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505-555 Level|   Comparisons|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|   Parallelism|   Pronouns|                                          
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Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost so 02 Nov 2020, 23:08
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altairahmad
Hi GMATNinja mikemcgarry and other experts.

Why is 'those' in option D referring only to land values and not the whole 'land values in most parts of the pineland' ? How do we make this distinction ?

Thanks.
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You could just remember this as a special property of those altairahmad: those can selectively refer to words in a phrase, rather than the entire phrase.

For example:

Trees in moist climate thrive more than those in arid climate.

Here, those is referring to only trees rather than to trees in moist climate.

The issue that you mention however, may arise with the usage of they. In general, they refers to the entire phrase (rather than to selective words in a phrase).
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Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost so 02 Nov 2020, 23:51
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altairahmad
Hi GMATNinja mikemcgarry and other experts.

Why is 'those' in option D referring only to land values and not the whole 'land values in most parts of the pineland' ? How do we make this distinction ?

Thanks.
You could just remember this as a special property of those altairahmad: those can selectively refer to words in a phrase, rather than the entire phrase.

For example:

Trees in moist climate thrive more than those in arid climate.

Here, those is referring to only trees rather than to trees in moist climate.

The issue that you mention however, may arise with the usage of they. In general, they refers to the entire phrase (rather than to selective words in a phrase).
Show more

Thanks a lot for the response. Does this hold true for 'this, that and there's as well ? Because I think I remember seeing a few examples in which 'that' was referring to the whole phrase.

This is a bit confusing for me.

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Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost so 05 Nov 2020, 05:09
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altairahmad
Thanks a lot for the response. Does this hold true for 'this, that and there's as well ? Because I think I remember seeing a few examples in which 'that' was referring to the whole phrase.
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Yes, will hold true for that as well.

The car of Peter is more expensive that that of John.

Here, that is selectively referring to car and not to car of Peter.

This and there can anyway, not be used in the above context.
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Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost so 26 Jun 2022, 12:27
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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
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Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost so 27 Sep 2022, 08:32
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Babashyam
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
Show more
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):

Quote:
"Land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost as fast as [land values] outside the pinelands."
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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!
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Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost so 28 Sep 2022, 05:44
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Babashyam
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
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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!
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Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost so 05 Apr 2023, 01:37
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@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 ?
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Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost so 05 Apr 2023, 06:01
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tayyab2022
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.
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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.

Quote:
A. Can a modifier / IC be introduced between two compared entities ?
Show more

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.

Quote:
B. Do strict parallelism rules apply when an idiom is used to compare two entities ( Both + And, not + but, Not Only + But Also).
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The two entities must be basically parallel.
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Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost so 20 Jun 2023, 03:50
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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
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Last year, land values in most parts of the pinelands rose almost so 13 Sep 2024, 21:30
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