Books in European libraries last longer than books in libraries in the

Hello sir,

Sir, please explain why option B, C is incorrect.

Thanks.

HI Abhi077, BillyZ,

Please add the tag as GMATPrep EP1.

________________
Done. Thank you.

'there' clearly refers to Europe because the non-underlined portion of the sentence contains 'in the United States'.

No ambiguity here.

Hello experts,
Could anyone through some light on the usage of "extremities vs extremes"
Are both of these correct to be used ?

Generally speaking, "extremities" can refer to physical things (e.g., the ends of your limbs), while "extremes" most often refers to abstract things. "Temperature" and "humidity" are pretty abstract, so "extremes" is the better word in this context.

However, the likelihood of encountering a split between these two words when you take the official test is very, very low. And even if you do come across this particular split, there are almost certainly going to be other issues to investigate in the sentence. So, we don't recommend that you take up too much brain space with this exact issue .

I hope that helps!

AndrewN sir , GMATNinjaTwo sir

(A) because, although the climate in Europe is fairly humid, libraries there are not subjected to the extremes of temperature and humidity that

a. If that is referring to "temperature and humidity", are we saying that the "temperature and humidity that do not damage books in EU libraries, are (the same) responsible for damaging books in US. Should it not be "as those that"

b. If "that" is referring to "extremes" is not flouting the touch rule. But as per the sentence's requirement this reference is correct.

Both of them will make sense, but in one case it needs to be corrected to logically draw the correct meaning, and in other we need to overrule the rule.

Kindly help.

Hello, rocky620. You seem to have outlined a perfect paradox. Perhaps you are interpreting grammatical conventions too rigidly, though. I think there is a third case that you have not considered here. The word extremes on its own is unqualified: not subjected to the extremes that... What kinds of extremes would the sentence be talking about? We need an object of a preposition to tell us: extremes of temperature and humidity. Now, on their own, these two would not convey as strong a message: not subjected to the temperature and humidity that... Does this mean that the temperature and humidity need to be identical in the two places for damage to occur? Although this spinoff could at least function as a sentence, it lacks the emphasis and preciseness of the original, and this brings me to that third interpretation: that can be thought to modify the entire phrase the extremes of temperature and humidity. There is no need to separate the two parts, and now the reader understands that the highs and lows of temperature and humidity, perhaps, or just the highs or lows of two separate metrics, form the basis of the comparison. Is it a grammatical crime for that to modify a phrase? No, not at all. (And I would be wary of that touch "rule," too. It may help in some questions, but dig deep enough into official questions, and you will find exceptions.)

As always, look for easy targets first. It is okay to have doubts. I count them up myself sometimes in harder questions. But I am careful not to toss an answer aside simply because I am uncertain.

I hope that helps. Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew

dear AndrewN , GMATNinjaTwo

are the choice B and C incorrect because of "as".
in my opinion, as in B and C seem to introduce a clause that uses to compare, like I read the book in every morning as he did.

wha't your thoughts ?

Hello, zoezhuyan. How about we take a look at the original sentence and answer choices (B) and (C) to see what we can tease out?



We have three splits we can talk about here.

1. subjected to/subject of—No case can be made for the latter without an article ahead of subject. That is, you could say that something was the subject of a painting or a novel, but not just subject of. The latter option is unidiomatic, so we could eliminate (B) already.

2. the extremes/the extremities—Again, the latter option loses out. Extremes of temperature are its highs and lows, but extremities are more like the ends of some physical entity. We call our fingers and toes our extremities, and it is acceptable to say that the poles of the Earth are its extremities, but I cannot reach out and touch temperature. In this case, (C) can be eliminated.

3. that/as those that/as—A three-way split is interesting, but two of the options do not work. Test:

A) extremes that damage collections √
B) extremes as those that damage collections X (We would need the idiomatic construct as _____ as for the presence of the comparative as to be justified.)
C) extremes as damage collections X (This one is even harder to find a context that allows it to work. I am not up to the task.)

So, to answer your question, yes, you can eliminate (B) and (C) on the basis of as. Just appreciate that you can also eliminate either option by some other means. Anything you can use against an answer choice should be considered, after all.

I hope that helps address your concern. Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew

(A) because, although the climate in Europe is fairly humid, libraries there are not subjected to the extremes of temperature and humidity that
The meaning is perfect even though it doesn't soung good , let us hang on to it

(B) because, although the climate in Europe is fairly humid, libraries there are not subject of the extremes of temperature and humidity as those that
subjected is the right usage therefore out

(C) because, although the climate in Europe is fairly humid, libraries there are not subjected to the extremities of temperature and humidity as
as in the end isn't conveying the right meaning therefore out

(D) because the climate in Europe is fairly humid, but still libraries there are not subject of the extremes of temperature and humidity as
Similar reasoning as C therefore out

(E) because the climate in Europe is fairly humid, but libraries there are not subjected to the extremities of temperature and humidity such as those that
those in the end is unnecessary therefore out

THerefore IMO A

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