he Kuiper belt, like the asteroid belt

Question

The Kuiper belt, like the asteroid belt, consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, but the asteroids are made of rock just as the Kuiper belt objects are composed of "frozen volatiles," like  methane, ammonia, and water.

A)The Kuiper belt, like the asteroid belt, consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, but the asteroids are made of rock just as the Kuiper belt objects are composed of "frozen volatiles," like

B)Like the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, but whereas asteroids are made of rock, Kuiper belt objects are composed of "frozen volatiles," such as

c)The Kuiper belt is like the asteroid belt, which consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, and Kuiper belt objects are not like the rocky asteroids, because they are composed of "frozen volatiles," like

D)The Kuiper belt consists of small bodies like the asteroid belt, having remnants of the Solar System's formation, but unlike asteroid rock, it has bodies made of

E)Unlike the asteroid composed of rock, the Kuiper belt consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, which are composed of "frozen volatiles," such as

sivasanjeev · Answer

Though I don't like this question, let's see which option is best among the lot. Highlighted in blue are proper comparisons and in red are wrong comparisons Edit: Indeed a good question 8-)

for all its subtlety !! The Kuiper belt, like the asteroid belt, consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, but the asteroids are made of rock just as the Kuiper belt objects are composed of "frozen volatiles," like methane, ammonia, and water. A)The Kuiper belt , like the asteroid belt , consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, but the asteroids are made of rock just as the Kuiper belt objects are composed of "frozen volatiles," like Other than like , everything else seems perfect. Eliminate . The major issue with A --> The construction wrongly contrasts Kupier belt/asteroid belt with asteroids/kupier belt objects. Wrong option B)Like the asteroid belt , the Kuiper belt consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, but whereas asteroids are made of rock, Kuiper belt objects are composed of "frozen volatiles," such as all comparisons are clear cut, and examples are listed using such as. whereas ... is the independent clause (nesting) and but is the co-ordinating conjunction. What I don't like about this option is the usage of "," before such as. Right Answer. Addnl. info :: The 'but' contrast (in A) is broken here, with the contrast being brought to the fore by whereas . But just joins the independent clauses. c)The Kuiper belt is like the asteroid belt , which consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, and Kuiper belt objects are not like the rocky asteroids , because they are composed of "frozen volatiles," like Kupier belt obects are wrongly compared to the asteroids (rocky is describing asteroids). Eliminate . Ambiguous pronoun D)The Kuiper belt consists of small bodies like the asteroid belt , having remnants of the Solar System's formation, but unlike asteroid rock , it has bodies made of asteroid rock is compared to Kupier belt. The comparison is between asteroid belt and Kupier belt. Eliminate E)Unlike the asteroid composed of rock , the Kuiper belt consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, which are composed of "frozen volatiles," such as asteroid is compared to Kupier belt. The comparison is between asteroid belt and Kupier belt. Eliminate Post edited : B seems perfectly fine. Overlooked nesting in B, and some issues in A. So changing my answer to B (from A)

CARK · Answer

B is best of all

Like the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, but whereas asteroids are made of rock, Kuiper belt objects are composed of "frozen volatiles," such as methane, ammonia, and water 
IMO - The construction is as under : IC + Comma + But (FANBOYS) + IC (DC + comma + IC)
“But” is used to connect 2 IC i.e. IC 1 (Like the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt consists of small bodies, (modifier) remnants of the Solar System's formation,) + IC 2 which is actually a DC + Comma + IC (DC: whereas asteroids are made of rock + comma + IC: Kuiper belt objects are composed of "frozen volatiles," such as methane, ammonia, and water)

OA? Source?

mnm21234 · Answer

I think the answer is C....
Great question!

mba1382 · Answer

IMO B

Here we are comparing asteroid belt and Kuiper belt and giving a contrast in the second clause.
 
Below is my reasoning:

The Kuiper belt, like the asteroid belt, consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, but the asteroids are made of rock just as the Kuiper belt objects are composed of "frozen volatiles," like methane, ammonia, and water.

A)The Kuiper belt, like the asteroid belt, consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, but the asteroids are made of rock just as the Kuiper belt objects are composed of "frozen volatiles," like --- Incorrect usage of 'like' in 2nd clause to show examples and contrast suggested by 'but' in 2nd clause is illustrated using  'just as'  ,making no sense.

B)Like the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, but whereas asteroids are made of rock, Kuiper belt objects are composed of "frozen volatiles," such as.  Correct usage of compare using 'like' and contrast using 'whereas' and also correct usage of 'such as' to show examples.

c)The Kuiper belt is like the asteroid belt, which consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, and Kuiper belt objects are not like the rocky asteroids, because they are composed of "frozen volatiles," like.  Incorrect usage of 'like' to show examples in 2nd clause. 'Like' used incorrectly in 1st clause, changing the meaning of the sentence. 
 
D)The Kuiper belt consists of small bodies like the asteroid belt, having remnants of the Solar System's formation, but unlike asteroid rock, it has bodies made of
 Incorrect. many errors. 'having' usage with no clear referent, changing of meaning too.  
E)Unlike the asteroid composed of rock, the Kuiper belt consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, which are composed of "frozen volatiles," such as.  Incorrect. Change of meaning in 1st clause using 'unlike' to show contrast. 'which' has no clear referent- ambiguous indeed.

Really good question. Please post OA along with OE.

Carcass · Answer

as you pointed out before B was wrong because the usage of but and whereas at the same time. This is not , in a more general way, wrong Bacuse here the usage of but is to join to sentence and whereas to show contrast with the first part of the same.

Is still true that both are used to show contrast: but is more common and whereas is more formal. But here is not wrong and doesn't change the meaning

This is an interesting construction not quite common in its usage.

The problem in A (aside the "like") is the construction

In A we have

Tha kuiper belt, like the asteroid belt..........but the asteroid.....as the kupier belt.

We should have to maintain a coherent logic: kupier - asteroid - kupier - asteroid and NOT kupier - asteroid -  asteroid  - kupier which is which ??

Instead in B we have this and Kupier belt is the critical point of the sentence.

ONLY on this you can tackle the question, indeed really good. Then if you add to this like/such as to show an example, yet you still be able to attack the question faster.

Hope this helps

sivasanjeev · Answer

Absolutely true  carcass . Edited my post likewise and indeed a good question !!

A similar question from OG/Gmat prep

Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years,  excepting for  the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island.

A. excepting for
B. except in
C. but except in
D. but excepting for
E. with the exception of

C

jegan2388 · Answer

Option B looks like the best option, but can someone verify if the use of "but whereas" is right? It just doesn't seem right. Option B looks good, as the rest are wrong.

grimbergen · Answer

Hello,  mikemcgarry !

I ran into this question while I was solving magoosh problem sets. I also have the same question as above, jegan2388. Could you please explain how "but whereas" works? I thought "but whereas" counts for redundancy.

Please help me out! Thank you in advance!=)

kannu44 · Answer

A)The Kuiper belt, like the asteroid belt, consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, but the asteroids are made of rock just as the Kuiper belt objects are composed of "frozen volatiles,"  like

B)Like the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, but whereas asteroids are made of rock, Kuiper belt objects are composed of "frozen volatiles," such as correct

c)The Kuiper belt is like the asteroid belt, which consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation, and Kuiper belt objects are not like the rocky asteroids, because they are composed of "frozen volatiles,"  like

D)The Kuiper belt consists of small bodies like the asteroid belt, having remnants of the Solar System's formation, but unlike asteroid rock,  it  has bodies made of

E)Unlike the asteroid composed of rock, the Kuiper belt consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation,  which  are composed of "frozen volatiles," such as

aragonn · Answer

Official Explanation 
Split #1: the comparison. Choice (A) has “P, like Q, ...”, which is correct. Choice (B) has “Like Q, P ...”, which is also correct. Choice (C) has “P is like Q”, which is wordy and less elegant, but correct. Choice (D) messes up the comparison, making the “asteroid belt” sound like an example of “small bodies” --- this is not correct. Choice (E) take the strategy of combining the contrast of the second half of the sentence with the statement of similarity at the beginning: the fundamental structure “Unlike Q, P...” is itself correct, but (E) tries to do too much, and the phrase “Unlike the asteroid belt composed of rock...” makes it sound as if there’s an other asteroid belt composed of something else, Swiss Cheese or something --- that’s totally illogical, so (E) does not handle the comparison correctly.

Split #2: the first half of the sentence is a statement of similarity, and the second half is a contrast. We need a strong contrast word. Choice (A) has “just as”, which is the exact opposite of a contrast word: this is problematic. Choice (B) has “but whereas”, very strong, and choice (D) has “but”, which is good. Choice (C) again takes a very wordy and inelegant tack for both parts, and joins them with the word “and”, not at all a strong contrast work. Choice (E) tries to do both the comparison and the contrast all at once, which is a sheer disaster.

Split #3: listing examples. The GMAT loves this one. Consider a situation in which a phrase ends with a category, and is followed by examples of that category. In colloquial speech, we use “like” ----- “ ... great baseball pitchers, like Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden.” This may sound acceptable to your ear, but this is unacceptable on the GMAT. Instead of the word “like”, we need the words “such as” before a list of examples: “... great baseball pitchers, such as Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden.” At the very end of the underlined section, choices (A) & (C) have “like” for a list of examples, so they are wrong. Choices (B) & (E) list examples with “such as”, which is the correct format.

After these three splits, (B) looks very good, but (D) may also look good. Let me talk a moment about the problems of (D). I’ve already mentioned the faulty comparison above. The modifier phrase “having remnants of the Solar System's formation” is both unclear and wrong. It is unclear with respect to its referent: what is this phrase trying to modify? It is wrong because it changes the meaning --- we want to say that both the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt are composed of remnants of the Solar System's formation. Saying that one or both of them “has” remnants of the Solar System's formation implies that they have other things as well: this is the proper way to indicate the composition of something. For these reasons, (D) is wrong.

(B) is the only possible choice for a grammatically and logically correct answer.

FAQ: The correct answer choice contains "but whereas". That seems strange to me. Could you please explain more why that's grammatical?

Sure! It's possible to have "but" and "whereas" together because they're serving two different functions. "But," preceded by a comma, links together two independent clauses.

It was raining. (But) We went out. -->
It was raining, but we went out.

Whereas is a "dependent clause marker". If a clause starts with "whereas," it must be joined with an independent clause.

Whereas my sister stayed home, I went out.

Any sentence can go in the place of an independent clause--even a sentence which already contains a dependent clause, like the one above.

It was raining, but  .
It was raining, but whereas my sister stayed home, I went out.

Now let's take a look at the sentence in the problem. If we split up that sentence in the same way, we get:

Like the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt consists of small bodies, remnants of the Solar System's formation.

and

Whereas asteroids are made of rock, Kuiper belt objects are composed of "frozen volatiles," such as methane, ammonia, and water.

When combining them, "but" is just serving as the conjunction between these two complete sentences. And the second sentence just happens to begin with a dependent clause. Thus, "but" and "whereas" end up right next to each other, and that's completely fine.

VerbalBot · Answer

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he Kuiper belt, like the asteroid belt

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he Kuiper belt, like the asteroid belt

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