Last visit was: 19 Nov 2025, 06:01 It is currently 19 Nov 2025, 06:01
Home
GMAT
Messages
Tests
Schools
Events
Rewards
Chat
My Profile
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Go to My Error Log Learn more
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
Back to Forum
Create Topic
   1   2   3 
605-655 Level|   Comparisons|      
User avatar
ExpertsGlobal5
User avatar
Experts' Global Representative
Joined: 10 Jul 2017
Last visit: 19 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,195
Own Kudos:
4,765
Given Kudos: 43
Location: India
GMAT Date: 11-01-2019
Expert
Expert reply
Active GMAT Club Expert! Tag them with @ followed by their username for a faster response.
Posts: 5,195
Kudos: 4,765
Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal 12 May 2022, 04:55
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
ramuramu1838
GMATNinja

Hi ninja
I don’t see any major problem in D also not able to decide how E is better than D?
Show more

Hello ramuramu1838,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the clearest error in Option D is that the sentence formed by it joins two elements in a list - the actions "winds" and "is" - with a comma; remember, if two elements are listed together, they must be joined by a conjunction.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
avatar
ramuramu1838
avatar
Joined: 04 Mar 2018
Last visit: 19 Dec 2022
Posts: 23
Own Kudos:
1
Given Kudos: 154
Posts: 23
Kudos: 1
Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal 12 May 2022, 21:49
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
ExpertsGlobal5
ramuramu1838
GMATNinja

Hi ninja
I don’t see any major problem in D also not able to decide how E is better than D?

Hello ramuramu1838,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the clearest error in Option D is that the sentence formed by it joins two elements in a list - the actions "winds" and "is" - with a comma; remember, if two elements are listed together, they must be joined by a conjunction.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
Show more
avatar
ramuramu1838
avatar
Joined: 04 Mar 2018
Last visit: 19 Dec 2022
Posts: 23
Own Kudos:
1
Given Kudos: 154
Posts: 23
Kudos: 1
Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal 12 May 2022, 21:50
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
ExpertsGlobal5

I m not convinced with your explanation. IS has a different subject THE RIVER WALK & WINDS has a different subject THE RIVER. thus they are two different clauses JOINED by ,AND?
User avatar
KittyDoodles
User avatar
Joined: 21 Jan 2020
Last visit: 26 Mar 2025
Posts: 102
Own Kudos:
6
Given Kudos: 346
Schools: ISB '27 (A)
Schools: ISB '27 (A)
Posts: 102
Kudos: 6
Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal 10 Jul 2022, 00:19
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
GMATNinja
ballest127
Hi GMATNinja.

I'm still don't understand why B is incorrect.
IMO, B is better than E in that E compares the phrase between "The US no longer has river as ....... " and " the river winds through the middle of the business district." That is , I think in E there is wrong comparison.


Could be please explain why B is incorrect?

Thank you.
Good question! When we use "like" or "unlike" we have to compare nouns or noun phrases.

For example, "Philadelphia, like Boston, is a wonderful city, but it has an inferiority complex." (In case any Philly people are tempted to throw batteries at me: I LOVE Philly, and have family there. But it totally has an inferiority complex.) In this case, we're demonstrating a similarity between two cities, "Philadelphia" and "Boston." That's fine. What I can't do is write, "Philadelphia, like in Boston..." because now I'm demonstrating a similarity between a city and a prepositional phrase, and that would make no sense.

(B) has a similar problem. Here we have "Unlike the river..., in San Antonio," so we're comparing "the river" and the prepositional phrase, "in San Antonio." Even if the sentence said, "Unlike the river, San Antonio...," the construction still would be wrong, since we'd be comparing a river to a city.

Because (E) doesn't contain the word "unlike", we're under no obligation to compare nouns directly. Instead, we're comparing contrasting clauses, as indicated by "but." Because there's a logical contrast in the ideas expressed in each clause -- in most cities rivers aren't a focal point of life, but in San Antonio they are -- this construction is logical.

I hope that helps!
Show more

Hi GMATNinja,

In Option B, Can't we say the comparison is between "the river in many cities in the United States" and " in San Antonio the river". Can we consider it as a rule that in comparison question using "Unlike", the construction that follows unlike i.e noun or prepositional phrases must be in the same form as the entity that is being compared after the comma ( in this case we have a noun "the river in many cities in the United States" and a prepositional phrase " in San Antonio the river", thus making the comparison incorrect).

Also the usage of "which" in Option B, we have "the river in many cities in the United States, which". The preposition phrase "in many cities" is modifying river and "in the United States" is modifying cities thus indirectly modifying the river. So can "which" jump over these two modifiers and modify river. Thus is the usage of "which" correct?

Thanks
User avatar
GmatKnightTutor
User avatar
Major Poster
Joined: 31 Jan 2020
Last visit: 01 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,228
Own Kudos:
1,568
Given Kudos: 18
Posts: 5,228
Kudos: 1,568
Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal 10 Jul 2022, 02:52
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
KittyDoodles

(B) Unlike the river in many cities in the United States, which is no longer the focal point of urban life, in San Antonio the river

The first THE RIVER may make the noun a bit too specific. Also Unlike A, B... if THE RIVER was A, what is B? IN SAN ANTONIO is not parallel.
User avatar
SDW2
User avatar
Joined: 17 Jun 2020
Last visit: 05 Mar 2024
Posts: 102
Own Kudos:
11
Given Kudos: 314
Location: India
Schools: Simon '25
Schools: Simon '25
Posts: 102
Kudos: 11
Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal 31 Jul 2022, 10:40
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
GMATNinja
ballest127
Hi GMATNinja.

I'm still don't understand why B is incorrect.
IMO, B is better than E in that E compares the phrase between "The US no longer has river as ....... " and " the river winds through the middle of the business district." That is , I think in E there is wrong comparison.


Could be please explain why B is incorrect?

Thank you.
Good question! When we use "like" or "unlike" we have to compare nouns or noun phrases.

For example, "Philadelphia, like Boston, is a wonderful city, but it has an inferiority complex." (In case any Philly people are tempted to throw batteries at me: I LOVE Philly, and have family there. But it totally has an inferiority complex.) In this case, we're demonstrating a similarity between two cities, "Philadelphia" and "Boston." That's fine. What I can't do is write, "Philadelphia, like in Boston..." because now I'm demonstrating a similarity between a city and a prepositional phrase, and that would make no sense.

(B) has a similar problem. Here we have "Unlike the river..., in San Antonio," so we're comparing "the river" and the prepositional phrase, "in San Antonio." Even if the sentence said, "Unlike the river, San Antonio...," the construction still would be wrong, since we'd be comparing a river to a city.

Because (E) doesn't contain the word "unlike", we're under no obligation to compare nouns directly. Instead, we're comparing contrasting clauses, as indicated by "but." Because there's a logical contrast in the ideas expressed in each clause -- in most cities rivers aren't a focal point of life, but in San Antonio they are -- this construction is logical.

I hope that helps!
Show more

Hi GMATNinja,
Can we use like/ unlike to compare prepositional phrases? (eg. like in US, in Europe....)
If not then what other words are used to show comparison between prepositional phrases? Can "as" be used for the same?
User avatar
GMATNinja
User avatar
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 7,443
Own Kudos:
69,783
Given Kudos: 2,060
Status: GMAT/GRE/LSAT tutors
Location: United States (CO)
GMAT 1: 780 Q51 V46
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Products:
GMAT Club Tests Forum Quiz
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Posts: 7,443
Kudos: 69,783
Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal 14 Sep 2022, 14:31
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
ramuramu1838
GMATNinja

Hi ninja
I don’t see any major problem in D also not able to decide how E is better than D?
Show more
(D) is definitely a tricky one to eliminate.

We have a "but" in both (E) and (D), indicating that there should be a contrast here. In (D), we don't really get a contrast. (D) basically says, "a river is the focal point of urban life, BUT the river in San Antonio is a focal point." Sure, we can figure out what's going on once we factor in the opening modifier, but because there's no contrast between those clauses, the meaning isn't immediately clear.

In (E), the contrast is much clearer. Paraphrasing (E), we have: "It is no longer the case that many cities in the US have a river as the focal point... BUT San Antonio is an exception -- it DOES have a river as the focal point." So in (E), the "but" makes a lot more sense, and that makes the contrast and the overall meaning much easier to follow.

That's the main problem with (D), but there are a couple other little votes in favor of (E):

  • Having "a river" as the main subject of the first clause in (D) isn't great. Does this mean that there's one single river that's the focal point in a few US cities?
  • I'm not sure why we'd write "in few US cities today" instead of "In a few US cities today." The former makes us expect some sort of inverted sentence structure, such as, "In few US cities today is a river the focal point..." There's no specific rule here, but this just makes (D) unnecessarily confusing compared to (E).

So there aren't any smoking guns here, but since (D) has a couple of disadvantages compared to (E), (E) is our winner. It's admittedly not very satisfying, but welcome to GMAT SC!
User avatar
GMATNinja
User avatar
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 7,443
Own Kudos:
69,783
 [1]
Given Kudos: 2,060
Status: GMAT/GRE/LSAT tutors
Location: United States (CO)
GMAT 1: 780 Q51 V46
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Products:
GMAT Club Tests Forum Quiz
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Posts: 7,443
Kudos: 69,783
 [1]
Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal 14 Sep 2022, 14:38
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
SDW2
Hi GMATNinja,
Can we use like/ unlike to compare prepositional phrases? (eg. like in US, in Europe....)
If not then what other words are used to show comparison between prepositional phrases? Can "as" be used for the same?
Show more
(There's a great post about this very point here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/can-like-unl ... l#p2625565.)

Logically, it makes a lot of sense to have a noun after the word "like" (or unlike). After all, one thing can be like (or unlike) another thing. Can "in Japan" be like "in Greece"? Ehhhh... maybe? But it makes more sense to compare "being in Japan" to "being in Greece" (yes, "being" is a noun here -- a gerund, if you like the jargon).

As suggested by vv65 (see link above), it's probably a bad idea to make an elimination based on something like this right away. It's better to look for other decision points and see how your options stack up once all of the votes are tallied. Coming up with a list of "rules" to memorize and blindly apply won't get you very far on this test, sadly.
User avatar
GMATNinja
User avatar
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 7,443
Own Kudos:
69,783
 [1]
Given Kudos: 2,060
Status: GMAT/GRE/LSAT tutors
Location: United States (CO)
GMAT 1: 780 Q51 V46
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Products:
GMAT Club Tests Forum Quiz
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Posts: 7,443
Kudos: 69,783
 [1]
Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal 14 Sep 2022, 15:21
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
KittyDoodles
GMATNinja
ballest127
Hi GMATNinja.

I'm still don't understand why B is incorrect.
IMO, B is better than E in that E compares the phrase between "The US no longer has river as ....... " and " the river winds through the middle of the business district." That is , I think in E there is wrong comparison.


Could be please explain why B is incorrect?

Thank you.
Good question! When we use "like" or "unlike" we have to compare nouns or noun phrases.

For example, "Philadelphia, like Boston, is a wonderful city, but it has an inferiority complex." (In case any Philly people are tempted to throw batteries at me: I LOVE Philly, and have family there. But it totally has an inferiority complex.) In this case, we're demonstrating a similarity between two cities, "Philadelphia" and "Boston." That's fine. What I can't do is write, "Philadelphia, like in Boston..." because now I'm demonstrating a similarity between a city and a prepositional phrase, and that would make no sense.

(B) has a similar problem. Here we have "Unlike the river..., in San Antonio," so we're comparing "the river" and the prepositional phrase, "in San Antonio." Even if the sentence said, "Unlike the river, San Antonio...," the construction still would be wrong, since we'd be comparing a river to a city.

Because (E) doesn't contain the word "unlike", we're under no obligation to compare nouns directly. Instead, we're comparing contrasting clauses, as indicated by "but." Because there's a logical contrast in the ideas expressed in each clause -- in most cities rivers aren't a focal point of life, but in San Antonio they are -- this construction is logical.

I hope that helps!

Hi GMATNinja,

In Option B, Can't we say the comparison is between "the river in many cities in the United States" and " in San Antonio the river". Can we consider it as a rule that in comparison question using "Unlike", the construction that follows unlike i.e noun or prepositional phrases must be in the same form as the entity that is being compared after the comma ( in this case we have a noun "the river in many cities in the United States" and a prepositional phrase " in San Antonio the river", thus making the comparison incorrect).

{...}

Thanks
Show more
One thing we say all the time is that GMAT SC isn't about coming up with "rules" based on the OAs and hastily applying those "rules" to other questions. In this particular question, the funky comparison makes the meaning in (B) a bit harder to follow than the meaning in (E). Does that mean that something like this will ALWAYS be wrong? Not necessarily. But it's certainly something to consider when comparing your options.

In this case, the funky comparison gives us a solid vote in favor of (E) over (B). As pointed out by GmatTutorKnight, the article "the" in (B) is also problematic: is there just ONE river shared by the many cities? Again, that's not definitively WRONG, exactly, but it's another reason why (E) is the better option.

Quote:
Also the usage of "which" in Option B, we have "the river in many cities in the United States, which". The preposition phrase "in many cities" is modifying river and "in the United States" is modifying cities thus indirectly modifying the river. So can "which" jump over these two modifiers and modify river. Thus is the usage of "which" correct?
Show more
Again, is it WRONG to have a noun modifier ("which...") that jumps over two prepositional phrases? Not necessarily. But this structure does make the reader's life a bit harder, giving us yet another small vote in favor of (E) over (B).
User avatar
Solenja
User avatar
Joined: 23 Sep 2021
Last visit: 11 Aug 2025
Posts: 127
Own Kudos:
63
Given Kudos: 257
GRE 1: Q163 V157
GRE 1: Q163 V157
Posts: 127
Kudos: 63
Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal 16 Sep 2022, 01:03
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
I think the majority of the options could be eliminated on the basis comparison issue.
User avatar
Raman109
User avatar
Joined: 17 Aug 2009
Last visit: 28 Jul 2025
Posts: 805
Own Kudos:
170
Given Kudos: 33
Posts: 805
Kudos: 170
Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal 07 Oct 2023, 04:24
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal point of urban life, the river in San Antonio winds through the middle of the business district, and the River Walk, or Paseo del Rio, is the city's most popular attraction.

Option Elimination -

(A) Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal point of urban life, the river in San Antonio - "Unlike" comparison marker. We need parallel elements. Here, many US cities are compared with the river. Wrong.

(B) Unlike the river in many cities in the United States, which is no longer the focal point of urban life, in San Antonio the river - "Unlike" comparison marker. We need parallel elements. Here, the river (noun) is compared with a prepositional phrase - in San Antonio. Wrong.

(C) Today the river in many cities in the United States is no longer the focal point of urban life, unlike San Antonio, where it - "Unlike" comparison marker. We need parallel elements. Here, the river is compared with San Antonio. Wrong.

(D) In few United States cities today, a river is the focal point of urban life, but the river in San Antonio - Let's first acknowledge that there is no comparison marker. So we don't need comparison word parallelism here. Here, it's just IC (independent clause), but IC. "But" is used to introduce a contrast, but the contrast is not apparent here. It talks about few (“Few” means “not many” or “a small number of.” It is used to refer to a nonspecific quantity of countable nouns. ) US cities have a river as a focal point, but in SA, the river is a focal point.

(E) No longer do many cities in the United States have a river as the focal point of urban life, but in San Antonio the river - perfect. There is no comparison marker. So we don't need comparison word parallelism here. Here, it's just IC (independent clause), but IC. And the contrast is clear.
   1   2   3 
Moderators:
GMATNinja
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
7443 posts
GMATNinjaTwo
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
231 posts
miag
188 posts