Last visit was: 18 Nov 2025, 17:45 It is currently 18 Nov 2025, 17:45
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
505-555 Level|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|   Meaning/Logical Predication|   Pronouns|                        
avatar
GAURAV1113
Joined: 22 Dec 2016
Last visit: 10 Sep 2023
Posts: 37
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 92
Location: India
Schools: ISB'22 (A)
GMAT 1: 710 Q50 V35
Schools: ISB'22 (A)
GMAT 1: 710 Q50 V35
Posts: 37
Kudos: 6
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
avatar
sssanskaar2
Joined: 21 Sep 2020
Last visit: 15 Sep 2021
Posts: 16
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 110
Posts: 16
Kudos: 3
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
User avatar
CEdward
Joined: 11 Aug 2020
Last visit: 14 Apr 2022
Posts: 1,203
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 332
Posts: 1,203
Kudos: 272
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Galileo was convinced that natural phenomena, as manifestations of the laws of physics, would appear the same to someone on the deck of a ship moving smoothly and uniformly through the water as a person standing on land.

(A) water as a X

We need to maintain the parallelism here : “…to someone…to a person standing”

(B) water as to a CORRECT

(C) water; just as it would to X

It’s unclear what the ‘it’ is referring to. Is ‘it’ the natural phenomena? Ship?

(D) water, as it would to the X

This breaks the parallelism. The ‘it’ is also unclear. A subtle detail, but the use of the article ‘the’ to signify a person whose reference is understood is also wrong.

(E) water; just as to the X

‘just as’ is wrong.
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
TheUltimateWinner
Quote:
Galileo was convinced that natural phenomena, as manifestations of the laws of physics, would appear the same to someone on the deck of a ship moving smoothly and uniformly through the water as a person standing on land.

(A) water as a

(B) water as to a

(C) water; just as it would to

(D) water, as it would to the

(E) water; just as to the
Request Expert Reply:
Hi honorable experts,
MartyTargetTestPrep, GMATNinja, GMATGuruNY, AjiteshArun, VeritasPrepHailey, BrightOutlookJenn,
I've two queries in this question.
Q1:
Is there any ellipsis word like 'appear' after the word 'would' both in choice C and D?

Q2:
People says that 'it' refers back to 'phenomena' in choice C and D logically. But as 'it' is singular and 'phenomena' is plural they don't match. My question is: how do people know that 'phenomena' is plural? So far I know that GMAC keeps a hint to understand either the pronoun is singular or plural. Unfortunately, I did not get any hints for this question :( .
Can you share your thought, please?
Thanks in advanced..
I'm eagerly expecting feedback from my honorable experts! Appreciating your help, experts.
User avatar
MBAB123
Joined: 05 Jul 2020
Last visit: 30 Jul 2023
Posts: 563
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 151
GMAT 1: 720 Q49 V38
WE:Accounting (Accounting)
Products:
GMAT 1: 720 Q49 V38
Posts: 563
Kudos: 318
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
TheUltimateWinner
TheUltimateWinner
Quote:
Galileo was convinced that natural phenomena, as manifestations of the laws of physics, would appear the same to someone on the deck of a ship moving smoothly and uniformly through the water as a person standing on land.

(A) water as a

(B) water as to a

(C) water; just as it would to

(D) water, as it would to the

(E) water; just as to the
Request Expert Reply:
Hi honorable experts,
MartyTargetTestPrep, GMATNinja, GMATGuruNY, AjiteshArun, VeritasPrepHailey, BrightOutlookJenn,
I've two queries in this question.
Q1:
Is there any ellipsis word like 'appear' after the word 'would' both in choice C and D?

Q2:
People says that 'it' refers back to 'phenomena' in choice C and D logically. But as 'it' is singular and 'phenomena' is plural they don't match. My question is: how do people know that 'phenomena' is plural? So far I know that GMAC keeps a hint to understand either the pronoun is singular or plural. Unfortunately, I did not get any hints for this question :( .
Can you share your thought, please?
Thanks in advanced..
I'm eagerly expecting feedback from my honorable experts! Appreciating your help, experts.

Hey TheUltimateWinner, I realise you're looking for an expert reply but see if this helps! :)

Q1 - Yes I believe there is, but they are wrong for other reasons.

Q2 - I believe the singular word is phenomenon. But when I was attempting this question, I did not focus on singular vs plural as it can sometimes be hard to devise singular vs plural for certain words. I knew this one but there is a good chance that I won't know the next one, unless GMAT somehow slips a hint sneakily. I was able to find better errors that revolved around meaning.
avatar
Jaya6
Joined: 09 Jan 2021
Last visit: 21 Jun 2022
Posts: 68
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 142
Location: India
Schools: ISB '23 (S)
GPA: 3.2
Schools: ISB '23 (S)
Posts: 68
Kudos: 14
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
vinay240815
Galileo was convinced that natural phenomena, as manifestations of the laws of physics, would appear the same to someone on the deck of a ship moving smoothly and uniformly through the water as a person standing on land.

A. water as a

B. water as to a

C. water; just as it would to

D. water, as it would to the

E. water; just as to the

ANS :

CHOICE A:

Incorrect:
The sentence has the parallelism and the idiom errors

CHOICE B:

Correct:
The two objects compared here “to someone” and “to a person” are now parallel to each other. This also rectifies the idiom error.

CHOICE C

Incorrect:
1) Semi-colon joins an Independent Clause with a Dependent Clause.
2) Singular pronoun “it” has been used to refer to plural noun “phenomena”.

CHOICE D

Incorrect:
This choice repeats the pronoun error spotted in Choice C.

CHOICE E

Incorrect:
Semicolon should be used to join two independent clause. Here, what follows semicolon is a fragment as it does not have a subject-verb pair.

hope this helps . :)


what should the alternate pronoun be in place of 'it'?
is it 'those or they'? also can you rephrase the correct sentence in D?
User avatar
krndatta
Joined: 09 Feb 2020
Last visit: 17 Oct 2024
Posts: 383
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 433
Location: India
Posts: 383
Kudos: 44
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
EducationAisle

Can you throw some light on option A?

This option statement effectively is "Natural Phenomena would appear the same to someone standing on the deck of a ship as a person standing on land."
Over here Natural Phenomena is compared with a person standing on a deck.
We need to compare the appearance of Natural Phenomena to someone standing on the deck of a ship to the appearance of Natural Phenomena to someone standing on land. This is conveyed clearly in option B.

Have I understood the reasoning correctly?
Please share your two cents.
User avatar
EducationAisle
Joined: 27 Mar 2010
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 3,891
Own Kudos:
3,579
 [1]
Given Kudos: 159
Location: India
Schools: ISB
GPA: 3.31
Expert
Expert reply
Schools: ISB
Posts: 3,891
Kudos: 3,579
 [1]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Would agree with your assessment. Basically the intent is:

Natural phenomena would appear the same to X as to Y.
User avatar
TBT
Joined: 09 Aug 2020
Last visit: 26 Nov 2023
Posts: 308
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 494
Location: India
Concentration: Marketing, General Management
Posts: 308
Kudos: 469
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
I got the question right. Just curious about the usage of 'it' in c and d. Is 'it' referring to phenomena wrong here?
User avatar
ExpertsGlobal5
User avatar
Experts' Global Representative
Joined: 10 Jul 2017
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,193
Own Kudos:
4,758
 [1]
Given Kudos: 43
Location: India
GMAT Date: 11-01-2019
Expert
Expert reply
Active GMAT Club Expert! Tag them with @ followed by their username for a faster response.
Posts: 5,193
Kudos: 4,758
 [1]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
TBT
I got the question right. Just curious about the usage of 'it' in c and d. Is 'it' referring to phenomena wrong here?

Hello TBT,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, yes; this usage would be incorrect, as "phenomena" is a plural noun, the plural form of "phenomenon".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
User avatar
VerbalBot
User avatar
Non-Human User
Joined: 01 Oct 2013
Last visit: 04 Jan 2021
Posts: 18,835
Own Kudos:
Posts: 18,835
Kudos: 986
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.
   1   2 
Moderators:
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
7445 posts
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
234 posts
188 posts