Some scientists contend that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism

A is best. B has wrong verb. "that" or "those" in C, D and E are wrong and unnecessary.

i am not sure which that you talking? in gmat sentence correction, if we look on only one aspect of problem, we cannot solve the problem. i believe in every problem there is a clue. if we can find the clue, then it would be easy to find the correct answer. lets see:

in this sentence, the clue is "a warm-blooded mammal’s than a cold-blooded reptile’s", which is possesive expression. this helps rule out some of the wrong answer choices such as C, D and E because these choices posses "than those" "than that" etc whoich are redundancy. B carries wrong verb "were", which is plural, where as we need singular verb for singular subject the metabolism.

The other point is the ambiguity it creates....
as we are directly comparing the metabolism here..
the metabolism of A was more like B's than C's..

two cases-
1) the metabolism of A was more like B's than it was like C's..
2) the metabolism of A was more like B's than C's was like B's..
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Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended core meaning is that many species of dinosaurs had a metabolism that was more like the metabolism of a warm-blooded mammal than the metabolism of a cold-blooded reptile.

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Meaning + Comparison + Idioms + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• “contend + that” and "contend + with" are the correct, idiomatic construction.
• Comparison must always be made between similar things.

A: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the plural noun phrase "many species of dinosaur" with the verb "had", which can refer to both plural and singular nouns. Further, Option A correctly compares "a metabolism" with "a warm-blooded mammal's (metabolism)" and "a cold-blooded reptile's (metabolism)", conveying the intended meaning - that many species of dinosaurs had a metabolism that was more like the metabolism of a warm-blooded mammal than the metabolism of a cold-blooded reptile. Additionally, Option A correctly uses the idiomatic construction "contend + that". Besides, Option A is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

B: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "metabolism" with the plural verb "were". Further, Option B uses the passive construction "the metabolism of many dinosaur species were", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

C: This answer choice incorrectly compares "the metabolisms of many species of dinosaurs" to "those of a warm-blooded mammal's (metabolism)" and "a cold-blooded reptile's (metabolism)"; the use of "those" alongside the possessive nouns "mammal's" and "reptile's" illogically suggests that the metabolisms of many species of dinosaurs were more like the metabolism of the metabolism of a warm-blooded mammal than the metabolism of the metabolism of a cold-blooded reptile; the intended meaning is that many species of dinosaurs had a metabolism that was more like the metabolism of a warm-blooded mammal than the metabolism of a cold-blooded reptile; remember, a comparison must always be made between similar things. Additionally, Option C uses the passive construction "the metabolisms of many species of dinosaurs were", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

D: This answer choice incorrectly compares "metabolisms" to "those of a warm-blooded mammal's (metabolism)" and "a cold-blooded reptile's (metabolism)"; the use of "those" alongside the possessive nouns "mammal's" and "reptile's" illogically suggests that the metabolisms of many species of dinosaurs were more like the metabolism of the metabolism of a warm-blooded mammal than the metabolism of the metabolism of a cold-blooded reptile; the intended meaning is that many species of dinosaurs had a metabolism that was more like the metabolism of a warm-blooded mammal than the metabolism of a cold-blooded reptile; remember, a comparison must always be made between similar things. Further, Option D uses the unidiomatic construction "contend + clause"; please remember, “contend + that” and "contend + with" are the correct, idiomatic construction. Additionally, Option D uses the passive construction "there were many species of dinosaurs", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

E: This answer choice incorrectly compares "a metabolism" to "that of a warm-blooded mammal's (metabolism)" and "a cold-blooded reptile's (metabolism)"; the use of "that" alongside the possessive nouns "mammal's" and "reptile's" illogically suggests that the metabolisms of many species of dinosaurs were more like the metabolism of the metabolism of a warm-blooded mammal than the metabolism of the metabolism of a cold-blooded reptile; the intended meaning is that many species of dinosaurs had a metabolism that was more like the metabolism of a warm-blooded mammal than the metabolism of a cold-blooded reptile; remember, a comparison must always be made between similar things. Further, Option E uses the unidiomatic construction "contend + clause"; please remember, “contend + that” and "contend + with" are the correct, idiomatic construction. Additionally, Option E uses the passive construction "there were many dinosaur species", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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Some scientists contend that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like a warm-blooded mammal’s than a cold-blooded reptile’s.
A. that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like
B. that the metabolism of many dinosaur species were more like
C. that the metabolisms of many species of dinosaurs were more like those of
D. there were many species of dinosaurs that had metabolisms more like those of
E. there were many dinosaur species that had a metabolism more like that of

B is wrong because there is no subject-verb agreement
C,D and E are all wronh because the comparaison is made between metabolism and the metabolism of a metabolism.
A should be.

All choices except A are wrong.

You need THAT after content to explain what the scinetists contend.

Possessive + those or that makes it redundant.

Hi sunny91, let's take the following example:

I have a better car than Sam.

As you've suggested, this is a correct sentence and is equivalent to:

I have a better car than Sam (has).

However, if we have a sentence:

I have a car better than Sam.

Now this is an invalid sentence, because this is now comparing car with Sam. We fix this sentence as:

I have a car better than Sam's.

This is a correct sentence, since the way we need to read this is:

I have a car (that is) better than Sam's (car is).

If you notice the (hidden) clause in the above sentence, the clause is: that is better, where that is referring to car.

This hidden modifier now changes everything! Basically "I" does not even figure in the comparison! It is just the car that is being compared.

Now, let's analyze the following:

Some scientists contend that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like a warm-blooded mammal’s than a cold-blooded reptile’s.

This is a correct sentence, since the way we need to read this is:

Some scientists contend that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism (that is) more like a warm-blooded mammal’s than a cold-blooded reptile’s (metabolism is).

Again, notice that it is just the metabolism that is being compared.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses this modifier aspect of comparisons, its application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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As explained in this post, "had" is just the past tense of "to have":

• "I have a bag of French fries." - present tense
• "I had a bag of French fries." - past tense

So we don't have to worry about past perfect here.

I hope that helps!
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Sentence has 1.Idiomatic usage and 2. Dependent clause iisue

A. that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like [Hold it]
B. that the metabolism of many dinosaur species were more like [Dependent clause has subject “the metabolism” to verb issue “were” – eliminate it]
C. that the metabolisms of many species of dinosaurs were more like those of [the metabolisms is not correct usage – I doubt “the metabolism” can be plural – eliminate it]
D. there were many species of dinosaurs that had metabolisms more like those of[unidiomatic – eliminate it]
E. there were many dinosaur species that had a metabolism more like that of[unidiomatic – eliminate it]

Answer: A

Only option B is wrong because of the use of "were" (subject and verb do not agree in numbers) - "were" is not the problem in the other options.

Sorry, I just realized that your question got lost in the shuffle, saury2k. I'm late to the party, but for whatever it's worth: you'll drive yourself mad trying to analyze altered versions of answer choices. As long as you understand why (B), as written, should be eliminated, I would leave it at that.

Even if you change the verb, (B) seems to refer to a single metabolism shared by many species. In (A), it's clear that we are talking about MANY species and that each had a SINGLE metabolism -- what kind of metabolism? A metabolism more like a a warm-blooded mammal's metabolism than a cold-blooded reptile's metabolism.

But again, there is no sense hurting brain cells by tweaking answer choices. The folks at GMAC spent a massive pile of time and money on these questions, so let's just make sure we can answer them as written, and that's enough.

I hope this helps!
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Whoa!! Am I the only one choosing B here. Please correct me, I thought, "many species of dinosaurs" was correct instead of many species of dinosaur. I thought B corrects this by using many dinosaur species. I agree that A is the shortest of all the choices, but is A the most appropriate??

Darth b is wrong because the subject and verb do not agree.

In the B, the subject is "the metabolism", which is singular and need a singular verb.

Some scientists contend that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like a warm-blooded mammal’s than a cold-blooded reptile’s.

A. that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like
like here correctly compares "metabolism" of dinosaurs with that of warm blooded mammals

B. that the metabolism of many dinosaur species were more like
Subject-verb agreement is not there. Singular noun "metabolism" takes plural verb "were more like"

C. that the metabolisms of many species of dinosaurs were more like those of
"Plural metabolisms is not correct"

D. there were many species of dinosaurs that had metabolisms more like those of
"those" already refers to relative pronoun, hence use of warm blooded possessive noun is not correct. Also there were doesn't go along

E. there were many dinosaur species that had a metabolism more like that of
contend requires that to tell us what has to be related

xyz
"Had' is not a past perfect auxiliary verb here. It is the simple past of 'have'
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Repetition of "metabolism" for warm blooded mammals. The non-underlined possessive "warm blooded mammal's" already has "metabolism" in possessive form by "warm blooded mammals'[metabolism]". But it also has "those" which means "metabolism" for warm blooded mammals in underlined sentence creating a repetition error.

Some scientists contend that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like a warm-blooded mammal’s than a cold-blooded reptile’s.

A. that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like
--> correct.

B. that the metabolism of many dinosaur species were more like

C. that the metabolisms of many species of dinosaurs were more like those of

D. there were many species of dinosaurs that had metabolisms more like those of

E. there were many dinosaur species that had a metabolism more like that of
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Yes, with SV correction, option B would be alright. The word metalbolism is omitted after the possessive "mammal's" / "reptile's". So comparison is between "metabolism" (of dinosaur) and metabolism (of hot-blooded reptiles / cold-blooded reptiles).

The possessive itself is not singular or plural - it is an adjective (possessive adjective) for another noun - that other noun could be singular or plural. You may say Ram's book or Ram's books. Both are correct.

adishail scheol79 any thoughts from the experts? thanks!

ellipsis in comparison- Shouldn't the omitted words be present in the first part of the sentence in the same form?
In the above sentence, the verb has is not present in the first part of the sentence.


AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , egmat , sayantanc2k , DmitryFarber , MagooshExpert , RonPurewal , mikemcgarry , EducationAisle - please enlighten
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