Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost so

Hi every one

what is the usage of the phrase " & in some parts even faster than...." whom the preceded sentence modify to since phrase is included in two commas phrase should modify the preceding Noun ?

also Why E is wrong not getting it even after read all the above explanation ?

#egmat
#Payal
#shradhaa
#kanupriya

We have an "and" here, so we want to think of it more like a parallel list than a modifier. To start, forget about the part inside the commas and take a look at the core of the sentence (using choice D):



We're comparing (1) how fast land values rose in most parts of the pinelands to (2) how fast land values rose outside the pinelands (they rose faster outside the pinelands, but not by much).

Now let's think about the "and in some parts even faster than". Again, we have an "and" here, so we want to think about the parallelism. The phrase "in some parts [of the pinelands]" is clearly parallel to "in most parts [of the pinelands]." (The phrase "of the pinelands" isn't repeated inside the commas, but it's clearly implied.) Structurally, that seems fine.

So the part inside the commas is really trying to convey the following:

"Land values in some parts of the pinelands rose even faster than [land values] outside the pinelands"

This perfectly mirrors the core of the sentence, only now we're comparing (1) how fast land values rose in some parts of the pinelands to (2) how fast land values rose outside the pinelands.

In theory, choice (D) could be written like this, with two independent clauses joined by a comma + conjunction:

"Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost as fast as those outside the pinelands, and, last year, land values in some parts of the pinelands rose even faster than those outside the pinelands."

This is long and clunky. The parallel structure in (D) is a bit unorthodox, but it's a much more streamlined way of conveying the same idea.

As for (E), did you already try reading our explanation already? If that doesn't clear things up, let us know, and we'll do our best to help. (You can use an @ symbol to tag GMAT Club members, instead of a hashtag.)

I hope that helps a bit!

Hello Babashyam,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, in Option D "in some parts even faster than" serves the same function as the phrase "as fast as" does; both are adverbial phrases that modify the verb "rose"; we can tell that they both act upon the same verb, as they are joined together in a list by the conjunction "and".

Further, Option E incorrectly compares "land values in most parts of the pinelands rose" to "what they did outside the pinelands"; in other words, Option E incorrectly compares how land values in most parts of the pineland rose to what action the land values took outside the pinelands; remember, a comparison must always be made between similar things. Further, Option E incorrectly uses the pronoun "they" to refer to a variation of the subject "land values in most parts of the pinelands"; in other words, Option E uses "they" to refer to a set of land values other than those in most parts of the pineland; please remember, the pronouns "that" and "those" are used to refer to variations of the subject, and "it" and "they" are used to refer to the exact subject.

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

@e-gmat, Magoosh, GMATNinja @empowergmat Hi, I need help from you guys in this question. I rejected Choice C and D because they contained "as fast as" which is an idiom used for comparison, and I thought that compared entities must be closest to each other, as is taught in our courses. But this sentence contains a modifier / IC between the two compared entities. Without the modifier / IC , the sentence would be : Land values in pineland rose almost as fast as those outside the pineland which makes sense. Kindly please tell A. Can a modifier / IC be introduced between two compared entities ? B. Do strict parallelism rules apply when an idiom is used to compare two entities ( Both + And, not + but, Not Only + But Also). Can you give any further examples of such official questions ? Are there any specific cases in which this rule holds true ? (Introduction of modifier / IC between two compared entities ?

Here's the (D) version:

Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost as fast as, and in some parts even faster than, those outside the pinelands.

Looking carefully, we see that between "as fast as" and the second compared item is "and in some parts even faster than."

Notice that "even faster than" is a second way to compare the items. The sentence could have simply said the following:

Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost even faster than those outside the pinelands.

So, what this sentence has is two ways of comparing in a row, first "as fast as" and second "even faster than."

This construction is common and is correct.



Yes, a modifier that qualifies the comparison can be introduced between them.

Example:

This method is in many ways as good as the other one.


The two entities must be basically parallel.

While reading the sentence its quite clear that the sentence is about comparing two things, i.e. values in Pineland compared with values outside pineland
a) and b) are out because so fast doesn't show comparison
c) as fast is unidiomatic expression. AS FAST AS is correct
e) they refer to values and did refer to rose. When you replace them, the sentence doesn't makes any sense