quiet888 wrote:
Like any star of similar mass would do, once the Sun has exhausted the hydrogen in its core, it expands into a red giant, eventually ejecting its outer envelope of gases to become a white dwarf.
A. Like any star of similar mass would do, once the Sun has exhausted the hydrogen in its core, it expands into a red giant, eventually ejecting
B. Like any star of similar mass, once the hydrogen in the Sun's core is exhausted, then it expands into a red giant and eventually ejects
C. As in the case of any star of similar mass, once the hydrogen in the Sun's core is exhausted, it will expand into a red giant, and eventually ejecting
D. As any star of similar mass would, once the hydrogen in the Sun's core is exhausted it will expand into a red giant and will eventually eject
E. As would be the case with any star of similar mass, once the Sun exhausts the hydrogen in its core, it will expand into a red giant and eventually eject
mjzakaria wrote:
Dear
generis, I'm getting hard time of eliminating option D here. Since possessive poison is not tested in GMAT, IT seems to correctly refer to SUN. then what exactly is wrong in option D. Your response is highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Posted from my mobile deviceHi
mjzakaria , I can understand how you might think that "possessive poison is not tested on the GMAT," but that statement is too strong.
• possessive poison is allowed under certain circumstances but is not preferredI wrote a fairly comprehensive post about "possessive poison" that you can find
HERE.In that post I stressed that although GMAC will allow a subject pronoun (here, IT) or object pronoun to have a possessive noun as an antecedent, that pairing is rare.
Takeaway: if two options seem equally good and one does not use a possessive noun as an antecedent for a pronoun, choose the latter.
(And if you have time, thoroughly inspect the one the does not use the possessive noun as an antecedent to make sure that you have analyzed it accurately.)
--
Possessive noun as antecedent for a subject or object pronoun? Allowed as long as meaning is clear, but not preferred. Not forbidden as long as meaning is clear, but not common. In the post you can see what kinds of official examples have allowed a possessive noun to stand for a subject or object pronoun.
Seeing these examples helps people to understand what "as long as meaning is clear" means.
• Cannot eliminate an option? See whether you can convince yourself that the other one is worseBefore I compare D and E, let's try a trick that often helps when test takers feel as if they cannot decide between two options.
Make an argument that option E is better than option D. Sometimes the only way to eliminate an option is to say that D is worse and E is better.
Comparison is one of the best weapons we have in SC.
• as would be/is/was the case = a phrase that test takers need to understandI am not sure why people are so uncomfortable with (E).
I gather that this phrase seems weird:
As would be the caseThere are a few phrases/clauses in English that can stand in for a few things, including entire verb phrases and entire clauses.
Do so is one of them. I cannot fix this gadget. Would you please do so? (do so = fix the gadget)
As would be the case /As is the case /As was the case can also stand in for a whole clause.
Those phrases are excellent ways to refer to circumstances that are similar or to phenomena that are characteristic of some group of things.
In this case, the author wants to say that all stars, including our Sun, evolve in certain ways.
• comparing D and E(D)
As any star of similar mass would, once the hydrogen in the Sun's core is exhausted it will expand into a red giant and will eventually eject its outer envelope of gases to become a white dwarf.
-- will, have, and do are all helping verbs, as are their verb variations (would, had, has, did, does).
Will and
have cannot stand in as substitutes for an entire verb phrase.
As any star of similar mass would . . . what?
-- Let's try to refer to that whole verb phrase:
As any star of similar mass would have (?) its core become exhausted and then would expand into a red giant and would eventually eject its outer envelope of gases to become a white dwarf. -- This rendition makes no sense to my native ears. I'm not sure I wrote it correctly.
--
Would, a helping verb, must be paired with something.
-- We need the word
do. Then
would do will work.
-- Possessive poison?
As long as meaning is clear, GMAT might allow a possessive noun to be the antecedent for a subject or object pronoun.
Well, meaning is not clear.
I think that IT refers to the Sun because ITS outer layer must refer to the Sun's outer layer, unless a core also has an outer layer, in which case, I am lost.
This case is
suspect. -- Can the core of a star have an outer layer?
-- If so, once it is exhausted, can this core expand?
"The Sun" makes more sense as a referent, but I am not certain.
This question is similar to another official question that gives people trouble. That official question is
[u]here.[/u] My post that discusses possessive poison in the context of that question is
HERE. Option D has a couple of issues. One is fatal.
Would cannot stand alone as it does in D.
Suppose that a test taker noticed the pronoun issues (but shrewdly did not immediately eliminate D) and could not decide whether the standalone
would were erroneous.
Compare to option E:
(E)
As would be the case with any star of similar mass, once the Sun exhausts the hydrogen in its core, it will expand into a red giant and eventually eject its outer envelope of gases to become a white dwarf.
-- pronouns? Aha. Sometimes question writers and editors let a blooper slip through, but not often.
This option does not contain any confusion about the antecedent of the pronoun IT because
its clearly refers to the Sun and thus
it also clearly refers to the Sun.
-- Aha. This version does not repeat the helping verb
will. GMAC usually leans towards
not repeating the helping verb. I would not make this issue a decision point by itself.
-- Most importantly,
as would be the case cures the fatal error in (D).
Option D is inferior to option E.
Eliminate D.
I hope that helps. These issues are not easy.
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