coffee these doctors drank, greater was their likelihood of having coronary disease.

I am facing problem with the punctuation.

why it is not a sentence fragment??

As per my limited knowledge "comma" is used when:-
Case 1:- Dependent clause, Independent clause (Fanboys)
Case 2:-Clause, (verb+ing modifier)::(Verb+ed modifier)::(Relative clause)
Case 3:- Clause, Noun+ noun modifier
Case 4:-Appositives
Case 5:-Absolute Phrase
Case 6:-Independent clause, conjunction + IC
Can you please explain me the structure of this sentence?
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A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more cof 10 Sep 2019, 06:47
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Smit
Any reason why this is a fragment? Also a, DC cannot be joined with an IC with a fanboy, Am I correct?
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Smit
Any reason why this is a fragment? Also a, DC cannot be joined with an IC with a fanboy, Am I correct?
Show more

Hi daagh sir,

A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more coffee these doctors drank, greater was their likelihood of having coronary disease.

What i discern from the above Sc example is as follows
"Study" is the subject of the first clause
of some 1,000 physicians is prepositional phrase modifying study
indicates is acting as a linking verb
“that” is just the beginning of a subordinate clause. What study indicates? --- that the more coffee these doctors drank, greater was their likelihood of having coronary disease.

After comma ,
"Their" is possessive pronoun - antecedent of doctors---It is also acting as a subject of the second clause
"was" is a verb.
So we have clause, clause
however, there is no dependent marker in the second or first clause ?

I am sure that this is wrong way comprehending the structure of this sentence :( . Can you put some light why we need comma there ?
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Smit

A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more coffee these doctors drank, greater was their likelihood of having coronary disease.

This sentence can be parsed as

A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates
That
the more coffee these doctors drank, their likelihood of having coronary diseases was greater.


This is the structure.
1. First you have an independent clause
2. Then you have a subordinate conjunction 'that'
3 .What follows is another noun phrase "the more coffee these doctors drank'. Here 'the more coffee' is a noun, which is further expanded by the phrase these doctors drank. It literally refers to the quantum of coffee, which the doctors took. Therefore, this is not a clause. This is a kind of idiom like "the longer I ran, the more tired I became."

4. Then you have another IC, namely, the greater was their likelihood…
This IC when combined with the subordinate conjunction 'that' turns the entire second part into a dependent clause.

This is a normal complex sentence structure. You may like to remember that the word 'that' is an important subordinate conjunction in many of the subordinate clauses.
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A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more cof 27 May 2020, 09:55
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GMATNinja
SS18, if you're being really strict and literal with the meaning here, (A) and (C) are both just a little bit illogical.

In (C), the clearest issue is that the verb tense is a little bit off. "... the more coffee the doctors drank, the more they would have a likelihood to have coronary disease." One problem is "would have" -- the phrase conditional, which doesn't make much sense here. We're looking at facts of a study: "the more x occurred, the more y occurred". Since these are facts, it wouldn't make sense to say: "the more x occurred, the more y would have occurred." There's simply no need to make the second part of the phrase conditional.

In (A), it doesn't make much sense to say "the more they had a likelihood." It makes sense to talk about the degree to which something is likely to occur: "a higher likelihood" or "a greater likelihood." But this is subtly different: (A) is saying "the more they had a likelihood" -- which seems to express "likelihood" as a binary thing, that you either have or you don't -- so now (A) seems to say that the more the physicians drank, the higher the odds of having a likelihood. And that doesn't make much sense. (C) suffers from the same problem, too.

I hope this helps!
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GMATNinja, can you elaborate a little more on option A. Also, if we replace "they" with "doctors" in "more they had a likelihood of coronary disease", can we say the sentence is saying that more doctors had a likelihood that is the number of doctors ?
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Suneha123
GMATNinja
SS18, if you're being really strict and literal with the meaning here, (A) and (C) are both just a little bit illogical.

In (C), the clearest issue is that the verb tense is a little bit off. "... the more coffee the doctors drank, the more they would have a likelihood to have coronary disease." One problem is "would have" -- the phrase conditional, which doesn't make much sense here. We're looking at facts of a study: "the more x occurred, the more y occurred". Since these are facts, it wouldn't make sense to say: "the more x occurred, the more y would have occurred." There's simply no need to make the second part of the phrase conditional.

In (A), it doesn't make much sense to say "the more they had a likelihood." It makes sense to talk about the degree to which something is likely to occur: "a higher likelihood" or "a greater likelihood." But this is subtly different: (A) is saying "the more they had a likelihood" -- which seems to express "likelihood" as a binary thing, that you either have or you don't -- so now (A) seems to say that the more the physicians drank, the higher the odds of having a likelihood. And that doesn't make much sense. (C) suffers from the same problem, too.

I hope this helps!

GMATNinja, can you elaborate a little more on option A. Also, if we replace "they" with "doctors" in "more they had a likelihood of coronary disease", can we say the sentence is saying that more doctors had a likelihood that is the number of doctors ?
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Consider the following example:

"The more you study, the more you will have a likelihood of getting a 700."

  • This one doesn't quite make sense because you always have a likelihood of getting a 700.
  • That likelihood might increase or decrease, but you've always had some likelihood of getting a 700 -- whether that likelihood was a 0% chance, a 100% chance, or anything in between.
  • Studying doesn't increase your chances of HAVING a likelihood -- you have some likelihood regardless of how much you study.
  • Instead, studying INCREASES the likelihood that you will get a 700.

We have something similar in this question. Drinking more coffee doesn't increase the chances of HAVING a likelihood. Instead, drinking more coffee increases the likelihood of having coronary disease. And that's why (D) is better than (A).

I hope that helps!
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[quote="LithiumIon"]A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more coffee these doctors drank, the more they had a likelihood of coronary disease.


(A) more they had a likelihood of coronary disease

(B) more was their likelihood of having coronary disease

(C) more they would have a likelihood to have coronary disease

(D) greater was their likelihood of having coronary disease

(E) greater was coronary disease likely
*************************************************
more the x , greater the Y (A) (B) and (C) incorrect

(D) Correct
(E) parallelism error. drinking coffee -greater
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A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more cof Updated on: 20 Oct 2020, 01:43
Originally posted by ShankSouljaBoi on 14 Oct 2020, 15:12.
Last edited by ShankSouljaBoi on 20 Oct 2020, 01:43, edited 1 time in total.
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sayantanc2k
After going through various suggestions by GMAT experts at Magoosh and Manhattan, I could arrive at the following conclusion:

The positive....comparative...superlative forms of certain adjectives of quantity are as follows:

set 1. many...more...most
set 2. much...more....most
set 3. great...greater...greatest

While set 1 (many...more...most) is used for countable nouns, set 2 (much...more....most) and set 3 (great...greater...greatest) are used for uncountable nouns.

Now there could be 2 types of uncountable nouns
type a. Quantity word / numbers themselves (e.g. price, volume, weight, probability etc.) are uncountable.
type b. Other uncountable nouns (honesty, poverty, etc as you mentioned)

The set 2 (much...more....most) is used for type b (other uncountable nouns) uncountable nouns.
The set 3 ( great...greater...greatest) is used for type a (Quantity word / numbers) uncountable nouns.

Therefore we see that "more" can be used for (i) countable nouns and (ii) uncountable nouns that are not quantity words/ numbers.
"Greater" can be used for (iii) uncountable nouns that are quantity words/ numbers.
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I have seen an official question with greater understanding as the correct idiom. Now understanding falls in the category of poverty honesty etc .... Why more is not used with understanding ?? VeritasKarishma

Ex My gf is much more understanding than yours can ever be .
Ex She has greater understanding of the world than your gf can ever have.

What is prefered by GMAT ??????????
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sayantanc2k
After going through various suggestions by GMAT experts at Magoosh and Manhattan, I could arrive at the following conclusion:

The positive....comparative...superlative forms of certain adjectives of quantity are as follows:

set 1. many...more...most
set 2. much...more....most
set 3. great...greater...greatest

While set 1 (many...more...most) is used for countable nouns, set 2 (much...more....most) and set 3 (great...greater...greatest) are used for uncountable nouns.

Now there could be 2 types of uncountable nouns
type a. Quantity word / numbers themselves (e.g. price, volume, weight, probability etc.) are uncountable.
type b. Other uncountable nouns (honesty, poverty, etc as you mentioned)

The set 2 (much...more....most) is used for type b (other uncountable nouns) uncountable nouns.
The set 3 ( great...greater...greatest) is used for type a (Quantity word / numbers) uncountable nouns.

Therefore we see that "more" can be used for (i) countable nouns and (ii) uncountable nouns that are not quantity words/ numbers.
"Greater" can be used for (iii) uncountable nouns that are quantity words/ numbers.

I have seen an official question with greater understanding as the correct idiom. Now understanding falls in the category of poverty honesty etc .... Why more is not used with understanding ?? VeritasKarishma

Ex My gf is much more understanding than yours can ever be .
Ex She has greater understanding of the world than your gf can ever have.

What is prefered by GMAT ??????????
Show more

'understanding' can be used as a noun or as an adjective.
'greater' is an adjective. 'more' can be used an an adverb.

When understanding is used as a noun, you can use greater with it. e.g. She has greater understanding ...
When understanding is used as an adjective, you can use more with it. e.g. She is more understanding ...
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A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more coffee these doctors drank, the more they had a likelihood of coronary disease.


(A) more they had a likelihood of coronary disease

(B) more was their likelihood of having coronary disease

(C) more they would have a likelihood to have coronary disease

(D) greater was their likelihood of having coronary disease

(E) greater was coronary disease likely

The more coffee these doctors drank, the more they had a likelihood of coronary disease.

More than is a comparative form used for countable nouns and greater than is used for uncountable nouns.

Ex- Tom has more clothes than his brother (does).
The number of t-shirts that Tom had is greater than the number of t-shirts his brother had.

Since we are talking about the probability/ the likelihood of having coronary disease, we have to use “greater than” and not “more than”. Eliminate A, B, and C.

It was the likelihood of having coronary disease that was greater and not coronary disease. Eliminate E.

The more coffee these doctors drank, the greater was their likelihood of having coronary disease. Option D is correct.
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Could anyone explain the explanation in OG~ for me it's too subtle to fully understand.

Option A:
Quote:
This version obscures the intended correlation between coffee and likelihood. The phrase the more they had a likelihood somewhat illogically indicates that (1) the research subjects had likelihood to a greater degree (2) rather than that their likelihood was greater
Show more

It seems to me either way works (both are greater likelihood.

Also, concerning option E:
Quote:
This completion of the comparison is not idiomatic; moreover, it is ungrammatical, attempting to use an adjective greater to describe an adverb, likely.
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"Greater" can only serve as an adjective... Is that the correct way to understand this question?

Thanks for helping me out in advance :please: :inlove:
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(D) greater was their likelihood of having coronary disease

I do not know, I think that the more coffee these doctors drank, the greater 'theses doctors' was their like heir likelihood of having coronary disease.

why 'theses doctors' is omitted ??

Is theses doctors needed??
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A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more cof 14 Sep 2021, 21:24
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szcr3x
(D) greater was their likelihood of having coronary disease

I do not know, I think that the more coffee these doctors drank, the greater 'theses doctors' was their like heir likelihood of having coronary disease.

why 'theses doctors' is omitted ??

Is theses doctors needed??
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Apparently, "theses doctors" is replaced by possessive version of "their" under this circumstances
Plus, "their likelihood" clearly states the likelihood of those physicians. Thus, no problem in the correct answer

Moreover, this sentence is an instance of inversion
the original sentence looks like this:
"their likelihood of having coronary disease was greater"
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tony1stark
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A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more cof 28 Oct 2021, 12:54
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GMATNinja
priyanshu14


I am convinced with option D as right answer.
I have query regarding the use of "their" and "they" in the respective options. I feel that "they"/"their" has more than 1 antecedent- doctors and physicians.
So, correct answer should be "greater was doctors's likelihood of having coronary disease". Kindly clarify

Quote:
A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more coffee these doctors drank, the more they had a likelihood of coronary disease.

A. more they had a likelihood of coronary disease
B. more was their likelihood of having coronary disease
C. more they would have a likelihood to have coronary disease
D. greater was their likelihood of having coronary disease
E. greater was coronary disease likely
For starters, pronoun ambiguity isn't an absolute rule on the GMAT.

More importantly, think about the meaning of the sentence in this case: "A long-term study of some 1,000 physicians indicates that the more coffee these doctors drank..." The doctors ARE the physicians! So it really doesn't matter whether "their" (or "they") refers to "the doctors" or "the physicians" -- they're the same people anyway.

I hope this helps a bit!
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I don't really get the position of "was" in choice D. Should it be the more coffee these doctors drank, the greater their likelihood of having coronary disease "was"?
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