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nilaythakkar
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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 11 Jan 2022, 16:24
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The point is not rather those which clearly refers to Unions

Unlike the unions in the US, THOSE in Japan.........which is the perfect way of comparison

Hre the real point is the exact construction.

Introductory Prepositional Phrases on X, the union in Japan (subject) appear (verb) how (reluctant - adjective) to do what? Organize

Straight
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Thank you for your quick response.

Are you suggesting that we should treat Japanese Unions as Unions in Japan?
If the construction would have been:

Unlike those in the United States, unions in Japan appear reluctant to organize

I would have been perfectly fine with it. But in option B we have a modifier preceding 'Union'.

Would it be correct to say that a pronoun can refer to a subject without carrying the modifier?

There are red apples in the fridge, and those on the table are green.


Would you say that in the sentence above 'those' refers to apples and not to red apples?
Again, if we use common sense it would be obvious that red apples can't be green, and so 'those' refers to apples.
I am trying to improve on SC by getting rid of the 'sound' in my head, and really appreciate the support.
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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 18 Jan 2022, 05:18
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nilaythakkar
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The point is not rather those which clearly refers to Unions

Unlike the unions in the US, THOSE in Japan.........which is the perfect way of comparison

Hre the real point is the exact construction.

Introductory Prepositional Phrases on X, the union in Japan (subject) appear (verb) how (reluctant - adjective) to do what? Organize

Straight

Thank you for your quick response.

Are you suggesting that we should treat Japanese Unions as Unions in Japan?
If the construction would have been:

Unlike those in the United States, unions in Japan appear reluctant to organize

I would have been perfectly fine with it. But in option B we have a modifier preceding 'Union'.

Would it be correct to say that a pronoun can refer to a subject without carrying the modifier?

There are red apples in the fridge, and those on the table are green.


Would you say that in the sentence above 'those' refers to apples and not to red apples?
Again, if we use common sense it would be obvious that red apples can't be green, and so 'those' refers to apples.
I am trying to improve on SC by getting rid of the 'sound' in my head, and really appreciate the support.
Show more

Hello nilaythakkar,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, your reasoning is essentially correct here.

In this sentence, "Japanese unions" can be understood to mean "Unions in Japan". Further, pronouns can indeed refer to a subject without carrying the modifier.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 02 Feb 2022, 17:01
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nilaythakkar
carcass
The point is not rather those which clearly refers to Unions

Unlike the unions in the US, THOSE in Japan.........which is the perfect way of comparison

Hre the real point is the exact construction.

Introductory Prepositional Phrases on X, the union in Japan (subject) appear (verb) how (reluctant - adjective) to do what? Organize

Straight

Thank you for your quick response.

Are you suggesting that we should treat Japanese Unions as Unions in Japan?
If the construction would have been:

Unlike those in the United States, unions in Japan appear reluctant to organize

I would have been perfectly fine with it. But in option B we have a modifier preceding 'Union'.

Would it be correct to say that a pronoun can refer to a subject without carrying the modifier?

There are red apples in the fridge, and those on the table are green.


Would you say that in the sentence above 'those' refers to apples and not to red apples?
Again, if we use common sense it would be obvious that red apples can't be green, and so 'those' refers to apples.
I am trying to improve on SC by getting rid of the 'sound' in my head, and really appreciate the support.
Show more
I feel your pain here, nilaythakkar. I think this is roughly what you're saying:

  • "The apples in the fridge are red, and those on the table are green." - Flawless, right? "Those" refers to "apples", and there's no chance for confusion.
  • "There are red apples in the fridge, and those on the table are green." - Now this doesn't seem quite right. It feels like "those" refers to "red apples", and it doesn't make sense to say that the "red apples... are green." I don't know that it's WRONG, exactly, but it's definitely a little bit confusing.

Back to the answer choice in question:
Quote:
(B) Unlike those in the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize...
Show more
Do I love it? No. But is it a catastrophe and definitely WRONG? Also no. My first instinct is that "those" does indeed refer to Japanese unions, and that makes me hesitate. But it isn't a huge stretch to think that "those" refers to just "unions" here, and I can't automatically eliminate the answer choice. In (B), the pronoun qualifies as "mildly confusing" in my book, and that's not enough to cross (B) out -- at least not until I'm sure that there's a better option.

And of course, there isn't a better option. Welcome to the GMAT!

The takeaway: if a pronoun seems shaky but not absolutely WRONG, be conservative and hang onto that answer choice. You can always eliminate it later if you see a better option.

One last thought: this is a much older question that ultimately hinges on an idiom in (E), and it's hard to find many newer questions that look much like this one. I'm not arguing that it's invalid or anything, but I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it.

For what it's worth, I think you're on the right path -- getting the "sound" out of your head on SC is the right thing to do.

I hope that helps a bit!
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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 12 Feb 2022, 23:13
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Thanks for the great explanation GMATNinja

Can you explain as to why C is wrong? People are eliminating it on the basis of parallelism but isn't the rule supposed to go from right to left and not left to right? Doesn't "in" carry over to "the United States" as well because "in" can be taken as a stem and both Japan and the united States as lists.

Thanks in advance :)

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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 13 Feb 2022, 06:08
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Dystopian69
Thanks for the great explanation GMATNinja

Can you explain as to why C is wrong? People are eliminating it on the basis of parallelism but isn't the rule supposed to go from right to left and not left to right? Doesn't "in" carry over to "the United States" as well because "in" can be taken as a stem and both Japan and the united States as lists.

Thanks in advance :)

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Hello Dystopian69,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can resolve your doubt.

Another problem with Option C is that it places information vital to the core meaning of the sentence - the fact that comparison is made between Japan and the United States - between two commas; remember, information that is vital to the core meaning of the sentence should never be placed between two commas.

Thus, even if you do not consider the parallelism issue, Option C is still incorrect.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 21 Mar 2022, 19:55
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To organize( correct)
About organizing ( wrong).
Eliminate E.

Eliminate A,D.
Compares unions to country.

In Japan, unlike (in) USA,.... is correct comparison.

B- correct. Even though little ambiguous ( those in refers to unions or Japanese unions) but still better than other options

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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 21 Mar 2022, 20:04
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B- correct. Even though little ambiguous ( those in refers to unions or Japanese unions) but still better than other options

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Hi Ghostrider3147,
Good analysis, but you appear to have overlooked a slight point. There is no ambiguity in B. It refers only to "unions", since the right hand side has "Japanese unions" as the noun -- so we are comparing the unions in 2 countries, by virtue of parallelism.

For the "those" in B to refer to "Japanese unions", there would need to be "Japanese unions in some country" in the second half of the comparison.

Hope this helps.
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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 30 Mar 2022, 05:08
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sayantanc2k
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(C) In Japan, unlike the United States, unions appear reluctant to organize

if you remove comma,
In Japan, unions appear reluctant to organize lower-paid workers.

What am I missing?

Whats is your query exactly? Are you trying to find the problem in option C? If that is the case then following is my response:

"In Japan" should be parallel to "in Unted States", not just "United States". Therefore C is wrong. Moreover in that case like/ unlike would not be appropriate; connectors such as "as/in contrary" would be required.
Show more

Also the motive or purpose of author is to differentiate and talk about the unions. The option C places more emphasis on the country. Hence we can eliminate it.

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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 31 May 2022, 01:47
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I completely agree with daagh here, neither B nor E is near acceptable. Guys we know that meaning is more crucial than idiom precision, please we have to agree on this.

B is equivalent to " Unlike Japnese unions in the US...", that makes no sense. NO! its not "unlike unions in the US...", the following subject after comma is "japnese unions" not "unions in Japan"
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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 31 May 2022, 01:52
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nilaythakkar
carcass
The point is not rather those which clearly refers to Unions

Unlike the unions in the US, THOSE in Japan.........which is the perfect way of comparison

Hre the real point is the exact construction.

Introductory Prepositional Phrases on X, the union in Japan (subject) appear (verb) how (reluctant - adjective) to do what? Organize

Straight

Thank you for your quick response.

Are you suggesting that we should treat Japanese Unions as Unions in Japan?
If the construction would have been:

Unlike those in the United States, unions in Japan appear reluctant to organize

I would have been perfectly fine with it. But in option B we have a modifier preceding 'Union'.

Would it be correct to say that a pronoun can refer to a subject without carrying the modifier?

There are red apples in the fridge, and those on the table are green.


Would you say that in the sentence above 'those' refers to apples and not to red apples?
Again, if we use common sense it would be obvious that red apples can't be green, and so 'those' refers to apples.
I am trying to improve on SC by getting rid of the 'sound' in my head, and really appreciate the support.
I feel your pain here, nilaythakkar. I think this is roughly what you're saying:

  • "The apples in the fridge are red, and those on the table are green." - Flawless, right? "Those" refers to "apples", and there's no chance for confusion.
  • "There are red apples in the fridge, and those on the table are green." - Now this doesn't seem quite right. It feels like "those" refers to "red apples", and it doesn't make sense to say that the "red apples... are green." I don't know that it's WRONG, exactly, but it's definitely a little bit confusing.

Back to the answer choice in question:
Quote:
(B) Unlike those in the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize...
Do I love it? No. But is it a catastrophe and definitely WRONG? Also no. My first instinct is that "those" does indeed refer to Japanese unions, and that makes me hesitate. But it isn't a huge stretch to think that "those" refers to just "unions" here, and I can't automatically eliminate the answer choice. In (B), the pronoun qualifies as "mildly confusing" in my book, and that's not enough to cross (B) out -- at least not until I'm sure that there's a better option.

And of course, there isn't a better option. Welcome to the GMAT!

The takeaway: if a pronoun seems shaky but not absolutely WRONG, be conservative and hang onto that answer choice. You can always eliminate it later if you see a better option.

One last thought: this is a much older question that ultimately hinges on an idiom in (E), and it's hard to find many newer questions that look much like this one. I'm not arguing that it's invalid or anything, but I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it.

For what it's worth, I think you're on the right path -- getting the "sound" out of your head on SC is the right thing to do.

I hope that helps a bit!
Show more

Hi GmatNinja, as you mentioned again and again in your posts, don't bother remembering that 25000 idioms as the GMAT no longer tests your memory on idioms (in most cases).

In this question, apart from that idiom "reluctant about/reluctant to", what else makes B inferior to E?

Anyway, I highly doubt this is an official question. This is not just pronoun ambiguity, it's more than mildly confusing to substitute "japanese unions" with just "unions".
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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 31 May 2022, 03:39
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Hi GmatNinja, as you mentioned again and again in your posts, don't bother remembering that 25000 idioms as the GMAT no longer tests your memory on idioms (in most cases).

In this question, apart from that idiom "reluctant about/reluctant to", what else makes B inferior to E?

Anyway, I highly doubt this is an official question. This is not just pronoun ambiguity, it's more than mildly confusing to substitute "japanese unions" with just "unions".
Show more
Hello, Jezza. I just wanted to let you know that, spurred by your query, I decided to conduct a little research into the source of the question. According to Google Books, it does indeed come from the OG11, published in 2005 (and digitized in 2010). The following preview image, as well as another with a different page number (672), was all I could get:

Attachment:
Screen Shot 2022-05-31 at 06.21.45.png
Screen Shot 2022-05-31 at 06.21.45.png [ 15.74 KiB | Viewed 1226 times ]
It is interesting that the question never made an appearance in any other edition of the guide, but we cannot speculate that the reason is that the question is flawed. I would just say to learn what you can from it and move on.

- Andrew
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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 31 May 2022, 05:44
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Jezza


Hi GmatNinja, as you mentioned again and again in your posts, don't bother remembering that 25000 idioms as the GMAT no longer tests your memory on idioms (in most cases).

In this question, apart from that idiom "reluctant about/reluctant to", what else makes B inferior to E?

Anyway, I highly doubt this is an official question. This is not just pronoun ambiguity, it's more than mildly confusing to substitute "japanese unions" with just "unions".
Show more

Hello Jezza,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, aside from the idiom issue, Option E can also be considered inferior to B because the construction "Japanese unions, unlike those in the United States," is a bit less direct than "Unlike those in the United States, Japanese unions".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 02 Jun 2022, 12:42
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Jezza


Hi GmatNinja, as you mentioned again and again in your posts, don't bother remembering that 25000 idioms as the GMAT no longer tests your memory on idioms (in most cases).

In this question, apart from that idiom "reluctant about/reluctant to", what else makes B inferior to E?

Anyway, I highly doubt this is an official question. This is not just pronoun ambiguity, it's more than mildly confusing to substitute "japanese unions" with just "unions".
Show more
I'll echo Andrew here. We tend to see idioms show up as key decision points in earlier incarnations of the OG, but not so much in the more recent ones, so take this question with a grain (or 12) of salt.

That said, sometimes you can reason through the logic of the idiom. I know what it means to be reluctant to do something. It means I'm hesitate to perform some kind of action.

But what would it mean to be reluctant about something? Can you be hesitant about a noun? If you're hesitating, aren't you, by definition, putting off an action? "Reluctant about + NOUN" just doesn't make much sense to me, even if I'm not 100% sure that it's wrong.

So I'd argue that even if you're unfamiliar with the idiom, you could use logic to arrive at the answer.

But again, don't burn too many brain cells on this one. In every newer question, if there's an idiom you're unfamiliar with, you can almost certainly find another more concrete decision point to work through.

I hope that helps!
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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 22 Dec 2022, 22:56
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(C) In Japan, unlike the United States, unions appear reluctant to organize

if you remove comma,
In Japan, unions appear reluctant to organize lower-paid workers.

What am I missing?[/quote]

Whats is your query exactly? Are you trying to find the problem in option C? If that is the case then following is my response:

"In Japan" should be parallel to "in Unted States", not just "United States". Therefore C is wrong. Moreover in that case like/ unlike would not be appropriate; connectors such as "as/in contrary" would be required.[/quote]

sayantanc2k can you please clarify
Wheather in option B we can use connectors such as "as/in contrary" in place of "unlike".
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Unlike the United States, Japanese unions appear reluctant to organize 06 Jan 2024, 01:09
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