By the year 2008, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowlings' gripping book

Question

By the year 2008, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowlings' gripping book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort had around 400 million copies in print, making it more than that of almost any other English book ever written.

(A) book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than

(B) book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort had around 200 million copies in print, which is more than

(C) book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, had around 200 million copies in print, more than

(D) book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than

(E) book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort had around 200 million copies in print and is more than

original source: https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... stion/1539

Zarrolou · Accepted Answer

By the year 2008, Harry Potter,(  <---start of a modifier  ) J.K. Rowlings' gripping  book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort had around 400 million copies in print, making it more than  that of almost any other English book ever written.

The comma after Potter starts a modifier that descibes the book, if we remove the modifier the sentence must still make sense. So lets take a look

(A)  (...), making it more than . "making it -the book-  more than that of almost(...)" is not logical; the sentence has also a modifier problem.
Its structure it's like: Harry Potter, modifier, ING modifier of the preceding clause (of the preceding modifier in this case). This is not a sentence

(B)  (...) 200 million copies in print (modifier 1), which is more than (modifier 2) . This is not a complete sentence, just modifiers

(C) (...) Lord Voldemort, had around 200 million copies in print, more than 
 (D) (...) Lord Voldemort, had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than 
Finally C and D have a correct modifier of the book. C is clear : "more than" refers to the copies in print.
In D it refers to the book so "making it -the book-  more than that of almost(...)" is not logical

(E) is just a  huge modifier  and has no main verb.

C is correct

Zarrolou · Answer

The basic sentence is:

Harry Potter had around 200 million copies in print.

If you add modifiers you cannot change the structure, let me explain with an example.
  One of the most succesful book in our generation,   Harry Potter had around 200 million copies in print.

That part is a modifier correctly used that does not affect the core sentence.

If however I say:

Harry Potter,   which had around 200 million copies in print  . This is not a sentence, because if you remove the "which" modifier you are left with "Harry Potter": not a complete sentence.

Same thing with E: 
  By the year 2008(modifier)  , Harry Potter (subject), J.K. Rowlings' gripping book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort (...) book ever written (this is a description of the book).

If we want to be precise, those are called appositive modifiers, they give a description of a word like in this case with "Harry Potter", and in this case the commas act as boundaries.

The first comma starts a description of the book that never ends, so the structure of the sentence is :  modifier, subject, modifier .

A run on sentence is a sentence composed by two (or more) indipendent caluses connected by a comma without FANBOYS (and, but,...)
Example: IC 1= This year I'll go to Paris ; IC 2=Next year I'll go to London
Run on sentence= This year I'll go to Paris, next year I'll go to London 
Correct sentence= This year I'll go to Paris, AND next year I'll go to London 
Hope it's clear

dave785 · Answer

EDIT: nvm, completely missed the comma after Harry Potter

ankurgupta03 · Answer

Can you please elaborate, really need help regarding this, as to how to find out a main verb ... and how to decide whether the sentence is a modifier as in this case or a run on sentence ...

Marcab · Answer

Whenever you see "it", try to analyse which noun it refers to. Here it refers to "book series". Now think, how can a book series be "more than any other English book", it can't. Eliminate A and D.
E is also similar because here we can raise a question- what is more than any other English book. Is it "book series"? But how can a "book series" be more than any other English book. Eliminate E.

By the time you arrive at B and C, you may notice that there is a difference in terms of punctuation comma. The comma is needed to properly use the modifier "more than...." which clearly modifies the number, whereas in B "which" is incorrectly used.

cumulonimbus · Answer

Hi GMATPILL,

in the question stem " that   of   almost any other English book ever written.", shouldn't of be for?

Marcab · Answer

We make copies of something.
Lets take an example:
"I am supposed to get 4 copies of the insurance papers that were kept in the drawer."
Do you think that it should be "for". Let's try the same.
"I am supposed to get 4 copies for the insurance papers that were kept in the drawer."
Usage of "for" changes the meaning and its illogical too.
Regards,

GMATPill · Answer

It should be OF - as shown in the non-underlined portion of the sentence.

This is a common comparison structure.

"His GMAT score is higher than that of any other test taker."

You are comparing the gmat score of "him" versus the gmat score OF any other test taker.

"200M copies in print, more than that   of almost any other English book ever written."

Here you are comparing the # of copies of print of "Harry Potter" versus the # of copies of print OF almost any other Enligsh book ever written.

So in English, we use the word "OF" in this context to compare things that are kind of a "sub-element" of something we are referring to.

FOR would be incorrect.

GMATPill · Answer

I received a private message from practicegmat for this:

"That" refers to "number of copies in print".

So the sentence says "had around 200 million copies in print"

So "more than that" refers to the # of million copies in print for "other english books written".

Hope that helps.

KarishmaParmar · Answer

I went through the whole discussion but do not understand why B is incorrect. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

sayantanc2k · Answer

KarishmaParmar

The non-essential modifier   J.K. Rowlings' gripping book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort  refers to the subject  Harry Potter . Therefore the modifier must be separated by 2 commas, one at the beginning and one at the end. The verb  had  goes with the subject  Harry Potter  - therefore this separation of the non-essential modifier is required. Otherwise it may seem as though  Lord Vermount   is the subject of the verb  had .

Hence option B is wrong.

cogen234 · Answer

I like Option C best but one thing I thought was really nagging me in the original sentence though it's not in the underlined portion.

Why are they using the singular demonstrative pronoun 'that' rather than 'those' to compare the actual number of copies (shouldn't it be 200 million copies-- more than THOSE of).

Am I missing something here?

sayantanc2k · Answer

Yes, I agree with you because "those" replaces "copies is print". However if the sentence were modified so as to use the word "number", then the use of "that" would be correct. For example:

By the year 2008, the number of copies in print for Harry Potter, J.K. Rowlings' gripping book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, was around 200 million, more than that for almost any other English book ever written.

In this case "that" would correctly replace "number".

I do also have doubt about the use of simple past. Past perfect is used with time expressions such as "By the year 2008". Following is an excerpt from Manhattan SC guide:

Also note that the later past event does not need to be expressed with a Simple Past tense verb. You could just use a date or another time reference.

Right: By 1945 the United States HAD BEEN at war for several years.

MissionWin · Answer

Option A has a comparison problem. Here ‘it’ refers to the book series. So, ‘making it more than that of’ means that the book series is more than the number of books in print of almost any other English book. This makes no sense. D makes the exact same error, so both of these options can be discarded. B and E also share a common error, one that is a little hard to pin down. Both of them are just modifiers linked together. This means that the two of them aren’t complete sentences at all.

So, C is the correct option.

So, C is the correct option.

sambitspm · Answer

I consider the  -ING  form of  make  a bigger problem in  Option D .

1. The first part of all options is the same, so no point discussing them.
2. It is  book series  that sold more than 200 million copies and not Voldemort. Hence, Options A, B, E are out.

As explained in my first sentence,  making  led me to eliminate it.    -ING after comma modifies the whole clause (noun+verb). But there is no clause present .   Hence, we can eliminate D.

Answer C

JohnT2222 · Answer

Sayantanc2k,

I have read your response to the question and still have uncertainties:

The way you have structured the answer with a non essential modifier in between the two commas, it makes it sound as though Harry Potter himself had 200 million copies in circulation- whereas the meaning is most certainly supposed to be that the book series Harry Potter had 200 million copies in circulation. Further I don’t understand how Voldemort could be the subject as that noun is the object of the preposition “against”

I realize we are comparing it to non-fictional statistic in the latter portion, but regardless it doesn’t offer clarity as a fictional character could could conceivably be compared to something non-fictional

“Based on the movies Superman is stronger than the worlds strongest man”

Please offer your insights:)

Posted from my mobile device

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

(A) book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than
The sentence should include a comma after voldemort and making is not the right use -Hence out

(B) book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort had around 200 million copies in print, which is more than
Similar reasoning as A and which is not the right use of words -Hence out

(C) book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, had around 200 million copies in print, more than
This nails all the reasoning -Hence in

(D) book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, had around 200 million copies in print, making it more than
Here making isn't the right use of words so distorts the meaning

(E) book series portraying a young wizard's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldemort had around 200 million copies in print and is more than
Similar reasoning as A and is more than isn't the right use of words 
Hence IMO C

VerbalBot · Answer

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By the year 2008, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowlings' gripping book

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By the year 2008, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowlings' gripping book

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