The investigations of many psychologists and anthropologists

Question

The investigations of many psychologist and anthropologists support the generalization  of there being little that is a significant difference  in underlying mental processes manifested by people from different cultures.

(A) of there being little that is a significant difference
(B) of there being little that is significantly different
(C) of little that is significant different
(D) that there is little that is significantly different
(E) that there is little of significant differences

Also go for D because of correct idiom "different from".

not sure whether anyboday above raised this conceren.

The investigations of many psychologist and anthropologists support the generalization "that there is little that is significantly  different " in underlying mental processes manifested by people  from  different culture.

egmat · Accepted Answer

Hi All,

The investigations of many psychologists and anthropologists support the generalization  of there being little that is a significant difference  in the underlying mental processes manifested by people from different cultures.

https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Meaning-icon-final.png

I personally feel that many of you have gotten confused in selecting the correct answer because the meaning of the sentence is not very clear. So let us first understand the meaning of the sentence. This sentence says that many psychologists and anthropologists carried out investigation and found out that there are very few aspects that are drastically different in the thought processes expressed by people belonging to different cultures.

https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Grammar.png

Now that we understand the meaning, it’s time to figure out the errors in the sentence. The underlined phrase “of there being” does not clearly convey that this generalization is about something. Also this “little” itself is not a “significant difference”. There is little that is “significantly different”. Hence, this phrase has to be reworded too. Now let’s run the POE to get the correct answer.

POE:

Choice A:  of there being little that is a significant difference:  Incorrect  for reason stated above.

Choice B:  of there being little that is significantly different:  Incorrect  as it repeats the “of there being” issue as in Choice A.

Choice C:  of little that is significantly different:  Incorrect.  This choice distorts the meaning of the sentence because now it says “generalization of little”. The generalization is not about little.

Choice D:  that there is little that is significantly different:  Correct.  This choice corrects both the errors in the original sentence. What this generalization is about is absolutely clear from the “that clause”. Also, it correctly conveys that there is very little that is significantly different.

Choice E:  that there is little of significant differences:  Incorrect  as “differences” is a countable noun and hence, we should use “few” and not “little”.

https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Takeaway.png

1. It is very important to understand the intended meaning of the sentence to arrive at the correct answer.
2. Use correct expressions to clearly convey the intended meaning.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

seekmba · Answer

I did not find a convincing answer for E to be incorrect.

I googled this question and found the following explanation which makes sense:

Idiomatic usage. In the phrase 'little of X', the X has to be a singular quantity. If it's plural (like 'differences'), then you have to use few.

Examples:
 
There was very little food left over at the end of the party.
There were very few crab cakes left over at the end of the party.

E is wrong. "little of significant differences" is incorrect because differences is plural. we cannot use little.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

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 meaning of this sentence is that the investigations of many psychologists and anthropologists support the generalization that there is little that is significantly different in underlying mental processes manifested by people from different cultures.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers + Idioms + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• An adjective can only modify a noun; it cannot modify another adjective; to modify an adjective, an adverb must be used; generally, adjective+ly leads to an adverb.

A:  The sentence formed by this answer choice uses the phrase "generalization of there being little"; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that the investigations of many psychologists and anthropologists support the generalization that there is little that is significantly different in underlying mental processes manifested by people from different cultures. Further, Option A uses the needlessly wordy phrase "that is a significant difference", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

B:  The sentence formed by this answer choice uses the phrase "generalization of there being little"; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that the investigations of many psychologists and anthropologists support the generalization that there is little that is significantly different in underlying mental processes manifested by people from different cultures.

C:  The sentence formed by this answer choice uses the phrase "generalization of little"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the investigations of many psychologists and anthropologists support the act of   generalizing about   what little is significantly different in underlying mental processes manifested by people from different cultures; the intended meaning is that the investigations of many psychologists and anthropologists support   the generalization that   there is little that is significantly different in underlying mental processes manifested by people from different cultures. Further, Option A incorrectly uses the adjective "significant" to modify the adjective "different"; please remember, an adjective can only modify a noun; it cannot modify another adjective; to modify an adjective, an adverb must be used; generally, adjective+ly leads to an adverb.

D:  Correct. The sentence formed by this answer choice uses the phrase "generalization that there is little that is significantly different", conveying the intended meaning - that there is little that is significantly different. Further, Option D correctly uses the adverb "significantly" to modify the adjective "different". Additionally, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

E:  This answer choice alters the meaning of this sentence through the phrase "little that is significant differences"; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that the investigations of many psychologists and anthropologists support the generalization that there is little that is significantly different in underlying mental processes manifested by people from different cultures.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

kinjiGC · Answer

The investigations of many psychologist and anthropologists support the generalization of there being little that is a significant difference in underlying mental processes manifested by people from different culture.

The investigations -> Subject
of many psychologist and anthropologists -> Prepositional phrase about subject
support -> Verb
the generalization -> Object

Now we need "that" to modify the generalization

A  of  there being little that is a significant difference
B  of  there being little that is significantly different
C  of  little that is significantly different

Basically the sentence says there is little difference 
Now little differences which are significantly different
So Significant should modify "little" -> So we should have a construction  where little is modified

D that there is little that is significantly different -> D does it
E that there is little of significant differences ->  significant  ->  adjective  modifying  differences  , We require  Significantly (an adverb)  modify  little  which is acting as  verb 
 The clause is "There is little difference" little is verb. So we require "significantly" instead of "significant".

Hence D) and not E)

kornn · Answer

Dear  DmitryFarber   GMATGuruNY   MartyTargetTestPrep   AjiteshArun   IanStewart   GMATNinja ,

Can "little" be ever used with COUNTABLE nouns at all?

I think I've heard some phrases along the line of: little boys / little dolls... Here, I think "little" is an adjective meaning SMALL.

Why is it incorrect to use "little" in E?

IanStewart · Answer

Yes, like many words, "little" can be used in different ways. Answer E is grammatically nonsensical independent of the usage of "little" though, so it's not specifically the use of "little" that makes E wrong. But even if E were phrased grammatically, and read

"...the generalization that there are little, significant differences in the mental processes..."

that would invert the meaning of the sentence -- it would say that "little" differences do exist, and those differences are significant. That's not an especially logical meaning, since the differences presumably would not be "significant" if they were also "little". The sentence is trying to say the exact opposite: that there are not important differences. A good writer also wouldn't use "little" in this way (in the way I just used it in my invented sentence) since, used this way, it's ordinarily used to describe physical objects ("small" would be a more idiomatic choice here), but that's a minor issue compared to the meaning problem.

kornn · Answer

Dear  IanStewart ,

(D)  that there is little that is significantly different 
(E)  that there is little OF significant differences

After I checked with many GMAT websites, I found the above to be the correct wording of this question.
Does the issue you replied above still exist in light of the correct version of choice E.?

IanStewart · Answer

Yes, that version of answer E also makes no sense if inserted in the sentence.

kornn · Answer

Dear  IanStewart ,

If choice E. were  that there ARE FEW significant differences , would it be correct?
I think the above version would be correct.

I note that LITTLE has the same meaning as FEW.

I'm confused here. Please help sir.

IanStewart · Answer

As E was written, I have no idea what the word "of" is doing there, or why "differences" is plural but "is" is singular. So the official version of that answer choice is just meaningless in English. Your suggested replacement is grammatically correct (note though that you've made it very different from the official answer E; they're not analogous). Your suggested version of E conveys a somewhat different meaning from the answer D (your E suggests there may be some significant differences, but not many of them, while D suggests that the two things are almost the same), but unless you knew which meaning was intended, I don't think you could choose between them on grammar alone.

IanStewart · Answer

And this is not true -- perhaps this is the source of your confusion. If I'm an editor commenting on an article and say

"There are few changes to be made"

then I'm talking about the number of changes required -- I'm saying "there are not many changes to be made".

If instead I say

"There are little changes to be made"

that means the article needs changes, but those changes are minor in character. I'm not saying anything now about how many changes are needed; I'm only saying they are not major changes.

"Little" and "few" are versatile words in English that are used in many different ways, so it will sometimes be true that they can be used almost interchangeably. But that's not generally true, and is not true with how you've used them in your post above that rephrases answer E.

kornn · Answer

Dear  IanStewart ,

The question that I PM you may not be clear.

Let me try to articulate my doubt on the meaning issue quoted above.

Although I agree with you that choice D. contains GRAMMATICAL error, I think choice D. and E. have similar MEANING.

(D)  that there is  little   THAT IS significantly different  
(E)  that there is  little   OF significant differences

In both choices, bolded parts modifies LITTLE.
And if we look specifically at the bolded part, the two are the same, except the part of speech in bolded modifiers

In choice D., "significantly" modifies "different"
In choice E., "significant" modifies "differences"

I do not quite see meaning issue in choice D.
Could you please explain how choice D. and E. differ in terms of MEANING?

IanStewart · Answer

There is no grammatical error in choice D.

What is the word "of" doing in answer E? Why is "differences" plural? There's no way to say what E means because it doesn't make any sense.

If you rephrase E, as you did in an earlier post, it becomes grammatically correct, but it does still differ in meaning slightly from answer D.

kornn · Answer

Dear  IanStewart ,

Sorry to ask so many questions. Thank you for your patience.
I'm not clear whether the problem with choice E. really is MEANING or GRAMMAR.

So, if choice E. were   that there is  little  of significant  difference    (without "S" after "differences"), you still think that its MEANING doesn't make any sense at all because LITTLE and SIGNIFICANT contradict each other and should not appear together?

However, if choice E. were   that there are  FEW  significant  differenceS   , then as you said the MEANING would be logical although FEW and SIGNIFICANT appear together?

IanStewart · Answer

"little of significant difference" is simply not English, so that is wrong regardless of what the words mean.

Whether "little" and "significant" are contradictory when used together depends on how they are used. If I say that something "is of little significance", there's nothing wrong with that. I'm just saying something isn't very important. If instead I say "I made little significant changes to the document" I'm saying my changes were very minor, but were also significant. In the first case, "little" describes "significance" whereas in the second it describes "changes", so "little" is being used differently in these two examples. The second usage seems a bit illogical to me, although I suppose it could make sense occasionally.

Similarly there is nothing wrong with saying "there are few significant differences", though this means something different. This sentence is not now talking about the degree of significance in the differences; it's talking about the number of significant differences.

jaisonsunny77 · Answer

The investigations of many psychologist and anthropologists support the generalization  of there being little that is a significant difference  in underlying mental processes manifested by people from different cultures.

Here, the right idiom structure would be: generalization that....

Since (A), (B), and (C) do not have this idiom structure, we can  eliminate (A), (B) and (C) .

(D)  that there is little that is significantly different  - In (D), meaning conveyed in unambiguous and clear. Hence,   (D) is the right answer choice. 
 
(E)  that there is little that is significant differences  - Here, " little " is being equated to " significant differences ". This does not make any sense. Hence,  eliminate (E) .

Vatsal7794 · Answer

Hi Experts

GMATNinja  @VeritasKarishma  EducationAisle   ChrisLele   mikemcgarry   AjiteshArun   egmat   sayantanc2k   RonPurewal   DmitryFarber   MagooshExpert   avigutman   EMPOWERgmatVerbal   MartyTargetTestPrep   ExpertsGlobal5   IanStewart 
other experts  AnthonyRitz   zhanbo

In option D how can Significantly (Adverb) modify a noun (Different)?

Please answer

EducationAisle · Answer

different  is an adjective actually;  difference  would be a noun.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Vatsal7794 ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "different" is actually an adjective, so it can be modified by adverbs.

The noun form of "different" is "difference", as seen in A and E.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

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