More than have any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release it

Question

More than have any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations like India and China.

(A) More than have any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations like India and China.

(B) More than has any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, has staked its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.

(C) More so than any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations such as India and China.

(D) More than any of its competitors have, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, staked its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations such as India and China.

(E) More than any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.

pqhai · Accepted Answer

IMO, E is correct.

At first, we  split between "like" and "such as" . Which one is better in this case. IMO, "like" is better because if we say countries like India and China, we do  NOT  mention that these countries are exactly India and China, just countries that have the same characteristics as those of India and China. 
For example:
(1) I have a couple of tablets   like   ipad and Amazon kindle ==> my tablets just like ipad and kindle in terms of functions, design, etc.., they are not ipads or kindles
(2) I have a couple of tablets   such as   ipad and kindle ==> my tablets are ipad and kindle.

ANALYZE EACH ANSWER:

a)More than  have  any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations like India and China.
  Wrong.  . Any of its competitors is singular ==> "Has" is correct

b)More than  has  any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday,  has staked  its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.
  Wrong.  . "has" is not main verb. Moreover, "has staked" changes meaning.

c)More so than any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations  like the Arctic  and energy-hungry nations  such as India and China .
  Wrong.  . Not parallel, and a little bit vague as I mentioned above.

d)More than any of its competitors  have , Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, staked its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic and energy-hungry nations such as India and China.
  Wrong.   Any of its competitors is singular ==> "Has" is correct

e)More than any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.
  Correct.

daagh · Answer

In addition to what HumptyDumpty wrote , I would like to add that in C, the fact that the company intends to bring shale gas from Arctic and energy hungry countries such as India and China, is antithetical to the intended meaning. Countries like India and China are consumers, but not suppliers of shale gas. The idiomatic expression is from ... to and not from .... and. So C is out. This leaves E.

HumptyDumpty · Answer

No matter whether by have or has, introducing perfect tense is wrong because Dynacorp " is  staking sh".
Thus we are down to C and E. In C the "More so than" is incorrect. In E everything is right: more than, which + preceding noun,  have  + is staking.

avohden · Answer

Here is the   official explanation   from Veritas.

Answer E   - The dominant decision point in this question is "and" vs. "to" in the back half of the sentence. Because of construction "bringing X from...", "to" is required to create a logical meaning, so the "and" choices (A, C, and D) are incorrect. Furthermore, the choices that include a verb ("has" or "have") in the beginning of the sentence in the modifier do not offer a direct verb for "has done what?", and so they are also incorrect.

Choice E uses a proper modifier and the correct "to" connection, so it is correct.

Paris75 · Answer

For this question there are only  two steps :

1) First the idiom: " from...to " you narrow down to B and E
2) Second,look at B first, see that it is  not parallel  "More than has X, Y has blablabla..."

Answer E

dheeraj787 · Answer

Can you please explain the point number 2 in detail, I did not understand which ||sm went wrong here ? Thanks

Paris75 · Answer

Sorry, should have been more precise.

Look at B:

b)More than has any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, has staked its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.

Here it is like this: " More than has X, Y, which Z, has staked... " And it is not correct. It should have been, " More than has any of its competitors, Y staked... "

You need to have a logical construction here, otherwise it does not make any sense. The parrallel structure is also necessary when you use  like  (or such as) at the end of the sentence.

e)More than any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release its annual earnings report on Friday, is staking its future on the business of bringing shale gas from formerly inaccessible locations like the Arctic to energy-hungry nations like India and China.

Here, the structure is correct " More than any of X, Y is staking... "

Hope its clear

harshdeep12 · Answer

mikemcgarry  - Hello Mike, can you please help me to figure out the correct answer between Option E and B. I was able to figure out the rest of the choices by the identifying the idiom tested(from..to), But really can't chose between B and E. Also, is the usage of present continuous tense correct in option E? Thanks:)

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear  harshdeep12 ,

I'm happy to respond. :-)

My friend, many Veritas questions are wonderful. I think this one is atrocious. It's tagged as Veritas: I don't know whether that is true.

One screaming issue that is not addressed is the " like " vs. " such as " split for listing examples. All five answer choices have " formerly inaccessible locations    like    the Arctic "--embarrassing! A few answer choices have " energy-hungry nations   such as   India and China ," but the OA has " energy-hungry nations    like    India and China "--not GMAT-like at all!

It's bizarre that the whole sentence is underlined, even though a few words at the beginning and end are the same in all five answer choices. That's also not GMAT-like.

Choice (B) has the unnecessary " has " in the first clause--" More than    has    any of its competitors ." It appears the source believes this is reason to prefer (B) to (E). It's true that the word " has " is not necessary and it's a little awkward to include it, but it's odd that the choice between these two choices rests only on this one detail, especially since other details are incorrect. For such a long prompt, only niggling little details are changed among the five answer choices: there aren't large scale structure changes, as there typically would be on the GMAT if the whole sentence were underlined. There are a variety of ways in which this question falls short of the ideal established by the GMAT.

This is a very poor question. As a general rule, I don't think it helps to dive into the logic of poorly designed questions.

Here's a high quality SC practice question: 
 Becquerel's discovery of radioactivity

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)

Mo2men · Answer

Dear mikemcgarry , I hope you are well

I seek your help in understanding many issues in the above sentence. It is really a Veritas question. In the previous, someone posted the official answer. Here it: "Here is the official explanation from Veritas. Answer E - The dominant decision point in this question is "and" vs. "to" in the back half of the sentence. Because of construction "bringing X from...", "to" is required to create a logical meaning, so the "and" choices (A, C, and D) are incorrect. Furthermore, the choices that include a verb ("has" or "have") in the beginning of the sentence in the modifier do not offer a direct verb for "has done what?", and so they are also incorrect. Choice E uses a proper modifier and the correct "to" connection, so it is correct." According to the explanation above by Veritas, B is eliminated because choice include verb 'has' or have without any any direct object. I think, there is ellipses which meaning is implied. So it is wrong from grammar point of view but it is unnecessary as you pointed out. Is it true or wrong? I have other concern the puzzled me in English. An instructor eliminated choice B on the ground that it should be plural and hence must be have . As far as I know in English. ' Any ' must take singular verb . Am I right or wrong?? Thanks in advance

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear Mo2men , Good to hear from you, my friend.

I'm happy to respond.

Yes, the "from" ==> "to" construction is necessary and appears in only (B) & (E). That's why I only discussed those two. The " has " in (B) is not "missing" anything. This is a grammatically correct ellipsis , and what has been omitted is not a direct object but the main verb. If anything, the " has " is awkward because it's not necessary--it too can be omitted! As indicated above, I find strong reasons to reject all five answer choices and the question itself. The word " any " is very trick. In a purely logical analysis, it would seem to imply "any one" and so demand a singular verb. In practice, though, it does take plural verbs. I could say either version: I don't know whether any single friend of mine is coming to the party. I don't know whether any of my friends are coming to the party. The former is a little more emphatic, implying that I will be surprised if even one friend shows up. The second indicates the uncertain action of multiple members in a group. In this sentence, either could be correct. More than have any of its competitors . . . More than has any of its competitors . . . These have different emphases, different implications, but neither is "wrong" from a grammatical perspective. Does all this make sense? Take care, my friend. Mike

Mo2men · Answer

Thanks Mike for your prompt response.

After sending my questions to you today, I searched for the topic in Google and it seems the topic is controversial in English forums.

Does GMAT test those controversial issues about 'any'?

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear  Mo2men ,

My friend, as a general rule, the GMAT steers clear of controversy. If something is controversial, it will not be tested directly on the GMAT.

For example, a far more controversial topic is  splitting an infinitive . Grammatical conservatives, such as I, avoid this, while grammatical liberals think that it's perfectly fine: one can find rants for both view on the web. The GMAT would never test this, although every once in a while, a split infinitive will appear in an answer choice that is incorrect for other reasons.

I suspect that, in similar fashion, anything that the GMAT considered wrong in the usage of " any " would appear only in answer choices incorrect for other definitive reasons. In other words, this would not be a deciding split.

Does all this make sense, my friend? 
Mike :-)

HimG15 · Answer

+1
I also couldn't understand why b is incorrect. Can someone please help ?

generis · Answer

HimG15 , have you read the posts above, especially those from mikemcgarry ? If not, please read this post , then Mo2men 's reply , and finally, mikemcgarry 's response . If you have read them, and you still feel lost, I will be happy to try to help. I have very little to add to Mike McGarry 's insightful analysis. I will emphasize: No real GMAT question would hang by a thread this thin. (And it would not use the word "like" to list examples!) Try not to worry about this question. All due respect to Veritas: everyone gets it wrong sometimes. This question is not a good practice tool. Your instincts were good; the question bothered you. I hope that helps. If it does not, ask again, perhaps with a little more specificity?

rajatkataria14@gmail.com · Answer

Hiii experts I am not able to eliminate B, I think it creates perfect ellipsis

abhimahna · Answer

Hey  rajatkataria14@gmail.com  ,

I think you missed the elements of comparison in the sentence.

The correct idiom is More than X, Y where X and Y must be ||.

Now, As per the meaning of the sentence, we are comparing Dynacorp with its competitors.

So, in B my X is "has any of its competitors" and Y is "Dynacorp".

This is wrong. We are not comparing any clause with the company. Hence, B is wrong.

Does that make sense?

sid0791 · Answer

mikemcgarry

Although I choose E, as in B, "More than has any of its competitors, Dynacorp,...., has staked", was not making much sense.

But I want to know, whether the below statements would have been right or it would have changed the meaning:-

1) More than has any of its competitors, Dynacorp,...., staked
2) More than any of its competitors, Dynacorp,...., has staked

And if they really change the meaning, how would it change meaning when compared to option E?

Thanks, would be waiting for your reply

jatin093 · Answer

in E, I thought like before India and China is wrong and ended up choosing C.
was my thought process wrong?

More than have any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release it

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More than have any of its competitors, Dynacorp, which will release it

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