Between 1990 and 2000 the global economy grew more than it did during

The reason i picked B over A is the last few words in A 'from the beginning of agriculture'. Is this grammatically correct as from the beginning of something should denote a time period, e.g. from the 70s. Please explain

Hi Shreya, the notion of time is implied here; basically it suggests from (the time of) the beginning of agriculture.

This is quite a common construct in GMAT, and it might be a good idea to get comfortable with this.

Another similar example:

The nineteenth-century chemist Humphry Davy presented the results of his early experiments in his "Essay on Heat and Light", a critique of all chemistry since Robert Boyle as well as a vision of a new chemistry that Davy hoped to found.
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Prepositions are the words that start off a prepositional phrase, i.e. "a pile OF books" ("of" is the preposition and "of books" is the prepositional phrase).

And, yes, prepositional phrases can certainly act as modifiers! In the example above, "of books" describes the "pile."

Keep in mind that the GMAT is fairly lenient when it comes to comma rules, so you always want to look for other decision points first.
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VeritasKarishma
To clarify, why wouldn't you need a comma right after 2000 to be ---> "Between 1990 and 2000, the..."? My ear wanted a comma there. Thank you in advance

GMAT doesn't really test comma rules so do not eliminate any option on the basis of comma alone. Look for other decision points.
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Between 1990 and 2000 the global economy grew more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture to 1950.


(A) Between 1990 and 2000 the global economy grew more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture

(B) Between 1990 and 2000 the growth of the global economy was more than that during 10,000 years, from when agriculture began

(C) The growth of the global economy between 1990 and 2000 exceeds that which had been for 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture

(D) The growth of the global economy between 1990 and 2000 exceeds what it has been for 10,000 years, from when agriculture began

(E) The growth of the global economy between 1990 and 2000 exceeded what it did for the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture
Look at the meaning, what it says the growth of the global economy and global economy exceeds. I want to make it simple by the way it is a placeholder that I mention. I am the person who is targeting Q51 so I noticed that growth is not exact way the sentence trying to figure. It talks about the economy thats exceeds in general. The growth of global economy and global economy is very different thing I thing Thats why ninja says focus on meaning

A. Correct
B.Idiom Error, From X to Y; from when is wrong, could have been from beginning of agriculture to 1950
C. Need past tense + usage of that which together is almost always wrong on GMAT
D. Need past tense
E. it pronoun issue, growth did not do anything, but growth 'was ''

Hi MartyTargetTestPrep ReedArnoldMPREP

Between (A) and (B) - i chose (B).

I disregarded (A) because of the "IT" in (A)

In (A) - isnt the "IT" referring back to the SAME ANTECEDENT, specifically global economy (between 1990 and 2000) ?

So (A) - the comparison is



That doesnt make sense obviously.

Alternativevly, (B) - I prefer "that" -- because "that" forces a NEW COPY of the antecedent. In (B) -- growth rate 1 is being compared to growth rate 2

Hi jabhatta2.

The issue is that the (A) version doesn't say, "the 1990-2000 global economy." Rather, the (A) version says, "Between 1990 and 2000 the global economy grew ...."

So, the modifier "between 1990 and 2000" doesn't modify "global economy." If modifies "grew," communicating that the economy grew between 1990 and 2000.

In fact, if you think about it, what exactly would the BETWEEN 1990 and 2000 global economy be anyway?

(There really should be a comma after "2000" to make the above clearer, but still, that meaning is the meaning conveyed by the sentence even as written.)

So, the antecedent of "it" in the (A) version is simply "the global economy," with the result that the (A) version conveys a meaning that makes sense, which is that the global economy grew more between 1990 and 2000 than the global economy did during the other time period.
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MartyTargetTestPrep
Thank you! To clarify, "did" functions as a verb that can be used to replace another verb phase, correct? So, "did" replaces "grew"? Thank you again for all of your time and help

Yes, what you said is completely correct.
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egmat
Thank you for the thorough video explanation on this question. Can you further explain how a phrase cannot be parallel to a clause with another example? I researched further online for the differences between phrases and clauses, but I was confused by some of the grammar jargon that I came across. Thank you for your time and help.

egmat
I realize that you are supposed to pick on bigger issues than comma usage, but why is a comma not needed after "2000"?

Many thanks and Happy Holidays

woohoo921

There isn't really a solid set of rules on when a comma must be used. There are situations in which a comma is inappropriate; for instance, we can't join two independent clauses with just a comma, and we wouldn't put a comma directly between subject and verb. There are also situations in which a comma is typically used, and certainly we do usually see a comma after an initial modifier. However, if the intended meaning seems fairly clear, the GMAT may forgo the comma. Here, the initial modifier is quite short, and there's not much chance of misreading. In other cases, the GMAT may add a comma where it seems unneeded. This is often to improve the flow of the sentence, although not all of us may agree that the flow is really improved.
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Hey woohoo921

Thank you for the wishes. Trust you enjoyed the holiday season as much as we did. Here's wishing you a stellar 2023!

You've asked yet another interesting question, and the answer eludes even the best minds out there. Allow me to help:

Rule of Thumb:
If the prepositional phrase at the start of a sentence is separated by a comma, it modifies the entire sentence; but, if it is not separated by a comma, it only modifies the verb.

Now, for many simple sentences, the presence or absence of a comma makes little difference to the meaning of the sentence. However, in certain complex cases, this distinction is very important and can effect the meaning of the sentence drastically.

Let's apply this rule to our official question to see whether this comma matters:

Between 1990 and 2000 the global economy grew more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture to 1950.

Application & Observations:
The first thing to notice here is that the prepositional phrase "between 1990 and 2000" is just a verb modifier. It only tells us the time of the action "grew". This can be easily understood if we rearrange the words in the sentence as so:

• The global economy grew between 1990 and 2000...more than it grew during the 10,000 years...

Now, by placing this prepositional phrase at the start of the sentence without a comma, we're only maintaining its identity as a modifier of the verb 'grew'.

However, if we were to separate this phrase with a comma, it would modify the entire clause after the comma. We'd get:

• Between 1990 and 2000, the global economy grew more than it did during the 10,000 years up till 1950.

Notice that, in this construct, we distort the meaning of the sentence and extend the influence of this phrase from the verb 'grew' to the end of the clause, which includes the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture to 1950. This is both awkward and illogical.

So, this is certainly a case wherein it's more appropriate to leave out the comma.

Let's look at some examples in which placing the comma is appropriate:

• On 10 May 1857, the sepoys at Meerut broke rank and turned on their commanding officers, killing some of them.
  
  • Notice how breaking rank, turning on, and killing all happen "on 10 May 1857.
• In a royal proclamation made to the people of India, Queen Victoria promised equal opportunity of public service under British law, and also pledged to respect the rights of native princes.
  
  • Notice that both "promised" and "pledged" took place "in the royal proclamation".
• By 1900, although the Congress had emerged as an all-India political organization, it did not have the support of most Indian Muslims.
  
  • Both events "'emerged" and "did not have the support" took place "by 1900".

I hope this helps improve your understanding of verb-modifier phrases and sentence-modifier phrases.

Happy learning!

Abhishek
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