The abstract paintings made by first year students in the

Question

The abstract paintings made by first year students in the Juliet academy reveal more about their artistic growth than do the realist sketches required during their third year.

A) their artistic growth that do
B) how they grow artistically than
C) growing artistically than
D) how one grows artistically than
E) how the students grow artistically than do

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Official Answer

E

crick20002002 · Answer

their, they are all ambiguous as the antecedent can be the paintings or the students. A and B are out.

E is the only other relevant choice.

Crick

akbism · Answer

Hi Crick,
I thought that followings were not parallel:
1. How the students grow artistically
2. Realist sketches required during their third year

Please comment on this.

piyushpachori · Answer

A,B,C,D - none of them clearly states whose growth is being talked about : the paintings or the students ? I did not check whether these choices contain any other errors.

E - Clearly connects 'the growth' to 'the students'. With no other errors in it, E is undoubtedly the best choice.

daagh · Answer

Yes. It has to be accepted that E is the only sustainable choice in terms of grammar. However, whether it is logically so, one cannot say, because the comparison is between the growth of students and the growth of sketches. How logical is it to compare students’ growth with sketches’ growth? Do sketches ever grow?

One can reconcile to the fact that students grow artistically (improve on their art skills) but cannot digest sketches growing (no one knows, whether growing physically or abstractly in quality)

However, E’s grammar is impeccable and E is the best of the lot.

immaculatesahai · Answer

E wins.

"Do"is required at the end of the sentence to complete the comparison.

reatsaint · Answer

I chose B, Can anyone point out why B is not correct ? E looks good as well.

imaggic · Answer

E modifies the meaning. Than do.. doesn't seem right. I thought D is close but D is also ambigous like A, B , C.

Need comments from experts.

reatsaint · Answer

Than do .. does not seem right to me as well.

jeprince112 · Answer

E. Do is required... to compare the the actions.. paintings reveal more than the sketches do (reveal).

metallicafan · Answer

+1 E

I'm not sure that "do" is necessary. I think that can be omitted. What do you think?

PiyushK · Answer

I think A is also correct, we have another their in non underline portion thus we should assume that first occurrence of their is also referring to the same group. Further paintings can not grow artistically or we can not say sketches required during paintings third year. Both ways such substitution sounds nonsensical.

X reveal more about Y than do (reveal) Z ed-mod-required during their third year.

Does above mentioned understanding makes sense ?

I think this question poorly rendered from following question, in which pronoun ambiguity clearly exist.

The mistakes children make in learning to speak tell linguists more about how they learn language than the correct forms they use.

(A) how they learn language than
(B) how one learns language than
(C) how children learn language than do
(D) learning language than
(E) their language learning than do

ThANKS

b9n920 · Answer

Totally agreed. I answered A right away, realizing that other choices are simply wordy. Pronoun ambiguity is the last issue to be looked upon on GMAT and I am sure in this sentence there is no ambiguity in the first place. 
 At best, this is a bad copy of the official Q  PiyushK  has provided. Kudos!!

manhasnoname · Answer

To me both A and E are correct. I picked A as E is wordy.

Requesting experts comments ...

Argo · Answer

I did similar POE. Any other ways to rule to out A, if it is not the correct option?

Rv7622 · Answer

D and C are both wrong. They change the meaning of the sentence. They both change it to mean ‘growing artistically’, in general.
In A, ‘their’ incorrectly refers to the paintings.
Same problem in B, with the pronoun ‘they’.
 
E is the clear right answer.

VerbalBot · Answer

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The abstract paintings made by first year students in the

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