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555-605 Level|   Comparisons|   Pronouns|                           
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light truck 24 Jul 2020, 20:29
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Appreciation keeps me motivated. So don’t shy away.
November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light trucks,
This is an independent clause SV pair – November is
but sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers, accounted for a remarkably large share of total vehicle sales.
This is an independent clause joined by the coordinating conjunction but. SV pair is sales accounted.

(A) but sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers,
In this choice sales is compared to sales. Lets keep it.

(B) but even when it is compared with previous Novembers, this past November’s sales
The it somehow pops out at me and says don’t choose me as the correct choice. The referent of it appears far away in the end in this choice which is November but November is possessive. Hence wrong.

(C) but even when they are compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November
In this choice sales is compared with previous Novembers. This is incorrect.

(D) so that compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November
In this choice sales is compared with previous Novembers. This is incorrect.

(E) so that this past November’s sales, even compared with previous Novembers’ sales,
This choice has no obvious errors. The question is do you want but…., even when OR so that… even…
I choose Option A since it makes more sense meaning wise. So that is used to show purpose and I don’t see one here.

Answer is A
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light truck 13 Aug 2021, 01:08
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manlog
Regarding @e-gmat:
I've also got to the trap. E-gmat states that "when compared/contrasted to" and also "as contrasted with" is incorrect. Not a single word about "when compared with". However, they state not to used this word with as/with, so one might imply that "when compared with" is incorrect, which is not true, as we see in this example. Be diligent!
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What about when contrasted with? Is it right or wrong?
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light truck 28 Oct 2021, 02:16
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In question E, is "so that this past November’s sales" right ?

For me it should be: these past November's sales". As "these" antecedent is "November's sales" which is plural.

If you know, can you tell me whether it is right / wrong and why, please.

Thanks



GMATNinja
As has been our habit with the QOTDs lately, this question also appeared in a recent YouTube webinar on comparisons.

Quote:
(A) but sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers,
On these comparison questions, you always want to ask yourself: what, exactly, is the heart of the comparison? In this case, look at the stuff that surrounds the phrase “when compared with”: “sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers…” Hm, that looks pretty good.

Not much else going on here besides the comparison, so let’s keep (A) for now.

Quote:
(B) but even when it is compared with previous Novembers, this past November’s sales
The word “it” is the first thing that jumps out at me in (B), so we need to look for a nice, singular noun that “it” could refer back to. The only thing that could possibly make sense is for “it” to refer to “this November”, but that’s not an option, because of the structure of the phrase after the comma: “this past November’s sales” is plural, and “November’s” is possessive.

So “it” can’t refer to “this November” since that phrase is possessive, and “it” can’t refer to “this November’s sales” because “sales” is plural. For that reason, (B) is out.

And for what it’s worth: even if you do assume that “it” somehow refers to “this past November”, the sentence still wouldn’t be great. We’d have “…even when [this past November] is compared with previous Novembers, this past November’s sales…” That’s weird: it would be sooooooo much more direct to just compare the sales to each other, instead of comparing the “Novembers”, and then restarting the sentence about the sales.


Quote:
(C) but even when they are compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November
Once again, the pronoun “they” should jump off the page at us. “They” seems to refer to “sales of light trucks”, and that gives us “…even when [sales of light trucks] are compared with previous Novembers…” This literally compares sales to months. That’s nonsense. Let’s ditch (C).

Quote:
(D) so that compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November
If we look at (D) very strictly and literally, the comparison still doesn’t make sense. “…compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November…” We can’t compare “previous Novembers” to “sales of light trucks.” So (D) is gone, too.

Quote:
(E) so that this past November’s sales, even compared with previous Novembers’ sales,
In a vacuum, I guess the comparison is OK here: “this past November’s sales” are compared with “previous Novembers’ sales.” I can live with that.

But let’s talk about “so that.” The phrase “so that” suggests some sort of purpose, or at least expresses a rationale for accomplishing something. You could say “I eat burritos so that I will someday weigh as much as an aircraft carrier” or “Domenico posts regularly on GMAT Club so that other people can kick ass on this ridiculous exam.” In both cases, a purpose or effect follows the phrase “so that.”

But there’s no good reason to use “so that” in this particular sentence: “November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light trucks, so that this past November’s sales… accounted for a remarkably large share of total vehicle sales.” That makes no sense at all, because the second phrase, “this past November’s sales… accounted for a remarkably large share…” is definitely NOT the purpose or effect of the first phrase, “November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light trucks.”

For that reason, we can ditch (E), and we’re left with (A).
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light truck 29 Oct 2021, 00:53
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Naptiste
In question E, is "so that this past November’s sales" right ?

For me it should be: these past November's sales". As "these" antecedent is "November's sales" which is plural.

If you know, can you tell me whether it is right / wrong and why, please.

Thanks



GMATNinja
As has been our habit with the QOTDs lately, this question also appeared in a recent YouTube webinar on comparisons.

Quote:
(A) but sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers,
On these comparison questions, you always want to ask yourself: what, exactly, is the heart of the comparison? In this case, look at the stuff that surrounds the phrase “when compared with”: “sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers…” Hm, that looks pretty good.

Not much else going on here besides the comparison, so let’s keep (A) for now.

Quote:
(B) but even when it is compared with previous Novembers, this past November’s sales
The word “it” is the first thing that jumps out at me in (B), so we need to look for a nice, singular noun that “it” could refer back to. The only thing that could possibly make sense is for “it” to refer to “this November”, but that’s not an option, because of the structure of the phrase after the comma: “this past November’s sales” is plural, and “November’s” is possessive.

So “it” can’t refer to “this November” since that phrase is possessive, and “it” can’t refer to “this November’s sales” because “sales” is plural. For that reason, (B) is out.

And for what it’s worth: even if you do assume that “it” somehow refers to “this past November”, the sentence still wouldn’t be great. We’d have “…even when [this past November] is compared with previous Novembers, this past November’s sales…” That’s weird: it would be sooooooo much more direct to just compare the sales to each other, instead of comparing the “Novembers”, and then restarting the sentence about the sales.


Quote:
(C) but even when they are compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November
Once again, the pronoun “they” should jump off the page at us. “They” seems to refer to “sales of light trucks”, and that gives us “…even when [sales of light trucks] are compared with previous Novembers…” This literally compares sales to months. That’s nonsense. Let’s ditch (C).

Quote:
(D) so that compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November
If we look at (D) very strictly and literally, the comparison still doesn’t make sense. “…compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November…” We can’t compare “previous Novembers” to “sales of light trucks.” So (D) is gone, too.

Quote:
(E) so that this past November’s sales, even compared with previous Novembers’ sales,
In a vacuum, I guess the comparison is OK here: “this past November’s sales” are compared with “previous Novembers’ sales.” I can live with that.

But let’s talk about “so that.” The phrase “so that” suggests some sort of purpose, or at least expresses a rationale for accomplishing something. You could say “I eat burritos so that I will someday weigh as much as an aircraft carrier” or “Domenico posts regularly on GMAT Club so that other people can kick ass on this ridiculous exam.” In both cases, a purpose or effect follows the phrase “so that.”

But there’s no good reason to use “so that” in this particular sentence: “November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light trucks, so that this past November’s sales… accounted for a remarkably large share of total vehicle sales.” That makes no sense at all, because the second phrase, “this past November’s sales… accounted for a remarkably large share…” is definitely NOT the purpose or effect of the first phrase, “November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light trucks.”

For that reason, we can ditch (E), and we’re left with (A).
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Hello Naptiste,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe that we can help resolve your doubt.

Here, the referent of "this" is not "sales"; it is "past November". To understand this better, please consider the following sentence - "I am looking for this man's dogs." In this sentence, "this" refers to "man" rather than to "dogs", as it is meant to signify which specific man the sentence refers to.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light truck 09 Jan 2022, 20:17
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egmat
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Hi Payal
According to e-gmat verbal comparisons , isn't - when compared/contrasted to/with is non-idiomatic ?

I eliminated all options based on this .

Can you please throw some light on this question.
Thank you



Hi Nightmare007,


Thank you for the query. :-)


It is true that generally on GMAT SC, when compared to/with is deemed incorrect. However, the context of this official sentence makes this idiom work.


Let's evaluate what this sentence intends to convey. The sentence says typically, light trucks sell the most in November. However, the past November experienced a remarkable increase in total vehicle sales. The sales was remarkable even when it is compared with sales in previous Novembers.

So the expression even when compared with presents the condition that even if the comparison is made with the sales previous Novembers, the sales of the past November accounted for very high total vehicle sales.

Hence, the context of this sentence, the usage of even when compared with is correct.


Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Basis your explanation above, why is eGmat not updating these changes in rules on its platform. Because I straight forward rejected option A for the same reasons.

Posted from my mobile device
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light truck 19 Apr 2022, 21:14
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when compared to/with is considered non-idiomatic in eGMAT verbal course. but when I checked the replies from eGMAT , as per context when compared to is correct here.. How can I identify where it is non-idiomatic & where it is acceptable
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light truck 07 May 2022, 09:37
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I'm very disappointed with E-GMAT. In your verbal course, you clearly state that "when compared" is a non-idiomatic expression. And of course, it is implied to be incorrect irrespective of the context of a sentence. Here you say that the expression is correct because of the context of the sentence. BUT, all rules are applied based on the context of a sentence...Your "explanation" in this branch does not explain your mistake in the verbal course. If I was given such a question to solve on a real test, I would not select A just because you gave me the wrong information about comparison expressions...
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light truck 04 Jul 2022, 11:00
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trap

November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light trucks, but sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers, accounted for a remarkably large share of total vehicle sales.

(A) but sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers,
(B) but even when it is compared with previous Novembers, this past November’s sales
(C) but even when they are compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November
(D) so that compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November
(E) so that this past November’s sales, even compared with previous Novembers’ sales,

in previous Novembers
this past November
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light truck 16 Jul 2022, 02:06
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light trucks, but sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers, accounted for a remarkably large share of total vehicle sales.

Test: Parallelism, Comparison
(A) but sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers,
- Correct: sales this past November - sales in previous Novembers -> parallel

(B) but even when it is compared with previous Novembers, this past November’s sales
- November - this past N's sales -> not parallel

(C) but even when they are compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November
- sales...-previous Novembers -> not parallel
(D) so that compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November
-> changed meaning

(E) so that this past November’s sales, even compared with previous Novembers’ sales,
-> changed meaning
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light truck 03 Aug 2022, 04:09
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AjiteshArun
Smitc007
November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light trucks,but sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers, accounted for a remarkably large share of total vehicle sales.


1St IC
November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light trucks,but sales this past November ------- "November" is subject and "is" is helping verb which is sufficient to make it Independent clause
but what is the subject and verb of second clause after "Comma but"-----------------------isn't it just a fragment.

Please help me out with this query
egmat
ChrisLele AjiteshArun
Hi Smitc007,

There are two subject-verb pairs there (around the word but):

November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light trucks, but sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers, accounted for a remarkably large share of total vehicle sales.

November (←sub) is (←verb) X,
but
sales (←sub) accounted for (←verb) Y.
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Hi AjiteshArun

I guess in 2nd IC (, but......), "sales" is a verb, "this past November" is a subject, and accounted is an ed modifier, modifying sales.
I have framed the sentence like below:

this past November sales accounted for a remarkably large share of total vehicle sales.

Please help me where I am lacking in logic.

Thank you
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light truck 03 Aug 2022, 21:44
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a123bansal
Hi AjiteshArun

I guess in 2nd IC (, but......), "sales" is a verb, "this past November" is a subject, and accounted is an ed modifier, modifying sales.
I have framed the sentence like below:

this past November sales accounted for a remarkably large share of total vehicle sales.

Please help me where I am lacking in logic.

Thank you
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Hi a123bansal,

Sales is a noun. More importantly, it can never be a verb. I think the word you're looking for is sell (sell/sells/sold/selling/sold).
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light truck 16 Aug 2022, 14:37
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AjiteshArun
a123bansal
Hi AjiteshArun

I guess in 2nd IC (, but......), "sales" is a verb, "this past November" is a subject, and accounted is an ed modifier, modifying sales.
I have framed the sentence like below:

this past November sales accounted for a remarkably large share of total vehicle sales.

Please help me where I am lacking in logic.

Thank you
Hi a123bansal,

Sales is a noun. More importantly, it can never be a verb. I think the word you're looking for is sell (sell/sells/sold/selling/sold).
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Thank you so much AjiteshArun
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light truck 28 May 2023, 02:11
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light trucks, but sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers, accounted for a remarkably large share of total vehicle sales.

(A) but sales this past November, even when compared with sales in previous Novembers,-Correct
No errors
(B) but even when it is compared with previous Novembers, this past November’s sales-incorrect
'It' has no singular antecedent & it is compared with Novembers

(C) but even when they are compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November-incorrect
'they' has ambiguous antecedent & compared with Novembers
(D) so that compared with previous Novembers, sales of light trucks this past November-incorrect
'so that' is wrong in this context
(E) so that this past November’s sales, even compared with previous Novembers’ sales,-incorrect
Same as D
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November is traditionally the strongest month for sales of light truck 19 Jun 2023, 08:53
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egmat - How 'When compared with ' is OK over here?
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