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E
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Difficulty:
25%
(medium)
Question Stats:
74% (01:32) correct
26%
(01:48)
wrong
based on 12883
sessions
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Laos has a land area about the same as Great Britain but only four million in population, where many are members of hill tribes ensconced in the virtually inaccessible mountain valleys of the north.
(A) about the same as Great Britain but only four million in population, where many
(B) of about the same size as Great Britain is, but in Laos there is a population of only four million, and many
(C) that is about the same size as Great Britain's land area, but in Laos with a population of only four million people, many of them
(D) comparable to the size of Great Britain, but only four million in population, and many
(E) comparable to that of Great Britain but a population of only four million people, many of whom
(A) about the same as Great Britain but only four million in population, where many
(B) of about the same size as Great Britain is, but in Laos there is a population of only four million, and many
(C) that is about the same size as Great Britain's land area, but in Laos with a population of only four million people, many of them
(D) comparable to the size of Great Britain, but only four million in population, and many
(E) comparable to that of Great Britain but a population of only four million people, many of whom
Show SpoilerDoubt
Correct answer is E. I chose D, and I don't quite understand why E is better than D.
The explanation offered says "the coordinating conjunction and gives undue emphasis to the claim that many of the people in Laos live in inaccessible places." Isn't this a fact in all answers?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The explanation offered says "the coordinating conjunction and gives undue emphasis to the claim that many of the people in Laos live in inaccessible places." Isn't this a fact in all answers?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
16 Sep 2011, 07:18
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Shall we look at it from a different angle?
A uses a wrong relative pronoun ‘where’ to modify population – reject
B, C, D compare land area with size, rather than another area. Reject all of them in single stroke.
E is left. E compares land area to another land area with the expression ‘that of’ – right choice
A uses a wrong relative pronoun ‘where’ to modify population – reject
B, C, D compare land area with size, rather than another area. Reject all of them in single stroke.
E is left. E compares land area to another land area with the expression ‘that of’ – right choice
13 Nov 2017, 17:07
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This is one of those classic GMAT comparison questions that forces you to be mind-numbingly literal about what, exactly, is being compared. We also covered this in our YouTube webinar on comparisons, so head here if you prefer your explanations in video form.
Plus, the modifier beginning with “where” doesn’t make sense: “… four million in population, where many are members of a hill tribe…” Huh? “Where” needs to modify a location of some sort, and the population of Laos isn’t a place. (A) is out.
Plus, the last part of the underlined portion isn’t great. What is “many” referring to, exactly? There’s no actual mention of people here – and I’m really not sure that “many” can operate by itself as a pronoun, anyway.
If you wanted to be really, really conservative, you could hang onto (B) for a moment, but we’ll have better options in a moment.
Here’s (arguably) the bigger problem: the second part of the underlined portion gently warps the meaning of the sentence. The “but” indicates some sort of contrast, but the contrast doesn’t make a ton of sense in (C). The sentence is trying to say that Laos is the same size as Great Britain, BUT that Laos has a much smaller population; the fact that much of the population lives in hill tribes is just extra, incidental information.
But if we strip down (C), the contrast surrounding the “but” doesn’t really work. I’ll strip out some stuff for clarity, and we’re left with something like this: “Laos… is about the same size as Great Britain…, but in Laos [modifier blah blah] many of them are members of hill tribes…” Nope, that’s not the part that deserves a “but.”
For that reason, (C) is out.
(D) doesn’t look great, so I hope we like (E).
So (E) is the best we can do.
Quote:
Literally, (A) is saying that the land area of Laos is the same as the country of Great Britain itself. That’s not cool.
Plus, the modifier beginning with “where” doesn’t make sense: “… four million in population, where many are members of a hill tribe…” Huh? “Where” needs to modify a location of some sort, and the population of Laos isn’t a place. (A) is out.
Quote:
It’s harder to pin down exactly why the comparison in (B) is logically wrong, but it’s clearly a mess. It’s comparing the land area of Laos to the size of Great Britain, and that’s not totally crazy… but then what the heck is “is” doing there? I guess I could live with something like “Laos is the same size as Great Britain is”, because we’d be comparing two verb phrases. But “Laos has a land area of about the same size as Great Britain is”? I can’t make sense of that.
Plus, the last part of the underlined portion isn’t great. What is “many” referring to, exactly? There’s no actual mention of people here – and I’m really not sure that “many” can operate by itself as a pronoun, anyway.
If you wanted to be really, really conservative, you could hang onto (B) for a moment, but we’ll have better options in a moment.
Quote:
The first part of the comparison isn’t illogical, but it’s wordy AF: “Laos has a land area that is about the same size as Great Britain’s land area.” Really, is that necessary? It’s not WRONG, and I wouldn’t eliminate it right away. But the version in (E) is much more succinct.
Here’s (arguably) the bigger problem: the second part of the underlined portion gently warps the meaning of the sentence. The “but” indicates some sort of contrast, but the contrast doesn’t make a ton of sense in (C). The sentence is trying to say that Laos is the same size as Great Britain, BUT that Laos has a much smaller population; the fact that much of the population lives in hill tribes is just extra, incidental information.
But if we strip down (C), the contrast surrounding the “but” doesn’t really work. I’ll strip out some stuff for clarity, and we’re left with something like this: “Laos… is about the same size as Great Britain…, but in Laos [modifier blah blah] many of them are members of hill tribes…” Nope, that’s not the part that deserves a “but.”
For that reason, (C) is out.
Quote:
Again, the comparison isn’t ideal: we’re comparing the “land area” of Laos to the “size of Great Britain.” That’s not great, especially when we compare it with (E). Plus, we still have that funny problem with the word “many.” It’s trying to act like a pronoun, and I’m not sure that “many” can stand alone as a pronoun – and “people” aren’t even mentioned here, so it’s not clear what “many” would refer to, exactly.
(D) doesn’t look great, so I hope we like (E).
Quote:
Yup, I think (E) is OK. “That” refers to “land area”, and that’s perfect: “Laos has a land area comparable to the land area of Great Britain…” Makes sense. The “but” makes sense now, too: we’re contrasting the fact that Laos is as large as Great Britain with the fact that the population is tiny. And now it’s clear whom we’re talking about: “… four million people, many of whom are members…” Cool, now we know that “many of whom” refers back to people in Laos.
So (E) is the best we can do.
