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655-705 Level|   Comparisons|      
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arvind910619
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 02 Oct 2017, 23:40
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HarveyS
Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost; the thoroughness of the design submission was also factored into the decision

    Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
    This year, unlike last year, the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
    Unlike the previous year’s bidding, this year the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
    Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the bidding for the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost, instead
    Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract’s bidding this year were awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
Show more

The answer is B
Unlike the previous year's bidding should be compared with the bidding this year.
C is out
D and E are out because of meaning .The contract is awarded based on the bidding .
Bidding is process which allows interested people to bid for a certain product and the product is awarded to individual who bid highest .
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 03 Oct 2017, 15:30
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Dear mikemcgarry,

I hope you are well :-)

In Choice D & E, there is something interesting. Regardless of SV agreement in E and instead in D, I spotted another strange meaning.

D) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the bidding for the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost, instead

E) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract’s bidding this year were awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;


How come 'the bidding was awarded'? it is nonsensical meaning. The contract should be awarded not the bidding.

What do you think??

Thanks in advance
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 04 Oct 2017, 16:15
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Mo2men
Dear mikemcgarry,

I hope you are well :-)

In Choice D & E, there is something interesting. Regardless of SV agreement in E and instead in D, I spotted another strange meaning.

D) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the bidding for the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost, instead

E) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract’s bidding this year were awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;


How come 'the bidding was awarded'? it is nonsensical meaning. The contract should be awarded not the bidding.

What do you think??

Thanks in advance
Show more
Dear Mo2men,

I'm happy to respond. :-)

With all due respect, I am not sure I understand your question. The phrase "the bidding was awarded" is 100% correct: it's passive, but we don't know the actor and don't care. Nothing here suggests that the contract itself awarded the bidding--I'm unclear how you arrived at that interpretation.

I will be happy to respond if you can clarify your concerns.

Mike :-)
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 04 Oct 2017, 17:29
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Dear mikemcgarry,

I hope you are well :-)

In Choice D & E, there is something interesting. Regardless of SV agreement in E and instead in D, I spotted another strange meaning.

D) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the bidding for the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost, instead

E) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract’s bidding this year were awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;


How come 'the bidding was awarded'? it is nonsensical meaning. The contract should be awarded not the bidding.

What do you think??

Thanks in advance
Dear Mo2men,

I'm happy to respond. :-)

With all due respect, I am not sure I understand your question. The phrase "the bidding was awarded" is 100% correct: it's passive, but we don't know the actor and don't care. Nothing here suggests that the contract itself awarded the bidding--I'm unclear how you arrived at that interpretation.

I will be happy to respond if you can clarify your concerns.

Mike :-)
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Dear mikemcgarry

In the business world, the bidding is a Process in which companies submit proposals, committee formed to review them and then choose a company. The result will be a contract that is awarded. It is nonsensical that a process is awarded.

You may consider my analysis is outside knowledge but in business it s elementary

I hope you clarified my point
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 04 Oct 2017, 22:50
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Mo2men
Dear mikemcgarry,

I hope you are well :-)

In Choice D & E, there is something interesting. Regardless of SV agreement in E and instead in D, I spotted another strange meaning.

D) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the bidding for the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost, instead

E) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract’s bidding this year were awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;


How come 'the bidding was awarded'? it is nonsensical meaning. The contract should be awarded not the bidding.

What do you think??

Thanks in advance
Show more

Check this comment on previous page:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/unlike-the-p ... l#p1373521
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 05 Oct 2017, 10:00
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Mo2men
Dear mikemcgarry

In the business world, the bidding is a Process in which companies submit proposals, committee formed to review them and then choose a company. The result will be a contract that is awarded. It is nonsensical that a process is awarded.

You may consider my analysis is outside knowledge but in business it s elementary

I hope you clarified my point
Show more
Dear Mo2men,

I'm happy to respond. :-)

I see that you already have a response from the genius VeritasPrepKarishma who fully agrees with you.

Here's what I'll say. Consider an abstract Venn diagram. One circle is what is rigorous logical and the other is what people actually say. There's a ton that people say in every day ordinary conversation that defies all conventions of logic. In this instance, I would say "the bidding was awarded" is one of those things that is technically illogical but clear enough in meaning that it probably would pass in context. To my ear, it sounds like something not so jarringly illogical---I think it would pass in conversation.

Of course, any OA on the GMAT would be squarely in the intersection region of that abstract Venn diagram, rigorously logically correct and natural to say. It's true that we can eliminate wrong answer choices that make grossly illogical mistakes. In (D) & (E), I would say that we're in a gray area: if we use our knowledge of the business world, we can see that this is technically illogical, but it also sounds a little like something that would pass in conversation. The GMAT is NOT going to hand you a choice of this sort. Even in this Veritas question, (D) & (E) are wrong for other reasons, and then there's also this funky gray-area thing--that is, very much how anything gray-area appears on the GMAT.

Does all this make sense?
Mike :-)
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 13 Oct 2017, 20:38
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost; the thoroughness of the design submission was also factored into the decision

(A) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;

(B) This year, unlike last year, the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;

(C) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, this year the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;

(D) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the bidding for the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost, instead

(E) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract’s bidding this year were awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
Show more

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION


Correct answer: (B)

The word “unlike” indicates that parallel structure is probably being tested.

In (A), we have “Unlike . . the bidding” . . . “the contract.” But the bidding is not unlike the contract; they’re not being compared.

Similarly, (C) compares “the previous year’s bidding” to “this year,” but you can’t compare “bidding” to “year.”

Choice (B), the correct choice, compares “This year” to “last year”–a logical comparison.

Choice (D) correctly compares “bidding” to “bidding,” but creates a comma splice; a semicolon, not a comma should be used to join independent clauses. This is a Sentence Construction error that results in a run-on sentence.

Choice (E) awkwardly modifies “bidding” with “contract’s.” The bidding is not the possession of the contract.

Furthermore, this choice has an agreement problem: the singular “bidding” takes “was,” not “were.”
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 16 Nov 2018, 05:13
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(A) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
Wrong --> Incorrect comparison "bidding" with "contract"

(B) This year, unlike last year, the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
Hold

(C) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, this year the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
Wrong --> Incorrect comparison "bidding" with "this year"

(D) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the bidding for the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost, instead
Hold
Meaning issue --> Bidding was awarded. The sentence should point that the contract was awarded not the bidding was awarded.

(E) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract’s bidding this year were awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
Wrong --> S-V issue, bidding(singular)==> were(plural)

Hence, B is the Answer.
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 18 Nov 2018, 06:11
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Simply if we look at all the options closely we will find that in b it is offering contract, in all other options it is offering bidding which is wrong.
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 10 Mar 2019, 06:03
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D makes an obvious logical error. It says that ‘the…bidding’ was awarded. ‘bidding’ is done, the contract is awarded.So this one can be discarded.

A compares ‘bidding’ with ‘contract’, so it should be discarded too.
C compared ‘bidding’ with ‘year’
E uses ‘unlike’ to compare actions. ‘Like’ and ‘unlike’ can only be used to compare nouns.

B is the right answer.

Posted from my mobile device
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 20 Apr 2019, 01:38
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'Unlike the previous year’s bidding' will be compared to 'this year's bidding' and not 'the contract' or 'year'. Hence Eliminate A and C.
Non-underlined sentence is a complete sentence as there is ;(semi-colon) so 'instead' in D is unnecessary. eliminate D
bidding is singular so verb used will be singular. E uses 'were'. So eliminated.
B rightly compares 'previous year' and 'this year' and is clear, concise. Hence B
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 18 Aug 2019, 13:49
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost; the thoroughness of the design submission was also factored into the decision

Incorrect comparisons
(A) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
(C) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, this year the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
(E) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract’s bidding this year were awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;

D seems to be a run-on sentence
(D) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the bidding for the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost, instead

(B) This year, unlike last year, the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 11 Jul 2020, 04:16
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost; the thoroughness of the design submission was also factored into the decision

(A) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
In this choice we are comparing bidding with the contract

(B) This year, unlike last year, the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
Here we are comparing year to year so this is the correct choice.

(C) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, this year the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
In this choice we are comparing bidding with this year.

(D) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the bidding for the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost, instead
In this choice we are comparing bidding with the bidding but it changes the meaning fo the sentence.
(E) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract’s bidding this year were awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
In this choice we are comparing bidding with this year
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 11 Jul 2020, 04:22
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I have a doubt - is the usage of unlike similar to that of like??
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 11 Jul 2020, 09:51
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Answer (B)

(A) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
Wrong comparison - bidding compared to contract

(B) This year, unlike last year, the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
CORRECT

(C) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, this year the contract was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
Wrong comparison - bidding compared to "this year"

(D) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the bidding for the contract this year was awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost, instead
Comparison is OKAY. But there is Meaning error - Bidding is not awarded, but the contract is.
Also "instead" is not a conjunction and cannot connect 2 clauses.

(E) Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract’s bidding this year were awarded not simply to the firm offering to complete the work on time for the least cost;
Same meaning error as in (D). Also S-V agreement error - were is wrong.
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 14 Jul 2020, 00:12
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Dear IanStewart

I would much appreciate if you could comment on my reasoning below:

I think B cannot be the OA. The comparison B constructs with “unlike” is invalid in that “unlike” wrongly contrasts adverbial modifiers rather than nouns. In B, “this year” and “last year” serve as adverbs modifying the verb “was awarded”. Hence, “unlike” cannot compare them.

If “this year” served as the subject, then the comparison would work:
- This year, unlike last year, has brought many problems.

Many thanks beforehand!
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JonShukhrat

I think B cannot be the OA. The comparison B constructs with “unlike” is invalid in that “unlike” wrongly contrasts adverbial modifiers rather than nouns. In B, “this year” and “last year” serve as adverbs modifying the verb “was awarded”. Hence, “unlike” cannot compare them.
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Answer B looks fine to me (if I ignore how awkward the writing is). It sounds like you're recalling some rule about comparison words and adverbs, and I don't think about SC in terms of grammar rules, so I can't easily say whether and how that rule applies here. Answer B is comparing two like things (one year and another) and its meaning is clear enough, which makes it much better than any of the other answer choices.
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 16 Jul 2020, 10:26
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Dear IanStewart

Let me, please, paraphrase with less jargon:

“unlike” can compare nouns
“unlike” can NOT compare adverbs

Both “this year” and “last year” can be either nouns or adverbs:
- This year was cold and wet. (“this year” is a noun; what was cold?)
- This year the spring was cold and wet. (“this year” is an adverb; when was the spring cold?)

“unlike” can compare “this year” with “last year” when they are nouns, not adverbs:
- This year, unlike last year, was cold and wet. (correct)
- This year, unlike last year, the spring was cold and wet. (wrong)

In B, “this year” and “last year” are adverbs, so “unlike” can NOT compare them. The correct example above compares one year with another, whereas the wrong example tries to compare one spring with another, not the years themselves. Choice B looks like the latter example: it tries to compare one event with another in the wrong way. B does NOT compare one year with another, as it may seem below.

IanStewart

Answer B is comparing two like things (one year and another) and its meaning is clear enough, which makes it much better than any of the other answer choices.
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There is an official problem with similar wrong answer choice:

- (E) Today, Hispanics under the age of eighteen in California account for more than 43 percent, unlike a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent. (wrong choice)

Here is what Ron says about it. He uses no jargon, so he may deliver what I mean.

Hence, I dare say that B is wrong.
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 16 Jul 2020, 12:06
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JonShukhrat

In B, “this year” and “last year” are adverbs, so “unlike” can NOT compare them.
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While "last year" can function as an adverb, "year" itself is a noun, and "unlike" can compare one noun with another, so I don't see an issue here. And even if, technically speaking, the usage of "unlike" in answer B did violate the letter of some grammar rule, the usage is so common that it would widely be considered acceptable. I'll cite the Cambridge Dictionary as evidence ( https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictio ... ish/unlike ) -- in their examples of correct usage of "unlike", they include the sentence "The village fete went well, unlike the previous year when very few people came." which seems to match fairly closely the sentence in this question.

JonShukhrat

There is an official problem with similar wrong answer choice:

- (E) Today, Hispanics under the age of eighteen in California account for more than 43 percent, unlike a decade ago, when it was about 35 percent. (wrong choice)

Here is what Ron says about it. He uses no jargon, so he may deliver what I mean.
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I can see at least three critically fatal errors in that answer choice before I even consider whether "unlike" is used correctly, so I don't think you should take it as any kind of evidence of how GMAC looks at this issue.
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lakshya14
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Unlike the previous year’s bidding, the contract this year was awarded 27 Feb 2021, 15:28
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Is "bidding" action in this or a noun?
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