Temperatures in the Arctic, which is warming about twice as fast as in

Question

Temperatures in the Arctic, which is warming about twice as fast as  in other parts of the planet, soared again during 2016, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued to lose  sea ice and permafrost.

A. in other parts of the planet, soared again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued to lose

B. in other parts of the planet and soaring again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued to lose

C. in other parts of the planet, soared again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued losing

D. other parts of the planet, soared again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued to lose

E. other parts of the planet, soaring again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued losing

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

While it might be easy to overlook, the decision point you should start with in this problem is at the beginning of each choice: (A), (B), and (C) have “in” while (D) and (E) do not. In the “which” clause at the start of the sentence you see that you have a comparison – the pronoun “which” refers to the Arctic so the comparison should be: “this place is warming about twice as fast as THIS PLACE” NOT “this place is warming about twice as fast as IN THIS PLACE”. The use of “in” creates a non-parallel comparison so (A), (B) and (C) can be eliminated. While some might want to have “in” because of the “Temperatures IN the arctic”, the comparison is simply between two places, not temperatures.

Comparing (D) and (E), you see that (E) has “soaring” instead of “soared”. With “soaring” the whole first clause of the sentence lacks an active verb, so (E) suffers from a core sentence construction error. Only (D) creates the proper comparison and uses proper sentence construction in the first clause.  The correct answer is (D).

AkshdeepS · Answer

"which" is modifying Arctic" here. So we need a noun after "as fast as" to compare with "Arctic".

We are comparing "Arctic with other parts of the planet".

So, A, B, and C are out as we are wrongly comparing "noun" Arctic with "Prepositional phrase" In other parts.

From D and E, D seems better.

I will go with D.

A. in other parts of the planet, soared again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued to lose

B. in other parts of the planet and soaring again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued to lose

C. in other parts of the planet, soared again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued losing

D. other parts of the planet, soared again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued to lose

E. other parts of the planet, soaring again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued losing

AdityaHongunti · Answer

The modifier is comparing two entities so usage of " in " is wrong. It should be as fast as other parts.. because modifier says - arctic is warming ...hence the parallel construction should be as fast as other parts of the planet are warming... Usage of " in " is wrong.

A B C gone.

D. Correct .

E. Always remember there has to be " is/ are / were / be" before a " verb- ing" form to act as a verb. If we look at E there is no Verb in the sentence . Just " verb- ing ' cannot act as a verb .hence there is no Subject verb pair. And hence the statement is a fragment " ... Continued loosing only parts makes sense with the parts of Greenland and not the rest of the sentence...So does not make sense...

" Temperatures in arctic ___( modifier ), AND the region __(modifier), continued losing sea____ because of AND the two subjects have the same verb . Continued losing.. which is non sensical..because temperature cannot lose.

SSM700plus · Answer

Temperatures in the Arctic, which is warming about twice as fast as  in other parts of the planet, soared again during 2016, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued to lose  sea ice and permafrost.

A. in other parts of the planet, soared again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued to lose

B. in other parts of the planet and soaring again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued to lose

C. in other parts of the planet, soared again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued losing

D. other parts of the planet, soared again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued to lose

E. other parts of the planet, soaring again during parts of 2015, and the region, particularly parts of Greenland, continued losing

Correct Comparison should be used.

Arctic is warming about twice as fast as in other parts of the planet --> Incorrect comparison. Noun (Arctic) is being compared to prepositional phrase (in other parts of the planet).

Eliminate A,B and C.

D and E - corrects comparison error.

E has S-V error  Temperature in Arctics soaring again.. ...and the region continued losing.... Need a helping verb for part of sentence before "and".

Hence D is correct.

Bunuel  - OE please.

Priyankaagarwalcv · Answer

Original sentence said, "... during 2016 .." , but all options have correction , "during parts of..." Why was this change required?

Sent from my Redmi 3S using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

AkshdeepS · Answer

That is just a typo.

QZ

Mpuneet · Answer

The first three can be eliminated since the have incorrect comparisons. They are comparing Arctic (noun) to a prepositional phrase, ‘in other parts of the planet’.
 
This leaves us with D and E. Out of these, E seems to have tense issues. It should not be in present continuous, as it is describing past events. So, D is the right option.

LoneSurvivor · Answer

Main trick is here to notice that "Arctic " is noun and we need another noun for "as fast as"

Only D and E have " other parts" which is noun

D has rightly uses "continued to "

Ans D

TheNightKing · Answer

chetan2u   MentorTutoring

Between D and E, can you help me pick on the basis of "to lose vs losing". During the test I did not see the soared/soaring difference and ended up picking E, which is the incorrect choice.

Thanks!

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  TheNightKing , and thank you for tagging me. Remember that a  which  can be replaced by its referent to test for validity, and here, you correctly saw through the initial trap: you would not say, "The Arctic is warming about twice as fast as  in  other parts of the planet," nor would you say, "In the Arctic is warming about twice as fast as in other parts of the planet." So, well done on that part.

Concerning the second part, if you jump over the  which  clause, since it is self-contained, you will get two versions of the same sentence, and it becomes quite clear why (E) will not make sense. Compare:

(D)Temperatures in the Arctic... soared again during parts of 2015, and the region... continued to lose...
(E) Temperatures in the Arctic... soaring again during parts of 2015, and the region... continued losing...

In the second option, the first independent clause never resolves--the -ing phrase is modifying, rather than acting in the capacity of a verb, as in,  were soaring --so the conjunction  and  after the comma is grammatically incorrect. In the other response, we get, at a barebones level (one of my favorite tricks for long-winded SC questions),

Temperatures soared, and the region continued to lose sea ice and permafrost.

This makes perfect sense, and a clear and grammatically sound answer is going to be harder to argue against than one that is not. Choice (D) is a clear winner, and to lose/losing does not even need to enter the picture. I hope that helps. If you have further questions, let me know.

- Andrew

ravigupta2912 · Answer

Split 1: in vs as. A, B and C are gone.

Between D and E, D is the winner since E has a SV error. Temperatures no longer have a verb.

Makesh89 · Answer

I went with A but I have realised that the usage of in changes the meaning comparison. Thanks guys for your comments.

Posted from my mobile device

rocky620 · Answer

AndrewN  Sir Can you please shed some light on the highlighted part:

In the other response,  we get, at a barebones level (one of my favorite tricks for long-winded SC questions),

AndrewN · Answer

Yes,  rocky620 . The "barebones level" I refer to is the  essential  subject-predicate relationship that forms the main clause. If you strip a lot of SC sentences down to their essentials, you can expose subject-verb agreement errors, meaning issues, and improper idioms. In the sentence at hand,  temperatures  is the subject of the main clause. Where is the verb that starts the predicate of the sentence? Well, we cannot look to  is  after  which , since any information that follows the relative clause marker is subordinated until the next punctuation mark. Thus, we can look at each sentence in the following manner:

A) Temperatures soared, and the region continued to lose  . (Passes for now.)
B)  Temperatures,  and the region continued to lose  . (The first independent clause never resolves.)
C) Temperatures soared, and the region continued  losing   . (The -ing form of the verb is at least questionable.)
D) Temperature soared, and the region continued to lose  . (Same as (A).)
E) Temperatures  soaring , and the region continued losing  . (The part up to the comma is not an independent clause.)

After an initial pass, then, with an eye on the barebones structure of each sentence, (A) and (D) look like frontrunners, while (C) looks doubtful. If you can appreciate that the first word in (A) and (C),  in  is unwarranted, since the  which  could be replaced by  the Arctic  and NOT  in the Arctic  to form the first part of the comparison, then only (D), the correct answer, remains.

The takeaway is that no matter how difficult or lengthy a sentence may appear to be, it must still adhere to basic grammatical constructs for forming a sentence in written English. If you work up from a firm foundational understanding, then the sky is the limit on SC questions.

I hope that clarifies the matter from my earlier post. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

VerbalBot · Answer

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Temperatures in the Arctic, which is warming about twice as fast as in

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Temperatures in the Arctic, which is warming about twice as fast as in

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