arctic wrote:
Studies of test scores show that watching television has a markedly positive effect on children whose parents speak English as a second language, as compared
to those whose native language is English.
(A) to those whose native language is English
(B) with children whose native language is English
(C) with those who are native English speakers
(D) to children whose parents do not
(E) with children whose parents are native English speakers
Manhattan says E, but I think it could be D. The pronoun "those" is not ambiguous since parents is referred to in the answer choice?
Official ExplanationComparisons must compare logically parallel things, but this sentence compares "children whose parents speak English as a second language" with "those (children) whose native language is English.” (Note that the pronoun "those" refers to children logically and structurally, because of the parallelism required in a comparison. There is no pronoun error.) Logic tells us that a child can be in both of these categories: a child who is a native English speaker can have parents who speak English as a second language. Because the first item in the comparison - children whose parents speak English as a second language, is not underlined - we need to find a choice that contains a comparison between two things that are actually comparable (an “apples-to-apples” type of comparison).
Note that "compared to" and "compared with" are equivalent idioms from the point of view of the GMAT; either is correct. This split is merely an attempt to get us to waste time. According to some usage experts, these two idioms differ slightly in their emphasis on similarities vs. differences, but this distinction is not universally respected.
(A) This choice is incorrect, for the reasons given in the paragraph above.
(B) This choice continues to compare "children whose parents speak English as a second language" with "children whose native language is English."
(C) Although this choice replaces ”whose native language is English” with the equivalent phrase “who are native English speakers,” the choice does not fix the original comparison error. The sentence still compares “children whose parents speak English as a second language" with “children who are native English speakers.”
(D) The second group is now “children whose parents do not (speak English as a second language).” Do the parents in this second group speak English as a native language, then? Or do they not speak English at all? The meaning is ambiguous in this choice, while the meaning in the original sentence is quite clear: we’re comparing those who speak English as a second language to those who speak English as a first language.
(E) CORRECT. This choice correctly compares “children whose parents speak English as a second language” with the logically parallel “children whose parents are native English speakers."