nahid78 wrote:
The typical size difference between males and females has lessened since the origins of the human species because
the size increase in males has been slight while the size increase in females has been great.
(A) the size increase in males has been slight while the size increase in females has been great
(B) the male size increase has been slight and because it has been great in females
(C) the size increase had been slight for males but great for females
(D) of the size increase being slight for males while for females it was great
(E) of slightly increasing the male size while greatly increasing it in females
Hello
mikemcgarryHow are you?
Can you please explain every issue this question talks about?
I can see use of "it" is problematic, "had been" is my suspect But son't understand why. My understanding is The increase of male and female size is the cause of lessening. So increase first then lessen. Would it correct if "was" were used in stead of had been?
I picked E as i knew because takes a full clause, but "because of" takes noun or noun phrase, and because can start a independent clause but a comma is used in front of BECAUSE. So, i hesitated between A and E, and then picked E.
Dear
nahid78,
I see that my brilliant colleague
daagh already replied. I will add my thoughts.
(A) the size increase in males has been slight while the size increase in females has been great Wordy but correct. No flaws.
(B) the male size increase has been slight and because it has been great in females This choice gets into the subtle difference between personal vs demonstrative pronoun. A personal pronoun shares full identity with its antecedent. A demonstrative pronoun, such as "
that," take a position analogous to the antecedent, so there's not a strict identity. You're correct, the "
it" here is wrong because it refers to "
male size increase," which doesn't apply to females. That's the limitation of a personal pronoun. We could have come up with correct statement with a demonstrative pronoun:
the size increase for males has been slight while that for females has been greatThat version is better than (A), but it's not a choice.
(C) the size increase had been slight for males but great for females What sinks this is the use of the
past perfect tense, "
had been." With the present perfect, this would be fine:
(C1)
the size increase has been slight for males but great for femalesThat's also better than (A), but this too is not a choice.
(D) of the size increase being slight for males while for females it was great Extremely awkward. This is so wrong that it should be taken out back and shot.
(E) of slightly increasing the male size while greatly increasing it in femalesMy friend, no native speaker would pick this. In a formal mathematical way, this choice is grammatically correct. Logically and rhetorical, it's a complete disaster. The GMAT loves creating answer choices of this sort--technically logical correct but atrocious--and non-native speakers fall into this trap time and time again. I am sorry to say, my friend, you fell for this trap.
One thing I will say is that if the gerund "
increasing" appears in the sentence as the object of a prepositional phrase, the doer of the action must be either present or or plausibly connected to the sentence. Expressing this as an action here makes no sense, because clearly nobody is
doing this action. This sentence discusses a general "happening" over the course of human history, but it has no agent or doer, at least as far as this sentence is concerned. Choice (E) implies a doer when there obviously isn't any.
That's part of the problem, although once you have better instincts for English, this will sound jarringly wrong to you ears as well.
Does all this make sense?
Mike
_________________
Mike McGarry
Magoosh Test PrepEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. — William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)