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655-705 (Hard)|   Comparisons|   Pronouns|         
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To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, supplie 12 Oct 2021, 05:32
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jabhatta2

Are we really saying (iii) | (iv) and (v) are wrong because the Right Hand side are verbs and not clauses ?
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I certainly never said anything about comparing clauses and verbs, and all of your comparison sentences are fine. We can be flexible with comparisons involving verbs that don't take objects (what are called 'intransitive verbs' in grammar jargon), because there's no risk of confusing what is being compared. If you want to think about comparisons that are analogies of the one in the original sentence in this thread, you'd need to consider verbs that take objects, because it's in that situation where comparisons can become ambiguous: "Paul likes chocolate more than his manager", for example, could mean Paul likes chocolate more than he likes his manager, or it could mean that Paul likes chocolate more than his manager does. In those situations we often need to be careful about how we construct the comparison if we want to avoid ambiguity (which we want to avoid in GMAT SC).

In the original sentence, we're talking about "growing fish", so there's an object involved, and those comparisons need special attention. If you take answer C, which I think is the choice you were asking about, and interpret it in either of the possible ways one can interpret a comparison with an object (as above, in the Paul/chocolate/manager sentence), you get one of these two sentences:

original: Suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as growing them naturally

if we were comparing two subjects: Suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as growing them naturally (is growing fish)
if we were comparing the first subject in two respects: Suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as (they are) growing them naturally

Neither makes any sense. We want to compare how quickly suppliers are growing fish with how quickly fish grow naturally. Only answers D and E do that.
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To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, supplie 05 Feb 2022, 14:43
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mbunny
To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as their natural growth rate, cutting their feed allotment by nearly half and raising them on special diets.


(A) their natural growth rate, cutting their feed allotment

(B) their natural growth rate, their feed allotment cut

(C) growing them naturally, cutting their feed allotment

(D) they grow naturally, cutting their feed allotment

(E) they grow naturally, with their feed allotment

Similar Question : [as fast as] LINK

Show Spoiler
The first and second choices illogically state that the suppliers are not only growing the fish but are also growing the natural growth rate of the fish.

The third choice elliptically states that suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as growing them naturally grows them, but when something grows naturally, it is illogical to say anything grows them. The appropriate contrast is between the rate at which the suppliers are growing the fish and the rate at which the fish grow when allowed to grow naturally on their own.

The fourth and fifth options both express that contrast appropriately. Of these two options, however, only the fourth uses a present participle (cutting) that is parallel to the other verbs in the sentence (growing and raising), and therefore the fourth choice is best.

To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as they grow naturally, cutting their feed allotment by nearly half and raising them on special diets.

LINK In the 1980's the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States was nearly twice what it was in the 1970's.

An this case, you have a problem of redundancy:
A RATE can't be FAST.
* The rate can be high;
* The increase itself can be fast.

Similarly,
A height can't be tall (a person can be tall, or a height can be greater than...)
A bank account can't be rich (a person can be rich, or a bank account can contain a large amount of money)
etc.
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Hi DmitryFarber EMPOWERgmatVerbal KarishmaB! Can you help me with this question? The comparison is very confusing (their natural growth rate/ growing them naturally/ they grow naturally). Tks! :please:
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To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, supplie 05 Feb 2022, 20:12
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mbunny
To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as their natural growth rate, cutting their feed allotment by nearly half and raising them on special diets.


(A) their natural growth rate, cutting their feed allotment

(B) their natural growth rate, their feed allotment cut

(C) growing them naturally, cutting their feed allotment

(D) they grow naturally, cutting their feed allotment

(E) they grow naturally, with their feed allotment

Similar Question : [as fast as] LINK

Show Spoiler
The first and second choices illogically state that the suppliers are not only growing the fish but are also growing the natural growth rate of the fish.

The third choice elliptically states that suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as growing them naturally grows them, but when something grows naturally, it is illogical to say anything grows them. The appropriate contrast is between the rate at which the suppliers are growing the fish and the rate at which the fish grow when allowed to grow naturally on their own.

The fourth and fifth options both express that contrast appropriately. Of these two options, however, only the fourth uses a present participle (cutting) that is parallel to the other verbs in the sentence (growing and raising), and therefore the fourth choice is best.

To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as they grow naturally, cutting their feed allotment by nearly half and raising them on special diets.

LINK In the 1980's the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States was nearly twice what it was in the 1970's.

An this case, you have a problem of redundancy:
A RATE can't be FAST.
* The rate can be high;
* The increase itself can be fast.

Similarly,
A height can't be tall (a person can be tall, or a height can be greater than...)
A bank account can't be rich (a person can be rich, or a bank account can contain a large amount of money)
etc.

Hi DmitryFarber EMPOWERgmatVerbal KarishmaB! Can you help me with this question? The comparison is very confusing (their natural growth rate/ growing them naturally/ they grow naturally). Tks! :please:
Show more


What is the crux of the sentence? That there is a high demand for fish so suppliers are growing fish fast. How fast? Twice as fast as they naturally grow. So if a fish in natural circumstances takes 2 months to become an adult, the suppliers are making them adults in 1 month.

Suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as their natural growth rate - A growth rate cannot be fast or slow. It is low or high. This growth rate can be higher than that, not faster.

Suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as growing them naturally - Growing them naturally sounds counter intuitive. We know that fish are often caught from the ocean where they grow naturally. That is their natural habitat. Then who is growing them? This doesn't make a lot of sense.

Suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as they grow naturally - Correct. The comparison is between how the suppliers are growing them and how they grow naturally. Suppliers are growing them twice as fast as they grow naturally.
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To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, supplie 05 Feb 2022, 22:11
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mbunny
To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as their natural growth rate, cutting their feed allotment by nearly half and raising them on special diets.


(A) their natural growth rate, cutting their feed allotment

(B) their natural growth rate, their feed allotment cut

(C) growing them naturally, cutting their feed allotment

(D) they grow naturally, cutting their feed allotment

(E) they grow naturally, with their feed allotment

Similar Question : [as fast as] LINK

Show Spoiler
The first and second choices illogically state that the suppliers are not only growing the fish but are also growing the natural growth rate of the fish.

The third choice elliptically states that suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as growing them naturally grows them, but when something grows naturally, it is illogical to say anything grows them. The appropriate contrast is between the rate at which the suppliers are growing the fish and the rate at which the fish grow when allowed to grow naturally on their own.

The fourth and fifth options both express that contrast appropriately. Of these two options, however, only the fourth uses a present participle (cutting) that is parallel to the other verbs in the sentence (growing and raising), and therefore the fourth choice is best.

To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as they grow naturally, cutting their feed allotment by nearly half and raising them on special diets.

LINK In the 1980's the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States was nearly twice what it was in the 1970's.

An this case, you have a problem of redundancy:
A RATE can't be FAST.
* The rate can be high;
* The increase itself can be fast.

Similarly,
A height can't be tall (a person can be tall, or a height can be greater than...)
A bank account can't be rich (a person can be rich, or a bank account can contain a large amount of money)
etc.
Show more

10 seconds sol
grow is verb . growth or growing is noun prefer VERB so ABC are out
, with is always flawed so D is right
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To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, supplie 06 Feb 2022, 09:15
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NarayanaGupta007

10 seconds sol
grow is verb . growth or growing is noun prefer VERB so ABC are out
, with is always flawed so D is right
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Be careful, NarayanaGupta007. Your 10-second approach may have worked on this question, but this comma + with claim is inaccurate. All of the following OG questions employ such a construct in the correct answer:

1) About 5 million...
2) During the early...
3) The diet of...
4) The intricate structure...
5) The tourism commission...
6) Visitors to the...

I point this out because an approach that is too simple—e.g., marking off any answer choice that contains being—can cause a person to go into autopilot and not really engage with the question, then miss it. Sure, you should be wary of a comma + with construct, since it does often appear in incorrect answers, but you should also know how it can be used correctly. (You never know what will show up on the screen on test day.)

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, supplie 10 Jun 2022, 11:40
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mbunny
To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as their natural growth rate, cutting their feed allotment by nearly half and raising them on special diets.

"Twice as fast as" doesn't apply to the rate. Rate can only be higher/lower, not faster/slower. Get rid of (A) and (B)

(A) their natural growth rate, cutting their feed allotment

(B) their natural growth rate, their feed allotment cut

(C) growing them naturally, cutting their feed allotment

"as growing them naturally" - who is growing them naturally? Suppliers definitely don't grow them naturally - fish themselves grow naturally! By putting on a common sense hat on, you can eliminate (C)

(D) they grow naturally, cutting their feed allotment

Correct. "Supplies are growing fish" as fast as " [fish] grow naturally"

(E) they grow naturally, with their feed allotment

"with their feed allotment" not parallel to rest of the non-underlined sentence (i.e., "and raising")

Similar Question : [as fast as] LINK

Show Spoiler
The first and second choices illogically state that the suppliers are not only growing the fish but are also growing the natural growth rate of the fish.

The third choice elliptically states that suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as growing them naturally grows them, but when something grows naturally, it is illogical to say anything grows them. The appropriate contrast is between the rate at which the suppliers are growing the fish and the rate at which the fish grow when allowed to grow naturally on their own.

The fourth and fifth options both express that contrast appropriately. Of these two options, however, only the fourth uses a present participle (cutting) that is parallel to the other verbs in the sentence (growing and raising), and therefore the fourth choice is best.

To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as they grow naturally, cutting their feed allotment by nearly half and raising them on special diets.

LINK In the 1980's the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States was nearly twice what it was in the 1970's.

An this case, you have a problem of redundancy:
A RATE can't be FAST.
* The rate can be high;
* The increase itself can be fast.

Similarly,
A height can't be tall (a person can be tall, or a height can be greater than...)
A bank account can't be rich (a person can be rich, or a bank account can contain a large amount of money)
etc.
Show more
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To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, supplie 16 Aug 2022, 03:24
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Hi guys, I know experts are saying "growing them naturally" don't make sense, and it doesn't I fully agree. From a grammatical POV, growing them naturally needs a subject. Who's growing?

But I just feel the question is kinda funny, I got it wrong on the first try because I've actually seen fishermen just circle a region of the sea with net, and let the fish grow naturally...which I guess could be "growing them naturally"? The "unnatural" way of growing would be the way stated in the question - cutting the feed by half and using a special purpose-made diet. So with that provided in the question, I immediately had the image in my mind how the fishermen "grew the fishes naturally" by catching them and dumping them in oceanwater closed off/separated into square lots by fishnets.
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To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, supplie 14 Oct 2023, 11:18
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To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as their natural growth rate, cutting their feed allotment by nearly half and raising them on special diets.

Meaning clarity -
We can say, "John walks twice as fast as Sam walks" - we are comparing actions.
Likewise, the sentence's meaning is "Suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as they grow naturally." They here refer to "fish." We are comparing how suppliers are growing fish with how Fish grow naturally. How are suppliers achieving it?
By two adverbial modifiers
1. cutting their feed allotment... (their logically goes to fish)
2. raising them on special diets...(them logically goes to fish)

Now, with this understanding -

(A) their natural growth rate, cutting their feed allotment - As Krishna also pointed out, the below two sentences using ellipses don't make sense
1. Suppliers are growing the fish twice as fast as "suppliers are growing" their natural growth rate. or
2. Suppliers are growing the fish twice as fast as their natural growth rate "are growing fish."

So a logical deduction is - Suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as they grow naturally." They here refer to "fish." We are comparing how suppliers are growing fish with how Fish grow naturally.

(B) their natural growth rate, their feed allotment cut - This one has not only a problem as described in A but also an additional problem of wrong modifier structure. "And" demands an adverbial modifier parallel to "raising them on special diets."

(C) growing them naturally, cutting their feed allotment - Who is growing them? Supplier? No. It says naturally. So how can suppliers grow then when they grow naturally? Moreover, here, on one side of the comparison, twice as fast as we have a clause, and on the other side, we have an ING verbal. Not parallel. Wrong.

(D) they grow naturally, cutting their feed allotment - perfect.

(E) they grow naturally, with their feed allotment - while the first part is correct. The modifier is not correct. "And" demands an adverbial modifier parallel to "raising them on special diets."
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To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, supplie 10 Jun 2024, 11:02
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GMATNinjaTwo - Pls add tag EA.
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To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, supplie 10 Jun 2024, 11:04
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GMATNinjaTwo - Pls add tag EA.
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_______________
­Done. Thank you!­
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To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, supplie 21 Jan 2025, 16:52
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To meet the rapidly rising market demand for fish and seafood, suppliers are growing fish twice as fast as their natural growth rate, cutting their feed allotment by nearly half and raising them on special diets.


(A) their natural growth rate, cutting their feed allotment - verb "are growing" is compared with noun phrase "their natural growth rate" - wrong.


(B) their natural growth rate, their feed allotment cut - same issue + comm ING which shows how as aspect is not here.

(C) growing them naturally, cutting their feed allotment - verb "are growing" is compared with ING verbal "growing them naturally" - wrong.

(D) they grow naturally, cutting their feed allotment - verb "are growing" is compared with verb "grow naturally" - correct.

(E) they grow naturally, with their feed allotment - 2nd part is wrong
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