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Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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02 Mar 2012, 15:20
6
58
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A
B
C
D
E
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25% (medium)
Question Stats:
66% (00:49) correct 34% (01:04) wrong based on 3041 sessions
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Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the size of the 6-mile-wide asteroid that eradicated the dinosaurs has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is evidence of the earliest known asteroid impact on Earth.
(A) has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is (B) has been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus (C) have been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus are (D) have been dated as being 3.47 billion years old and thus (E) have been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus are
The plural subject of this sentence, Rock samples, requires plural verb phrases—have been dated and are rather than has been dated and is. The idiomatic way of expressing estimation of age is with the phrase dated at.
(A) The subject and verbs do not agree; dated to be … is not idiomatic.
(B) The subject and verb do not agree; the conjunction and thus should be followed by a verb.
(C) Dated to be is not idiomatic.
(D) As being is not idiomatic; the conjunction and thus should be followed by a verb.
(E) Correct. The plural verbs match the plural subject, and the wording of the sentence is idiomatic.
Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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22 Sep 2012, 00:14
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Concept tested: Idioms, SV agreement Difficulty Level: Moderate Illustration: “Rock samples” is the subject for the verb “has been dated”. Rock samples must take a plural verb. So A and B can be instantly eliminated. Dated at is the correct idiomatic construction. So C and D are also eliminated E is the correct answer choice
Tip: Though “dated at” is preferred to “dated to be”, the same construction is not necessarily true for “estimated at” and “estimated to be” construction. “Estimated at” should be followed by a noun because “at” is a preposition. E.g: The molten iron is estimated at 1500 degrees Celsius. “Estimated to be” generally follows phrases E.g: The fossil is estimated to be 1000 years old.
This is NOT a specific English rule, but the way GMAT wants things to be Support is given by: In OG 12, Q 27 of SC, it says that the correct idiom is "estimated to be". However this question appears in gmatprep "With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Farenheit, Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, and with 60 square miles of water though to be frozen from top to bottom."
We can see from the non underlined part that "estimated at" is also as correct idiom. Takeaway: Same rules do not apply to "estimated to be" and "dated to be"
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Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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14 Mar 2012, 23:55
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TomB wrote:
Hai saarang
I know that " rock samples" is the subject of the sentence. I need some perfection in eliminating middlemen to find the subject and verb of a sentence. " the size" is between "about twice" and "of the 6-mile asteroid". how should I eliminate " the size".
The method i followed is "about twice the size of the 6-mile-wide asteroid " is a prepositional phrase. Is this correct.
The correct answer is E not C. "dated at" is the correct idiom
please explain
Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the size of the 6-mile-wide asteroid that eradicated the dinosaurshas been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is evidence of the earliest known asteroid impact on Earth.
(A) has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is (B) has been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus (C) have been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus are (D) have been dated as being 3.47 billion years old and thus (E) have been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus are
All part in red are wrong with respect to idioms and subject verb agreement. E is correct. Hope this helps..!!
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Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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06 May 2012, 19:01
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Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the size of the 6-mile-wide asteroid that eradicated the dinosaurs has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is evidence of the earliest known asteroid impact on Earth.
(A) has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is (B) has been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus (C) have been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus are (D) have been dated as being 3.47 billion years old and thus (E) have been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus are ANSWER
The subject 'rock samples' is plural so both the verb after 'dinosaurs', 'have', and the verb before 'evidence', 'are', have to be plural.
Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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05 Aug 2012, 13:18
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Quote:
* "at" is a preposition. * prepositions must be followed by nouns. * "xxx number of years old" is not a noun. so, wrong.
in the other example -- "temperatures estimated at xxxx degrees fahrenheit" -- there's no problem, because "xxxx degrees fahrenheit" is a noun.
i don't think anything else is happening here. the OG explanations are wrong fairly regularly (though not in most cases); this is one of those times.
This is what Ron Purewal of Manhattan GMAT has to say about estimated at/to be scenario Shouldn't the same logic apply to dated at/dated to be as well?
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Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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22 Sep 2012, 01:46
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souvik101990 wrote:
Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the size of the 6-mile-wide asteroid that eradicated the dinosaurs has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is evidence of the earliest known asteroid impact on Earth.
(A) has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is (B) has been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus (C) have been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus are (D) have been dated as being 3.47 billion years old and thus (E) have been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus are
As rightly written by @Archillees - SV Agreement error >
Also to note is Difference between C and E C uses subjunctive form - "to be" which is not required here. E uses correct idiom "dated at"
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Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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22 Sep 2012, 13:42
methevoid wrote:
souvik101990 wrote:
Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the size of the 6-mile-wide asteroid that eradicated the dinosaurs has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is evidence of the earliest known asteroid impact on Earth.
(A) has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is (B) has been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus (C) have been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus are (D) have been dated as being 3.47 billion years old and thus (E) have been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus are
As rightly written by @Archillees - SV Agreement error >
Also to note is Difference between C and E C uses subjunctive form - "to be" which is not required here. E uses correct idiom "dated at"
Hey, "to be" is neither used as a command subjunctive nor used as a hypothetical subjunctive. For them you need special command verbs like demand, order, require etc. They are popularly known as "bossy verbs" Hypothetical subjunctive, as the name suggests, uses hypothetical constructions such as "were", "would" etc.
Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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22 Sep 2012, 15:51
Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the size of the 6-mile-wide asteroid that eradicated the dinosaurs has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is evidence of the earliest known asteroid impact on Earth.
The modifier in bold red it modifying - remains of asteroid or asteroid. Also is this modified "adjective phase". If so should it have a comma before it or not?
Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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10 Oct 2012, 00:34
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Concept tested: Idioms, SV agreement Difficulty Level: Moderate Illustration: “Rock samples” is the subject for the verb “has been dated”. Rock samples must take a plural verb. So A and B can be instantly eliminated. Dated at is the correct idiomatic construction. So C and D are also eliminated E is the correct answer choice
Tip: Though “dated at” is preferred to “dated to be”, the same construction is not necessarily true for “estimated at” and “estimated to be” construction. “Estimated at” should be followed by a noun because “at” is a preposition. E.g: The molten iron is estimated at 1500 degrees Celsius. “Estimated to be” generally follows phrases E.g: The fossil is estimated to be 1000 years old.
This is NOT a specific English rule, but the way GMAT wants things to be Support is given by: In OG 12, Q 27 of SC, it says that the correct idiom is "estimated to be". However this question appears in gmatprep "With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Farenheit, Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, and with 60 square miles of water though to be frozen from top to bottom."
We can see from the non underlined part that "estimated at" is also as correct idiom. Takeaway: Same rules do not apply to "estimated to be" and "dated to be"
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Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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11 Oct 2013, 07:55
Mission2012 wrote:
Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the size of the 6-mile-wide asteroid that eradicated the dinosaurs has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is evidence of the earliest known asteroid impact on Earth.
The modifier in bold red it modifying - remains of asteroid or asteroid. Also is this modified "adjective phase". If so should it have a comma before it or not?
Hi,
Note that the highlighted portion doesn’t entirely consist of a single modifier.
I suggest you analyze the sentence structure to understand the role played by each element.
• Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the size of the 6-mile-wide asteroid
o that eradicated the dinosaurs
• has beendated to be 3.47 billion years old and • thusis evidence of the earliest known asteroid impact on Earth.
The highlighted modifier presents a comparison with another “asteroid”.
So it would be logical to presume that the entire modifier is modifying “asteroid”, not “remains”.
Since this modifier is used to modify a noun, we can call it a “Noun Modifier”.
Observe that the modifier is in the non-underlined portion of the official sentence and so it should be correct as such.
Of course, enclosing it in a comma pair won’t make it incorrect. However, it would be unnecessary.
Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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20 Apr 2015, 21:13
I'm studying with the 2015 Official Guide and the very last question (#140) of the sentence correction section is this:
Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the size of the 6-mile-wide asteroid that eradicated the dinosaurs has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is evidence of the earliest known asteroid impact on Earth.
the correct answer was "have been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus are."
I've always thought of this phrase to be "dated to be XXX years old." For anyone who's seen similar questions, does GMAT treat "dated at" as the correct idiom at all times?
(There is a similar question that uses the word "estimated," but this one states "estimated to be XYZ years old" to be the correct answer. )
Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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22 Apr 2015, 16:46
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daysandhours wrote:
I'm studying with the 2015 Official Guide and the very last question (#140) of the sentence correction section is this:
Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the size of the 6-mile-wide asteroid that eradicated the dinosaurs has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is evidence of the earliest known asteroid impact on Earth.
the correct answer was "have been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus are."
I've always thought of this phrase to be "dated to be XXX years old." For anyone who's seen similar questions, does GMAT treat "dated at" as the correct idiom at all times?
(There is a similar question that uses the word "estimated," but this one states "estimated to be XYZ years old" to be the correct answer. )
Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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13 Nov 2015, 11:32
I'm happy to jump in here. Yes, as EducationAisle, the idioms "dated at" and "estimate X to be" are 100% valid GMAT idioms. These and many more are included in our free GMAT Idiom Flashcards. https://gmat.magoosh.com/flashcards/idioms Enjoy! Mike _________________
Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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09 Jul 2016, 01:46
ANSWER IS E
EXPLANATION :- 1) dated at is the correct idiom
2) the subject of the sentence is "rock samples" therefore SV agreement dictates that we use "Have". "Has" is incorrect
only E uses both "dated at" and "have"
souvik101990 wrote:
Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the size of the 6-mile-wide asteroid that eradicated the dinosaurs has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is evidence of the earliest known asteroid impact on Earth.
(A) has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is (B) has been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus (C) have been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus are (D) have been dated as being 3.47 billion years old and thus (E) have been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus are
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Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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19 Aug 2016, 13:33
souvik101990 wrote:
Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the size of the 6-mile-wide asteroid that eradicated the dinosaurs has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is evidence of the earliest known asteroid impact on Earth.
rock samples......., have. correct match of SV. dated at - correct idiom have been dated ...and thus are... parallel
(A) has been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus is (B) has been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus (C) have been dated to be 3.47 billion years old and thus are (D) have been dated asbeing 3.47 billion years old and thus (E) have been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus are _________________
Re: Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the
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30 Jan 2017, 00:40
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PathFinder007, this difference seems to have been discussed a good deal in the thread. Do you have a specific question about it?
The short answer is that "dated to be" doesn't work. We estimate/believe/prove something "to be" a certain age, but that doesn't work with "date." You could say "I estimate that this rock is 3 billion years old." You couldn't say "I date that this rock is 3 billion years old." It just isn't the same kind of verb. Similarly, you can say "I estimate it to be 3 billion years old" and not "I date it to be 3 billion years old."
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Dmitry Farber | Manhattan GMAT Instructor | New York
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66% (00:49) correct 
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Yes, as 
