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655-705 (Hard)|   Comparisons|         
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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel 09 Nov 2021, 05:07
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Naptiste
I had another way of approaching this question:

In my opinion there is another way to eliminate both A) and E), as the use of "now" is clearly redundant. Indeed, "Today's technology allows manufacturers to make" does not require a "now" as it is already indicated by "today".

That eliminates A and E, so we are left with B, C, and D.

The other answers are all about parallelism and meaning:

D "those" refer to "small fuel-efficient cars", which does not make sense as we are comparing today's small cars to the past's small cars.

B is very subtile, but B compares the same small cars that changed over time apparently; it does not make sense, "those" is needed to create distance.

What do you guys think ?

I think this is a very hard and interesting question, and the argument for "now", which should not be followed by "any time" as "now" is included in "any time" right also in my opinion.

karthikb
Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their production history.

(A) small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their

(B) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their

(C) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in

(D) more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their

(E) more fuel-efficient small cars now than at any time in
Show more

Hello Naptiste,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe that we can help resolve your doubts.

In Options A and E, the error is not of redundancy, as such. The error is that these answer choices try to convey the meaning by comparing the time periods "now" and "any other time in their production history", leading to incorrect or incoherent meanings.

Please remember, redundancy is the last factor that one should consider when eliminating answer choices. Only once you have confirmed multiple answer choices to be grammatically correct and correct in terms of meaning should you consider redundancy, in order to differentiate among the error-free answer choices.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel 23 Jun 2022, 00:50
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GMATNinja KarishmaB egmat

Doesn't (C) change in the meaning a bit

(A) ..in their production history (could mean cars' production history or manufacturers' production history)(pronoun ambiguity is there I agree but it's not an absolute rule)
(C) ...in production history (Woah! now we are comparing now with any other time in the whole history of the production of anything.)

Should we not retain meaning from A?
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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel 23 Jun 2022, 14:02
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GMATNinja KarishmaB egmat

Doesn't (C) change in the meaning a bit

(A) ..in their production history (could mean cars' production history or manufacturers' production history)(pronoun ambiguity is there I agree but it's not an absolute rule)
(C) ...in production history (Woah! now we are comparing now with any other time in the whole history of the production of anything.)

Should we not retain meaning from A?
Show more
Nope! There's nothing special about choice (A), and we are not married to the meaning suggested by choice (A).

For more on that, check out these other examples:

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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel 24 Jun 2022, 01:39
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GMATNinja KarishmaB egmat

Doesn't (C) change in the meaning a bit

(A) ..in their production history (could mean cars' production history or manufacturers' production history)(pronoun ambiguity is there I agree but it's not an absolute rule)
(C) ...in production history (Woah! now we are comparing now with any other time in the whole history of the production of anything.)

Should we not retain meaning from A?
Nope! There's nothing special about choice (A), and we are not married to the meaning suggested by choice (A).

For more on that, check out these other examples:

Show more

Thank you for your help GMATNinja

I understand from the above examples that we do not have to worry about meaning in (A) as long as we have a coherent meaning in any other option.

However, I still think there's some problem with the meaning in (C). Here's (C) substituted in the original sentence.

Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in production history.

Per (C): tech allows us to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than cars at any other time in production history. without 'their' it seems in the whole of production that mankind has done. Although it could still make sense, I find it hard that's what the author wants to convey.
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GMATNinja KarishmaB egmat

Doesn't (C) change in the meaning a bit

(A) ..in their production history (could mean cars' production history or manufacturers' production history)(pronoun ambiguity is there I agree but it's not an absolute rule)
(C) ...in production history (Woah! now we are comparing now with any other time in the whole history of the production of anything.)

Should we not retain meaning from A?
Show more

There are major problems in other options and (C) is correct and makes logical sense. There is nothing special about 'meaning of (A).' It is just one of the options.

The sentence tells us that today's tech allows manufacturers to make more fuel efficient cars now than at any other time in their production history.
Even if we do not use 'their' it doesn't matter.

Todays' cars are more fuel efficient than those at any other time in production history.
It means since production started, we have never had cars as fuel efficient as we have today.

How about this:
Todays' cars are more fuel efficient than those at any other time in the history of mankind.
Is this wrong or different? They all basically give the same information.
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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel 24 Jun 2022, 20:03
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Per (C): tech allows us to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than cars at any other time in production history. without 'their' it seems in the whole of production that mankind has done. Although it could still make sense, I find it hard that's what the author wants to convey.
Show more
Hi nikhilnk01,

To add to the responses you've already received, keep in mind that we should avoid taking very fine meaning calls. That is, if we're not sure about the intended meaning, we should look at other splits.

Also, in production history sounds a lot better than in their production history, but we shouldn't force ourselves to take that call either.
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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel 24 Jun 2022, 20:09
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GMATNinja KarishmaB egmat

Doesn't (C) change in the meaning a bit

(A) ..in their production history (could mean cars' production history or manufacturers' production history)(pronoun ambiguity is there I agree but it's not an absolute rule)
(C) ...in production history (Woah! now we are comparing now with any other time in the whole history of the production of anything.)

Should we not retain meaning from A?
Nope! There's nothing special about choice (A), and we are not married to the meaning suggested by choice (A).

For more on that, check out these other examples:


Thank you for your help GMATNinja

I understand from the above examples that we do not have to worry about meaning in (A) as long as we have a coherent meaning in any other option.

However, I still think there's some problem with the meaning in (C). Here's (C) substituted in the original sentence.

Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in production history.

Per (C): tech allows us to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than cars at any other time in production history. without 'their' it seems in the whole of production that mankind has done. Although it could still make sense, I find it hard that's what the author wants to convey.
Show more
I think Karishma is spot-on here, but I'll go one step further: adding "their" actually makes the sentence less logical. "Their" would imply that we're talking about the production history of the same specific set of small, fuel-efficient cars. But aren't these cars new? How long could their production history possibly be?

It certainly seems like a way less impressive achievement than producing cars that are more fuel efficient than the cars from any point in production history, right?

At best, the version with "their" is more confusing. And if the presence of "their" is going to create confusion, its absence can't possibly be an error.

I hope that helps a bit!
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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel 08 Jul 2022, 07:51
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Dear Experts,

I read all comments but I still have a question.

Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their production history.

(A) small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their

(B) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their

(C) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in

(D) more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their

(E) more fuel-efficient small cars now than at any time in


I eliminated (A) and (E) because Today and Now is redundant
(D) changes the meaning.. It would mean manufacturers make more xxx cars than manufacturers at any other time... : make more cars not more efficient
(B) and (C)..

the question is... Can we omit a verb after those?
I understand that "James is taller than Kim is" is correct
I also understand that "James is taller than Kim" is correct as well.
But these examples, we compare James and Kim at the same time, and it is acceptable to omit the verb.

However, in this case, "those at any other time in..." is in the past, but today's technology allows ... is in the present. Is it ok in this case?
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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel 10 Jul 2022, 05:01
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Tanchat
Dear Experts,

I read all comments but I still have a question.

Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their production history.

(A) small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their

(B) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their

(C) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in

(D) more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their

(E) more fuel-efficient small cars now than at any time in


I eliminated (A) and (E) because Today and Now is redundant
(D) changes the meaning.. It would mean manufacturers make more xxx cars than manufacturers at any other time... : make more cars not more efficient
(B) and (C)..

the question is... Can we omit a verb after those?
I understand that "James is taller than Kim is" is correct
I also understand that "James is taller than Kim" is correct as well.
But these examples, we compare James and Kim at the same time, and it is acceptable to omit the verb.

However, in this case, "those at any other time in..." is in the past, but today's technology allows ... is in the present. Is it ok in this case?
Show more

Hello Tanchat,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, such an omission is perfectly acceptable.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel 13 Jul 2022, 07:45
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Tanchat
Dear Experts,

I read all comments but I still have a question.

Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their production history.

(A) small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their

(B) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their

(C) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in

(D) more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their

(E) more fuel-efficient small cars now than at any time in


I eliminated (A) and (E) because Today and Now is redundant
(D) changes the meaning.. It would mean manufacturers make more xxx cars than manufacturers at any other time... : make more cars not more efficient
(B) and (C)..

the question is... Can we omit a verb after those?
I understand that "James is taller than Kim is" is correct
I also understand that "James is taller than Kim" is correct as well.
But these examples, we compare James and Kim at the same time, and it is acceptable to omit the verb.

However, in this case, "those at any other time in..." is in the past, but today's technology allows ... is in the present. Is it ok in this case?
Show more
Don't stress out about what can and can't be omitted from a sentence. There are no rules here, and we can't be expected to read minds, so we just have to ask ourselves whether we understand what the writer is trying to convey and whether it makes sense. That's it.

For instance, if you saw, "Tim is taller than Genghis Khan," you wouldn't drive yourself nuts wondering if the writer is allowed to leave out the word "was" since Genghis Khan isn't around anymore, right? It's pretty clear that we're comparing the heights of two people, so it's okay.

Same deal in this case. We're comparing the fuel efficiency of a set of current cars to the fuel efficiency of other cars throughout history. It's clear enough and it makes sense, so we're not going to treat it as an error. No need to overcomplicate our analysis.

I hope that clears things up!
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GMATNinja KarishmaB - i have read above that "They" is wrong in (b) because 'They" refers to the SAME ANTCEDENT (picks up the adjectives of the SAME antecedent as well)

This confused me about "THEY"

Would "THEY" really be wrong in a simple sentence like this :

Quote:

Hyenas in Africa are 6 feet tall whereas THEY are 5 feet tall in Asia
Show more

Is "THEY" really wrong in a simple sentence like this ?

According to GMAT logic - the "They" would refer back to the SAME HYENAS (that are 6 feet fall) (that are in Africa)

Hence, even this sentence would be considered wrong on the GMAT, correct ?
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GMATNinja KarishmaB - i have read above that "They" is wrong in (b) because 'They" refers to the VERY SAME ANTCEDENT (in fact, THEY picks up the adjectives of the SAME antecedent as well)

This confused me about "THEY" however.

Would "THEY" really be wrong in a simple sentence like this :

Quote:
Hyenas in Africa are 6 feet tall whereas THEY are 5 feet tall in Asia
Show more

Is "THEY" really wrong in a simple sentence like this ?

According to GMAT logic - the "They" would refer back to the SAME HYENAS (that are 6 feet fall) (that are in Africa), implying the HYENAS (in Africa) when transported to Asia, the same Hyena magically shrinks by 1 inch.

Hence, even this sentence would be considered wrong on the GMAT, correct ?
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jabhatta2

But i dont think # 2 would pass either because of the grammar rules of parallelism

2. Today's technology allows me to respond faster now than at any other time in history.

The Right Hand side (in pink font) is a time marker whereas the Left hand side is now a clause

I think we are FORCED to have "now" vs "any other time" if the comparison has to be apples to apples.
Show more
We'd have to judge it in the context of an official SC problem and look at the other four answer choices, jabhatta2. I can see the GMAT being okay with this, as there's an obvious comparison here between my response time now and what my response time used to be. In other words, there's an implied "I was able to respond" immediately after the word "than".
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GMATNinja KarishmaB - i have read above that "They" is wrong in (b) because 'They" refers to the VERY SAME ANTCEDENT (in fact, THEY picks up the adjectives of the SAME antecedent as well)

This confused me about "THEY" however.

Would "THEY" really be wrong in a simple sentence like this :

Quote:
Hyenas in Africa are 6 feet tall whereas THEY are 5 feet tall in Asia

Is "THEY" really wrong in a simple sentence like this ?

According to GMAT logic - the "They" would refer back to the SAME HYENAS (that are 6 feet fall) (that are in Africa), implying the HYENAS (in Africa) when transported to Asia, the same Hyena magically shrinks by 1 inch.

Hence, even this sentence would be considered wrong on the GMAT, correct ?
Show more
Correct, jabhatta2
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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel 16 Nov 2022, 21:33
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GMATNinja KarishmaB - i have read above that "They" is wrong in (b) because 'They" refers to the SAME ANTCEDENT (picks up the adjectives of the SAME antecedent as well)

This confused me about "THEY"

Would "THEY" really be wrong in a simple sentence like this :

Quote:

Hyenas in Africa are 6 feet tall whereas THEY are 5 feet tall in Asia

Is "THEY" really wrong in a simple sentence like this ?

According to GMAT logic - the "They" would refer back to the SAME HYENAS (that are 6 feet fall) (that are in Africa)

Hence, even this sentence would be considered wrong on the GMAT, correct ?
Show more

Yes, we cannot use personal pronouns for comparisons because they refer to the same person/object as before. Just like 'he/she' refer to the person mentioned before, 'they/it' also refer to people/object mentioned before. For comparisons we use demonstrative pronouns 'that/those.'

Hyenas in Africa are 6 feet tall whereas those in Asia are 5 feet.
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jabhatta2
GMATNinja KarishmaB - i have read above that "They" is wrong in (b) because 'They" refers to the VERY SAME ANTCEDENT (in fact, THEY picks up the adjectives of the SAME antecedent as well)

This confused me about "THEY" however.

Would "THEY" really be wrong in a simple sentence like this :

Quote:
Hyenas in Africa are 6 feet tall whereas THEY are 5 feet tall in Asia

Is "THEY" really wrong in a simple sentence like this ?

According to GMAT logic - the "They" would refer back to the SAME HYENAS (that are 6 feet fall) (that are in Africa), implying the HYENAS (in Africa) when transported to Asia, the same Hyena magically shrinks by 1 inch.

Hence, even this sentence would be considered wrong on the GMAT, correct ?
Show more

Hello jabhatta2,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, your observation is correct; remember, the pronouns “that” and "those" are used to refer to a variation of the subject, and the pronouns “it” and "they" are used to refer to the exact same subject.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel 24 Jan 2023, 03:20
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(A) small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their Redundant

(B) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their Pronoun ambiguity

(C) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in Clear and concise

(D) more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their Pronoun ambiguity

(E) more fuel-efficient small cars now than at any time in Redundant
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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel 13 Apr 2023, 08:56
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KarishmaB ,

Option A: Why is "any other" any better than simple "any"?
“Any time in production “ is logically different from “now”. We are comparing "now"


Option C: Why "those" not ambiguous here?
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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel 13 Apr 2023, 21:46
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samagra21
KarishmaB ,

Option A: Why is "any other" any better than simple "any"?
“Any time in production “ is logically different from “now”. We are comparing "now"


Option C: Why "those" not ambiguous here?
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"Now" is becoming a part of their production history and that is why we must say "any other."

Option (A) uses 'those' for comparison. The comparison is between 'small cars made today' and 'small cars made at any other time in the past.'
There is no ambiguity at all.
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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel 28 Aug 2023, 07:47
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sayantanc2k


"Those" is preferred in this case, because a "different copy" of "small cars" is required. We are not referring to the same "small cars that are more fuel efficient", but to a "different copy" of the "small cars", which were produced at any other time in production history. "They" could be used if we were referring the same cars. Another example may make the mistake more visible:

On the bridge I saw cars that are bigger than those in front of the house.... right
On the bridge I saw cars that are bigger than they are in front of the house....... wrong.

Therefore answer B is wrong.
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does the pronoun "their" also used to make a different copy of the noun or is it used to refer to the same noun?
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