Unlike the Second World War, when long voyages home aboard troopships

Unlike the Second World War, when long voyages home aboard troopships gave soldiers a chance to talk out their experiences and begin to absorb them, Vietnam returnees often came home by jet, singly or in small groups.

(A) Second World War, when long voyages home aboard troopships gave soldiers ( comparison is B/w s.world war and Vietnam returnees, incorrect)
(B) soldier coming home after the Second World War on long voyages aboard troopships who had (who refers to the troopship rather than soldier)
(C) soldiers of the Second World War, whose long voyage home aboard a troopship gave him (him incorrectly refers to soldiers)
(D) troopships on long voyages home after the Second World War which gave the soldier ( comparison is between troopships and Vietnam returnees)
(E) soldiers of the Second World War, whose long voyages home aboard troopships gave them(correct, comparison is between soldiers of the second world war and Vietnam returnees)

Will go with choice E

Thanks & Regards

Unlike the Second World War, when long voyages home aboard troopships gave soldiers a chance to talk out their experiences and begin to absorb them, Vietnam returnees often came home by jet, singly or in small groups.

Mostly a question of wrong comparisons


(A) Second World War, when long voyages home aboard troopships gave soldiers a --- 1, wrong comparison between a war and soldiers. 2. a War is an event. 'when' is not an appropriate adverb to refer to it .


(B) soldier coming home after the Second World War on long voyages aboard troopships who had --- 1. Use of the singular solder to compare Vietnam returnees is incongruous. 2. troopships are not humans to be referred by 'who'

(C) soldiers of the Second World War, whose long voyage home aboard a troopship gave him --- Soldiers and him -- pronoun mismatch


(D) troopships on long voyages home after the Second World War which gave the soldier -- comparison of troopships with the Vietnam returnees is wrong

(E) soldiers of the Second World War, whose long voyages home aboard troopships gave the --- Correct comparison and choice

TIME magazine (April 23, 1979 | Vol. 113 No. 17)
Nation: Heroes Without Honor Face the Battle at Home LINK
Monday, Apr. 23, 1979

Psychologist Figley feels the trend toward dealing more openly with the war will be good for the disaffected veterans. After World War II, the long voyages home aboard troopships gave soldiers a chance to talk out their experiences and begin to absorb them. Viet Nam returnees often came home by jet, singly or in small groups. What is more, they came home to a society that was not anxious to hear about their traumas. Says Veteran Bill De Bruler: "After exchanging experiences, you feel cleansed in an odd way and you forget for a while that what you did was all for naught."

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Here we need to make the clause after the word unlike parallel to "Vietnam returnees often came home by jet, singly or in small groups"
Vietnem returnees are parallel to soldiers of the second world war, hence options A and D can be neglected.
In Option B the tense of coming home is wrong as everything in the sentence in in past tense.
Option C is wrong because of the pronoun him doesnt match with the plural noun, soldiers.
All these errors are corrected in option E, hence ans is E.

Hi MikeScarn,
We need a COMMA before WHICH in GMAT otherwise the sentence will be considered as faulty. In this sentence, WHICH doesn't make the sentence independent clause for using the word "unlike", I think ! I mean, both part doesn't make the sentence (combined) run-on.
This one is my personal conviction.
Thanks__

Hi daagh,
I have a curiosity in your explanation.
In B, does it matter that "comparable things (soldier, returnees) must be in same number?" I mean-if "soldier" is used as singular, then "returnee" must be used as "singular" and If "soldier" is used as plural, then "returnee" must be used as plural?
Thanks_

Hi all of my honorable expert,
I've a question on highlighted part.

Hi aragonn,
I've read the official explanation. In this explanation, it is said that "In choice B, the singular soldier does not agree in number with the plural returnees".
My questions to my honorable expert:
Q1: Does it matter that "comparable things (soldier, returnees) must be in same number?" I mean-if "soldier" is used as singular, then "returnee" must be used as "singular" and If "soldier" is used as plural, then "returnee" must be used as plural?
Q2: How will someone be convinced that "Vietnam returnees" are the soldiers?

EDITED:
In Q2, if "Vietnam returnees" are replaced with "Indian returnees", then does it make sense? If I replace "Vietnam returnees" with "Indian returnees", there will be no problem in grammar structure in the newly edited sentence, but the historical background will be changed, may be.
So,........
Original Sentence:
Unlike the soldiers of the Second World War, whose long voyages home aboard troopships gave them a chance to talk out their experiences and begin to absorb them, Vietnam returnees often came home by jet, singly or in small groups.
--> History says: "Vietnam returnees" are soldiers, I guess (though I have no idea about history!). So, if the "Vietnam returnees" are kind of "soldiers", then the BOLD parts make sense.

Now editing the original sentence by replacing with "Indian returnees".

Edited sentence: (can we be far away from history for some moment:) ?)

Unlike the soldiers of the Second World War, whose long voyages home aboard troopships gave them a chance to talk out their experiences and begin to absorb them, Indian returnees often came home by jet, singly or in small groups.
--> Does it make sense? I mean: how do someone convinced that this "Indian returnees" are kind of "soldiers"? Can be "Vietnam returnees" something like "Indian refugees", isn't it? If this is the case, how "Soldiers" and "Indian returnees" are parallel each other in bold parts?


In short, how will someone be convinced that 'soldiers' equals to 'Vietnam returnees' (for parallelism)?

Well yes, number must match, but meaning should also match. I dont have the link but there is a question in which rpm of engine was compared with rpms of tire. All I am saying is you should take a look on the meaning of the sentence. Always try to find out what is compared with what. That is the right way to solve these questions.

I am not sure what you are asking in 2nd question. but what I understood, I think it can be correct in situations.

Responses in green above.

Hi sir MartyMurray,
From your response, it seems that the matter is totally depends on judgement. So, finally I got my expected answer. All of my confusion has been removed, but I've still a query. If I delete some parts in B, then does the sentence still make sense? Here is the B again.


Unlike the (B) soldier coming home after the Second World War on long voyages aboard troopships who had a chance to talk out their experiences and begin to absorb them, Vietnam returnees often came home by jet, singly or in small groups.

In this choice, there is a definite article (the) before singular soldier. So, the definite article (the) indicates that this soldier is specific whom I know very well. So, what's wrong with if I compare "Vietnam returnees" with one specific known person (soldier)?
Thanks__

In a context other than the GMAT, that sentence could be fine. While I'm still not 100 percent sure about comparisons in which singular nouns come before plural ones, I personally find that sentence OK.

Hi aragonn,
I'm writing this one to make your attention-probably, it may also help you.
The following question is from Official Guide 12th edition, page# 41. Question# 37.
This question could be the perfect example where "number doesn't matter in comparable things!"



The correct choice:


Finally thanks to my honorable expert MartyMurray specially for his creative example.
Thanks to all__

AsadAbu - I think you forgot to read full sentence. I have mentioned the exception as well.

I think, there is no exception rule, at least in like/unlike types question, in Sentence correction in GMAT; they're actually totally intended meaning and judgement. If I take any specific question as exception, this may misguide me all the times. This one is my personal conviction.
Thanks__

I have a question although I got the correct answer.
For (E), how far back can the word "whose" refer. Does it have a different rule compared with "which"?
Is it because "of the Second World War" is a preposition phrase modifying "soldiers"?
For some reason, sometimes I think "which" describes the immediate preceding noun, and some other time, "which" can refer noun further back in the sentence.

Hi lary301254M7,
Correction: In E, the last word (the), which is in bold, must be replaced with them according to official question.

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