In comparison to people, elephants are capable of perceiving a much wi

Question

Project SC Butler: Day 193: Sentence Correction (SC2) 
 For SC butler Questions  Click Here

In comparison to people, elephants are capable of perceiving a much wider variety of sounds; in fact, an elephant’s ears can pick up frequencies more than 20 Hertz lower than what human ears can hear.

A) lower than what human ears can hear

B) lower than those by human ears

C) lower in opposition to the range that human ears have

D) lower than those perceptible to human ears

E) lower as opposed to humans’ hearing

generis · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Day 193: Sentence Correction (SC2)

In comparison to people, elephants are capable of perceiving a much wider variety of sounds; in fact, an elephant’s ears can pick up frequencies more than 20 Hertz lower than what human ears can hear.

A) lower than what human ears can hear

B) lower than those [perceived] by human ears

C) lower in opposition to the range that human ears have

D) lower than those perceptible to human ears

E) lower as opposed to humans’ hearing

• Lower . . . THAN

Because the comparative word "lower" must be paired with than, eliminate Answers C and E.

• The missing verb

To keep the sentence parallel, option B needs a verb.
LHS of the comparison:
. . . an elephant’s ears can pick up frequencies [much]
lower
than
RHS: those by human ears.

We need a verb before the word "by."
X must be done [heard] by Y.

Eliminate option B

• The better of two correct answers

Option A compares frequencies ( a "regular' noun) to what human beings can hear (a noun clause)

Option D compares frequencies with frequencies [those = frequencies]
The pronouns that and those make "new" and different copies of a noun.

Option D is better than option A.

(1) In (A), "what" is singular (so, too, is the full noun clause) and is probably not parallel with "frequencies."
We should compare the frequencies elephants can hear to the frequencies human ears can hear.
"What a human being can hear" is not necessarily specific to frequencies.

(2)option D makes it clear that we are comparing frequencies [that elephants can hear] to "frequencies" [those] [that human beings can hear.

(3) finally, if we want to get really picky (which we sometimes must on the MGAT),
the pairing in (A) is not as straightforward as that in (D).
(noun ↔ noun clause) in option A is not as good as the comparison in (D) between (noun ↔ pronoun)

D is the answer.D

COMMENTS

winter5526 , welcome to SC Butler.

There are a few outstanding answers. Very nicely done.

There are a few outstanding answers. Very nicely done.

Doer01 · Answer

Hi,
IMO D.

Meaning: Elephants can perceive a much wider variety of sounds than humans can. Elephant's ear can pick up frequencies more than 20Hz lower than those of human ears.

A) lower than what human ears can  hear   Incorrect

B) lower than those  by human ears? Does not make sense.

C)  lower in opposition to the range  that human ears  have  Distorts the original comparison.  Incorrect

D) lower than those  perceptible to human ears  Correct  Frequencies picked up by Elephant's ear are being compared to those picked up by human's ear.

E) lower as opposed to humans’ hearing  Incorrect comparison.

mykrasovski · Answer

The sentence tests comparison. Let's see which option properly compares frequencies that elephant's ears can pick up with frequencies that human ears can hear.

A)  lower than  what  human ears can hear
 If we replace  what  with frequencies, we get "elephant's ears can pick up frequencies more than 20 Hz lower than frequencies human ears can hear". Ideally, we would want to have "that" between frequencies and human. I guess we need "human's ears".

B)  lower than  those  by human ears
Replace  those  by frequencies. The sentence does not make sense.

C)  lower in opposition to the range that human ears have
This is so wordy and awkward that one should not like this option right away.

D)  lower than  those  perceptible to human ears
Replace  those  by frequencies. The sentence makes sense. Let's keep it.

E)  lower as opposed to humans’ hearing
It is illogical to compare frequencies with humans' hearing.

Frankly, it was hard for me to decide between (A) and (D). I picked (A) originally, but there are more reasons to go for (D) than for (A).

winter5526 · Answer

A) lower than what human ears can hear
 This one seems fine to me at the first glance, but "what human ears can hear" should refer to the sound that human ears can hear. And sound should not be compare with frequencies.
 B) lower than those by human ears
 If " those " refers to frequencies, “frequencies by human ears" doesn't make sense.
 C) lower in opposition to the range that human ears have
 " than " is missing
 D) lower than those perceptible to human ears
 If " those " refers to frequencies, "frequencies perceptible to human ears" looks fine to me.
 E) lower as opposed to humans’ hearing
 " than " is missing

minustark · Answer

In comparison to people, elephants are capable of perceiving a much wider variety of sounds; in fact, an elephant’s ears can pick up frequencies more than 20 Hertz lower than what human ears can hear.

A) lower than what human ears can hear

B) lower than those by human ears

C) lower in opposition to the range that human ears have

D) lower than those perceptible to human ears

E) lower as opposed to humans’ hearing

Lower should be followed by than, so can eliinated C and E. The original sentence is comparing elephant's ears' capability to human ears' capability. In this case, IMHO 'what' goes better than 'those'. A is the correct option.

ankaua · Answer

In comparison to people, elephants are capable of perceiving a much wider variety of sounds; in fact, an elephant’s ears can pick up frequencies more than 20 Hertz lower than what human ears can hear.

The question tests comparison, so we need to ensure that comparable items are grammatically and logically correct.

for the sake of proper comparison, we need to compare frequencies to frequencies, not to "what human ears can hear"

- "those" refers to "frequencies", so if we replace demonstrative pronoun, we'll have "lower than frequencies by human ears". Now meaning suggests that these frequencies not perceived by human ears but rather produced by them.

Easy to eliminate: when two items are compared, comparative adjectives can be used only with "than":  more than, better than, lower than , etc.

-  correct choice.  Demonstrative pronoun "those" stands for "frequencies", resulting in comparison of two logically comparable items.

- same as C, can be easily eliminate for the same good reason - absence of "than"

eakabuah · Answer

In comparison to people, elephants are capable of perceiving a much wider variety of sounds; in fact, an elephant’s ears can pick up frequencies more than 20 Hertz lower than what human ears can hear.

Meaning: Elephants can perceive a much wider variety of sounds compared to humans. An elephant's ears can pick up frequencies more than 20 Hertz lower than those   human ears can perceive.

A) lower than  what  human ears can hear.
Grammatically correct. I have kept option A for comparison with option D.

B) lower than those  by  human ears
by is not appropriate in the context. The use of by makes human ears a prepositional phrase that illogically modifies those  . It suggests that human ears produce frequencies, which is illogical. Eliminate B.

C) lower  in opposition  to the range that human ears have.
in opposition is unidiomatic and inappropriate in the context of comparison. We are dealing with similar abilities, hence there is no need to use words that show contrast. Eliminate option C.

D) lower than  those perceptible  to human ears
This option is also correct grammatically. Option D is compared with option A below.

E) lower  as opposed to  humans’ hearing
Similar to the issue of wrongful use of contrasting words when similarities between two entities are compared. Eliminate option E.

Now my headache was choosing between A and D. But looking at the meaning, option A: what humans can hear, means any frequency that humans can hear. It can be loud, medium, or it can be low. But the context requires a comparison between minimum frequency that human ears can hear and that an elephant's ear can perceive, of which we are informed that elephant's ear can hear frequencies 20Hz lower than what humans can hear. Based on this option A can be eliminated as a result of the ambiguity in meaning.
Option D on the other hand, those perceptible to human ears, means that frequencies that humans can barely hear. So it limits the frequency to low ranges and this makes more sense with the overall meaning of the sentence.

The right answer is option D.

The bottom line for me is that meaning is always key.

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  here

kunaldutt15 · Answer

Has option B been changed?

"B) lower than those perceived by human ears" - This is what I see.

Is it wrong?

generis · Answer

Yes. Thank you.+1

Just now I edited the question back to its original. 
If you look at all the posts that quote (B), you will see the correctly transcribed option B.

I have changed (B) back to the original.
My apologies.
 
Last night I accidentally posted my explanation in the  question  space rather than in the space just below the question.

I overwrote the original post when I did so.
I re-posted the question and options—but I used my explanation's already-annotated version. (Wrong.)

The original version has been restored, this way:

B) lower than those by human ear

kunaldutt15 · Answer

Thank you.

Just out of curiosity - which one out of these 2 is a better choice?

A- lower than those perceptible to human ears
or
B- lower than those perceived by human ears

generis · Answer

kunaldutt15  - As an editor and writer, I would choose (A).

The word "perceptible" means  capable  of being perceived.

The sentence stresses that elephants can hear sounds that human beings cannot.
In other words, sounds at certain frequencies will never be heard by the human ear; those sounds are imperceptible to human ears.

The word "perceived" can mean "capable of being perceived."
But "Perceived" can also mean "what has   been perceived," 
or "adjudged."

Both are correct. "Perceptible" is closer to what I think the sentence suggests.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

In comparison to people, elephants are capable of perceiving a much wi

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

In comparison to people, elephants are capable of perceiving a much wi

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards