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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 30 Jun 2014, 06:56
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Thanks for the revert.

Isn't this modifier acting as VERB-ING modifier making sense with the subject of the previous clause?
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 30 Jun 2014, 11:26
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Can someone provide more information about D vs. E?
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 14 Jul 2014, 03:48
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ronr34
Can someone provide more information about D vs. E?
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With E, the sentence would be:

Most of Portugal’s 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a one-day strike to protest a law that requires them to contribute $330 a year as opposed to the $7 per year required previously for the cost of higher education

At the very least, this has a meaning ambiguity, since this could suggest that $7 per year was required previously for the cost of higher education.

This is clearly absurd meaning, since cost of higher education is not $7; the contribution towards cost of higher education was $7.
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 26 Feb 2016, 10:35
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I simplified the sentence into:

The law requires $300 instead of $7.

Narrowed it down to D or E. Do we use "instead of" or "as opposed to."


"As opposed to" sounds a lot more negative than instead of. I would say, "instead of 7" or, "as opposed to not paying at all!"
Answer: D
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 26 Feb 2016, 11:56
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DJ1986
I simplified the sentence into:

The law requires $300 instead of $7.

Narrowed it down to D or E. Do we use "instead of" or "as opposed to."


"As opposed to" sounds a lot more negative than instead of. I would say, "instead of 7" or, "as opposed to not paying at all!"
Answer: D
Show more

Here is how I view the comparisons in D and E:

D: X instead of Y. X = $330 a year toward the cost of higher education, Y = the $7 per year required previously

E: X as opposed to Y. X = $330 a year, Y = the $7 per year required previously for the cost of higher education

In D, it is clear why $330 is required. It is also clear why $7 was required, because the sentence states the $7 required previously.
In E, it is not clear why $330 is required. It is nonetheless clear why $7 was required previously.

Because of the lack of clarity about $330 a year in E, D is a better option.
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 24 Mar 2016, 18:59
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I could easily eliminate A, B, and E..and between C and D, I picked C.
7$ -> seven is an adjective - previously modifies the adjective, no? i understand that it is not explicitly written in this form..but in D "instead of" made me think twice whether it is correct...
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 29 Mar 2016, 08:34
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mvictor
I could easily eliminate A, B, and E..and between C and D, I picked C.
7$ -> seven is an adjective - previously modifies the adjective, no? i understand that it is not explicitly written in this form..but in D "instead of" made me think twice whether it is correct...
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$7 is a thing and hence is a noun. Just like 'red car' is a thing.
So the use of previously (an adverb) is wrong here.
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 29 Mar 2016, 08:40
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VeritasPrepKarishma
mvictor
I could easily eliminate A, B, and E..and between C and D, I picked C.
7$ -> seven is an adjective - previously modifies the adjective, no? i understand that it is not explicitly written in this form..but in D "instead of" made me think twice whether it is correct...

$7 is a thing and hence is a noun. Just like 'red car' is a thing.
So the use of previously (an adverb) is wrong here.
Show more

but isn't the red car a complex noun? formed by an adjective + noun?
so is in this question - 7 is adjective, dollars is noun, previously 7 - makes sense, no?
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 29 Mar 2016, 21:47
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mvictor
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mvictor
I could easily eliminate A, B, and E..and between C and D, I picked C.
7$ -> seven is an adjective - previously modifies the adjective, no? i understand that it is not explicitly written in this form..but in D "instead of" made me think twice whether it is correct...

$7 is a thing and hence is a noun. Just like 'red car' is a thing.
So the use of previously (an adverb) is wrong here.

but isn't the red car a complex noun? formed by an adjective + noun?
so is in this question - 7 is adjective, dollars is noun, previously 7 - makes sense, no?
Show more

Yes, correct. So think about this:
Will you say "The beautiful red car is ... " or "The beautifully red car is ..."

The point is that the entire "$7" acts as a noun and you need an adjective to modify it, not an adverb.
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 01 Apr 2016, 05:31
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VeritasPrepKarishma


but isn't the red car a complex noun? formed by an adjective + noun?
so is in this question - 7 is adjective, dollars is noun, previously 7 - makes sense, no?
Show more

mvictor
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mvictor
I could easily eliminate A, B, and E..and between C and D, I picked C.
7$ -> seven is an adjective - previously modifies the adjective, no? i understand that it is not explicitly written in this form..but in D "instead of" made me think twice whether it is correct...

$7 is a thing and hence is a noun. Just like 'red car' is a thing.
So the use of previously (an adverb) is wrong here.

Yes, correct. So think about this:
Will you say "The beautiful red car is ... " or "The beautifully red car is ..."

The point is that the entire "$7" acts as a noun and you need an adjective to modify it, not an adverb.
Show more

VeritasPrepKarishma... if we mean that the red colour is beautiful, we must use the adverb "beautifully", since it modifies the adjective "red". However if we mean that the car is beautiful, we must use adjective "beautiful" since it modifies the noun "car".

Consider a situation: The colour of the car in my opinion is not red, but someone else says that it is red. Hence I make the following statement:

I purchased the supposedly red car.

The statement would be grammatically correct. Isn't it?

Similarly, if the intent above is to modify the adjective "7", not the noun "dollar", I tend to agree with the logic of mvictor. Nonetheless, as you said, I do agree that $7 can be considered as one object here and hence the adjective "previous" would be appropriate. Yet one could also say "previously 7 dollar," isn't it?

The price rose from previously 7 dollar to 10 dollar........... Is this sentence wrong?
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 13 Dec 2016, 18:42
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This is an official question, it appeared in GMAT-Prep exam pack-1 for me. And it needs more discussion. Request experts to talk about this in a bit more detail. Mostly D vs E.

Reply awaited!
Thanks!
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 15 Dec 2016, 00:37
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arhumsid
This is an official question, it appeared in GMAT-Prep exam pack-1 for me. And it needs more discussion. Request experts to talk about this in a bit more detail. Mostly D vs E.

Reply awaited!
Thanks!
Show more

In option E, it is not clear for what $330 a year is contributed. It is alright to omit the repeated part from the second element of comparison, not from the first. Here "for the cost of higher education" appears in the second element ("the $7 per year required previously for the cost of higher education"), but not in the first ("$330 a year").

In option D, the part "toward the cost of higher education" can be eliminated from the second element (the $7 per year required previously toward the cost of higher education ) since the meaning is not obscured because of this omission.

[Brief explanation of other options:

Option A and B does not highlight the comparison between the previous value and the current value.

In option C, the adverb "previously" wrongly refers to the noun phrase "$7 per year". An adjective may refer to a noun phrase, but an adverb cannot.]
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 11 Mar 2017, 00:40
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Hi Expert,

X instead of Y-- X and Y both should be structurally parallel.

In choice D, how X and Y are structurally parallel. Please help !
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 11 Mar 2017, 04:09
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AR15J
Hi Expert,

X instead of Y-- X and Y both should be structurally parallel.

In choice D, how X and Y are structurally parallel. Please help !
Show more

Contribute X instead of Y.

X = $300 a year
Y = the $7 per year

Two yearly values are compared. X is modified by "toward the cost of higher education" (prepositional phrase), and Y is modified by "required previously" (past participle), but this is not a problem - the modifiers are not compared.

However the comma before "instead" should not have been there.
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 25 Jul 2017, 18:52
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Hello Experts,

Could you please further explain the Option C
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 26 Jul 2017, 07:15
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Bharath99
Hello Experts,

Could you please further explain the Option C
Show more

The adverb "previously" is wrong. An adverb must refer to a verb or an adjective. However, "$7 per year" is a noun phrase requiring an adjective. Thus "previous" instead of "previously" should have been used. Hence option C is wrong.
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 28 Jul 2017, 09:10
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ashkrs
Most of Portugal’s 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a one-day strike to
protest a law that requires them to contribute $330 a year toward the cost of higher
education, previously paying $7 per year.

A. year toward the cost of higher education, previously paying $7 per year
B. year toward the cost of higher education, for which was previously paid $7 per
year
C. year, compared to the previously $7 per year, toward the cost of higher education
D. year toward the cost of higher education, instead of the $7 per year required
previously
E. year as opposed to the $7 per year required previously for the cost of higher
education

Please explain.
Show more


shouldn't it be "towards" in all the options?
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 28 Jul 2017, 09:40
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rekhabishop
ashkrs
Most of Portugal’s 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a one-day strike to
protest a law that requires them to contribute $330 a year toward the cost of higher
education, previously paying $7 per year.

A. year toward the cost of higher education, previously paying $7 per year
B. year toward the cost of higher education, for which was previously paid $7 per
year
C. year, compared to the previously $7 per year, toward the cost of higher education
D. year toward the cost of higher education, instead of the $7 per year required
previously
E. year as opposed to the $7 per year required previously for the cost of higher
education

Please explain.


shouldn't it be "towards" in all the options?
Show more


Hello rekhabishop,

I will be glad to help you out with this one. :-)

There is no difference in the usage of toward and towards. Both the words are used in the same context.

It is just that in American English, the word toward is used while in British English, the word towards is used.


Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 03 Aug 2017, 10:24
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daagh
A says that the higher education was previously paying $7

B The phrase - for which was previously paid $7 per year - is too awkward to consider
In C - previously $7 per year - is grammatically wrong. Previously is an adverb and can not modify the noun of $7

D has no flaws as such and is the best answer.

E -as opposed to -is not the right idiom to describe comparison, unless the arms of the comparison are positioned opposite to the others physically? In a weird way, E may also give the feeling that the students were in fact opposed to the $7 per year.
Show more

Hi daagh,
Pls pardon my ignorance & since nobody has raised this point it feels awkward to be the only one. I eliminated D & E because both use "the"7$. Is it ok to use the before a particular noun?
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Most of Portugal's 250,000 university students boycotted classes in a 03 Aug 2017, 14:29
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ManishKM1

Hi daagh,
Pls pardon my ignorance & since nobody has raised this point it feels awkward to be the only one. I eliminated D & E because both use "the"7$. Is it ok to use the before a particular noun?
Show more


Hello ManishKM1,

I will be glad to help you out with this one. :-)

Any article - a, an, or the - is used before a noun entity. In Choice D and E, $7 (7 dollar) per year is a noun entity. Hence, usage of article the before this noun entity is correct.

Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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