Lungfish have some characteristics similar to those of mammals

Lungfish have some characteristics similar to those of mammals, and in other ways they more closely resemble fish.

A and in other ways they more closely resemble fish
B and other similar to those of fish
C and some fish-like characteristics
D in addition to several fish characteristics
E and some characteristics similar as fish

Hello daagh, some really good questions and I thought it will be a good learning for me, hence trying to answer the questions. Please correct me if i am wrong.

1. Why would just say other and not others, in line with the plurality of characteristics? - Because the parallelism starts after "Lungfish have some" so the part after and will be "some other" - Hence the usage of other is correct here and not others.
2. Is a contrast intended o not? If intended, why the contrast marker 'but' is missing? - I don't think we need a contrast here, because we are saying some characteristics are like X and others like Y. Also I feel the contrast should be at the level of species, as - mammals vs aquatic animals and not mammals vs fish (i am not 100% sure about this tough)
3. If the list contains just two phrases, why a comma is used before the 'and'? - I believe though we are joining phrases here, we use comma to separate list in order to avoid confusion as we are using some characteristics and we need clear distinction between other characteristics.

Thanks

Hello ydmuley,

Wonderful explanation there. I have shown my appreciation for your post already.

Just want to add something to your response to daagh 1st question.

IMHO, the sentence says that Lungfish have some characteristics similar to those of mammals, and other (characteristics) similar to those of fish.

Since plural characteristics is understood after other, we need not write others.


Thanks.
Shraddha

Hello daagh, some really good questions and I thought it will be a good learning for me, hence trying to answer the questions. Please correct me if i am wrong.

1. Why would just say other and not others, in line with the plurality of characteristics? - Because the parallelism starts after "Lungfish have some" so the part after and will be "some other" - Hence the usage of other is correct here and not others.

2. Is a contrast intended o not? If intended, why the contrast marker 'but' is missing? - I don't think we need a contrast here, because we are saying some characteristics are like X and others like Y. Also I feel the contrast should be at the level of species, as - mammals vs aquatic animals and not mammals vs fish (i am not 100% sure about this tough)
3. If the list contains just two phrases, why a comma is used before the 'and'? - I believe though we are joining phrases here, we use comma to separate list in order to avoid confusion as we are using some characteristics and we need clear distinction between other characteristics.

1. Considering that 'other' is used as an adjective and not as plural noun, the singular 'other' is good enough

2. There is no intended contrast, considering that, these two types of characteristics are inherent traits of the species. The sentence is just expressed in an indicative mode or declarative mode rather than in a comparison mode
To illustrate this, I will say I have two shirts, one blue, and the other red. I would not say I have two shirts, one blue but the other red.

3. Why a list with just two phrases but not two clear sentences is separated by a comma before the 'and' between the two arms may not be a decision point since, punctuation is not tested in GMAT. Maybe the comma has been used over enthusiastically to distinguish the last item in a list from the prior ones. However, the crux is whether the presence of the comma changes the meaning or causes confusion. As long as the answer is no, the use of comma is passable, I suppose. It may also be noted that a comma before and may rather add to the clarity of the context in general rather than acting in the negative. I agree with ydmuley
ydmuley wrote

Hello daagh, some really good questions and I thought it will be a good learning for me, hence trying to answer the questions. Please correct me if i am wrong.



1. Why would just say other and not others, in line with the plurality of characteristics? - Because the parallelism starts after "Lungfish have some" so the part after and will be "some other" - Hence the usage of other is correct here and not others.

2. Is a contrast intended o not? If intended, why the contrast marker 'but' is missing? - I don't think we need a contrast here, because we are saying some characteristics are like X and others like Y. Also I feel the contrast should be at the level of species, as - mammals vs aquatic animals and not mammals vs fish (i am not 100% sure about this tough)
3. If the list contains just two phrases, why a comma is used before the 'and'? - I believe though we are joining phrases here, we use a comma to separate list in order to avoid confusion as we are using some characteristics and we need clear distinction between other characteristics.

ydmuley wrote

1. Considering that 'other' is used as an adjective and not as plural noun, the singular 'other' is good enough

2. There is no intended contrast, considering that, these two types of characteristics are inherent traits of the species. The sentence is just expressed in an indicative mode or declarative mode rather than in a comparison mode
To illustrate this, I will say I have two shirts, one blue, and the other red. I would not say I have two shirts, one blue but the other red.

3. Why a list of just two phrases but not two clear sentences is separated by a comma between the two arms may not be a decision point since punctuation is not tested in GMAT. Maybe the comma has been used over enthusiastically to distinguish the last item in a list from the prior ones. However, the crux is whether the presence of the comma changes the meaning or causes confusion. As long as the answer is no, the use of the comma is passable, I suppose. It may also be noted that a comma before and may rather add to the clarity of the context in general rather than act in the negative. I agree with ydmuley

Lungfish have some characteristics similar to those of mammals, and in other ways they more closely resemble fish.

A and in other ways they more closely resemble fish
B and other similar to those of fish
C and some fish-like characteristics
D in addition to several fish characteristics
E and some characteristics similar as fish

Hi Chetna, easiest way to eliminate D is the incorrect phrase fish characteristics. So, here fish is used as an adjective, modifying the noun characteristics.

The correct usage is: characteristics of fish.

For example, would you ever say:

In India. people color is generally brown.

Again, the issue with the above sentence is that people is used as an adjective, modifying the noun color. But this is absurd (one can have brown color, white color, black color, but one can't have people color).

The correct usage is:

In India. the color of people is generally brown.

Would B still be better if D would say "in addition to several fish-like characteristics"?