Residents of Iqaluit, the largest town in the Canadian territory of Nu

Question

Residents of Iqaluit, the largest town in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, pay as much as four times  the prices paid for grocery items by residents of large Canadian cities , most of which enter the town only by sealift.

(A) the prices paid for grocery items by residents of large Canadian cities

(B) the price of what large Canadian city residents pay for grocery items

(C) what residents of large Canadian cities pay for grocery items

(D) of what large Canadian city residents pay for grocery items

(E) the cost of the grocery items purchased by large Canadian cities’ residents

abhimahna · Accepted Answer

Hey pikolo2510 , I am happy to help.

I hope you know A and E are out because we have a modifier at the end of the sentence "most of which enter the town only by sealift". This MUST refer to the noun before the comma. In A, the noun is Cities and in E, the noun is residents. As per the meaning of the sentence, items were brought out of the town rather than cities or residents. Hence, A and E are wrong. Now, Let me ask you a simple question: What did you pay for 1 Kg of apples? What do you infer here? You would say, I am talking about the price you paid for the apples, right? Same is the case with this question. When I am saying "What residents pay for", I am implying the price. Hence, explicitly adding price makes it redundant. Hence, option B is out. Now, let's talk about option D. It is using the ellipse construction. I am saying "X residents pay as much as four times of what Y residents pay." The moment I added "of", it is calling for an ellipse. And as I mentioned above you cannot say price of price. Hence, D is incorrect. Does that make sense?

dominicraj · Answer

Hi,

A> the prices paid for grocery items by residents of large Canadian cities - out.We understand that after the comma we have "most of which enter the town only by sealift". So we should have "grocery items" in the end of the underlined portion.
 
B> the price of what large Canadian city residents pay for grocery items -"large canadian city residents"... makes it sound like the city residents are large..out

C> what residents of large Canadian cities pay for grocery items  -correct

D> of what large Canadian city residents pay for grocery items  -"large canadian city residents"... makes it sound like the city residents are large..out

E> the cost of the grocery items purchased by large Canadian cities’ residents -out.We understand that after the comma we have "most of which enter the town only by sealift". So we should have "grocery items" in the end of the underlined portion.

Regards,
Dom.

Nevernevergiveup · Answer

Residents of Iqaluit, the largest town in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, pay as much as four times  the prices paid for grocery items by residents of large Canadian cities , most of which enter the town only by sea-lift.

A> the prices paid for grocery items by residents of large Canadian cities 
B> the price of what large Canadian city residents pay for grocery items 
C. what residents of large Canadian cities pay for grocery items 
D> of what large Canadian city residents pay for grocery items 
E> the cost of the grocery items purchased by large Canadian cities’ residents

the grocery items enter by sea-lift not cities or residents.
so A and E are incorrect.
Residents pay 4 times of sth is not correct. So C is eliminated.
B can be eliminated for two reasons.
1. cities are large not residents
2. redundancy because of the phrase "the price of".

mvictor · Answer

imho - "most of which" requires grocery items to be right before the comma. so A and E are out.
X pays as much as Y
so residents of I pas as much as 4x as residents of large C C.
B and D can be eliminated, because "city" is singular, but should be cities.
these 2 imply that residents of I pay as much as 4x as the residents of A large C CITY (A - 1 city). this is not correct.

johng2016 · Answer

...large city residents...
what's a trick!

Is this a common type of SC which GMAT like to throw on us?????

BillyZ · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION 
According to this sentence, residents of the Arctic town of Iqaluit pay much higher prices than do their counterparts in Canada’s large cities. To make a proper comparison,  four times…  must be followed by a noun, or equivalent phrase, for the price paid by Canadians living in cities. Also, it is clear from context that the modifier  most of which…  describes  grocery items , so  grocery items  must come directly before that modifier.
 
(A) In this choice,  most of which enter…  is attached to  large Canadian cities , illogically suggesting that entire cities are sealifted into Iqaluit.
 
(B)  What … residents pay  already signifies a price, so  the price of what…  illogically suggests that this price itself has a price.  Large Canadian city residents  seems to refer to large people living in Canadian cities, rather than to residents of large cities as intended.
 
 (C) CORRECT . The noun phrase  what residents … pay  represents the price paid by city residents, so  four times what residents … pay  is properly constructed. The modifier  most of which enter…  correctly modifies  grocery items .
 
(D)  Four times of…  is unidiomatic.  Large Canadian city residents  seems to refer to large people living in Canadian cities, rather than to residents of large cities as intended.
 
(E) In this choice,  most of which enter…  is attached to  large Canadian cities’ residents , illogically suggesting that Canadians from larger cities, rather than groceries, are sealifted into Iqaluit. The construction  the grocery items purchased by…  illogically suggests that residents of Iqaluit and of larger cities are somehow paying for  the same items  (not just identical items).

pikolo2510 · Answer

Hey  GMATNinja  /  souvik101990  /  abhimahna

Can you take a look at this question? I didn't really understand the reasoning given by fellow GmatClubbers above. Moreover, I didn't find a find solid reason to eliminate B, C, or D

I would appreciate your thoughts on this question

pikolo2510 · Answer

Thank you  abhimahna  for the wonderful explanation!

tamal99 · Answer

Hey  abhimahna ,
May be I am getting it wrong but in the non underlined portion there is no mention of "price" then how could in option D ellipse construction calls "price"?

Posted from my mobile device

abhimahna · Answer

Hey  tamal99  ,

In option D, you have four times  of .... . Now this "of" is in your underlined portion. When you say price is four times of something, it is implicitly implied that we are comparing the prices here and hence we need to have Price before "of" but that has been taken care of by the ellipse usage.

Does that make sense?

mohagar · Answer

A and E is incorrect , see the which in the non underlined part.
Now in the begining of the sentence chcek for the term .. Residents of IQ.. pay as much as four times as what residents of Cana...
we can see a nicce parellism here . which is nice ..

Ss6479118 · Answer

B makes it sound like the city residents are large, which is clearly the wrong meaning. A makes it sound like the residents arrive by forklift.
D makes the same error as B. E has a modifier error. The modifier at the end of the sentence refers to the grocery items. So ‘grocery items’ needs to come before the comma.
So C is the correct option.

JackieO · Answer

Hi everyone, 
I got the POE, but can someone elaborate on the use of WHAT in this question? I know (C) would work fine in an informal context but can it be considered correct during GMAT? WHAT should be rephrased as "the thing(s)" when it acts as a pronoun, but it does not make much sense here to do so.

Thanks

bidskamikaze · Answer

Residents of Iqaluit, the largest town in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, pay as much as four times  the prices paid for grocery items by residents of large Canadian cities , most of which enter the town only by sealift.

(A) the prices paid for grocery items by residents of large Canadian cities
-  The modifier after the comma at the end must modify grocery items.

(B) the price  of what  large Canadian city residents pay for grocery items
-  1. Prize shall be replaced by prizes; 2. "of what" is not required.

(C) what residents of large Canadian cities pay for grocery items
-  CORRECT.

(D) of what large Canadian city residents pay for grocery items
- "FOUR TIMES OF WHAT...." is incorrect. We need to show that "prize" is being paid.

(E) the cost of the grocery items purchased by large Canadian cities’ residents
-  The modifier after the comma at the end must modify grocery items

answer C.

jabhatta2 · Answer

GMATNinja  - i am struggling to understand the difference between   large Canadian city    Residents  vs  Residents of    large Canadian cities   which is used as a way to eliminate per the OA solution.

For example. Is there, really a difference between the two (cause I can't understand the difference) ?

1)  Residents of New York  pay 10 $ for a pizza 
vs 
2)  New York Residents  pay 10 $ for a pizza

Is the 1st) talking about all residents actually living in New York
whereas 
the 2nd) is talking about something New York Unique about these residents ? (Perhaps these residents have a thick New York accent or Perhaps they can vote only in New York) - the 2nd doesnt imply these residents CURRENTLY live in New York

Is that how you think about this as you eliminate   large Canadian city    Residents  vs  Residents of    large Canadian cities

bidskamikaze · Answer

I Am not GMATNinja (wish I were

), but here is what I think: large Canadian city residents - This could mean "large citizens" who live in some Canadian city

residents of large Canadian cities - This is clear in meaning. It means residents who live in some "Large Canadian city".

Placement of adjective "large" and the use of preposition "of" makes a lot of difference.

GMATNinja · Answer

Well, you made this ninja's life a good deal easier, because you nailed the explanation.

That's exactly right -- the first construction is, at best, ambiguous. It's the cities that are large, not the residents. Meanwhile, the second construction is crystal clear. Note also, that the choice between "residents of New York" and "New York residents" doesn't contain the same meaning difference because these are simpler constructions - as bidskamikaze noted, it's the placement of "large" that creates the logic/clarity issues in the first example. Remove the adjective, and the sentences convey identical ideas. Nice work!

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

(A) the prices paid for grocery items by residents of large Canadian cities
Pay is the right tense not paid

(B) the price of what large Canadian city residents pay for grocery items
city isn't the correct usage it should be cities because there is a collection of them in Canada

(C) what residents of large Canadian cities pay for grocery items
This doesn't have the grammatical errors fells like the answer let us hang onto it

(D) of what large Canadian city residents pay for grocery items
Same error as B

(E) the cost of the grocery items purchased by large Canadian cities’ residents
city residents were never airlifted it was the grocery items that was shiplifted
Hence IMO C

achloes · Answer

GMATNinja   KarishmaB   AndrewN

What if option B read "the price of what the residents of large Canadian cities pay for grocery items"? Would this option then be as good as C?

Residents of Iqaluit, the largest town in the Canadian territory of Nu

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Residents of Iqaluit, the largest town in the Canadian territory of Nu

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards