Often incorrectly referred to as a tidal wave, a tsunami, a seismic se

Question

Often incorrectly referred to as a tidal wave, a tsunami, a seismic sea wave that can reach  up to 150 miles per hour in speed and 200 feet high, is  caused by underwater earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.

(A) up to 150 miles per hour in speed and 200 feet high, is

(B) up to 150 miles per hour in speed and heights of up to 200 feet, is

(C) speeds of up to 150 miles per hour and 200 feet high, are

(D) speeds of up to 150 miles per hour and heights of up to 200 feet, is

(E) speeds of up to 150 miles per hour and as high as 200 feet, are

GMATNinja · Accepted Answer

A singular entity can travel at more than one speed: "Amy, a notoriously slow driver, moved at  speeds  ranging from 8 mph to 11 mph."

Same idea with heights. "Tim, who should probably have his pilot's license revoked, flew at  heights  of 50,000 feet and 100,000 feet before stalling out and crashing into a burrito truck."

I hope that helps!

Ashwin_Mohan · Answer

I suppose the answer should be D for parallelism.

dips · Answer

should have been

up to 150 miles per hour in speed and 200 feet  in height , is

Moingamtguru · Answer

Subject is " a tsunami", so C & E are out. 
"and" is the key word. Both sides of it should be parallel. 
In option A: in speed does not match with high. It should be in height. So A is out. 
Between B & D, D is better in parallelism.

msk0657 · Answer

Please underline the question and this is a old one.

D is correct : Speeds of up to .... and heights of up to...are parallel and described accurately as per the metrics.

A) up to 150 miles per hour  in speed  and 200 feet high - in speed is incorrect.
(B) up to 150 miles per hour  in speed  and heights of up to 200 feet, is
(C)  speeds of  up to 150 miles per hour and 200  feet high , are - not parallel
(E)  speeds of up  to 150 miles per hour and  as high as 200 feet , are - not parallel and comparison is wrong.

scofield1521 · Answer

Rejected D just because it says
  speeds  of upto .... and  heights  of upto....
isn't speeds/heights incorrect!

Skywalker18 · Answer

Often incorrectly referred to as a tidal wave, a tsunami, a seismic sea wave that can reach  up to 150 miles per hour in speed and 200 feet high, is  caused by underwater earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.

(A) up to 150 miles per hour in speed and 200 feet high, is - parallelism issue
(B) up to 150 miles per hour in speed and heights of up to 200 feet, is - parallelism issue
(C) speeds of up to 150 miles per hour and 200 feet high, are - Subject-verb agreement (Tsunami is singular )
(D) speeds of up to 150 miles per hour and heights of up to 200 feet, is - Correct
(E) speeds of up to 150 miles per hour and as high as 200 feet, are - Subject-verb agreement

Answer D

adkikani · Answer

GMATNinja   VeritasPrepKarishma   sayantanc2k

Can you please explain PLURAL speeds and heights in OA, despite use 
of singular verb - is - associated with a tsunami?

AliciaSierra · Answer

GMATNinja , I too couldn't understand plural usage of SPEEDS and HEIGHTS.

gmatdordie · Answer

A is more irrelevant, distorting the meaning so A is incorrect

In B, there is displacement of speed modifier, resulting chnage in meaning

D corrects the modifier error

Bishal123456789 · Answer

AjiteshArun  please explain option A and D

AjiteshArun · Answer

Option A says "a sea wave... can reach up to X and Y":

... a seismic sea wave that can reach up to ( 150 miles per hour in speed )  and  ( 200 feet high )...

I may be wrong here, but I don't think we can say   reach up to  150 miles per hour  in speed  .

It's different if we have a verb like  gain  (or  lose ):
 He  gained  10 kilometres an hour  in speed  as he ran down the hill. 
 He  lost  10 kilometres an hour  in speed  as he ran up the hill.

Gain X in speed  or  lose X in speed , but not  reach X in speed  ( reach a speed of X  would be correct).

thangvietnam · Answer

is this from official guid ?. pls, cite the source. thank you.

"speedS of 150 mile per hour " is not good. I think. do we need plural inhere ?

DmitryFarber · Answer

thangvietnam  This is actually common usage. "Speeds of up to X" just means that the thing in question can vary in speed, and that a speed of X has been observed.

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Let’s scan the options and see which observes  parallelism :

(A) up to 150 miles per hour in speed  and 200 feet high , is

(B) up to 150 miles per hour in speed and  heights of up to  200 feet, is

(C) speeds of up to 150 miles per hour and  200 feet high , are

(D)  speeds of up to 150 miles  per hour and  heights of up to 200 feet , is

(E) speeds of up to 150 miles per hour and  as high as  200 feet, are

Eliminate Options A, B, C and E

Option D  is the best choice.

Hope this helps!

kittle · Answer

KarishmaB  - hey, in the original question stem, there is no "up to" with 200 feet high. But in the correct answer choice, this is modified to up to 200 feet high - does this not distort the intended meaning of the original choice?

KarishmaB · Answer

What is the 'original' option? There is no reason to believe that option (A) conveys the intended meaning any better than any other option. After all, option (A) is incorrect 80% of the times. Look for what makes sense. Look for which option conveys that sense in the best possible way, grammatically.

Besides, meaning of 'that can reach 200 feet in height' and 'that can reach up to 200 feet in height' is the same.

Often incorrectly referred to as a tidal wave, a tsunami, a seismic se

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Often incorrectly referred to as a tidal wave, a tsunami, a seismic se

Prep Toolkit

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