zoezhuyan wrote:
dear
AndrewN,
I am still not sure why their cannot refer to clones. and why subject of the main clause should be plural
unlike clones, what kind of clones, the distinctness is "in their similarity", so I still think their refers to clones, and the subject of the main clause is not necessary plural.
I appreciate your explanation .
Hello,
zoezhuyan. I agree with what
GMATNinja wrote in response to your earlier query. To avoid needless repetition, I thought I would address the issue by encouraging you to allow
their to refer to
clones in the first part of the original sentence:
Quote:
Almost like clones in clones' similarity to one another...
My question is this: what else are
clones if not beings that are understood to be
identical to one another? Would the GMAT™ sanction such a seemingly redundant structure when the sentence could simply state,
Almost like clones and launch into the comparison? No,
their cannot refer to
clones. The pronoun must be a reference to
something else, something clone-
like, for the opening comparison to make sense. This realization forces us into an understanding that
their, the plural possessive pronoun, will refer to something plural in the main clause, whatever is clone-like. Finally, you should be attuned to the many ways in which introductory phrases and clauses precede a
false subject on the GMAT™. Simply put, the test prefers the subject right after that first comma, once the introductory phrase/clause has resolved. Anything else can lead to a nonsensical interpretation. With all of that said, we should be interpreting the sentence in the following manner:
Almost like clones in their similarity to one another, [plural noun that is clone-like] + predicate
(A), (C), and (D) should all be easy eliminations—
homogeneity is neither clone-like nor plural—and although
species in (B) could be seen on its own as singular or plural, the verb
is that follows tells us to interpret it as singular, so we have a basic subject-verb agreement error. (I hope you would not make the argument that a plural possessive pronoun can be used on the GMAT™ to introduce a singular subject. If you can find an official example to back up the notion, I will revise my position.) That leaves us with (E) as the only plausible answer.
I hope that adds some clarity to the matter. I know it can be hard sometimes to break the habit of interpreting a sentence only in the way you want to see it, but trust me, as soon as you start to let go of the notion that you
know what the sentence is aiming to say, you will pick up on issues that make eliminations easier.
Thank you for thinking to ask me about this one.
- Andrew