The number of people flying first class on domestic flights rose sharp

Flattery will get you everywhere, jabhatta2.

Here is a video that might help.

A ing modifier after comma should agree with subject. Does this always need to be true? If yes, then is there an exception in this case.
Secondly, what's the difference between increase in and increase of, I couldn't use this distinction to eliminate answers. Please help IanStewart GMATNinja @veritasprepkarishma mcelroytutoring

avigutman

pk6969 ", ...ing" can serve two purposes:
1. describe the manner in which the subject did the verb in the preceding clause (the dog ran through the field, barking the whole way), or
2. describe an unintended consequence of the action in the preceding clause (Avi ran down the stairs, falling flat on his face).
In this case, the correct answer choice makes use of one or both of those purposes - I think you could make an argument for either of them.
Regarding your second question, about using of vs in... I think GMATNinja gave a good analysis of that here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-number-o ... l#p2804813

That said, I think you should beware of memorizing anecdotal takeaways that are unlikely to be of use on other SC questions. After all, our purpose isn't to fully understand this particular problem. Our purpose is to merely use this problem in order to improve our general SC abilities over time. for this reason, try to focus on the bigger picture, logical/meaning related takeaways.

GMATNinja made a similar point in his second paragraph here:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-number-o ... l#p2811575

is it right to say? -

'double' and "as much as" are both comparison words. -Redundancy

''twice as many as the increase in'' are both comparison words - Redundancy

These statements look accurate to me.

Whenever you're judging redundancy, don't forget to check the answer choices! If two words/phrases create redundancy together, then there should be at least one answer choice that contains only one of the two redundant parts.

Hi avigutman - in both of your examples above (yellow highlights), the subject can actively perform the ing modifiers.

the dog can bark | Avi can fall down.

But in (A) and (B) - i dont see how can a number can actively perform the "Doubling" of another number.

examples

correct - JD has doubled the number of questions
correct - The female lions doubled the number of lions in the pride

incorrect - 700 doubled 200 to 400 [this doesnt make sense - how can 700 actively double 200 to 400 (or any number for that matter)].

^^avigutman

Just to clarify - put together a quick chart with some easy numbers in the context of this problem
Row 2 - number of passengers
Row 3 - delta each year.

(A) and (B) are suggesting that the 700 (Row 2, column 4) is actively perform the "doubing" of the 200 (Row 3, column 3) to 400 (Row 3, column 4)

Its almost as if 700 is getting up and performing the "doubling" of the 200 into the 400

I dont think it makes sense logically for any number (in this case, 700) to actively perform the "Doubling" of 200 to 400

Hi avigutman - q on countable vs uncountable.

The SC sentence talks about two numericals, namely

(i) number of people flying first class on domestic flights
(ii) Increase (of/in) the previous year

Per my understanding, both (i) and (ii) are countable nouns.

Reason - (i) and (ii) ARE INTEGERS only. Non countable nouns are items on a countinous spectrum (volume, area, amount -- all of these can be decimals)

However, (i) and (ii) are integers only - hence i thought (i) and (ii) are Countable nouns only.

Is that your understanding ?

jabhatta2
(i) is definitely countable. Reason: number of people. We can obviously count the number of people (or of anything that can be described in terms of a number).
(ii) Definition of "increase": An amount by which a quantity is increased. The word "amount" implies this is non countable.
Looking at a dictionary, the noun "increase" can also be countable, but that would be in something like "the tax rate experienced 5 increases in the last 2 years."

doubling the increase of the previous year.
is an -ing modifier , but as per the rule it does not make any sense with
the subject of the previous clause 'the number of people'. So how is A correct?

Hello akt715,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the intended meaning is that number of people flying first class on domestic flights rose sharply, and as a result, the increase of the previous year doubled.

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

Comma + _ING modifiers don't just modify a noun. They're adverbial modifiers—they modify the action of the entire preceding clause.

The action of the preceding clause is "The number of people ... rose sharply ..."
This action—i.e., the number of people GOING UP—is exactly what "doubled the increase from the previous year".

ROSE SHARPLY is the cause; doubling is the effect. So A or B (-ING form). B is wrong as ‘that of’ doesn’t have any antecedent. The only singular nouns in the sentence before that of are: number, first class, and 1990.

If that of is correct, we should be able to replace that of by one of the three singular nouns: number, first class, and 1990

Doubling the number of the increase in … illogical – there is no expression number of increase. The correct expression is amount of increase.
Doubling the first class of the increase in … illogical
Doubling 1990 of the increase in … illogical … So B is absolutely wrong.

C. On the GMAT, ‘twice’ is used as an adjective and ‘double’ is used as a verb or a cause-effect modifier (adverbial) – doubled / doubling etc. In C, double is used as an adjective (should be twice)
Answer A
D and E – don’t capture the cause-effect sequence.

[quote="bigoyal"]The number of people flying first class on domestic flights rose sharply in 1990, doubling the increase of the previous year.


(A) doubling the increase of

(B) doubling that of the increase in

(C) double as much as the increase of

(D) twice as many as the increase in

(E) twice as many as the increase of

In E, twice as many as is a noun modifier, so couldn't t refer to "number" in the sentence?
Please help

(E) seems to compare the number of people flying first class on domestic flights to the increase of the previous year. You could compare one number to another or one increase to another, but comparing a number to an increase doesn't make sense in this context.

To make matters worse, the subject (the number of people flying first class on domestic flights) isn't really tied to a specific year and instead refers to that group of people in a more general way. That makes any potential comparison even less clear in (E).

(A) avoids these comparison issues by using an "-ing" modifier instead, as discussed in this post (and elsewhere in the thread).

I hope that helps!

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.