Because of the Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon,

Hi warriorguy, wonder why you think is is awkward. In fact, without the is, this would just be a sentence fragment, an incorrect construct.
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Hi EducationAisle,

Sorry. I wanted to highlight "also". Sun is 400 times ---- OK

Sun is also 400 times - seems awkward.

Hi! what you've done is to ignore the non-essential (which is 400 times larger than the Moon). Hence, also seems awkward to you.

The thing is that non-essential can be ignored to expose the core of the sentence and is largely useful for determining the subject-verb agreement. Ignoring the non-essential does not mean that the rest of the sentence would make complete sense (after all, the non-essential was there for a reason).

Another similar Officially correct question:

Bluegross musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style influenced generations of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from his own.

Again, if we remove the non-essential (whose repertory, views .... bluegrass artists), the sentence that remains is:

Bluegross musician Bill Monroe also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from his own.

Again, an also might look out of place to you, but is perfectly valid.
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Hi Ashish, I get where you are going.

Another way to look at the sentence would be: Bluegross musician Bill Monroe views on musical collaboration, and vocal style influenced generations of bluegrass artist , also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from his own.

If i look at the sentence now, then I can see that his views and vocal style did influence generations and also inspired many other artists. In this context, "also" seems perfectly fine to me.

Yes, and the context is very similar in the sentence under consideration.
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Because of the Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, but also 400 times farther away from Earth, so both the Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky.

(A) Because of the Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, but also 400 times farther away from Earth, so both the Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky.

(B) The Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, is also 400 times farther away from Earth, so the Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky.

(C) The Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky because the Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, and also 400 times farther away from Earth.

(D) Four hundred times larger than the Moon and 400 times farther away from Earth, the Sun has the same apparent size in the sky as the Moon's.

(E) Four hundred times larger than the Moon and also 400 times farther away from Earth, so the Sun in the sky has the same apparent size as the Moon.

GMATNinja Could you help to explain why (D) is incorrect?
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ziyuen,


The problem lies in the second part of the sentence: "...the Sun has the same apparent size in the sky as the Moon's." - as the moon's what? The sentence would have been clearer and more parallel if, instead of using the possessive ("Moon's"), it had said, "...the Sun has the same apparent size in the sky as the Moon has."
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[quote="arkle"]Because of the Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, but also 400 times farther away from Earth, so both the Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky.

(A) Because of the Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, but also 400 times farther away from Earth, so both the Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky.

(B) The Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, is also 400 times farther away from Earth, so the Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky.

(C) The Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky because the Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, and also 400 times farther away from Earth.

(D) Four hundred times larger than the Moon and 400 times farther away from Earth, the Sun has the same apparent size in the sky as the Moon's.

(E) Four hundred times larger than the Moon and also 400 times farther away from Earth, so the Sun in the sky has the same apparent size as the Moon.

look at choice D.
the idiom with "the same" is special. we do not say
I have the same pen as your pen
but we say
I have the same pen as you

this point is purely idiomatic. I look at the dictionary and find out my normal mistake.

so, D is wrong.

'Has' is not an action verb in this context. It just denotes a status of existence and hence is called a status verb wherein no action is on the part of the subject is involved. It is also acting as a linking verb as it connects the subject to its complement. When we have such a stative verb, we just compare the subject with another subject in the clause and not any action.

The following versions of the given choice will be correct.

1. the Sun has the same apparent size in the sky as the Moon has, ( As Ninja2 has suggested)
2. the sun has the same apparent size as the moon. ( as victory47 has suggested.)
3. The sun's size is the same as that of the moon's.
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Because of the Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, but also 400 times farther away from Earth, so both the Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky.

(A) Because of the Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, but also 400 times farther away from Earth, so both the Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky.

(B) The Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, is also 400 times farther away from Earth, so the Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky.

(C) The Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky because the Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, and also 400 times farther away from Earth.
--> fragment.

(D) Four hundred times larger than the Moon and 400 times farther away from Earth, the Sun has the same apparent size in the sky as the Moon's.
--> wrong comparison.

(E) Four hundred times larger than the Moon and also 400 times farther away from Earth, so the Sun in the sky has the same apparent size as the Moon.
--> lack of independent clause.
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Hi GmatNinjatwo,

Isn't the purpose of the possessive noun to omit words.

''Moon's here clearly points out to the apparent size.

The possessive case only fails if it adds to the ambiguity.

How can it be decided whether the possessive case is ambiguous or not? Kindly help.

GMATNinja
Kindly help

Can someone tell me why after highlighted part "than the Moon" part, with which comparison is made, is not there?? GMATNinja GMATNinja, GMATNinjaTwo

If I understand your question correctly, you want to know why choice (B) does not include the following highlighted portion:

"(B) The Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, is also 400 times farther away from Earth than the Moon, so the Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky."

Sure, we could add the highlighted portion and the sentence would still be correct, but the meaning of the sentence is clear without it. Adding the highlighted portion might make the sentence a tiny bit easier to understand but would also make it unnecessarily wordy.

I hope that helps!
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Choice between B and D was tough.
My reason for why D is wrong-
Four hundred times larger than the Moon and 400 times farther away from Earth, the Sun has the same apparent size in the sky as the Moon's.
- The sun HAS the same apparent size in the sky as the Moon HAS - this would have been correct. Note we are using a concept where the second verb in the comparison is apparently known.

- Now if we are using the possessive noun, it could mean the following-
---the sun has the same apparent size in the sky as the moon's X has- We are not comparing apparent sizes of x with apparent size of sun- hence wrong
---the sun has the same apparent size in the sky as the moon's apparent size - This is what made the choice difficult to eliminate- better would have been sun's apparent size is same as the moon's
---the sun has the same apparent size in the sky as the moon's apparent size has.- Completely illogical

This was a tough one. during Gmat it would have been difficult.

Because of the Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, but also 400 times farther away from Earth, so both the Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky.

(A) Because of the Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, but also 400 times farther away from Earth, so both the Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky. - the whole sentence is confusing... if you take out the first modifier "which is 400...Moon" it reads "Because of the Sun but also 400 times" which doesn't make any sense.

(B) The Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, is also 400 times farther away from Earth, so the Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky. - modifiers touch the appropriate nouns. Sequence is logical. All looks good here.

(C) The Sun and the Moon have the same apparent size in the sky because the Sun, which is 400 times larger than the Moon, and also 400 times farther away from Earth. - like with (A), remove the modifier "which is... Moon" and it reads "...the Sun and also 400 times...". Doesn't make sense!

(D) Four hundred times larger than the Moon and 400 times farther away from Earth, the Sun has the same apparent size in the sky as the Moon's. - This says that the Sun has the same apparent size as something that the Moon possesses.

(E) Four hundred times larger than the Moon and also 400 times farther away from Earth, so the Sun in the sky has the same apparent size as the Moon. - the "so" is unnecessary. If that wasn't included then the modifier would accurately modify "the Sun."

Could you help me explain that (E) is incorrect?
"And also is redundant"?

In magoosh idioms it is said that it is fine to use 'moon's'
So why D is wrong?

Hi shahidomer77, this is not an idioms issue, but a comparisons issue.

Option D is illogically comparing the Sun with Moon's (size).

We can compare Sun with moon or we can compare Sun's size with Moon's size, but we can't mix-n-match the two.
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I'd like to disagree with the highlighted.

1) The red shoe has the same size as the blue shoe.
2) Ram is of the same height as Raj.

Here we are comparing the property(size, height ) of two objects (Red and Blue shoes, Ram & Raj).

Same way, "The sun has the same size as the moon" also works coz we are equating the size of both the objects.

Ur explanation would be appropriate if the sentence was constructed in the following way: "The sun's size is same as moon"...
IMO, E has other problem. (IC beginning with SO THE SUN)
Let me know if I have made a mistake.