In July 1965 Mariner IV passed by Mars and took the first-ever close-u

GMATNinja Please help me understand how is (E) not wrong?
According to the question, there are two attributes that make Martian surface like that of the Moon:
(i) it is dry
(ii) it has moonlike craters

But (E) fails to associate (i) with the Moon's surface

HI GMATNinja, egmat, mikemcgarry
I correctly Marked option E, But i could not eleminate option B for pure grammetical mistakes other than ambiguity. Can you please state problems with option B.

You're right that there's no reason to believe that the Moon's surface is dry in (E), but that doesn't seem like a problem. If someone told you that Mars 1) was dry and 2) had craters similar to the Moon's craters, you wouldn't accuse that person of being illogical, would you?

You might be falling into the trap of reasoning that because (A) seems to imply that the Moon is dry, the other answers must do the same. This isn't true. There's no original meaning that needs to be preserved. There are five different sentences, and our job is to pick the best of the bunch. It just happens to be the case that the correct answer conveys a different meaning than (A) does. As long as that different meaning isn't fundamentally illogical, that's not a problem.

I hope that helps!

Here's (B) again:

The first thing I notice is the "and it." Typically, when a pronoun serves as the subject of a clause, it will refer to the subject of the previous clause. At first, it sounds like the Mariner IV passed by Mars... and the Mariner IV was pockmarked.

However, this isn't an absolute rule, and if you keep looking, you can see that "it" likely refers to the "dead Martian surface." So the pronoun isn't a definitive error, but it's not ideal either.

Next, you might notice that it's hard to determine what "which" refers to. We break that usage down here. Again, not a concrete error, but the kind of thing that might be useful as a tie-breaker if there's another option that's clearer.

Last, the phrase "was pockmarked by craters like the Moon" makes it sound as though we're comparing "craters" to the "Moon." That doesn't make any sense. Can you eventually figure out what the author intended? Sure. But it requires some work.

So now we've got three confusing issues in (B). Notice that (E) resolves all of them -- there's no problematic "it" or "which," and the comparison issue is resolved by incorporating the phrase, "like those of," where "those" clearly refers to "craters." While there might not be a definitive grammatical error in (B), in a side by side comparison, (E) is clearer and better, and therefore correct.

I hope that helps!

Hi! GMATNinja

In Option D, "that" refers to "photos". Photos is plural.

How can "that" refer to a plural noun?

Can you please clarify my doubt.

Further, with respect to meaning:..... Main sentence says - "which showed that the Martian surface was like that of the Moon’s in that it was pockmarked by moonlike craters and was dry and apparently dead...."

The sentence says that Martian surface was like that of Moon's, in addition to other features.

Option (E) says ---- photos that showed a dry, apparently dead Martian surface pockmarked with craters like those on the Moon. This option does not say that the Martian surface was like that of Moon's. It just says that it is pockmarked with craters like those on the Moon.

Don't you think it changes the meaning?


Thank you.

Regarding your first question, check out these two posts:

1) https://gmatclub.com/forum/anti-poverty ... l#p2500979
2) https://gmatclub.com/forum/as-a-result- ... l#p2862238

Regarding your second question, it's worth repeating that there is nothing special about choice (A), and (A) absolutely does NOT give us the "correct" meaning that we must then abide by (for more on that, check out this post from earlier in the thread).

Also, "that of the Moon’s" is a problem in (A). It's basically a double possessive, which seems to give us the following:

"the Martian surface was like [the surface] of the Moon’s [surface]....".

It would be okay to say, "the Martian surface was like that of the Moon," or, "the Martian surface was like the Moon's [surface]," but the structure in (A) doesn't make any sense. (The surface doesn't have a surface; Mars has a surface.)

On the other hand, the meaning in (E) makes perfect sense: the craters are Mars are like the craters on the Moon. Yes, this DOES give us a different meaning than choice (A), but it's a BETTER meaning that makes a lot more sense. That's not a problem -- that's exactly why (A) needs to be eliminated and completely disregarded.

I hope that helps!

What is wrong with option choice C- can which jump and modify the Martian surface?

Also the Moon's can refer to surface alone or will it refer to Martian surface and hence the Moon's usage is incorrect?

Can you please help GMATNinja

Thanks
Nikita

Hello nikitamaheshwari,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can help resolve your doubt. Here, "which" modifies the pronoun "one", which refers to "surface", in the context of the Martian surface, so C features no error related to the "comma + which" construction. Of course, Option C has more concrete errors; most prominently, it incorrectly uses "such as" to compare "craters" with "the Moon's (craters)"; please remember, “like” is used for comparing nouns, “as” is used for comparing actions/clauses, and “such as” is used for giving examples.

To understand the concept of "Like" Versus "As" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Neither "which" in choice (C) is absolutely wrong (for more on that, check out this post). But notice that the reader has to do some work to figure out what each "which" modifies. Does the first "which" modify "photographs" or "another planet"? What does "one" refer to? Sure, you can figure it out, but it takes some effort.

Choice (E) conveys the intended meaning in a much clearer and simpler way, making it a better option. Combine that with the "such as" issue explained by ExpertsGlobal5, and it's clear that (C) should be eliminated.

I hope that helps!

Choice A is incorrect in part because of the unnecessary repetition of the verb "was," and in part because of redundancy due to the possessive terms being used twice ("that of + the Moon's").

It would read better this way:

In July 1965 Mariner IV passed by Mars and took the first-ever close-up photographs of another planet, which showed that the Martian surface was like that of the Moon’s in that it was pockmarked by moonlike craters and was dry and apparently dead.

A) which showed that the Martian surface was like that of the Moon, in that it was pockmarked by moonlike craters, dry, and apparently dead.

Dear Mike,

I have a small doubt with option E.
Option E states "photos that showed a dry, apparently dead Martian surface pockmarked with craters like those on the Moon."
In this sentence, a comma is separating "dry & apparently dead".
I thought that an "and" is appropriate when only 2 entities are present. With this in view, I eliminated option E. Please clarify.

Thanks in advance,
Sravan

Hello Sravan95,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, if two adjectives modify the same noun, they can be linked with a comma.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

(E) photos that showed a dry, apparently dead Martian surface pockmarked with craters like those on the Moon


Hey Experts,

I have bit of confusion about the comparison marker "like" in this option

those is plural - surface is singular, craters is plural - so those must be referring to craters.. right?

But here it seems to me that the comparison has to be made between surface of moon and surface of mars.
However, it seems to me that the comparison in the sentence is being made between martian surface and the craters on the moon.

Kindly explain
GMATNinja Sajjad1994 MartyTargetTestPrep

Hi desertEagle.

Often we get so into the analytical SC mindset that we see errors where there are none.

In this case, the (E) version describes the Martian surface as "pockmarked with craters." So, we have a logical description of the surface.

Then, it says "craters like those on the moon."

As you said, "those" must refer to the plural "craters." So, the comparison must mean, "craters like the craters on the moon." We can see that that comparison makes sense. So, the (E) version of the sentence is correct.

We're not looking for possessive here (has to be noun apostrophe s something), hence can eliminate A, C and D
We're left with B and E
(B) which showed a dry, apparently dead Martian surface, and it was pockmarked by craters like the Moon has
(E) photos that showed a dry, apparently dead Martian surface pockmarked with craters like those on the Moon

Problem with B is the information is essential and , and (oxford comma) is more or less not preferred on gmat
So we can choose E