Three out of every four automobile owners in the United States also ow

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 three out of every four automobile owners in the United States own a bicycle, in addition to owning an automobile.

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Meaning + Awkwardness/Redundancy

A: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the plural noun “owners” with the plural verb “own”. Further, Option A uses the phrase “also own a bicycle”, conveying the intended meaning – that three out of every four automobile owners in the United States own a single bicycle, specifically, in addition to owning an automobile. Additionally, Option A is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

B: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun “owners” with the singular verb “owns”. Further, Option B uses the passive construction “Out of every four, three automobile owners”, rendering it needlessly indirect.

C: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “are owned”; the omission of the word “also” incorrectly conveys only that three out of every four automobile owners in the United States own a bicycle; the intended meaning is that three out of every four automobile owners in the United States own a bicycle, specifically, in addition to owning an automobile. Further, Option C uses the passive construction “Bicycles are owned by”, rendering it awkward and redundant.

D: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun “owners” with the singular verb “owns”. Further, Option D alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “owns bicycles”; the omission of the word “also” and the plural noun "bicycles" incorrectly convey only that three out of every four automobile owners in the United States own multiple bicycles; the intended meaning is that three out of every four automobile owners in the United States own a single bicycle, specifically, in addition to owning an automobile.

E: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the word "bicycles"; the use of the plural noun incorrectly implies that three out of every four automobile owners in the United States own multiple bicycles; the intended meaning is that three out of every four automobile owners in the United States own a single bicycle, in addition to owning an automobile. Further, Option E uses the passive construction “bicycles are also owned by”, rendering it awkward and redundant.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Three out of every four automobile owners in the United States also own a bicycle.

(A) Three out of every four automobile owners in the United States also own a bicycle.
(B) Out of every four, three automobile owners in the United States also owns a bicycle.
(C) Bicycles are owned by three out of every four owners of automobiles in the United States.
(D) In the United States, three out of every four automobile owners owns bicycles.
(E) Out of every four owners of automobiles in the United States, bicycles are also owned by three.


The OA is A but how can "three" automobile owners also own "a" bicycle? C seems to be the best answer even if it's in passive voice.

Would appreciate your help on this.

Thanks,
Yash

Let me try for that Kudo

IMO A
A. Correct subject-verb agreement; '3 automobile owners' correctly goes with plural verb form 'own'; sentence construction looks logical;
B. Incorrect subject-verb agreement; '3 automobile owners' incorrectly goes with singular verb form 'owns';
C. Incorrect; Usage of less preferred Passive Voice; Rather than making a generic statement like 'Three out of every four automobile owners...', this option makes a specific statement ' three out of every four owners of automobiles';
D. Incorrect; same subject-verb problem as that of B;
E. Incorrect modifier; modifier 'Out of every four owners of automobiles in the United States' incorrectly modifies bicycles;

This reminds me of another officially correct answer that often creates confusion:

Neanderthals had a vocal tract resembling an ape's and so were probably without language, a shortcoming that may explain why they were supplanted by our own species.

Again, this sentence does not imply that all Neanderthals just shared one vocal tract.

"3 out of every 4 owners own a bicycle" means they individually own a bicycle. Anyways this is a non-issue here. There are other glaring problems in the other problems as pointed out by the posters above. I found following two news article in which you can find similar usage. Just search for "own a" in the articles.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/che ... 994943.ece
https://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobi ... m0nti.html

Also go through a very detailed explanation by Ron here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/forum ... 25273.html

Three out of every four automobile owners in the United States also own a bicycle.

A) Three out of every four automobile owners in the United States also own a bicycle.
B) Out of every four, three automobile owners in the United States also owns a bicycle.
C) Bicycles are owned by three out of every four owners of automobiles in the United States.
D) In the United States, three out of every four automobile owners owns bicycles.
E) Out of every four owners of automobiles in the United States, bicycles are also owned by three.

I was doubting between A and C.

I discarded A because of the "also own" (I considered "also" unnecessary) and chose C despite the passive form is not desirable.

Your opinion will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Hi,

The problem between A and C is not only active/passive voice but also meaning issue..

what does the sentence mean...
3 out of 4 automobile owners own bicyle also...
Also is required to tell you that they have automobiles and in addition to that they also have bicycles...
so ALSO is required and is not redundant...

this meaning is changed in C
somehow now it can also convey that bicycles are owned by these 3 out of 4 automobile owners and not owned by people not having automobile..

This ambiguity is not there in A

The error I found is that "in the united states" should modify owners but in C and D it can actually modify either "owners" or "automobiles". Is my thinking correct. Please assist.

Not really, "in the United States" need not necessarily be a noun modifier. In C and D you may consider "in the United States" a verb modifier referring to the verb "owns" (meaning: the fact mentioned in the clause happens in the United States). Hence the reason you stated cannot be used to eliminate C and D. Compare with the following:

Barack lives in the United States.... here "in the United States" refers to the verb"lives" (not the noun "Barack").

5. Three out of every four automobile owners in the United States also own a bicycle.

(A) Three out of every four automobile owners in the United States also own a bicycle. -- Correct
(B) Out of every four, three automobile owners in the United States also owns a bicycle. -- subject -verb agreement --three owners owns
(C) Bicycles are owned by three out of every four owners of automobiles in the United States. -- it becomes a statement about bicycles, and thus takes on an unreasonable meaning.
(D) In the United States, three out of every four automobile owners owns bicycles. -- subject -verb agreement -- three owns
(E) Out of every four owners of automobiles in the United States, bicycles are also owned by three. -- the phrase beginning Out of every four ... cannot properly modify bicycles, and the passive construction (bicycles are also owned) is awkward and does not contribute meaningfully to the sentence. The plural nouns bicycles and automobiles suggest imprecisely that each person owns more than one of each.


1/
Teenage girls are concerned with fashion.
2/
Fashion is a concern of teenage girls.

The first statement is about teenage girls. I.e., according to #1, teenage girls in general are concerned with fashion, i.e., it's relatively rare to find a teenage girl who is unconcerned with fashion.
#1 says nothing about whether other demographics (e.g., teenage boys, middle-aged adults) are concerned with fashion.

The second statement is about fashion. According to #2, fashion is largely confined to teenage girls, and it's rare to find someone else (a boy or an adult) who is concerned with fashion.
#2 says nothing about whether most teenage girls are concerned with fashion.

Note the wide divergence between the two. In fact, #1 is basically true while #2 is false.

That's the problem with C: it implies that the ownership of bicycles is largely confined to people who also own cars. Weird.
(You can also eliminate it because it's needlessly indirect, but that's the real reason.)

----------

"three" + modifiers. so, plural.

of every 4 days, 3 are sunny and 1 is rainy.
1 of every 4 days is rainy.
3 of every 4 days are sunny.

Best of the lot.

Subject verb agreement error.

Passive construction.

Subject verb agreement error.

Passive construction.

I have doubts about C.

People above state that the passive voice essentially can't be used, but that is not correct. There are definitely situations in which the GMAT used the passive voice in the correct answer choice. Moreover, one of the members above states it is a meaning issue. I feel as though it is a meaning issue as well (by default since I do not think the sentence is grammtically incorrect).

Could an expert please help explain why C is wrong?

Hi Sam

You are absolutely correct that there are some instances on the GMAT where the passive voice is the correct answer choice. However, the rule to be followed is that all other things being equal, active voice is preferred to passive voice on the GMAT.

To elaborate, passive voice by itself does not make an answer option incorrect. However, given two answer options, one in active voice and the other in passive voice, with no other differences (either in meaning or errors etc.) between the two, active voice is preferred on the GMAT.

In this particular case, you can see that option (C) is in passive voice while option (A) is in active voice. There is no other difference in meaning between the two and no errors either. In such a scenario, we would go with the option in the active voice ie; option (A).

Hope this clarifies.

Thank you for the response.

Just to confirm, C is wrong because it's in the passive voice? There's no other meaning error associated with C? I'm revisiting this problem, and I'm still having some difficulty with the meaning behind it (although I did get the question right for the 2nd time).

Yes, that is correct. From a meaning point of view, there is nothing wrong with option (C).

(A) Three out of every four automobile owners in the United States also own a bicycle. -- Correct.

(B) Out of every four, three automobile owners in the United States also owns a bicycle. -- "owns". SV error. S is "three automobile owners" aka plural.

(C) Bicycles are owned by three out of every four owners of automobiles in the United States. -- Passive voice.

(D) In the United States, three out of every four automobile owners owns bicycles. -- same as B.

(E) Out of every four owners of automobiles in the United States, bicycles are also owned by three. -- We need to describe "out of every four owners..in the US" after the comma and hence need "three".. out of X, Y.. X and Y should be logically parallel. They are not in this case. Eliminate.

I don't understand something here: what's the subject in this sentence and is it singular or plural?

Is it "three out of every four"? Singular (because of the 'every')?