That definitely helps. Thank you GMATNinja

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma svasan05

eliminated B,D and E because of "having" at the end and then eliminated C because of "and also they emit".

In C, isnt there a parallelism issue? "and also they emit" is not parallel to "Diesel engines burn", right? I would assume that to C be parallel, it would be needed a "and emit", right?

Thanks!

Yes, you would need "and emit" for parallelism and you cannot use "fewer" with carbon dioxide. It emits less carbon dioxide and fewer other gases (say only 2 of the 10 other gases that cause global warming).
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lets talk about the pattern
main clause +comm doing
in this pattern, comma doing can stand before or after the main clause
leaning gmat well, I get into Havard.
I learn gmat, making my english better.

the point here is that only some but not all conjunction can stand before doing to add some meaning
instead of leaning english, I go out for change
as well as leaning english, I leanr French.
in the above pattern, doing refers to the subject and modifies the whole clause. there are many , but not all, meaning relation between doing and the main clause.

because of learning hard, I pass gmat.

this is wrong because "because of" can not stand doing when doing refer to the subject -when doing is participle-.

" as well as" normally connect 2 similar things. I learn english as well as french.
but those phrases can stand before doing. doing in this case is participle, which has some, but not all, fuctions of adjective and verb. I dont know whether these phrase are conjunction or preposition when they stand before doing. but the key point is they can stand before doing this way

doing could be a pure noun , a participle or a gerund. pure noun can go with article such as "a, the" and adjective. participle has some, but not all , functions of adjective and has some but not all, functions of verb. gerund has some, but not all , function of noun and has some but not all, functions of verb.

doing is basic grammar point and gmat test this point a lot. but the problem is that most grammar books do not explain doing well and, non native test take fail on many SC problems.

many basic and hard points gmat tests because they are basic. but these points is not explained well in grammar books. for example, present perfect is not well explained in most grammar books though this point is basic. we come to this forum just to see the explanation from successful test takers who , though successful, are native to english and, so, can not give full explanation of those basic point of grammar. worst, the non natives read grammar books and focus on hard and not-basic points of grammar.

Can someone please elaborate on why emit is not a better choice than emitting?

Hi TalonShade,

There are a couple of things we should keep in mind here:

1. It is possible to use the -ing form of a verb after as well as.

2. We should probably not take a call on the emit vs. emitting split. Some people may find emit better, but others will insist that we use the -ing form after as well as.

The point is that there's nothing in this question that tells us that the GMAT considers either emit or emitting to be incorrect. This is most likely something that they added so as to distract test takers.
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I'll echo Ajitesh: the biggest source of confusion here is that test-takers often treat "as well as" the same way they'd treat "and." But they're not the same. "And" is a parallelism marker. "As well as" doesn't have to be.

For more on that distinction, check out this post.
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Diesel engines burn as much as 30% less fuel than gasoline engines of comparable size, as well as emitting far less carbon dioxide gas and far fewer of the other gasses that have been implicated in global warming.


(A) of comparable size, as well as emitting far less carbon dioxide gas and far fewer of the other gasses that have

(B) of comparable size, as well as emit far less carbon dioxide gas and far fewer of the other gasses having

(C) of comparable size, and also they emit far fewer carbon dioxide and other gasses that have

(D) that have a comparable size, and also they emit far fewer of the other gasses having

(E) that have a comparable size, as well as emitting far fewer of the other gasses having





1. less/fewer
2. s+v+o, as well as ving
s+v+tov2+o, as well as v2
s+v+o as well as s+v: comparison
3. one/the other
4. N+that have vpp/N+having

Choice A (the OA) is poor construction, because of the phrase "as well as requiring" and its complete lack of parallel structure. However, GMAC says it's the answer, so we have no choice but to learn from that.

"The GMAT is a challenging test, as well as requiring the student to pay a $250 exam fee." is not an English sentence that one should ever speak or write in real life...but it's permissible, according to GMAC.

The only real takeaways from this highly flawed SC question? If GMAC says it's correct, then it's correct—and correct answers do not have to be perfect, or even close to perfect. Yes, Choice A is bad, but choices B, C, D, and E are all worse.

The sentence would obviously read much better as "The GMAT is a challenging test that requires the student to pay a $250 exam fee." or "The GMAT is a challenging test, one that requires the student to pay a $250 exam fee."
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