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I've been messing up comparison/quantity sentences, mostly

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jumsumtak
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I've been messing up comparison/quantity sentences, mostly [#permalink] New post   03 Dec 2012, 16:48
I've been messing up comparison/quantity sentences, mostly because I'm too skeptical to use a pronoun in the comparison. I've found that most of the times the pronoun does not have a legitimate antecedent.

Can someone please cite a few examples, showing how a pronoun (generally that/it/those) should be used in these constructions.

Thanks
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KyleWiddison
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Re: Use of that/it/those in comparisons [#permalink] New post   04 Dec 2012, 07:37
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Great question. Honestly you won't see many comparison examples that use pronouns in the correct answer. It does happen though, so you can't just eliminate answer choices with pronouns on comparison questions. Here are a few comparison with pronoun examples from the OG (I'll just provide the numbers so you have a chance to review them before seeing the correct comparison). OG13 #43 [Laos has...] and #125 [Today, because].

KW
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Re: Use of that/it/those in comparisons [#permalink] New post   04 Dec 2012, 15:05
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Hi aal,
I got a PM to respond. So here I go. Take a look at this one from OGV2, question 34:

Lacking information about energy use, people tend to overestimate the amount of energy used by equipment, such as lights, that are visible and must be turned on and off and underestimate that used by unobtrusive equipment, such as water heaters.

(A) equipment, such as lights, that are visible and must be turned on and off and underestimate that
(B) equipment, such as lights, that are visible and must be turned on and off and underestimate it when
(C) equipment, such as lights, that is visible and must be turned on and off and underestimate it when
(D) visible equipment, such as lights, that must be turned on and off and underestimate that
(E) visible equipment, such as lights, that must be turned on and off and underestimate it when

In choice D, there is no ambiguity. “That” refers to “amount of energy”.

In choice E, use of it is not correct. “It” denotes absolutely the same entity as its antecedent. Here, this is not the case. The amount of energy used by visible equipment is not the same as the amount of energy used by the unobtrusive equipment.

Here, it actually refers to “amount of energy used by visible equipment”. This distorts the meaning of the sentence because the comparison here between the visible equipment and the unobtrusive equipment.

Let us consider an example. He is a greater fan of the episode featuring the spiderman than that featuring the batman.

In this sentence that = the episode. The episode featuring the spiderman is not the same thing as the episode featuring the batman. Therefore, “that” refers to the episode here. So that only refers to part of the entire antecedent.

The film that Rob saw turned out to be much better that he had expected IT to be. In this sentence, it refers to film, an antecedent which is absolutely the same as it nouns. It refers to the same movie that Rob saw.

Similarly, in the sentence in question, “that” cannot be replaced by “it” for the fact “it” will refer to the entire antecedent, “the amount of energy used by visible equipment”.

Also watch this video for more clarification:
https://www.screencast-o-matic.com/embed ... &w=640&v=3

Hope this helps. :)
Thanks.
Shraddha.
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Re: Use of that/it/those in comparisons [#permalink] New post   03 Dec 2012, 18:07
This,These
This,These refers to something that is/are close to the speaker. 'This' is singular whereas 'These' is plural.

That, Those
That, Those refer to something that is/are away from the speaker. 'That' is singular whereas 'Those' is plural.

Examples:

This orange is sour. These oranges are sweet.

That truck is full. Those trucks are empty.

It
'It' is just a third person pronoun like 'He' and 'She' with no gender representation.
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Re: Use of that/it/those in comparisons [#permalink] New post   04 Dec 2012, 07:56
KyleWiddison wrote:
Great question. Honestly you won't see many comparison examples that use pronouns in the correct answer. It does happen though, so you can't just eliminate answer choices with pronouns on comparison questions. Here are a few comparison with pronoun examples from the OG (I'll just provide the numbers so you have a chance to review them before seeing the correct comparison). OG13 #43 [Laos has...] and #125 [Today, because].

KW


Thanks Kyle.

In #125, 'it' refers to 'same amount of acreage' rather than 'acreage'. Am I right?

The problem with most of these pronouns is that they refer to the whole noun phrase (noun + the essential modifier) and that is why most of the times they don't fit.
OG13 #130 the Germany-France energy question, in that as well 'it' refers to the whole bla associated with energy rather than just energy and hence we cant use 'it' there. correct?
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Re: Use of that/it/those in comparisons [#permalink] New post   06 Dec 2012, 09:15
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Quote:
Thanks Kyle.

In #125, 'it' refers to 'same amount of acreage' rather than 'acreage'. Am I right?

The problem with most of these pronouns is that they refer to the whole noun phrase (noun + the essential modifier) and that is why most of the times they don't fit.
OG13 #130 the Germany-France energy question, in that as well 'it' refers to the whole bla associated with energy rather than just energy and hence we cant use 'it' there. correct?


Yes - in #125 "it' refers to "amount' and not "acerage'.

In #130, the comparison isn't with energy but rather with the percentages. Gramatically, 'it' could technically be used in such a way to refer back to percentage, but in answers A and E 'percent' appears in the same clause as 'it', so 'it' can't be referring to percentage and we really have no idea what 'it' does refer to.

You can create correct comparisons using pronouns, as you can see from the egmat example. Because you are dealing with 2 content areas simultaneously - pronouns and comparisons - these problems are some of the most difficult (as evidenced by the numbers - #125 & #130).

KW
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Re: Use of that/it/those in comparisons [#permalink]
06 Dec 2012, 09:15
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