Constructed with the finest Italian marble, the floor of the church is

Except E ..all options have problems...floor has no glass windows ..windows belongs to church..So option E is the best

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Constructed with the finest Italian marble, the floor of the church is its greatest attraction and is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows.


(A) attraction and is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows --> pronoun error

(B) attraction, itself more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows --> same as A

(C) attraction, itself more attractive to tourists as are its ornate stained-glass windows --> more ... as

(D) attraction, being more attractive to tourists than its ornate stained-glass windows are --> same as A

(E) attraction as it more is attractive to tourists than are the church's stained- glass windows --> correct

Imo A

Constructed with the finest Italian marble, the floor of the church is its(church) greatest attraction and is more attractive to tourists than are its(church) ornate stained-glass windows.

Parallel and logical

(E) attraction as it more is attractive to tourists than are the church's stained- glass windows . Wrong

Correct me if i am wrong.

How B is correct? It will be very helpful if someone can explain the logic.

Experts mikemcgarry VeritasKarishma GMATNinja

gmatexam439
abhimahna
Please explain How B is correct

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The final segment of the sentence, is more attractive to tourists than... should be a subordinate phrase that modifies the floor. The original sentence is not overtly wrong, but since the final segment provides more information about the attractiveness of the floor, it should technically modify the clause the floor of the church is its greatest attraction instead of existing as a separate, redundant phrase. The original and suggests that the popularity of the floor and its appeal for tourists are separate ideas. Since they're related, the structure of the sentence should tie them together more clearly. Choices (В), (C), and (D) all subordinate the final phrase. Eliminate (C) because the proper idiom is more...than not more...as. Eliminate (D) because being is fully unnecessary. (B) it is.

An 800 test taker is aware that many Sentence Correction sentences and answer choices contain unnecessary uses of the verb to be, as seen in choice (D) above. She is on the lookout for such unnecessary wordiness and eliminates the choices containing it whenever possible.
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Can anubody explain why E is wrong..

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I think A is correct , because in all the other options itself is refering to church not the floor .

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Hi Bunuel,
In B, there are two pronouns (itself & its)- one reflexive & other possessive. They can't refer to two different objects/subjects.
The "itself" refers to the "floor of the church" while "its" should refer to the "church". Church is not even present in the subject of the sentence. The floor of the church can't have windows.

This was the reason, I didn't select B. A also was not the best but seemed better than B.

I would have selected B, had it been written as below -

attraction, itself more attractive to tourists than are church's ornate stained-glass windows

Can you pls help in explaining this exception or am I missing something.

daagh
Could you please step and provide your view?

IMO it must be B.


See there are two main attractions in Church:
1)its floor
2)its windows
but floor is more attractive to tourists than windows are.

(A) attraction and is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows

A is proper in meaning but its not proper construction.
See we say :
Burj Khalifa is tallest building in the world,taller than any other building.
if our intention is to focus on tallness of Burj khalifa we use above sentence.
We wont say
Burj Khalifa is tallest building in the world and it is taller than any other building.

"and " makes these two unrelated clauses having no relation.

Its like citing two features of building without emphasizing any of the features.

(B) attraction, itself more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows
here itself refers to floor ,cant refer to church as church cannot be more attractive than windows.we are comparing two characteristics/two features of church.
Itself here emphasizes that floor is itself more attractive than windows are.


(C) attraction, itself more attractive to tourists as are its ornate stained-glass windows
Correct idiom is More ..Than not More ...as
Also wrong meaning.
it means both floor and windows are equally attractive.

(D) attraction, being more attractive to tourists than its ornate stained-glass windows are
being here is modifying floor (contextually) but being can never be a modifier.So wrong.

(E) attraction as it more is attractive to tourists than are the church's stained- glass windows
wrong meaning
It is like saying
floor is greatest attraction because it more is attractive to tourists than are the church's stained- glass windows.
We are not giving reason for church having greatest attraction ,we are concerned with emphasizing that church's floor has greatest attraction.
Pizza is the most consumed food because it is eaten more than burger.
Does not make sense.So B is the answer.

parth

Subjugating the latter segment or the essence of the topic to a casual modifier of the first segment is not in good style, I feel. If the author had made the latter segment as the verbed clause and the initial segment as an adjunct, it would have been more purposeful. It is pathetic to see the main attraction being tucked in as an insignificant modifier.

I am not able to hatch what concepts this 95% difficulty question is broaching upon?
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Could someone explain the rules behind the use of the "ITS" pronoun tested above?

"Its" could refer to church or floor...

Hi Vanam52923,

I don't agree with your reasoning for elimination of A.
Below sentence may sound awkward but I don't find any reasonable flaw. We can avoid using the pronoun "it" to make it sound better.
"Burj Khalifa is tallest building in the world and it is taller than any other building."

I realised if we form above sentence in line with B, it would be as below -
"Burj Khalifa is tallest building in the world, itself taller than any other building."

If we go by meaning, none of the options sound good. It is already mentioned that the floor is the MOST attractive then we again say it is MORE attractive than windows.

It is like saying -
Only Vanam ranked no. 1 & Vanam ranked higher than AKY.
Second clause is redundant.

Can you thrash out my reasoning for B -
I have issues with two pronouns referring to different antecedents - one to the floor & other one to the church.

I do agree with you and even i am not very sure of this.This type of stuff we wont get in actual Gmat.
See my reasoning for eliminating A was some thing like this:

To me Sachin is the greatest batsman in the world,greater than even Don Bradman himself.
So it is already established that don Bradman is a very revered figure in his field.Now i am comparing two greatest figures and i am focusing
on the point that to me Sachin is the greatest ,though Bradman has already been established as the greatest.

Same reasoning i applied here,
ornate stained-glass windows : show us that they are such special type of windows and floor is still more popular than those windows are so to emphasize this relation ,we are making the other clause subordinate using itself.

The problem with "and "
is it makes two clauses independent.

E.g.
I got stuck in traffic and i reached office late.
It never means i reached office late because i got stuck in traffic.
These two are independent events.

I got stuck in traffic and thus i reached office late.
Now these two are related clauses.
So apply same logic to A.
It is also showing two features but not making them dependent.

Now regarding pronoun issues:
Pronoun can refer to different antecedents as long as meaning is clear.
Itself we used only to emphasize on floor only so it will refer to floor
its is possessive pronoun so can refer to any thing
so its refers to church because logically floor cannot have windows.

I think still we should take some experts advice on the topic because solving such question in actual exam is sort of difficult.

It has been conceded that the possessive pronoun 'its' refers to the 'church's in both the cases in which the pronoun appears. However, in B, the reflexive pronoun 'itself' refers to the Floor. This kind of dichotomy is unacceptable as far as I see.

Incidentally, I am curious to know whether a reflexive pronoun has ever been used as an appositive in an official question.
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Daagh Sir, thanks for helping cementing my learning

Hi vanam52923,

"To me Sachin is the greatest batsman in the world,greater than even Don Bradman himself"
This sentence makes sense because of presence of word EVEN. Will it make sense if you remove it. No EVEN is used in the option chosen.

"To me Sachin is the greatest batsman in the world,greater than even Don Bradman himself"

in option E " as it more is ..." is right???
shldnt it be "as it is more ..."
if we rewrite option E : ...as it(floor) more is attractive "

please provide a clear explanation for elimination of A , i still feel A is right