Inflation has made many Americans reevaluate their assumptions about

ELLIPSIS and SUBSTITUTION


NCRanjan , I cannot promise enlightenment, but perhaps I can shed a little light.
I can see why anyone would think that both A and B were correct.
In spoken English, the error in (A) is common.

The answer is indeed an official GMAC answer.

I agree; Americans could be comparing their present living status with that of their parents until now. (In the correct answer, though, did = lived = simple past tense.)
In the "have lived so far" case we would write almost exactly what you wrote, with one change.
The word lived has to be included. "Americans still expect to live better than their parents have lived."
That sentence is correct. We must write both words, "have lived."

When verb tenses change the word "have" cannot stand alone to represent the changed tense. In this sentence we have "live" and "lived."

Have on its own would refer to "live" and would mean "have live."

This sentence that uses have all by itself is not correct: Americans still expect to live better than their parents have.

Unfortunately, we can't create the correct sentence with our options.
lived is not available for omission, and so it cannot be "implied," either—except by the word did.

Further, it's true that past perfect can connote "from the past until now."
We still conjugate past perfect, though, as have lived and present as live. We do not have a lived that we can "imply" by writing have.

When verbs shift in a sentence, only some form of "to do" (almost always do, does, or did) will allow us to imply the verb in a tense that is different from the one explicitly mentioned. We cannot use to do verbs for to be or for have as auxiliary.**

At the same time that we think about using a to do verb, forget about the auxiliary verb "have." We either write "have lived" or use "did."
-- Have does not work the same way as a "to do" word does.
-- Have cannot stand in for a verb whose tense has changed.

• This question involves ellipsis and substitution.
-- In ellipsis, words that are present in the sentence are not repeated.
-- Stated differently, in elliptical construction we omit some words.
Those words are then implied in the places in which they have been omitted.
Often those omitted words will be shortened with substitution—short words that can substitute for the omitted words.

Pure ellipsis, no verb tense shift: He will be a world-class dancer, and she will, too. [Omitted verb phrase: be a world-class dancer]

Ellipsis and substitution (verb tense shift): Electric cars were made to save gas, and they do. [they = electric cars, do = save gas]

• In order to be omitted, however, the exact words first have to be present someplace in the sentence.

On the GMAT, we must be able to insert the omitted words, exactly as they were,
and maintain correct grammar. We cannot change the words that have been omitted. We cannot change "live" to "lived."
Instead, we use the word "did" for "lived."

In other words, because the first verb is live, we cannot insert lived in order to use have lived.
Lived is not present in the original clause.

We could write:
-- They still expect to live better than their parents have lived. (write out the second verb)
-- They still expect to live better than their parents lived. (write out the second verb)
-- They still expect to live better than their parents did. (did = lived)

• Takeaway: the verb that is present "controls" what we may use in elliptical construction. The only verb that can express changed tenses is do (does, did).

Correct: She has not lived better than her parents have [lived].

Incorrect: She does not expect to live better than her parents have.
Problem: LIVED, verbatim, cannot be "implied by omission."
There is no "lived" to omit. In this situation, we use "did."

Live is present and coupled with the first subject, "they."
The second subject, "their parents," is coupled with an "elided" verb (part of the verb is supposed to be implied).

We can attach "live" to the auxiliary verb have that is coupled with "their parents"
to see that the verb tense "have" will not work.
We have only present tense to work with unless we use do, does, or did. With those three, we can change the tense, no problem.

She does not expect to live better than her parents have live.
Present tense "live" does not work with the auxiliary have.
Have does not function in the same way as do. Have cannot stand in for other verbs.

The words do, does, and did often stand in or substitute for verb phrases.
Marisol works harder to finish her college projects than her older sister did.
(Marisol's older sister did not work as hard in college as Marisol works now.)
Andreas liked horror movies as a teenager more than 15-year-old Ricardo does.
(When Andreas was a teenager, he liked horror movies. Ricardo is a teenager who does not like horror movies as much as Andreas liked horror movies at the same age.)

Have and will cannot stand in for verb phrases and shifted verb tenses in the same way that the words do, does, and did can stand in.

Thus in A and B we have

A) . . . they still expect to live better than their parents have [live]

B) . . . they still expect to live better than their parents did [= lived].

Takeaways:
• if elliptical construction is an issue, be sure that the omitted words appear someplace else in the sentence.
If a word was not in the sentence to begin with, we can't "imply" it by omission because there is nothing to omit, but we can use do, does, or did
• if a verb tense shift exists and ellipsis is involved, find the option that both makes the shift clear and does so grammatically. That sentence almost certainly will use do, does, or did.
• do, does, and did are auxiliary verbs that can stand in for entire verb phrases even if the verb tense must shift. Those words often help keep the comparison parallel.

I hope that helps.


*Finally, there are two big exceptions to the "do can stand in for almost any verb" guideline.

A TO DO verb cannot substitute for
-- TO BE verbs, or
-- HAVE, if HAVE is an auxiliary verb.
If have means own, possess, or experience, then have is a "main" verb and can be replaced with do, does, or did.

• TO DO verbs cannot substitute for TO BE verbs
Wrong: She was hungry and he did, too.
Correct: She was hungry and he was [hungry], too.

• TO DO verbs cannot substitute for HAVE when HAVE is a helping/auxiliary verb
Wrong: He had finished his wine and I did, too.
Correct: He had finished his wine and I had, too.

• TO DO verbs can substitute for HAVE when HAVE is a main verb that means own, possess, or experience.
Correct: Artem has ten pennies and Misha has ten pennies.
Correct: Artem has ten pennies and Misha does, too.
Correct: Artem has ten pennies just as Misha does.
does = has [ten pennies]

Correct (did can substitute for main verb had (meaning "to possess")):
Artem had ten pennies and Misha had ten pennies.
Artem had ten pennies and Misha did, too.
Artem had ten pennies just as Misha did.
did = had [ten pennies]
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OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

•Choice A is incorrect because have cannot function as the auxiliary of live [and have must be capable of functioning as an auxiliary of live in order to keep the comparison PARALLEL]; have live is ungrammatical

•Choice B, which substitutes did for have, is corrrect and logically places the parents' action in the past
and we can write the verbs in parallel because do, does, and did can stand in for almost any verb
. . . they still expect to live better than their parents lived [did live]

•In C and D, had places the parents' action in the past but is wrong as an auxiliary, just as have is in A

That is, use a test in which you add the auxiliary (helping verb) onto the verb that controls, because this is a parallelism issue:
. . . they still expect to live better than their parents had live

• Choices D and E are faulty because neither is [sic] the independent clause that is needed to complete a grammatical sentence.

COMMENTS

Semicolon? IF a semicolon shows up, unless the sentence is an unusual list, then the semicolon must be between two complete independent clauses.
Two ICs can be separated by a semicolon. No connector.

Correct: Most people write with their right hand; worldwide, only 10 percent of people use their left hand to write.

Two ICs, transitional phrase connector
The pharmacist was overworked and exhausted; as a result, she forgot to put labels on the bottles and had to start all over again.
Other words that can come after the semicolon include:
• a coordinating conjunction (but)
• conjunctive adverbs (accordingly, thus, meanwhile, consequently)

A semicolon is needed for lists in which a comma would confuse
These contrasting colors grab attention when set next to one another: yellow and purple; red and green; and orange and blue.

Both D and E use a semicolon that is not between two full clauses, but rather,
between (1) one subordinate clause "Still expecting to live . . . " and
(2) one full IC ("Inflation has made many Americans reevaluate their assumptions about the future.")

• Comparison
"Than" is a comparison word. Whatever is on each side of the comparison word must be parallel.
With auxiliary (helping) verbs such as have and has, add the auxiliary onto and before the "main" verb for the subject
whose verb has been "shortened" to an auxiliary.

If the auxiliary + main makes sense, the option is okay on the parallelism front.
In this case only option B makes sense.

Arro44 (Chris) wrote the best answer.
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Tricky one for me. I chose A, didn’t choose had because wouldn’t that be assuming they aren’t living anymore? Also though did was wrong and semicolon eliminates D and E so A by POE.

Posted from my mobile device

The first choice is between A,B,C or D,E concerning the start of the underlined portion.
I will go with the first three option as they make the correct use of the pronoun "they" in this instance.

Now we have to decide between the verb at the end of the underlined section and as we are talking about their parent's life as a past event, we have to use a past form of the respective verb, hence we can eliminate A.

Now that it is down to B and C, try the following;

They expect to do better than their parents did
They expect to have better than their parents have

I am not sure if one can employ this strategy in general or whether it shouldn't be used.

My final choice is B.

Regards,
Chris
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In (A), “parents have(lived)…” this means lived only up to this point. In (B), we can see a better comparison. They still expect to live better than their parents did when they were in the same stage as their children are now (B) also maintains parallelism.
In (C), "Parent had..." past perfect tense is incorrect.
After semicolon, only an independent clause can be present. In (D) and (E), "still expecting" is not independent.

Answer should be (B)

gmatconqueror2018 , i think your choice A is wrong because:

The author compares two periods of time - the period of time when parents lived, and the period of time when their childen live and expect a better life.

Another reason A is incorrect is that in this option "have" is used incorrectly, if it were "they still expect to have a better life than the life their parents had " i think in this case it would be correct. so in other words A has parrallism issue coupled with verb tense


A option looks like this sentence Every snail after drinking alcohol, expects a better speed than a sober snail had.

That is brilliant—probably the funniest example I've read in long time.
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I still am not sold on this one. Major confusion between A and B

Americans are re evaluating assumptions about the future so they can very well be comparing their living status with that of their parents till the present time

Given the thought of the sentence i would read A as
(A) they still expect to live better than their parents have (lived so far )

B - this option is also an equal contender as mentioned by a fellow friend who gave the drunk snail analogy


Inflation has made many Americans reevaluate their assumptions about the future; they still expect to live better than their parents have, but not so well as they once thought they could.

(A) they still expect to live better than their parents have

(B) they still expect to live better than their parents did

(C) they still expect to live better than their parents had

(D) still expecting to live better than their parents had

(E) still expecting to live better than did their parents

i will wait for some enlightenment

Inflation has made many Americans reevaluate their assumptions about the future; they still expect to live better than their parents have, but not so well as they once thought they could

Comparison error. Americans still expect to live better than their parents expected to live.

(B) they still expect to live better than their parents did
IMO is B as "did" correctly refers to "expected to live"

Hello guys AndrewN IanStewart
I couldn't decide between A and B. Both looked wrong to me. Did and have could stand for either "expect" or "live". there is some ambiguity in both the options. So, what gave preference to B over A?

Hello, pk6969. I cannot see a case being made for ambiguity in the substituted word. You have to pay attention to the comparison, better than: X better than Y. Here, we see live better than, so a comparison in how lives are lived is fitting, not in expectations for how those lives are lived. If you did think the substitute have or did could stand in for expect (in some capacity), though, then (B) wins, hands down. Compare:

A.2) they still expect to live better than their parents [have expected [them to]]

B.2) they still expect to live better than their parents [expected [them to]]

Why would the addition of have be strictly necessary? Are we to assume the parents are still living? Does the sentence provide such clues? If the answer is no, then we cannot justify the presence of have.

On the point of ellipsis and substitution, I would urge you to read the Most Helpful Expert Reply by generis. It is astoundingly detailed and on point, better than I would think to write on the spot. No matter how you choose to interpret the substituted word, (B) remains the safer option.

Thank you for thinking to ask me about the question.

- Andrew
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Hi,

I have a silly doubt here which can save me from making mistakes such as these- Here, 'they still expect to live better than their parents did'. The non-underlined portion says 'expect to live', nowhere it's mentioned 'expected to live', which is in past tense. So, will it be correct to have past tense in the comparison when the original sentence does not have it mentioned explicitly in past tense?

"Did" is a generic replacement verb. So, in this context, "did" is understood to mean "lived."

That said, the construction of the comparison in the (B) version of the sentence is a little loose since "did" replaces "lived" though "lived" is never used.

So, the move here is to see that all of the other versions are clearly illogical and go with the somewhat loose but basically logical (B) version.
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