There is a widespread belief in the United States and Western Europe

Question

There is a widespread belief in the United States and Western Europe that young people have a smaller commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents and that the source of the change lies in the collapse of the "work ethic."

(A) a smaller commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents

(B) less of a commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents

(C) a smaller commitment to work and a career than that of their parents and grandparents

(D) less of a commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents had

(E) a lessening of the commitment to work and a career that their parent and grandparents had

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Official Answer

D

sag · Accepted Answer

First of all in such type of Qs, i look for keywords such as THAN here. Both sides of THAN should be parallel.
A: Out as we cant compare commitment TO parents and grandparents
B: Out : same reason as above
E: lessening of commitment : act of decreasing that changes meaning : so out

Left with C and D.Both are correct in regard to Comparison as one is having THAT and the other is having HAD.

Next check is Modifier of Commitment.
As commitment is an Uncountable Noun so we use Less not Smaller

So C: Out

Answer : D..

chetan2u · Answer

Hi,
 there are two errors-- 
  1) firstly as mentioned by you is usage of smaller instead of less...  
 smaller is an adjective actually talking of the size .. 
boeing 757 is smaller than airbus xyz..
 less is more for abstract things.. and means smaller extent etc..

2) 'what does " that of" stands for..  
 that cannot be smaller commitment ...
the Verb have should be the one used in later half to show parallelism--had-- 
example --
I have a smaller car than that of my father --WRONG
I have a smaller car than my father had..
OR
My car is smaller than that of my father..

Hope it helps

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 core meaning of this sentence is that young people have less of a commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents had.

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

• A comparison must always be made between similar thing.

A:  This answer choice incorrectly compares "commitment" to "their parents and grandparents" rather than to the commitment their parents and grandparents had; please remember, a comparison must always be made between similar elements. Further, Option A incorrectly uses the term “smaller” to refer to the uncountable noun “commitment”; for a noun such as “commitment", the appropriate equivalent term is “less” or "lesser".

B:  This answer choice incorrectly compares "commitment" to "their parents and grandparents" rather than to the commitment their parents and grandparents had; please remember, a comparison must always be made between similar elements.

C:  Trap. This answer choice incorrectly uses the term “smaller” to refer to the uncountable noun “commitment”; for a noun such as “commitment", the appropriate equivalent term is “less” or "lesser". Further, Option C uses the passive voice construction "that of their parents and grandparents", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

D:   Correct.  This answer choice uses the phrase "less of a commitment", conveying the intended meaning - that young people have less of a commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents had. Further, Option D correctly compares "commitment to work and a career" with the commitment "their parents and grandparents had". Additionally, Option D correctly uses the term "less of a" to modify the uncountable noun "commitment". Besides, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

E:  This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "a lessening of the commitment"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies young people have a decrease in the same commitment to work and a career that their parent and grandparents had; the intended meaning is that young people have less of a commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents had.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

walker · Answer

I have a few questions for gurus

1. Why is the use "had" but not "did" in "less of a commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents had " correct? 2. Is it possible to use "a smaller commitment" instead of "less of a commitment" Thanks in advance.

gmatnub · Answer

had is parallel with "young people have"

smaller is something physical, less is something abstract

bsd_lover · Answer

Walker look at the statement: young people "have" in the beginning (bold red) makes it a perfect tense statement (perfect tense = have, had, having etc.). did is simple past tense, had is perfect past tense. It makes sense now to use perfect tenses consistently across this statement. Hence we require had.

It can't be smaller in this context --> if you read the sentence, you can clearly see that there is a comparison. Think of a simpler comparative statement using commitment :

bsd has a smaller commitment than walker <-- awkward to use smaller .. than in this comparison, as the guy above posted, smaller is physical, lesser is abstract.
bsd is less committed than walker

or another
gluttony is smaller of the two evils
gluttony is the lesser evil

chineseburned · Answer

I think you can use "did" here instead of "had" and it would still be correct. But it is not among the answer choices.

barfer · Answer

I disagree with bsd_lover regarding the perfect tense used there. I think it's just a simple present and then a simple past. In this case I prove chineseburned's opinion - young people "make"/do/have less bla-bla-bla than their parents and grandparents "made"/did/had

walker · Answer

Wow, thanks for discussion! Now, I will post links to my problem posts in my signature

smaller/less - physical/abstract - I get it! had/did - I just thought that "I have a pen" is present simple tense and we can use had/did equally.... Thanks!

bsd_lover · Answer

Actually walker I take it back. I am an idiot. Sorry for the confusion everyone.

Present perfect has a : have + past participle. I have a pen is simple present. Young people have a commitment is simple present and hence did is just as correct (in fact probably more correct) than had.

This is not to be confused by present perfect - which shows the currently ongoing nature of an activity.

Example of present perfect :
I have lived a full life

Simple present:
I have a full life.

I hope this is clearer.

codesnooker · Answer

OA (D)

To maintain parallelism, HAD is required. The comparison is done between the commitment that young generation HAVE and older generation HAD.

Hope it makes sense....
Good Luck
Code Snooker

rahuindo · Answer

Commitment is uncountable and hence small cannot be used. hence A and C is ruled out.
B is ruled out because the comparison is between the commitment towards work and not between children and their parents. 
E is ruled out because the word Lessening is used in a wrong context.
Hence D is the correct answer

BKimball · Answer

People have danced around this issue here, but let's make it explicit:

"Smaller" and "larger" refer to physical size:

My dog is larger...
Your foot is smaller...
His house is smaller...

Since there is no physical size of "commitment," you really can't use "smaller" or "larger" to describe it.

"Less" and "more" can refer to magnitude:

I am less excited than you are.
You are more committed than I am.

Good times in GMAT land!

gmat1011 · Answer

Young people HAVE less of x.... than their parents and grandparents HAD

If 'had' is not added then I think quite literally the comparison does not work...

Young ppl have less of something (i.e., a category of persons having something) vs. their parents and grandparents (a category of persons simpliciter)

"ellipsis" as far as I am aware refers to omission of words when you quote someone and put ....... dots to lessen the length of the quote...

one place where a word can be omitted (according to the MGMAT SC book) is a word after a possessive noun

Sam's build is more muscular than Joe's.

noboru · Answer

My point is that "had" is also implicit in this question.
Thoughts on that?
Thanks in advance.

BKimball · Answer

noboru,

Great question! As codesnooker describes, this question really deals with comparisons. Remember that  comparisons are just a special form of parallelism, so the items that you are comparing must be parallel.

Consider this example:

"I ate more pizza than you."
"I ate more pizza than you did."

Here, we are trying to compare the relative quantities of pizza eaten by you and I. However, the first example doesn't do that; the first example says that I ate more pizza than "you" (as if "you" is something else than I ate -- apparently less of").

You could say "I ate more pizza than salad" if you are trying to compare the nouns "pizza" and "salad." However, when you are comparing how much pizza I ATE to how much pizza YOU ATE, you need to keep that noun, verb structure parallel by using the noun (you) and the verb (did) in the second half just as you used the noun (I) and verb (ate) in the first half.

Check out codesnooker's explanation for how this works in this problem.

Brett

noboru · Answer

I agree with your pizza example because in that case (I ate more pizza than you), there is ambiguity:
Meaning 1: I ate 4 slices and you only ate 2 slices.
Meaning 2: I ate 4 kgs of pizza and only 2 kgs of you (yes, I love you with tomatos and fries).

However, in this question I dont see where is the ambiguity. I would appreciate if you could explain the 2 possible meanings of the sentence if there were no "had" removing the supposed ambiguity that I am trying to discover.

Many thanks in advance.

BKimball · Answer

Try this out:

(B) less of a commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents: Here, they are less committed to work and career than to their parents and grandparents. That's not the intended meaning.

(D) less of a commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents had. Here, they are less committed to work than their parents and grandparents were. That makes more sense in context.

Does that help?

Brett

sairam595 · Answer

Can someone explain why option C is wrong

is that only becuase smaller is physical and less is abstract? IMO - Option C - young people have a smaller commitment to work and a career than commitment of their parents and grandparents whats wrong in it..Please advise

There is a widespread belief in the United States and Western Europe

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There is a widespread belief in the United States and Western Europe

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