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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 15 Apr 2019, 11:33
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Aren’t the comparison entities incorrect in option A? 20% of freshwater has been compared with all the North American lakes. What am I missing?
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 15 Apr 2019, 12:41
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jyotsnamahajan
Aren’t the comparison entities incorrect in option A? 20% of freshwater has been compared with all the North American lakes. What am I missing?
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In such cases, there are words that are not mentioned explicitly in the sentence. For example:

1. The exam was easier than I expected.
2. The exam was easier than I expected it to be.

(2) is a little longer than (1), but even it is "missing" one word.

3. The exam was easier than I expected it to be easy.

4. X earned ten billion dollars in 2018, more than anyone else on the list. ← This is different from "X earned ten billion dollars more than Y" which means that X = Y + 10.
5. X earned ten billion dollars in 2018, more than anyone else on the list earned. ← Here the earned is included in the sentence. The meaning is the same as in (4).

6. More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.
7. More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined hold.
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 09 Jun 2019, 20:38
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Can somebody please explain how the comparison in A is correct?
To me it seems that the 20% of the fresh water is being compared to all the American Great lakes combined.
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 09 Jun 2019, 21:01
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Can somebody please explain how the comparison in A is correct?
To me it seems that the 20% of the fresh water is being compared to all the American Great lakes combined.
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The word hold at the end is "understood".

More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined (hold).
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 24 Aug 2019, 23:54
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The first thing I noticed was that the entire sentence is underlined. That’s a really good clue that I might have one of these sentences where the “splits” (or differences in the answer choices) might be less obvious. It’s more likely that big chunks of the sentence will move around, and the forms of different pieces may change more substantially than usual. Basically, the longer the underline, the more likely it is that you will see these types of things in the answer choices.

More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia’s Lake Baikal*, WHICH ** holds an amount of water, MORE THAN*** <the water in another area>.

* The opening piece is our independent clause (main sentence): “More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia’s Lake Baikal.” (Note that “more than” here is not introducing a comparison. It is simply defining a number: more than 300.)

** The “which” introduces our first modifier. “Which” indicates a noun modifier, and a “comma which” structure should modify the closest preceding main noun. In this case, the closest preceding main noun is Lake Baikal.

*** The second instance of “more than” indicates a comparison. We need to make sure that the items being compared are both logically and structurally comparable. In this case, we’re comparing the amount of water contained in one lake to the amount of water contained in several other lakes combined. [Note: because “more than” appears after the comma, it is carrying the concept under comparison (a percentage of the world’s fresh water) to the second comparison item; that is, we are comparing the relevant “world’s fresh water percentage” figure for Lake Baikal and the Great Lakes.]

More simply, we’ve got:

Independent clause, modifier, comparison

In general on SC, if you spot something that you think is problematic when reading the initial sentence, then you address that issue first. If you don’t spot something, or you don’t see anything more in the original (but you still have more than one answer choice remaining), you need to do one of two things:

(1) start reading the remaining answers horizontally, or

(2) start comparing the remaining answers vertically.

As a general rule, it is preferable to compare answers vertically. Your goal is always to find the best answer of the five; finding the best of something is by definition a comparison.

On many SC problems, this vertical comparison is relatively straightforward: you notice that three answers have the verb “is” and two have the verb “are,” so now you know there is a subject-verb issue and you need to identify the subject in order to know whether “is” or “are” is the right verb. On some SC problems, however, the vertical comparisons are not that easy – but that doesn’t mean you can’t still use the technique!

So how do we still use this technique when the splits, or differences, aren’t as straightforward? We break the sentence into major parts – that’s why I simplified our original sentence, above, into “independent clause, modifier, comparison.”

Where are those parts in the various answer choices? Answer choice A is always the same as the original, of course. What about the others?

Answers B, C, D, and E all open with some kind of modifier, not an independent clause. So the independent clause moves, but we know the sentence still needs to contain an independent clause somewhere! So what are the structures of the five sentences? (The commas represent the actual commas found in the sentences.)

A: independent clause, modifier, comparison

B: modifier, comparison, independent clause

C: subject (beginning of independent clause), modifier, independent clause (containing comparison), modifier

D: comparison, independent clause, modifier (containing another comparison)

E: comparison, subject (beginning of independent clause), modifier, rest of independent clause

In practice, I would start just with the independent clause in each choice, ignoring the rest of the sentence. Is each independent clause okay?

So, let’s see. We do have independent clauses in each option, so we can’t eliminate for that reason (sometimes, an answer won’t contain an independent clause at all). There is something funny about the independent clause in C, though… what is it?

C: “Siberia’s Lake Baikal it holds more of the world’s fresh water than all that of the North American Great Lakes combined”

Ah. The independent clause has two subjects: “Lake Baikal” and the pronoun “it.” Sentences can have two subjects, but those two subjects need to have a connector word, such as “and” or “or,” in between. Choice C says “Lake Baikal it holds.” No good. Eliminate C.

What else? The independent clause is jumping around, and so are the modifiers that “hang” on the clause. Looks like we need to check whether the big pieces are placed correctly relative to the other big pieces!

Hmm. Noun modifiers are supposed to be placed as close as possible to the nouns they modify – in the vast majority of cases, right next to the nouns they modify. Let’s grab each modifier and check its placement (ignoring everything else in each sentence).

A: “Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world’s fresh water…” Does Lake Baikal hold that water? Yes. A is okay on this count.

B: “With 20 percent of the world’s fresh water, that is more than all the North American Great Lakes combined…” What is “with 20 percent” of the water? That? “North American Great Lakes? No. It’s supposed to be Lake Baikal, but that doesn’t even show up until after the comparison. No good. Eliminate B.

C: Already eliminated, but note that the “20 percent” is placed incorrectly. Does Lake Baikal contain 20 percent of the water, or does that 20 percent refer to the North American Great Lakes combined? I have no idea. This would be another reason to eliminate C.

D: “While more than 300 rivers drain into it, Siberia’s Lake Baikal…” Is the modifier info referring to Lake Baikal? Yes. That’s okay as far as that goes. But… there is a sticking point. What does the word “while” mean? It can actually mean two things:

while = at the same time as. I practice piano while twiddling my thumbs. (I’m very talented!) I practice piano at the same time as I twiddle my thumbs.
while = although, or some sort of contrast. While it’s true that I play piano and know how to twiddle my thumbs, I obviously can’t do both of those things at the same time. That would be impossible!
In this case, neither of those interpretations would make sense for this sentence. It doesn’t make sense to say that the 300 rivers drain into Lake Baikal “at the same time as” the lake holds 20 percent of the world’s fresh water. These aren’t two separate actions that happen to occur simultaneously.

Nor does it make sense to introduce a contrast: although the 300 rivers drain into Lake Baikal, the lake holds 20 percent of the world’s fresh water. Actually, the Lake holds that much fresh water because the 300 rivers drain into it, not despite this fact.

So, although the placement of the modifier in D is okay, the introduction of the word “while” to introduce the modifier is not. Eliminate D.

E: “Lake Baikal, with more than 300 rivers draining into it…” Is the modifier referring to the preceding noun, Lake Baikal? Yes. Some people may object that the modifier sounds awkward, in particular the pronoun “it.” I agree that it sounds awkward, but we’re going to stick to solid grammar rules here. The modifier refers to the correct noun.

We’ve eliminated B, C, and D; we still have A and E. What haven’t we tested yet? The placement of the comparison – let’s try that next.

A: “Lake Baikal, which holds 20% of the world’s fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.” The second half of the comparison is clear: “the North American Great Lakes combined.” The first half refers to the thing that “holds 20% of the world’s fresh water”: Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal holds 20% of the water and that figure is more than the equivalent figure for the collective Great Lakes.

E: “More than all the North American Great Lakes combined, Siberia’s Lake Baikal…” So Lake Baikal is more than the Great Lakes… more than what? What specific measurement are we discussing? General size or volume? The number of rivers draining into each? The percentage of the world’s fresh water that each holds? Ambiguity = bad. Eliminate E.

The correct answer is A.

Key Takeaways for Long Underlines + Jumbled Sentences on SC
(1) Long-underline sentences are more likely to be “jumbled” – that is, to move big chunks of the sentence around and even to change what information is located in the dependent vs. independent clauses. When you see this happening, you need to break the sentence down into those chunks (commas are often great natural separators) and figure out the role of each chunk.

(2) When you use the “chunk” strategy, you will often start in one of two places: either start with the first chunk of the original sentence and go find the location of that chunk in subsequent answer choices, or start with the independent clause in each answer choice, wherever that might be.

(3) These kinds of sentences also typically test the placement of the chunks – is the modifier or comparison in the right place relative to the other pieces of information? Is the parallelism constructed properly across the sentence?


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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 07 Sep 2019, 00:34
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Can someone please explain how it is okay to compare 20% of the world's fresh water to "NA Great lakes combined"

A: ... which holds 20% of the world's fresh water, more than all the NA Great lakes combined
I am reading this statement in simplest terms as
Lake Baikal holds 20% of the world's fresh water, more than NA Great lakes combined

To me this sounds like comparing the world's fresh water to lake instead of comparing with the water in the lake.
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 07 Sep 2019, 10:33
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Can someone please explain how it is okay to compare 20% of the world's fresh water to "NA Great lakes combined"

A: ... which holds 20% of the world's fresh water, more than all the NA Great lakes combined
I am reading this statement in simplest terms as
Lake Baikal holds 20% of the world's fresh water, more than NA Great lakes combined

To me this sounds like comparing the world's fresh water to lake instead of comparing with the water in the lake.
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The verb hold is implied in the latter part. So, we should read the sentence as:

Lake Baikal holds 20% of the world's fresh water, more than NA Great lakes combined (hold)

It's like this:

Peter has more money than Michael.

The above sentence is again correct and it is not comparing money with Michael; the above sentence should be read as:

Peter has more money than Michael (has).
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 08 Dec 2020, 02:57
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GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo mikemcgarry

Hi Everyone,
Can you please let me know the difference between A and D. In fact D seems better. In A-

More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's freshwater, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.

now which is a modifier, so if we remove it

More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.

So are we comparing rivers that are draining into Siberia's Lake Baikal with all the North American Great Lakes. (That doesn't make sense right?)

In D-

While more than 300 rivers drain into it, Siberia's Lake Baikal holds 20 percent of the world's freshwater, which is more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.

which is referring to fresh water, freshwater is more than all the North American Great Lakes combined, doesn't it mean, that Baikal is containing more fresh water than fresh water in all the North American Great Lakes
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 08 Dec 2020, 19:38
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sid0791
now which is a modifier, so if we remove it
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Hi sid0791,

Removing an element will almost always affect the meaning/structure of the sentence. In this case, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined is itself a modifier (it tells us more about the amount of fresh water Lake Baikal holds). If we remove the element that more than all the North American Great Lakes combined points to, then the sentence will clearly not make any sense.
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 26 Jan 2021, 12:26
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sid0791
now which is a modifier, so if we remove it
Hi sid0791,

Removing an element will almost always affect the meaning/structure of the sentence. In this case, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined is itself a modifier (it tells us more about the amount of fresh water Lake Baikal holds). If we remove the element that more than all the North American Great Lakes combined points to, then the sentence will clearly not make any sense.
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Ajitesh hit this one on the head, but for a little more on why you have to be careful about removing nonessential modifiers in general, check out this post.
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 13 Mar 2021, 00:17
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Please experts can you explain on Choice a i eliminated A basis on that Lake Baigal does not have verb in there.
More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 18 Mar 2021, 07:15
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Please experts can you explain on Choice a i eliminated A basis on that Lake Baigal does not have verb in there.
More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.
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Notice that the main clause comes right in the beginning of the sentence. "More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal," can stand on its own as a complete sentence, and "drain" is the main verb. Everything that comes after is a modifier. It's true that "more than all the North American Great Lakes combined" lacks a verb, but that's not a problem -- there's no rule that modifiers themselves have to contain verbs.

Consider another example:

    Tim taunted the chickens at the farm, alarming all the children in the vicinity, who began to weep while contemplating a lifelong devotion to veganism.

Again, the main clause ("Tim taunted the chickens") comes right at the beginning. Everything after is a modifier. And while there's no verb in "alarming all the children in the vicinity," there doesn't need to be. As long as there's an intact independent clause, we have a complete sentence.

I hope that clears things up!
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 19 Mar 2021, 21:58
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Hi Sirs AndrewN AjiteshArun GMATNinja

Quote:
(E) More than all the North American Great Lakes combined, Siberia's Lake Baikal, with more than 300 rivers draining into it, holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water.
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My mistakes on choosing E:
i. In E option All lakes combined == SL lake ( lake = lake ) . I thought this was modifier of same entity, hence I choose E. --> this is clear why is it wrong ( meaning issue)
ii. Even in E: Modifer1, XXXX, modifer2, verb xxx -- > similar construction what I was looking for. After getting wrong, I have queries on A , please check below:


Quote:
More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.

(A) More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.
Show more

Query1: On sentence construction
X xx, which ww, Y
Y modifies to ww or xx ?
I have seen some examples in which sentence: XX, modifier1, modifier2. Usually such constructions are found wrong because modifer2 is not clear it modifies to modifier 1 or XX.
Similar construction is in optionA.

Does it mean here: because of which Y modifier always modify to modifier1? or it depends on meaning and can jump over a modifier? - Please give your opinion

Query2. On meaning perspective:
more than all the North American Great Lakes combined. How does it modifies to 20 percent of the world's fresh water?
Should not be: more than THAT OF/IN all the North American Great Lakes combined. – otherwise is not illogical to say
a quantity of water is “more than… the Great Lakes.

if That of/in is present then this option would still have been correct?
(A') More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than THAT OF all the North American Great Lakes combined.
(A'') More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than IN all the North American Great Lakes combined.

2b.
In above postsby AjiteshArun, it is clear that hold in the end is understood.

GMATNinja sir mentioned the same point in the explanations .But It is not applicable to D but to A? Please see D explanation in this post. (it’s illogical to say that a quantity of water is “more than… the Great Lakes.” It might be more than the water in the Great Lakes, but not “more than” the Great Lakes themselves.)

Query3 on C:

Quote:
(C) Siberia's Lake Baikal, with more than 300 rivers draining into it, it holds more of the world's fresh water than all that of the North American Great Lakes combined, 20 percent.
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C option has "that". I liked that because it added more clarity, is not it?
Could new C version be correct?
(C-new ) Siberia's Lake Baikal, with more than 300 rivers draining into it, it holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water ,more than all that of the North American Great Lakes combined.

into it : should not be a problem, right? it adds clarity to meaning into S lake.
presence of that of in modifier: added much more clarity over A option.

Please clarify AndrewN AjiteshArun GMATNinja
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 19 Mar 2021, 23:10
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Hi mSKR,

I would take D out for the meaning issue that while introduces:

1. While more than 300 rivers drain into it, Siberia's lake Baikal holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water...
is like
2. Although more than 300 rivers drain into it, Siberia's lake Baikal holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water...

The first and second thoughts go very well together, and there is no reason to think that the second thought is ~despite the first.
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 30 Apr 2021, 18:59
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For some reason, a large percentage of my students hate this question with the fury of a thousand suns. But you’ll love it… right?

Quote:
(A) More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.
I don’t really see any problems with (A). The “which” jumps out at me, but that seems fine, since “which holds 20% of the world’s fresh water” logically modifies “Siberia’s Lake Baikal.” That last modifier seems fine, too: “more than all the North American Great Lakes combined” describes “20% of the world’s fresh water.”

So I guess we’ll keep (A), and hope that the other four answer choices have problems.

Quote:
(B) With 20 percent of the world's fresh water, that is more than all the North American Great Lakes combined, Siberia's Lake Baikal has more than 300 rivers that drain into it.
I’m not sure that anything is WRONG with (B), but there are three or four things that are spectacularly crappy about (B). (Craptacular? That’s not a word, but it should be.)

For starters, “with 20% of the world’s fresh water” is a lousy way to modify “Siberia’s Lake Baikal.” The preposition “with” generally suggests accompaniment of some sort (“I eat burritos with green chile” or “I went to the movies with my daughter”), and I can’t understand why we would use “with” in this context. Plus, it’s a long way from the thing it modifies. Again, I can’t prove that it’s WRONG, but it’s not great.

I also can’t make sense of the middle modifier, “that is more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.” For starters, I can’t figure out why we’re using a modifier beginning with “that” immediately after a comma. More importantly, the comparison doesn’t work: it’s basically saying that 20% of the world’s fresh water is more than the Great Lakes. You could say that the amount of water in Lake Baikal is greater than the amount of water in the Great Lakes, but it isn’t awesome to say that the amount of water is greater than the lakes themselves.

Finally, there’s no reason to write “…Lake Baikal has more than 300 rivers that drain into it” when we could use a more active construction (“more than 300 rivers drain into Lake Baikal”). The version in (B) isn’t WRONG, exactly, but it’s pretty craptacular compared to (A).

So we can ditch (B).

Quote:
(C) Siberia's Lake Baikal, with more than 300 rivers draining into it, it holds more of the world's fresh water than all that of the North American Great Lakes combined, 20 percent.
The most straightforward problem with (B) is that the subject is basically repeated twice: “Siberia’s Lake Baikal, (blah blah modifier), it holds…” That’s definitely not cool.

For bonus points, the modifier beginning with “with” still doesn’t seem quite right (see the explanation to (B) for more on that issue), and the comparison isn’t quite right, either: “Lake Baikal… holds more of the world’s fresh water than all that of the… Great Lakes…” “That” presumably refers to water, so that gives us “Lake Baikal… holds more of the world’s fresh water than [all the water of] the… Great Lakes.” And that’s wildly unnecessary: it’s better just to say that Lake Baikal holds more water than the Great Lakes.

But even if you ignore that last paragraph, the “Lake Baikal… it holds…” thing is a huge problem. So (C) is out.

Quote:
(D) While more than 300 rivers drain into it, Siberia's Lake Baikal holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, which is more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.
The “which” jumps out at me first. The phrase “which is more than… the Great Lakes…” seems to modify “20% of the world’s fresh water”, and that doesn’t quite work: it’s illogical to say that a quantity of water is “more than… the Great Lakes.” It might be more than the water in the Great Lakes, but not “more than” the Great Lakes themselves.

Plus, “while” is essentially a synonym for “although” in this case, and that doesn’t make sense: “[Although] more than 300 rivers drain into it, Siberia’s Lake Baikal…[is large].” “Although” suggests some sort of contrast, and there’s definitely no contrast between those two phrases.

So (D) is out.

Quote:
(E) More than all the North American Great Lakes combined, Siberia's Lake Baikal, with more than 300 rivers draining into it, holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water.
That opening modifier, “more than all the… Great Lakes combined”, still isn’t great: it’s literally suggesting that Lake Baikal is “more than the Great Lakes”, and that doesn’t make sense. Maybe the amount of water in Lake Baikal is more than the amount in all of the Great Lakes, but Lake Baikal itself isn’t “more than” the Great Lakes.

I’m also not crazy about the use of “with” as a modifier in (E). For more on this issue, see the explanation for (B) above.

(E) isn’t a complete disaster, but (A) does a better job of conveying the meaning of the sentence, so (A) is our answer.
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GMATNinja, I agree with most of what you said, except for the comparisons in A & E. They both seem appropriate to me. I think we need to look at from a meaning perspective.
The main sentence of A says that the 300+ rivers drain into the lake, and the 20% and more than NA 5 lakes are modifiers of the lake. Especially with the 20% modifier, it appears as a non-restrictive clause and is not the main point of the sentence.

However in E, it's the opposite - the main sentence says that the lake holds 20% of the water. In here, 300 rives becomes a modifier - the sentence does not intend to convey the meaning in such way.

Therefore A is preferred over E.

Pls let me know your thoughts.
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 30 Apr 2021, 19:15
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.


(A) More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.
(E) More than all the North American Great Lakes combined, Siberia's Lake Baikal, with more than 300 rivers draining into it, holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water.

Hi AjiteshArun GMATNinja

I am confused with A vs E.
Why Lake baikal vs all the NA great lakes is right in A but wrong in E


why in A it is not hold 20% of water, more than WATER/THAT in NA GL ( as in C - that of the )
Actually I rejected A because of this reasons ( we need to compared water in lake vs water in another lake, is not it? )
Kindly clarify

thanks
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 30 Apr 2021, 21:19
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Why Lake baikal vs all the NA great lakes is right in A but wrong in E
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Hi mSKR,

I agree with GMATNinja's assessment that E doesn't have simple entry points. But to see why the more than... phrase is better in A, focus on how close it is to "20 percent of the world's fresh water".

A. More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.

Option E puts that phrase right at the beginning of the sentence:

E. More than all the North American Great Lakes combined, Siberia's Lake Baikal, with more than 300 rivers draining into it, holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water.

The reader has to work much harder to understand the meaning of the sentence now. Here's another example:

1. X earned ten billion dollars in 2018, more than anyone else on the list.

2. More than anyone else on the list, X earned ten billion dollars in 2018.

It's not like we cannot understand (2), but (1) is much better.
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 25 May 2021, 11:04
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Hello Experts,
Can someone please explain what the modifier "more than all the North American Great Lakes combined" is modifying? Is it modifying previous modifier or is it modifying the main clause. Of late, I have been seeing such constructions, and really want to understand how such constructions work.

Thanks
Himanshu
Dear Himanshu,
I'm responding to your pm, and I am happy to help. :-)

More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.

One way to think about it is: exactly what is "more than all the North American Great Lakes combined"? The Great Lakes, as lakes, are fresh water, so we are comparing them to another quantity of fresh water --- "20 percent of the world's fresh water", a noun phrase that is the object of the the noun-modifying phrase beginning with "more than all ..." Not surprisingly, the modifier touches the noun, in accordance with the Modifier Touch Rule.
While there are exceptions to the Modifier Touch Rule, that's an exactly place to start to look for the noun modified.

Keep in mind that modifiers are a part of what the GMAT calls "Logical Predication" on the the SC ----- in other words, to make sense of whether modifiers are used correctly and what they are modifying, you have to look beyond the grammar of a sentence to the logic & meaning, which are more primary.

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)
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I see a difference while comparing this explanation with GMAT Ninja's explanation. the last part of Choice A doesn't compare the '20% of fresh water' with 'the Great Lakes combined', but describes it( because we can only compare the water quantity in both, but not compare the lakes and the water quanity). Hence, I don't understand how it is a comparison and not a mere description. Could you please explain?
And if we wish to compare like with like (quantity of water in Lake Baikal, and 20% of the world's fresh water), shouldn't the last part of choice A say 'more than the fresh water in all of the Great Lakes combined' ?
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 29 May 2021, 08:18
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imhimanshu
Hello Experts,
Can someone please explain what the modifier "more than all the North American Great Lakes combined" is modifying? Is it modifying previous modifier or is it modifying the main clause. Of late, I have been seeing such constructions, and really want to understand how such constructions work.

Thanks
Himanshu
Dear Himanshu,
I'm responding to your pm, and I am happy to help. :-)

More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.

One way to think about it is: exactly what is "more than all the North American Great Lakes combined"? The Great Lakes, as lakes, are fresh water, so we are comparing them to another quantity of fresh water --- "20 percent of the world's fresh water", a noun phrase that is the object of the the noun-modifying phrase beginning with "more than all ..." Not surprisingly, the modifier touches the noun, in accordance with the Modifier Touch Rule.
While there are exceptions to the Modifier Touch Rule, that's an exactly place to start to look for the noun modified.

Keep in mind that modifiers are a part of what the GMAT calls "Logical Predication" on the the SC ----- in other words, to make sense of whether modifiers are used correctly and what they are modifying, you have to look beyond the grammar of a sentence to the logic & meaning, which are more primary.

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)


I see a difference while comparing this explanation with GMAT Ninja's explanation. the last part of Choice A doesn't compare the '20% of fresh water' with 'the Great Lakes combined', but describes it( because we can only compare the water quantity in both, but not compare the lakes and the water quanity). Hence, I don't understand how it is a comparison and not a mere description. Could you please explain?
And if we wish to compare like with like (quantity of water in Lake Baikal, and 20% of the world's fresh water), shouldn't the last part of choice A say 'more than the fresh water in all of the Great Lakes combined' ?
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We're comparing how much two things hold. That is,

    (A) How much Lake Baikal holds
    (B) How much all the North American Great Lakes combined hold

(A) simply holds more than (B).

I hope that helps!
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More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 09 Jun 2021, 08:49
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GMATNinja, I agree with most of what you said, except for the comparisons in A & E. They both seem appropriate to me. I think we need to look at from a meaning perspective.
The main sentence of A says that the 300+ rivers drain into the lake, and the 20% and more than NA 5 lakes are modifiers of the lake. Especially with the 20% modifier, it appears as a non-restrictive clause and is not the main point of the sentence.

However in E, it's the opposite - the main sentence says that the lake holds 20% of the water. In here, 300 rives becomes a modifier - the sentence does not intend to convey the meaning in such way.

Therefore A is preferred over E.

Pls let me know your thoughts.
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I would agree that the "with..." part throws off the meaning in (E). As explained in this post (see choice D), "with" makes sense when one thing/person is accompanied by another or when we are describing/modifying an action (i.e. how is something done). We certainly don't have one thing accompanying another here. Also, the "with..." doesn't answer the question, "How does Siberia's Lake Baikal hold 20 percent of the world's fresh water?". So I don't think that the "with" modifier makes much sense here.

But I'd still say that the opening modifier suggests an illogical comparison, as described in our initial post.

Not sure if it matters, but note that in (A), "more than all the North American Great Lakes combined" is PART of the "which" clause ("more than..." describes “20% of the world’s fresh water”). So if you want to call the "which" clause a non-restrictive modifier, then you have to include the "more than" part.

I hope some of that helps!
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