So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or

So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or nonrenewable fuels, are having a positive effect on the environment and natural resource base of countries as varied as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.

This is essentially a comparison question comparing simply countries with countries.

(A) as varied as - best
(B) as varied as are -- We are not comparing how countries vary from some of the cited countries are.
(C) as varied as those of -- wrong comparison between countries and those of some countries.
(D) that are as varied as --- the comparison seems to be between the variedness of countries
(E) that are varied as are-- The comparison is not even complete.

Hello thangvietnam,

I must say that your analysis is very thorough. So great job there.

However, I would say that usage of that is ambiguous in Choice D because it logically refers to both the environment and natural resource base and countries.

Hence, Choice a is a better answer choice.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Hiii Experts,
I am not able to boil the meaning difference between the choices. Please help me with the poe

Hello rajatkataria14@gmail.com,

I will be glad to help you out with this one.

So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or nonrenewable fuels, are having a positive effect on the environment and natural resource base of countries as varied as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.


The sentence starts by explaining the green taxes.

Green taxes = These taxes exact a price for the use of polluting or nonrenewable fuels. These taxes are showing positive effect on two aspects of a country:

the environment and
natural base of many countries.

These countries are as different as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.


Now let's do the Answer Choice Analysis:

Choice A: as varied as - Correct. This choice clearly presents the intended meaning.

Choice B: as varied as are - Incorrect. This choice seems to suggest that the countries where the green taxes are showing positive results are not China, the Netherlands, and Hungary. Those are different countries.

Choice C: as varied as those of - Incorrect. There is no antecedent for the pronoun those.

Choice D: that are as varied as - Incorrect. As already explained earlier in this thread, this choice leads to a slight meaning change. This choice seems to suggest that the countries where the green taxes are showing positive results are as varied as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary. All these countries are equally varied.

Choice E: that are varied as are - Incorrect. This choice uses incomplete idiom.



Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Doesn't 'those of' in reply C refer to the environment and natural resource base?

No.

Notice that, in (C), "those of" appears in "countries as varied as those of."

As a result, "those" illogically refers to "countries."

varied = diverse

D: countries that are as varied as China, the Netherlands and Hungary [are varied]
The words in brackets are omitted but implied.
As a result, the sentence seems to compare ONE GROUP of countries (the countries in blue) to ANOTHER GROUP of countries (the countries in red).
The implication is that the two groups are equally diverse.
Not the intended meaning.
Eliminate D.

The intended meaning of the original sentence is that there is only ONE GROUP of countries and that this group is composed of countries that are VERY DIVERSE.
OA: countries as varied as China, the Netherlands and Hungary
Here, the conveyed meaning is that the countries in blue are DIVERSE and that China, the Netherlands and Hungary are EXAMPLES of this diversity.

GMATNinja - I picked A over D because it was less wordy but I don't understand why D is wrong. Is it because A says that the China vs. Hungary vs. Netherlands are varied vs. D which compares "countries" to "China, Netherlands and Hungary collectively"? Could you please explain? Thank you!

Hello UserMaple5,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, in this question, the primary benefit that A has over D is, in fact, conciseness.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

(D) seems to suggest that each individual country is, by itself, varied.

When we say, "countries that are as tiny as Monaco and Liechtenstein," we're implying that (1) Monaco and Liechtenstein are each tiny and that (2) the other countries being discussed are each just as tiny as those two.

By the same token, when we say, "countries that are as varied as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary," we seem to imply that (1) China, the Netherlands, and Hungary are each varied and that (2) the other countries being discussed are each just as varied as those three.

But that's not quite right. We want to imply that those three countries are dissimilar -- that variations exist when we compare China, the Netherlands, and Hungary. Since (D) seems to suggest a different, less logical meaning, (A) is the better choice.

Remember, the goal is not to identify what makes each incorrect option WRONG in a bubble. Rather, your goal is to compare the five available options and pick the best one. Compared to (A), (D) is wordier and less clear. And since (D) doesn't have any apparent advantages over (A), there's no reason to pick (D) over (A), even if (D) doesn't have any concrete errors.

I hope that helps!

Hi experts,

I am hoping someone can explain why D is wrong. I understand that A is stating that China, the Netherlands, and Hungary are having positive effects from green taxes.

The only explanation I could think of for why D is wrong is that "that are" could reach back through the prepositional phrase to create an illogical meaning. Therefore, we could either have countries that are as varied as China etc or environment and natural resource base that are as varied as China etc. Any feedback?

Thanks in advance!

Did you see this post? Let us know if that doesn't clear things up!

svasan05

Will this be a siliar meaning, gramatically correct sentence for the refernce stimulus :-


So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or nonrenewable fuels, are having a positive effect on the environment and natural resource base of countries as varied as that of China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.

Hello PRamesh2008,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, this sentence is not correct because there is no clear and logical referent for the pronoun "that".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Hi team, I'm not clear why option A is correct.

Firstly, should comparison as..as be used only to compare two things? I'm not a native speaker so if some different usage is possibile with that construction I'm not aware.

Secondly, I understand that the correct meaning should be the one that choice A is trying to convey, but a bit of ambiguity persist in choice A in my opinion.

countries as varied as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.
From here, we can infer two different meaning:
- Intended meaning: varied countries such as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.
- Alternative meaning: as varied as [are] China, the Netherlands, and Hungary (since it is possible to omit the verb in some cases.


Someone could clarify my doubts?

Regards.

Hello Gio96,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the alternate meaning you have described is actually the intended meaning.

"China, the Netherlands, and Hungary" are not examples; the intended meaning is that the green taxes are having a positive effect on the environment and natural resource base of countries that vary from each other as much as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary vary from one another.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team