ammuseeru wrote:
leeye84 wrote:
Unlike most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warbler are very difficult to tell apart.
(A) Unlike most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warbler are very difficult to tell apart.
(B) Unlike most warbler species, the gender of the blue-winged warbler is very difficult to distinguish.
(C) Unlike those in most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warblers are very difficult to distinguish.
(D) It is very difficult, unlike in most warbler species, to tell the male and female blue-winged warbler apart.
(E) Blue-winged warblers are unlike most species of warbler in that it is very difficult to tell the male and female apart.
Source : GMAT Paper Test Test Code 52 Q22
i chose C. My approach was
Unlike "Male and female" in most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged are very difficult to distinguish....I thought "THOSE" in C refers to "MALE AND FEMALE Warblers"
Can anyone please explain why C is wrong. I went thru thread but i couldn't get much help.
I rejected E because of "IN THAT" word. I found E awkward. I know awkward is not any approach but still i couldn't understand/feel that E is right.
Excellent question! You're right that because the subject of the first clause, "those," is plural, it should logically refer to the plural subject of the subsequent clause, "the male and female blue-winged warblers." But if we substitute the referent in place of "those," we get, "Unlike
the male and female blue-winged warblers in most warbler species,
the male and female blue-winged warblers are very difficult to distinguish.
How can male and female blue-winged warblers be unlike
themselves??? That's just nutty. So (C) is out.
Here's (E) again:
- Blue-winged warblers are unlike most species of warbler in that it is very difficult to tell the male and female apart.
While "in that" sounds a little goofy to my ear,
we never want to eliminate answer choices simply because they sound a little off. Otherwise the question writer can seduce us into selecting the wrong answer every single time by having the OA sound a funny.
In this case, "in that" is used to introduce a supporting example. How are blue-winged warblers unlike most species of warbler?
In that it's difficult to tell the sexes apart. Makes sense to me.
Most importantly, don't waste brain space obsessing over esoteric constructions, such as "in that." Instead, just know that on difficult SC questions, the correct answer will sometimes sound a little strange to your ear, and this is intentional. It's why we want to
use logic, meaning, and grammar to eliminate incorrect options, rather than relying on our ear.I hope that helps!