Pack 15 Q1: Shanghai's Shanghai Tower is easily identified...

Question

Pack 15, Question 1 of 5:

Shanghai’s Shanghai Tower is easily identified and highly visible,  second only to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world. 
 
A. second only to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world
 
B. as the tallest building in the world only second to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa
 
C. which, as the tallest building in the world, is only second to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa
 
D. being second in height only to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world
 
E. second in height to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa only as the tallest building in the world

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globaldesi · Answer

The most identified answer is B

Statement:Shanghai’s Shanghai Tower is easily identified and highly visible, second only to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world.

Main clause is 
Shanghai’s Shanghai Tower is easily identified and highly visible 
the fragment to come after it should be the main clause and if its a modifier, it should be separated by comma.
Original sentence does not add a comma and makes it a part of main clause.

B corrects this problem and makes add main clause in front

jaisonsunny77 · Answer

Shanghai’s Shanghai Tower is easily identified and highly visible,  second only to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world. 
 
A. second only to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world - has no error. Hence,   (A) is the right answer choice . 
  
B. as the tallest building in the world only second to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa  -  the structure introduced by (B) is as follows: "Shanghai's Shanghai tower is..., as the tallest...." this structure does not convey any logical meaning.  
 
C. which, as the tallest building in the world, is only second to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa  -  (C) introduces the ''which,..., is only second to..'' relative clause that illogically modifies ''visible''.  
 
D. being second in height only to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world  -  this does not make sense. One does not say "John is the second in height only to Joseph as the tallest building in the world''. It would be more appropriate to say ''John is the tallest among the class, second only to Joseph'' or ''John is second only to Joseph as the tallest student of the class''.  
 
E. second in height to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa only as the tallest building in the world  -  has the same error as described in (D).

HoneyLemon · Answer

Not sure but Is it   A   ? 
Shanghai’s Shanghai Tower is easily identified and highly visible,  second only to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world.

The way the sentence is constructed,it does convey the intended meaning.

.... Second only to Dubai as Burj Khalifa ..modifies to Shanghai Tower.

A. second only to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world

-- Correct .. 
 
B. as the tallest building in the world only second to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa

In choice b .. as the tallest building in the world is modifying to visible .. Meaning wise it seems a bit off. as the tallest building must be Burj Khalifa.. not Shanghai . 
Also placement of modifier only is not at correct place . Only second is different than second only to

C. which, as the tallest building in the world, is only second to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa

In this choice which modified to visible... which is wrong.

D. being second in height only to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world

Being is used incorrectly..

E. second in height to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa only as the tallest building in the world]

this choice is wordy . Placement of only changes the meaning .

A  could be the ans .

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Official Explanation

Shanghai’s Shanghai Tower is easily identified and highly visible,  second only to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world. 
 
 A.  second only to  Dubai’s Burj Khalifa  as the tallest building in the world  
 B.  as the tallest building in the world   only second to  Dubai’s Burj Khalifa 
 C. which,  as the tallest building in the world , is  only second to  Dubai’s Burj Khalifa 
 D. being  second in height only to  Dubai’s Burj Khalifa  as the tallest building in the world  
 E.  second in height to  Dubai’s Burj Khalifa  only   as the tallest building in the world  
 
After a quick glance over the options, we have 2 main things we can focus on:
 1. second only to / only second to / second in height only to / second in height to only (Idioms)
2. placement of the phrase “as the tallest building in the world” 
 
 Let’s start with #1 on our list: second only to / only second to / second in height only to / second in height to only.  The first thing we can do is get rid of any options that use the phrase “in height.” Why? We already know we’re talking about height because we’re comparing Shanghai Tower to the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa.  This means we can eliminate options D & E because saying “in height” is redundant. 
 
Now that we have it narrowed down, let’s determine if there is a difference between saying “second only to” vs. “only second to.” They do mean slightly different things:
 
X is  second only  to Y = Y is #1 overall, and X is #2 overall
X is  only second  to Y = Y is not necessarily #1 overall, and X is #2 ONLY when compared to Y – but there may be other versions of Y that it could compare to differently
 
It makes the most sense to use “X is second only to Y” because it properly conveys the right meaning – that the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world, period – and that the Shanghai Tower is #2 overall. Let’s see how our remaining options handle this:
 
A.  second only to  Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world
 
B. as the tallest building in the world  only second to  Dubai’s Burj Khalifa
 
C. which, as the tallest building in the world, is  only second to  Dubai’s Burj Khalifa
 
 There you have it – option A was the correct choice all along.  It’s the only one that uses the proper idiom “X is second only to Y” and isn’t redundant.
 
Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

You were close, globaldesi ! Check out the official explanation in the comments to see how to tackle questions like this in the future.

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done, jaisonsunny77 ! You cracked the code on this one - kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

You cracked the code on this one DasAshishAshutosh ! Great job catching each of the errors in the incorrect options! Kudos to you!

Sthk94 · Answer

Hi @EMPOWERgmat Instructor,

I understood the difference between "second only to" & "only second to" that makes option A correct and B wrong.

But I'm a little confused about the Modifier usage in option A & B.

Can you please explain how  option A - "second only to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as the tallest building in the world"  -  correctly modifies Shanghai Towers  and  option B - "as the tallest building in the world only second to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa"   - doesn't?

How is "second only to" referring to so far back to Shanghai tower? As per my understanding only Noun Modifier can do that and it doesn't look like one.

Regards
Sarthak

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Thanks Sthk94 for your question! If we look at the preceding clause ("Shanghai’s Shanghai Tower is easily identified and highly visible"), there is only one noun to choose from - Shanghai Tower. Both A & B have modifiers that clearly refer back to that noun - though option B is more awkward to read or understand. There won't be any confusion about what the modifier refers back to because there's only one real option available. The bigger problem with option B is the "only second to" phrase distorting the intended meaning. As long as you were able to focus on that, you shouldn't be distracted by what is not really a modifier issue at all - it's merely a matter of awkward vs. clear writing. We hope that helps!

VerbalBot · Answer

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Pack 15 Q1: Shanghai's Shanghai Tower is easily identified...

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