OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONProject SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2)
Quote:
Popular cold-weather activities such as skiing on fresh snow and skating on reflective ice often expose people to more harmful ultraviolet rays than a day at the beach is.
A) is
B) does
C) has
D) will
E) can
• DO, DOES, DID can substitute for almost any other verbOnly one verb in English can replace almost any other verb: TO DO (do, does, did).
Let's replace the underlined word with what the sentence would say if we did not shorten it:
→
Certain winter activities expose people to more harmful UV rays than a day at the beach [exposes people to harmful UV rays].The verb does (do, did) can substitute for almost any verb in the English language, including
exposes.
Sometimes
do stands in for the whole verb phrase.
Sometimes you will see
do so to stand in for the whole verb phrase.
Both constructions are correct, and you will not be forced to choose between them on the GMAT.
• TWO big exceptions to the "DO can substitute" ruleThere are
two big exceptions to the "do can stand in for almost any verb" guideline.
A TO DO verb
cannot substitute for
-- TO BE verbs, or
-- HAVE, if HAVE is an auxiliary verb.
If
have means
own, possess, or
experience, then
have is a "main" verb and can be replaced with
do, does, or
did.[Hang tight. That material sounds abstract. Examples below should help.]
• TO DO verbs cannot substitute for TO BE verbs
Wrong: She was hungry and he did, too.
Correct: She was hungry and he was [hungry], too.
• TO DO verbs cannot substitute for HAVE when HAVE is a helping/auxiliary verb
Wrong: He had finished his wine and I did, too.
Correct: He had finished his wine and I had, too.
• TO DO verbs
can substitute for HAVE when HAVE is a main verb that means
own, possess, or experience.
Correct: Artem has ten pennies and Misha has ten pennies.
Correct: Artem has ten pennies and Misha does, too.
Correct: Artem has ten pennies just as Misha does.
does = has [ten pennies]
Correct (
did can substitute for main verb
had):
Artem had ten pennies and Misha had ten pennies.
Artem had ten pennies and Misha did, too.
Artem had ten pennies just as Misha did.
did = had [ten pennies]
Native speakers, do not trust your ear on this one.
I suspect that both
can and
will were contenders for some.
• 4-1 Split: the verb that can substitute We need our sentence to
say:
Certain winter activities expose people to more harmful UV rays than a day at the beach [exposes people to harmful UV rays].The options:
The words
is, has, will, and
can do not have the ability to stand in for "exposes" [people to UV rays].
ELIMINATE A, C, D, and E
The word
does CAN mean
exposes people to harmful UV raysThe answer is B.COMMENTSjhavyom and
TarunKumar1234 , I'm glad to see your posts.
Aspirants, keep reading, please.
Those two approached the question from a slightly different angle than I did.
Nicely done! Kudos.