V01-19

I chose D because I thought that since it is a comparison (in places vs in Florida) and 'Even in' is not underlined in the sentence, choice D would be parallel since both compared elements have the preposition 'in'.

Is the preposition 'in' implied in choice C, or does it behave like a sentence filler and hence it is unnecessary for both elements to be parallel?

I too thought on similar lines that we need in for parallelism. Bunuel please clarify.
Thanks

Option d is wrong because places (i.e. Plural) can't be put in parallel with Florida(i.e. Singular).C is perfect.It simply states >>>
Even in a place as warm as Florida,Snowfall is sometimes possible.

I agree with the explanation the the answer choice should be most concise.

But along with that it should not compromise author's intended meaning.

In the original sentence author's says "IN PLACEs" which refers to multiple places so this meaning should be retained in the correct answer choice ???

I think this is a poor-quality question and the explanation isn't clear enough, please elaborate.

I think this is a high-quality question and I don't agree with the explanation. Being concise is great, but not at the expense of clarity. In this case, the fact that it is the AVERAGE temperature is meaningful. Did you know that the record high temperature in Alaska is higher than the record for Miami? For this reason, being concise and calling Florida merely "warm" is hardly as accurate as saying Florida has an average temperature that is warm, because the vacillation of the temperature over time clearly has a fundamental impact on the possibility of snowfall.

In other words, does the sentence make as much sense when we choose a place that is objectively "warmer" than Florida? "Even in places as warm as Alaska, snowfall is sometimes possible". That hardly bears the same meaning as the Florida example.

Unless I'm missing something?

Is "places" wrong in the incorrect choices here? Or is it a red-herring split?

Dear GMATNinja, Dear Bunuel,
This question and it's explanation does not seem very good to me, as the "correct" answer seems to change the meaning of the original sentence. It is true that answer choice C is more concise but concision is usually the last thing on GMAT that is tested (if there is a meaning difference or any other reason to prefer another option, then concision is irrelevant).

A, the original answer choice, seems to try to compare places with an average temperature similar to the average temperature of Florida and explains that even in these places it is possible to have snow fall. (Obviously, from a grammatical perspective, the comparison is wrong because it compares average temperatures directly to Florida and not to Florida's average temperature, BUT understanding the intention of the original sentence is important on the GMAT!)
This would make an interesting statement as it shows that the average temperature of a place may be high BUT still occasionally have temperatues below freezing in the winter. (It also illustrates that the temperature spectrums may be wider in some locations, so far that even though there average temperatues may be high, the spectrum of possible temperatues goes into the negative spectrum)

C however is not very clear at all and does not convey the intention of the original sentence. "Even in places as warm as Florida, snowfall is sometimes possible." Well this just states as warm as Florida. Is this supposed to mean the average temperature of Florida? We don't know. Is it supposed to mean the current temperature of Florida? We don't know. For example if the current temperature is meant then we could be comparing Florida's temperature in the winter with the temperatures of places in the Southern Hemisphere in the summer which may be comparable on some given days. But in the winter of the southern Hemisphere it could snow in these places. This is of course obvious, but this could be one of the meaning of option C. Of course the comparison could still be between average temperatues, however since average temperatues are not mentioned this is a lot to assume. Therefore since C is not clear in it's meaning it seems ambiguous.

I realize that the other questions may not be as concise and are flawed in other ways as well, BUT on the GMAT the correct answer is supposed to convey the originally intended meaning of the sentence and answer choice C fails to do so. Comparing average temperatures is not the same as simply comparing temperatues in general.

"On the GMAT the correct answer is supposed to convey the originally intended meaning of the sentence."

This is simply not the case. As explained in the second part of this post (starting with "Regarding your second question..."), there is nothing special about choice (A), and (A) absolutely does NOT give us the "correct" meaning that we must then abide by.

Hopefully that makes things a bit easier for you!

Another reason I eliminated A is that which has been used to modify "place' which is wrong. Is it correct?