Not always.... in most cases the swap would be very awkward and unacceptable, especially in a main clause starting with a subject.

However such a swap may be acceptable in the following cases:
1. In a comparative dependent clause (e.g.: in the example above)
2. In a main clause when the clause starts with a prepositional phrase. (e.g. Beside the river lay a green field.)[/quote]


Thank you a lot ... this is so clear!

I have shorted the options to C and D . The only reason i picked D is because . In GMAC grammar rules - as far as i know - Verb is preferred over noun.
So, IMO it must be D.

Nightmare wrote


Nightmare has hit the bull's eye yet again... In GMAT, there is a rule known as 'VAN" meaning that first prefer the verb (V), then the adjective (A), and finally the noun (N). This is the rule that has decided in favor of D over C.
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A, B, and E - to end with longer than "were" ....
Left with C and D - were in isolation in C is not a good choice, thus D is correct.

The idiom isolated from is correctly used in this sentence. The comparison is clear and unambiguous.
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This will help you understand this type of question better.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-far-elli ... 48973.html
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HiGMATNinja, VeritasPrepKarishma

Don't you think, we should have "Aleuts or Inuits of the North Pacific FROM northern Alaska." in non underlined portion.
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There's definitely nothing wrong with using "of" to indicate somebody's geographic origins, especially if we're talking about an entire group of people (or animals, such as the sloths "of the Greater Antilles...") who are in a particular location.

If we're being super-technical, "from" would arguably imply that you're no longer in that location, and have gone somewhere else. For the most part, there's no reason to say "I'm from Iowa" (stop laughing, Americans -- Iowa isn't that bad!) unless I'm either currently in a different location, or somebody in Iowa is giving me a funny look and asking me where I'm actually from, since I presumably don't look or sound like an Iowan.

Much more importantly: it's an absolute non-issue in the question, since "from" isn't one of the options! So there's no reason to even think about it. And more broadly, I'm not sure how valuable it is to obsess over idioms. They're pretty arbitrary, and there are more than 25,000 of them in English. More on idioms here.

I hope this helps!
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I chose D as I didn't know "in isolation from contact" is unidiomatic. Anyone has a good list of idiom usage?

I say again and again that when the element compared is in object phrase or predicate phrase of the first clause, we have ambiguity because the noun after "than/as" can be the subject of the second clause or second object of the subject in the first clause.


this case is easy because the split , zero helping verb/helping verb, namely, zero were /were, appear, so, we can easily realize ambiguity

GMATNinja How could I have eliminated answer C without needing to memorize the idiom?

Thanks a lot! Just want to know if there would be other way around that answer since I'm a non-native speaker (I chose C between C and D)

Well, there's no avoiding the idiom here, but bear in mind: 1) it's exceedingly rare that a question comes down to knowing a particular idiom and 2) on the rare occasion when it does, you can sometimes reason your way to the correct construction, rather than memorizing it.

Here, it's perfectly logical for someone to be isolated from something. For example,

Tim has been isolated from his kids since his wife discovered that the clown he hired for his daughter's birthday party had only been out on parole for two days.

Here "has been isolated from" conveys the idea of "kept away from." In other words, there's an action suggested. Whom is Tim being kept away/isolated from? His kids. Perfectly logical.

Now consider:

Tim has been in isolation from his kids...

Here, "isolation" is a noun, so Tim isn't actively being kept from his kids the way he was in the first example. Put another way, "from his kids" seems like an illogical way to modify the noun "isolation," as opposed to the act of isolating. Is it possible to figure out what the sentence means? Sure. But it's not as clear or logical as the first example. So "isolated from" is better than "in isolation from."

The takeaway: don't bother memorizing a bunch of idioms! It's highly unlikely an idiom will ever be a crucial decision point, and on the off chance that it is, try to reason your way through the options as best you can. (For more on idioms, check out this article.)

I hope that helps!
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Hi experts,
Please help me understand the meaning of "isolated from contact with Europeans". Doesn't isolation itself mean being separated? Shouldn't it be just "isolated from Europeans"? Given construction seems redundant. Since its an OG question, it has to be correct.
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Amazing answer and reasoning!!! Thanks a lot!!!

Very important to know the importance of reasoning through the options. Now that I'm practicing harder questions I'm noticing that meaning gets more important than grammar on those types of questions.

Cheers from Brazil (I sent you a message last week and am always following you!)

daagh
in isolation and isolated from both are correct versions. It'll be wrong if I say in isolation FROM. We can't cross out choices A, C and E by seeing the word(s) like in isolation. Could you share your thought if i miss anything, please?
Thanks__
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Asad

Both phrases may be grammatically correct. I only said they were wordy. But stylistically, a verb is preferred over a noun as per the V-A-N rule. Why native speakers do it is beyond a non-native's ambit to analyze since it is a convention and custom.

I did it because I firmly believe in the V-A-N, as I feel a verb is more dynamic than an adjective and a noun and in that order. After all, I could get rid of two wrong choices swiftly, and that matters to me the most.

However, I agree that you may not be missing anything.
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PS, An Obvious thing : To improve yourself in SC, REVIEW every mistake in every answer choice after you attempt a problem.
Inuits of the Bering Sea were in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than Aleuts or Inuits of the North Pacific and northern Alaska.
Another beautiful example which shows the power of parallelism.
X were __________ than(were) Y.
Were is present in the non underlined part, so it should be there in the underlined part too.


(A) in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than
“Were” not present – Parallelism error


(B) isolated from contact with Europeans longer than
“Were” not present – Parallelism error


(C) in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than were
X were in ____ than were Y.
In Isolation requires in to be present in the Y part too.
Both the errors are parallelism errors.


(D) isolated from contact with Europeans longer than were
Best Of all.
VAN rule is applicable here. (Verb > Adj > Noun)


(E) in isolation and without contacts with Europeans longer than
“Were” not present – Parallelism error

(A)in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than
(1) Ambiguous meaning: “Inuits…were in isolation from contact with Euros longer than Aleuts or [other] Inuits…” – this has two meanings: (i) Inuits and As/other Is were both in isolation (from contact with Euros) but the Inuits were in isolation longer than that of As/other Is OR (ii) Inuits were in isolation from both Euros and As/other Is but they (the first kind of Inuits) were in isolation from contact with Euros longer than with As/other Is; (2) idiom error: “in isolation from” is unidiomatic and just not direct, it should be “isolated from”

(B) isolated from contact with Europeans longer than
(1) Ambiguous meaning: “Inuits…were isolated from contact with Euros longer than Aleuts or [other] Inuits…” – this has two meanings: (i) Inuits and As/other Is were both in isolation (from contact with Euros) but the Inuits were in isolation longer than that of As/other Is OR (ii) Inuits were in isolation from both Euros and As/other Is but they (the first kind of Inuits) were in isolation from contact with Euros longer than with As/other Is

(C) in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than were
(1) idiom error: “in isolation from” is unidiomatic and just not direct, it should be “isolated from”

(D) isolated from contact with Europeans longer than were
best option

(E) in isolation and without contacts with Europeans longer than
(1) idiom error: “in isolation…with” is unidiomatic and just not direct, it should be “isolated from”; (2) changes meaning: “…without contacts…” essentially says they don’t have people to reach out to (e.g., contacts on your phone) AND says these “Inuits were (1) in isolation and (2) without contact..”

Ideal split
A: Ambiguous Comparison: Isolation of I/BS was longer with Europeans than I/NP or Isolation of I/BS was longer with E than Isolation of I/NP...
B: Ambiguous, same as A
C: Check explanation of D
D: Verb form is preferred to Noun Form, So D is the correct answer
E: Ambiguous, same as A

Learnings:
>"Isolated from" is a correct idiom, but "in isolation from" is not.
> Apply VAN rule when cannot recall idiom

GMATNinja and other experts.

I got this right but I wonder do you mind clarifying from grammatical structure perspective, for D what is the "were" doing, I guess the sentences below are equivalent by moving the were to the back?

Inuits were isolated from contact with Europeans longer than were XXX
Inuits were isolated from contact with Europeans longer than XXX were

Also do you know my any chance what is the VAN rule being mentioned by a few here, does that only apply to idiom, when you are unclear than pick V over A over N?

Cheers.