According to recent studies comparing the nutritional value of meat from wild animals and meat from domesticated animals, wild animals have less total fat than do livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat they think is good for cardiac health.


(A) wild animals have less total fat than do livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat they think is
No referent for 'they'. Drop it.

(B) wild animals have less total fat than livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat thought to be
seems to be fine. Keep it.

(C) wild animals have less total fat than that of livestock fed on grain and have more fat of a kind thought to be
that: makes comparison incompatible. Drop it.

(D) total fat of wild animals is less than livestock fed on grain and they have more fat of a kind thought to be
Comparison: fat with livestock; incompatible. Drop it.

(E) total fat is less in wild animals than that of livestock fed on grain and more of their fat is of a kind they think is
wordy comparison. also, no referent for 'they'. Drop it.

Answer: B
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mikemcgarry GMATNinja daagh

This is a sentence I found in an article in nytimes . I have few doubts please help me out

"The banks also suggested that Uber could list its shares for trading on the stock market earlier than its original plans for late 2019 "

In this sentence, I understand that comparison is between times "earlier and late 2019" .but what I don't understand is the comparison structure and the respective elements. I mean in the above example here we are comparing action " could list its shares" to " original plans for late 2019".
Now as per my ubder

Posted from my mobile device

Hello Everyone!

This is a great example of a GMAT question that includes a comparison! Let's start off by looking at the original question and highlighting any major differences between the options in orange:

According to recent studies comparing the nutritional value of meat from wild animals and meat from domesticated animals, wild animals have less total fat than do livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat they think is good for cardiac health.

(A) wild animals have less total fat than do livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat they think is
(B) wild animals have less total fat than livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat thought to be
(C) wild animals have less total fat than that of livestock fed on grain and have more fat of a kind thought to be
(D) total fat of wild animals is less than livestock fed on grain and they have more fat of a kind thought to be
(E) total fat is less in wild animals than that of livestock fed on grain and more of their fat is of a kind they think is

After looking over the options quickly, a few key differences pop out:

1. starting off the comparison with "wild animals" vs. "total fat" (meaning/clarity)
2. than do livestock / than livestock / than that of livestock (parallelism)
3. more of a kind of fat / more fat of a kind (meaning/clarity)
4. pronouns toward the end = make sure they're clear

Since we know we're dealing with a comparison question, let's start by checking that the comparisons are parallel. This is the basic format they should follow:

X less than Y

Let's save the ones that are parallel for later, and rule out the ones that aren't:

(A) wild animals have less total fat than do livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat they think is --> PARALLEL

(B) wild animals have less total fat than livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat thought to be --> PARALLEL

(C) wild animals have less total fat than that of livestock fed on grain and have more fat of a kind thought to be --> NOT PARALLEL (Comparing wild animals to "that of" livestock; what is "that of" referring to? We don't know, but we do know it's not parallel.)

(D) total fat of wild animals is less than livestock fed on grain and they have more fat of a kind thought to be --> NOT PARALLEL (Compares "total fat" to "livestock," which are not parallel things.)

(E) total fat is less in wild animals than that of livestock fed on grain and more of their fat is of a kind they think is --> NOT PARALLEL (Compares wild animals to "that of" livestock, which isn't parallel.)

We can eliminate options C, D, & E because the comparisons made were not parallel.

Now that we have this narrowed down to 2 options, let's take a closer look at each to find any potential problems:

(A) wild animals have less total fat than do livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat they think is

This is INCORRECT because it has a vague pronoun! Who/what is "they" referring to? It's not clear at all! This is a great example of the "Mysterious they." The sentence never refers to WHO conducted the studies mentioned in the beginning - in fact, there are no people in this sentence at all! So let's toss this option out.

(B) wild animals have less total fat than livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat thought to be

This is CORRECT! The comparison is parallel, and there are no problems with vague or misleading pronouns!


There you have it - option B is the correct choice!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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A. wild animals have less total fat than do livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat they think is

what i want to know is "wild animals have less total fat than do livestock fed on grain" - is this part correct grammatically ?

What is the rule for "do" ? where should it be used ?

can anyone explain this?

(B) wild animals have less total fat than livestock (have) fed on grain and more of a kind of fat thought to be

(C) wild animals have less total fat than that of livestock fed on grain and have more fat of a kind thought to be


more of a kind of fat VS more fat of a kind
Do both carry different meaning?

I read this as,
more of a kind of fat = more of a type of fat thought to be good for cardiac health.
[ more fat of a kind = more fat of a type thought to be good for cardiac health.
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Dear GMATNinja,

Thanks for detailed explanation.

"Dear Team,
I have a doubt in option B. Comparison is done between ""wild animals have less total fat"" and ""livestock"" which is illogical. It should be ""livestock's "". Kindly suggest

According to recent studies comparing the nutritional value of meat from wild animals and meat from domesticated animals, wild animals have less total fat than livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat thought to be good for cardiac health.

Thanks in advance

bb generis

Passive voice is not wrong. In writing, active voice is preferred over passive voice but passive voice has its uses (when the impact of the action is more important than the doer of the action) e.g.
"The tattoo was removed."
instead of "The doctor removed the tattoo."

You don't care who removed the tattoo. The important thing is that it was removed.

You cannot ignore an option just because it uses passive voice.
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Dear egmat, I found your views very useful and also the link on ellipsis is very informative. Thanks for sharing them. In order to enhance my understanding on ellipsis, I have a query regarding option D.
Option D: total fat of wild animals is less than (total fat of) livestock fed on grain and they have more fat of a kind thought to be.

Also, "they" can refer to "wild animals" which is correct.
Kindly suggest.

Thanks in advance
GMATNinja

Hello krishnabalu!

In option D, it is comparing fat to animals, which isn't parallel. An easy way to check for this is to eliminate any prepositional phrases you can find. Prepositional phrases are there to add extra information - but they can also confuse readers! Here is what it looks like if we cross them out:

total fat of wild animals is less than livestock fed of grain

If we eliminate the extra information, we can clearly see that this option is trying to compare total fat to livestock, which is NOT parallel! It should compare fat to fat, or animal to animal.

If we look at the correct option, we see a parallel comparison:

(B) wild animals have less total fat than livestock fed on grain

This option is comparing animals to animals, which is parallel. The basis for comparison is their total fat, which is clearly indicated here.

I hope this helps!
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thank you gmat ninja for the confirmation

Posted from my mobile device

the other reason why i wrote this was because, i noticed that horizontal scanning is useful, when everyone else are debating / explaining on the ellipsis of the comparison.

when performing horizontal scan, i noticed that
this answer choice c has a different way of wording "fats" , and thus, it led me to suspect there might be differences in meaning between c and the original answer choice .

i learn that Gmat is looking for the best fit of all answer choices.

btw, thanks for your clear and crisp explanation on this question in your earlier post.
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