OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONProject SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC1)
For SC butler Questions Click HereQuote:
Despite recent events, many economists stand by their belief that capital allocation decisions made solely by individuals and firms are superior than those influenced by governments—present circumstances are considered exceptional and most unique.
•
Superior→
Superior TO is correct.
Superior THAN is incorrect. And incoherent.
→ You will just have to memorize this one:
Superior to = better than •
Unique does NOT take modifiers.
→ Do not say "very" unique or "quite" unique or "most" unique.
→ Unique means "one of a kind" and is something called an "absolute" adjective.
The jargon does not matter. The idea does matter.
This rule is very formal and may fade away soon but remains in force for now.
→ In formal writing and on the GMAT, words such as
unique, perfect, complete, essential, pregnant, and
dead are binary and should not be modified as if the words possess degrees. They do not.
You are either dead or you are not.
You are either pregnant or you are not.
Something is either complete or it is not.
So, too, with the word
unique: if something is one of a kind, it is not "very" one of a kind, just as a mummy from Egypt is not "very" dead.
Unique should not be modified with words such as
most, quite, very, or
extremely.
Alternatively, you could focus on
concision and conclude, as
kungfury42 writes, "
most unique wastes an extra word whereas just
unique conveys the same meaning."
THE OPTIONSQuote:
A) capital allocation decisions made solely by individuals and firms are superior than those influenced by governments—present circumstances are considered exceptional and most unique
•
superior to is correct, not
superior than•
most unique is incorrect. Something is unique or it is not; the quality is binary, does not admit of degree, and should not be preceded by adverbs.
ELIMINATE A
Quote:
B) capital allocation decisions made solely by individuals and firms are superior to those influenced by governments—present circumstances are considered exceptional and most unique
•
most unique is incorrect as discussed just below the prompt and in option A
ELIMINATE B (if you want to be conservative, keep this option and dump it when you come upon the correct (and better) option
Quote:
C) capital allocation decisions made solely by individuals and firms are superior than those influenced by governments—present circumstances are considered exceptional and unique
• as is the case in option A,
superior to is correct, not
superior thanELIMINATE C
Quote:
D) capital allocation decisions made solely by individuals and firms are superior to those influenced by governments—present circumstances are considered exceptional and unique
• I see no errors
• decisions . . . are superior TO [decisions] influenced by governments ← ← superior "to" is correct
•
unique is written correctly without a "most" in front of it
KEEP
Quote:
E) capital allocated by decisions made solely by individuals and firms are superior to those influenced by governments—present circumstances are considered exceptional and unique
[/quote]
• subject/verb disagreement
The subject of this sentence is
capital. (Read carefully. The other four use a different subject. It is not an accident that this new subject shows up in (E). The test writers want your eyes to gloss over the new subject and in fact miss it.
The singular noun
capital does not agree with the plural verb
are• "those," plural, cannot refer to
capital, singular
• the meaning is nonsensical—capital itself cannot be "influenced by governments."
(The
allocation of capital can certainly be influenced by governments; these economists, apparently disciples of von Mises or Friedman and almost certainly not themselves poor, do not like government-influenced decisions about the allocation of capital. )
ELIMINATE E
The answer is D.
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19 May 2022, 20:55
45%
(medium)
32%
(01:54)
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