GMAT Ninja SC Expert - Ask Me Anything about GMAT SC and Grammar

Hi GMATNinja

Could you please have a look at the below question from the official guide:


Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success.


(A) Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success.

(B) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning was considered among her contemporaries as a better poet than her husband, she was later overshadowed by his success.

(C) Later overshadowed by the success of her husband, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry had been considered among her contemporaries to be better than that of her husband.

(D) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet.

(E) Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry was considered among her contemporaries as better than her husband, but her success was later overshadowed by his.

The OA is (D)
The main point of contention is the way the pronouns have been used, referring back to the possessives. On my first attempt I had eliminated (D) {thinking literally about the sentence as you had suggested in your YouTube sessions} and selected (B).

Posted from my mobile device

Thanks! That helps a lot. GMATNinja

One more question regarding the comparison in option A:

(A) "Chicago-style" deep-dish pizza must have its crust, which resembles a pie crust more than a traditional pizza-style flatbread, baked alone before toppings are added, and so takes longer to prepare it than most other types of pizza.

Here we are comparing to actions:

"Chicago-style" deep-dish pizza's crust resembles a pie crust more than "Chicago-style" deep-dish pizza's crust resembles a traditional pizza-style flatbread

Isn't it incorrect comparison? It should be like this:

"Chicago-style" deep-dish pizza's crust resembles a pie crust more than a traditional pizza-style flatbread's crust does

Is it correct?

Thanks GMATNinja

Another follow up question on parallelism: Why does the sentence sometimes end in an object form of the pronoun and sometimes the subject form? For example:

“She now had a number of friends much smarter than she.” vs.

“She now has a number of friends much smarter than her.”

or

“Compared to the Jones, Peter was better suited to the lifestyle than they were.” vs.

“Compared to the Jones, Peter was better suited to the lifestyle than them.”

For each set of sentences, is it that one sentence is better than the other or is one of the two actually wrong?

That's a great question, and unfortunately there is no great answer. As discussed in our SC guide for beginners, no two questions will test exactly the same content and meaning, and thinking about meaning isn't something that can be distilled down to easy-to-follow steps.

You simply have to practice (1) finding the strict, literal differences in meaning between two or more answer choices and (2) thinking really hard about those meaning differences. Context is key -- sure, you might have two options that are technically okay from a grammar perspective, but does one of them make a whole lot more sense based on the context? Are there any choices that make the meaning illogical or unclear?

These meaning differences are often very subtle and tricky. We've done our best to address some of them in our full explanations, but, again, no two questions are alike.

So if you come across this sort of thing an official question, feel free to tag us, and we'll do our best to help!

Hi GMATNinja

I am unable to observe any definite error/split in this question. Could you please look into this & share an awesome reasoning/explanation as you always do.

Link: https://gmatclub.com/forum/since-fanati ... 46304.html

Since fanatics usually regard themselves as self-less patriots eager to die for their beliefs, fanaticism can rarely be controlled, however ruthless the countermeasures.

(A) however ruthless the countermeasures
(B) whatever the ruthless there is in the countermeasures
(C) no matter threat the countermeasures are ruthless
(D) in spite of the ruthlessness of the countermeasures
(E) even though there are ruthless countermeasures

Hi GMATNinja

In general, I am struggling with the SC questions having a long underlined portion. I end up either taking more time (> 90 secs) or marking incorrect.

Could you please suggest the right approach to solve?

Regards
Rohit

Tough question! The good news is that the GMAT doesn't seem to be testing this distinction, so I wouldn't worry to much about it (if you see it come up on an official question, let us know!).

The short answer is that either can work. We could interpret your first example as having a couple of implied verbs:

"She now had a number of friends [who are] much smarter than she [is]"

In this case the subject pronoun makes sense. Notice that "than" functions as a type of conjunction in this case, connecting the clause "she [is]" to the rest of the sentence.

But if we think of "than" as a preposition, then it makes sense to use an object pronoun after it:

"Her friends are smarter than her."

In this case, "her" is an object of the preposition ("than").

Rather than trying to come up with black and white rules governing this sort of thing, your best bet is to be conservative. If you have a subject pronoun with a stated or implied verb, it's probably okay. And if you have an object pronoun following a "than" without a verb, it's also probably okay.

As always, eliminate the choices with definite errors first, and then compare the remaining options based on meaning, instead of trying to invent and apply esoteric grammar rules for weird stuff like this.

I hope that helps!

Wow, sorry for the extremely delayed response! (We made a clerical error, and this one got lost in the shuffle.)

The short answer is that the GMAT is fairly lenient when it comes to comma usage, so you always want to look for other decision points. In this case, we are trying to cite two distinct things that art patrons are far less expert in:

1) distinguishing good paintings from poor ones
2) distinguishing authentic art from fakes

If we put an "and" before "authentic art" instead of the comma, we get,

"... distinguishing good paintings from poor ones and authentic art..."

At first glance, it seems like "authentic art" is being grouped with "poor ones" in a parallel list (distinguishing (1) good paintings from (2) poor [paintings] and authentic art). Once we keep reading we can figure out the intended meaning, but an "and" actually makes things more confusing. The comma usage, though nonstandard, makes the intended meaning more clear.

I hope that helps! (And feel free post any follow-up questions on the thread for this specific question.)

GMATNinja

I am hearing a lot of great things about your youtube videos. Just wondering, since you are using official questions, are those all just OG or Verbal Review? Or are there samples from GMATPrep? I have not yet taken any official practice test so I just wanted to make sure so I could do the videos after

There are a few GMATPrep questions sprinkled into some of the videos, particularly in the earlier ones. Generally speaking, we're clear about identifying those so that you can fast-forward past them if you still plan to retake those exams. Apologies if we didn't clearly identify a few of them, but I don't think that happened often, if at all.

The full collection of videos is available here. Enjoy!

Hi, I need some clarity on this OG question. I choose C but the official answer is C.


Analysts blamed May's sluggish retail sales on unexciting merchandise as well as the weather, colder and wetter than was usual in some regions, which slowed sales of barbecue grills and lawn furniture.


A. colder and wetter than was usual in some regions, which slowed
B. which was colder and wetter than usual in some regions, slowing
C. since it was colder and wetter than usually in some regions, which slowed
D. being colder and wetter than usually in some regions, slowing
E. having been colder and wetter than was usual in some regions and slowed

Hi GMATNinja
The sentences which use , + ing modifiers, the modifier should agree with the verb of the preceding clause and not the subject of the preceding clause. Is my understanding correct?

Ref: Why option B is incorrect in this Q

The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival’s month.

Hi GMATNinja, can u help with the rules about Not one & None. Is Object of the preposition rule applicable for SANAM pronouns?
Pls refer this question,
https://gmatclub.com/forum/not-one-of-t ... 13288.html
If the sentence were "None of the potential investors", will the correct verb be "are" ?

Thanks!!

Hi GMATNinja can you help me with the usage of like ? do you have a post or anything on the subject ? thanks

We have a few videos on comparisons and a handful of forum explanations that might help. Scroll down to "Part 2: GMAT SC Resources by Question Type" on this page, and then find 8. Comparisons + Like vs. Such As. That'll have everything you need, hopefully.

I hope that helps!

Hi,

As I read through the posts. We agree that -ing verbals must have an active doer.

My doubt is regarding a passive construction, say:

''The car was sent to garbage plant, following court orders''.

Now the car can not follow court orders. Neither this is a cause-effect/result relation.

So, will the usage of -ing verbal be in-correct here?

Hi,

In the question "The much debated position on the relationship between the GDP and the industrial revolution claims that the acceleration of the GDP that begun 300 years ago with the advent of the industrial revolution, and continued since then." suppose one encounters two option as below

A.that began 300 years ago with the advent of the industrial revolution and has

B. began 300 years ago with the advent of the industrial revolution and has

Which one of the two will be correct?

As per some explanation "The acceleration of GDP" will not be having any verb if "that" is present in the sentence as "That" will take both verbs "began" and "has continued". Option B is correct.

Now since "that" is referring to noun phrase "acceleration of GDP " then why Option A, as given above may not be correct?

In many cases of Relative Pronoun modifier clauses "that" becomes the subject referring to the preceding noun entity and fulfils the SV Pair condition ,then why in those questions the "noun entity" and "that" is not viewed separately as seen in the above question?

Example: Retailers do not approve of the apps that allow shoppers to perform immediate price-comparison by scanning a product on the shelf.

In this sentence ???that??? refers to the preceding noun ??? apps - and the entire underlined clause modifies this noun ??? apps.
As you can see, ???that??? is the subject of the purple clause. Its verb is ???allow???.

Then why the below statement cannot be correct?

The much debated position on the relationship between the GDP and the industrial revolution claims that the acceleration of the GDP that began 300 years ago with the advent of the industrial revolution and has continued since then

Please explain the above query?


Regards