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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 19 Feb 2017, 06:57
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pallavi01
Could you please explain what is being compared?
Is it the taxes or the countries.
Please advice.
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The point is that "as varied as" does NOT introduce a comparison here. The meaning implied is that the countries vary widely: from China to Hungary. Please refer to these posts:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/so-called-gr ... l#p1806912

https://gmatclub.com/forum/so-called-gr ... l#p1804624
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 25 Feb 2017, 15:48
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I answered C, I will be highly thankful if somebody explains why C is not correct...
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Version Created Via Using C: So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or nonrenewable fuels, are having a positive effect on the environment and natural resource base of countries as varied as those of China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.

"resource base of countries as varied as those of China" does not make sense, as "those" can only refer to "countries". So this version of the sentence implies that China, The Netherlands, and Hungary possess countries.

In other words this version of the sentence is essentially saying

"the natural resource base of countries as varied as the countries of (i.e. possessed by) China, The Netherlands, and Hungary".
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or Updated on: 23 Aug 2020, 20:43
Originally posted by thangvietnam on 31 Aug 2017, 07:18.
Last edited by thangvietnam on 23 Aug 2020, 20:43, edited 2 times in total.
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ugimba
So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or nonrenewable fuels, are having a positive effect on the environment and natural resource base of countries as varied as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.

(A) as varied as
(B) as varied as are
(C) as varied as those of
(D) that are as varied as
(E) that are varied as are
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I think wordiness is the point here.
in D and E, "that are" is wordy
in C, "those of" mean "countries of china..." . this is redundant. redundancy is worse than wordineess
choice B is ungrammatical because there is 'are " at the second part but there is no "to be " in the first part.
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 31 Aug 2017, 08:15
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or nonrenewable fuels, are having a positive effect on the environment and natural resource base of countries as varied as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.

This is essentially a comparison question comparing simply countries with countries.

(A) as varied as - best
(B) as varied as are -- We are not comparing how countries vary from some of the cited countries are.
(C) as varied as those of -- wrong comparison between countries and those of some countries.
(D) that are as varied as --- the comparison seems to be between the variedness of countries
(E) that are varied as are-- The comparison is not even complete.
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 31 Aug 2017, 10:17
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thangvietnam
ugimba
So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or nonrenewable fuels, are having a positive effect on the environment and natural resource base of countries as varied as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.

(A) as varied as
(B) as varied as are
(C) as varied as those of
(D) that are as varied as
(E) that are varied as are

this is terribly hard grammatical situation. I have 2 weapons to attack this question.

from idiomatic perspective.
noun+as ajective as +noun
can be considered an idiom. this pattern is very special and it is good that we consider it an idiom. thinking it an idiom makes us remember the pattern easily and, so, is the most effective way of learning this pattern .

from meaning perspective.

in B and E, "are" appears in the second part of comparison while there is no form of "to be" in the first part. b and e are wrong.
in C, "those" has no logic referent. "those" , if, refer to "countries, it is not logic.

the only problem with D is D is wordy.
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Hello thangvietnam,

I must say that your analysis is very thorough. So great job there. :thumbup:

However, I would say that usage of that is ambiguous in Choice D because it logically refers to both the environment and natural resource base and countries.

Hence, Choice a is a better answer choice.


Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 10 Apr 2018, 10:06
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Hiii Experts,
I am not able to boil the meaning difference between the choices. Please help me with the poe
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 10 Apr 2018, 13:40
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rajatkataria14@gmail.com
Hiii Experts,
I am not able to boil the meaning difference between the choices. Please help me with the poe
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Hello rajatkataria14@gmail.com,

I will be glad to help you out with this one. :-)

So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or nonrenewable fuels, are having a positive effect on the environment and natural resource base of countries as varied as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.


The sentence starts by explaining the green taxes.

Green taxes = These taxes exact a price for the use of polluting or nonrenewable fuels. These taxes are showing positive effect on two aspects of a country:

the environment and
natural base of many countries.

These countries are as different as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.


Now let's do the Answer Choice Analysis:

Choice A: as varied as - Correct. This choice clearly presents the intended meaning.

Choice B: as varied as are - Incorrect. This choice seems to suggest that the countries where the green taxes are showing positive results are not China, the Netherlands, and Hungary. Those are different countries.

Choice C: as varied as those of - Incorrect. There is no antecedent for the pronoun those.

Choice D: that are as varied as - Incorrect. As already explained earlier in this thread, this choice leads to a slight meaning change. This choice seems to suggest that the countries where the green taxes are showing positive results are as varied as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary. All these countries are equally varied.

Choice E: that are varied as are - Incorrect. This choice uses incomplete idiom.



Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 23 Aug 2020, 04:27
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Doesn't 'those of' in reply C refer to the environment and natural resource base?
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 23 Aug 2020, 07:07
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GMATPolvon
Doesn't 'those of' in reply C refer to the environment and natural resource base?
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No.

Notice that, in (C), "those of" appears in "countries as varied as those of."

As a result, "those" illogically refers to "countries."
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 02 Feb 2021, 06:01
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varied = diverse

D: countries that are as varied as China, the Netherlands and Hungary [are varied]
The words in brackets are omitted but implied.
As a result, the sentence seems to compare ONE GROUP of countries (the countries in blue) to ANOTHER GROUP of countries (the countries in red).
The implication is that the two groups are equally diverse.
Not the intended meaning.
Eliminate D.

The intended meaning of the original sentence is that there is only ONE GROUP of countries and that this group is composed of countries that are VERY DIVERSE.
OA: countries as varied as China, the Netherlands and Hungary
Here, the conveyed meaning is that the countries in blue are DIVERSE and that China, the Netherlands and Hungary are EXAMPLES of this diversity.
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 08 Feb 2022, 15:49
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GMATNinja - I picked A over D because it was less wordy but I don't understand why D is wrong. Is it because A says that the China vs. Hungary vs. Netherlands are varied vs. D which compares "countries" to "China, Netherlands and Hungary collectively"? Could you please explain? Thank you!
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 10 Feb 2022, 05:58
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UserMaple5
GMATNinja - I picked A over D because it was less wordy but I don't understand why D is wrong. Is it because A says that the China vs. Hungary vs. Netherlands are varied vs. D which compares "countries" to "China, Netherlands and Hungary collectively"? Could you please explain? Thank you!
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Hello UserMaple5,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, in this question, the primary benefit that A has over D is, in fact, conciseness.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 01 Mar 2022, 12:02
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UserMaple5
GMATNinja - I picked A over D because it was less wordy but I don't understand why D is wrong. Is it because A says that the China vs. Hungary vs. Netherlands are varied vs. D which compares "countries" to "China, Netherlands and Hungary collectively"? Could you please explain? Thank you!
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(D) seems to suggest that each individual country is, by itself, varied.

When we say, "countries that are as tiny as Monaco and Liechtenstein," we're implying that (1) Monaco and Liechtenstein are each tiny and that (2) the other countries being discussed are each just as tiny as those two.

By the same token, when we say, "countries that are as varied as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary," we seem to imply that (1) China, the Netherlands, and Hungary are each varied and that (2) the other countries being discussed are each just as varied as those three.

But that's not quite right. We want to imply that those three countries are dissimilar -- that variations exist when we compare China, the Netherlands, and Hungary. Since (D) seems to suggest a different, less logical meaning, (A) is the better choice.

Remember, the goal is not to identify what makes each incorrect option WRONG in a bubble. Rather, your goal is to compare the five available options and pick the best one. Compared to (A), (D) is wordier and less clear. And since (D) doesn't have any apparent advantages over (A), there's no reason to pick (D) over (A), even if (D) doesn't have any concrete errors.

I hope that helps!
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 24 May 2022, 09:17
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Hi experts,

I am hoping someone can explain why D is wrong. I understand that A is stating that China, the Netherlands, and Hungary are having positive effects from green taxes.

The only explanation I could think of for why D is wrong is that "that are" could reach back through the prepositional phrase to create an illogical meaning. Therefore, we could either have countries that are as varied as China etc or environment and natural resource base that are as varied as China etc. Any feedback?

Thanks in advance!
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 24 May 2022, 16:57
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ryanfox02
Hi experts,

I am hoping someone can explain why D is wrong. I understand that A is stating that China, the Netherlands, and Hungary are having positive effects from green taxes.

The only explanation I could think of for why D is wrong is that "that are" could reach back through the prepositional phrase to create an illogical meaning. Therefore, we could either have countries that are as varied as China etc or environment and natural resource base that are as varied as China etc. Any feedback?

Thanks in advance!
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Did you see this post? Let us know if that doesn't clear things up!
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 11 Jun 2022, 19:56
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ugimba
So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or nonrenewable fuels, are having a positive effect on the environment and natural resource base of countries as varied as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.

Because we are using China, the Netherlands, and Hungary to present them as examples, okay to use "countries [as varied as] Country X, Y, and Z." (A) does that.

(D) changes the meaning by saying a group of countries are varied, as are China, Netherlands, and Hungary. So green taxes are no longer applied to these 3 countries, but a group of unknown countries that are as varied as the aforementioned countries. Makes less sense than (A).

(A) as varied as
(B) as varied as are
(C) as varied as those of
(D) that are as varied as
(E) that are varied as are
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 12 Jun 2022, 09:59
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svasan05

Will this be a siliar meaning, gramatically correct sentence for the refernce stimulus :-


So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or nonrenewable fuels, are having a positive effect on the environment and natural resource base of countries as varied as that of China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 13 Jun 2022, 05:43
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svasan05

Will this be a siliar meaning, gramatically correct sentence for the refernce stimulus :-


So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or nonrenewable fuels, are having a positive effect on the environment and natural resource base of countries as varied as that of China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.
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Hello PRamesh2008,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, this sentence is not correct because there is no clear and logical referent for the pronoun "that".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 11 Aug 2022, 07:56
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Hi team, I'm not clear why option A is correct.

Firstly, should comparison as..as be used only to compare two things? I'm not a native speaker so if some different usage is possibile with that construction I'm not aware.

Secondly, I understand that the correct meaning should be the one that choice A is trying to convey, but a bit of ambiguity persist in choice A in my opinion.

countries as varied as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.
From here, we can infer two different meaning:
- Intended meaning: varied countries such as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.
- Alternative meaning: as varied as [are] China, the Netherlands, and Hungary (since it is possible to omit the verb in some cases.


Someone could clarify my doubts?

Regards.
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So called green taxes, which exact a price for the use of polluting or 12 Aug 2022, 05:46
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Gio96
Hi team, I'm not clear why option A is correct.

Firstly, should comparison as..as be used only to compare two things? I'm not a native speaker so if some different usage is possibile with that construction I'm not aware.

Secondly, I understand that the correct meaning should be the one that choice A is trying to convey, but a bit of ambiguity persist in choice A in my opinion.

countries as varied as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.
From here, we can infer two different meaning:
- Intended meaning: varied countries such as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary.
- Alternative meaning: as varied as [are] China, the Netherlands, and Hungary (since it is possible to omit the verb in some cases.


Someone could clarify my doubts?

Regards.
Show more

Hello Gio96,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the alternate meaning you have described is actually the intended meaning.

"China, the Netherlands, and Hungary" are not examples; the intended meaning is that the green taxes are having a positive effect on the environment and natural resource base of countries that vary from each other as much as China, the Netherlands, and Hungary vary from one another.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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