The word 'Buddha' denotes not just the historical figure, Siddhartha

Question

The word 'Buddha' denotes not just the historical figure, Siddhartha Gautama, it refers to a type of person, one who has achieved enlightenment, just like the term 'president' or 'priest'.

A. The word 'Buddha' denotes not just the historical figure, Siddhartha Gautama, it refers to a type of person, one who has achieved enlightenment, just like the term 'president' or 'priest'.

B. Just like president or priest, the word 'buddha' denotes not just the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama, but a type of person, one who has achieved enlightenment.

C. The word 'Buddha', similar to the words 'president' or 'priest', denotes not just the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama, but an entire class of people, those who have achieved enlightenment

D. The word 'Buddha' denotes not just the historical figure, Siddhartha Gautama, but, like 'president' or 'priest', refers to a type of person, - in this case, one who has achieved enlightenment.

E. Like the word 'president' or the word 'priest', the word 'Buddha' refers not just to the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama, but also to a class of persons, who have achieved enlightenment

Here is my understanding below:

Option A: IDIOM error - not just -- BUT is missing; PRONOUN error - "it" ; COMPARISONS : Okay, first option seems to convey that 'the president of priest' is the one who has achieved enlightenment and hence it's wrong.
However the CORRECT ANSWER is mentioned D.

I Cannot identify how B,C And E are wrong on account of COMPARISON PROCESS?

Lets pick B:
I see that in start of the clause : "term" is missing. Is this the only reason this option will be wrong? Hiowever in correct answer D itself there is no use of 'term'.
Similarily, I cannot account for why C AND E are incorrect.

Help is much appreciated
 
Source: 800 SCORE.

powellmittra · Answer

Not an expert but I got this one correct. If you could understand the meaning of the sentence it will be really easy to choose option D.

so let me try:

B - Just like president or priest, the word 'buddha' denotes not just the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama, but a type of person, one who has achieved enligtenment.

The sentence incorrectly suggests that the word President or Priest just like Buddha is not just a historical figure, but a type of person...........

C - The word 'Buddha', similar to the words 'president' or 'priest', denotes not just the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama, but an entire class of people, those who have achieved enlightenment

If you understood the explanation for B you can identify the problem with option C. It makes a similar error.

E - Like the word 'president' or the word 'priest', the word 'Buddha' does not just refer to the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama, but rather to a class of persons, who have achieved enlightenment

Among other things option E makes the same mistake. Option E has other problems such as - "class of persons" should be a "class of person"

D - The word 'Buddha' denotes not just the historical figure, Siddhartha Gautama, but, like 'president' or 'priest', refers to a type of person, - in this case, one who has achieved enlightenment.

Correct - Uses correct modifiers and comparisons. clearly states the intended meaning.

TeamGMATIFY · Answer

B, C and E are wrong because they distort the meaning of the original sentence. They mean that Buddha is similar to president or priest.
Option A has other errors that you have mentioned.

gianghoang217 · Answer

D cannot be the OA. D has several flaws:

(1) the construction not X buy Y is broken as you can see: The word 'Buddha' denotes not  just the historical figure , Siddhartha Gautama, but, like 'president' or 'priest',  refers to a type of person , - in this case, one who has achieved enlightenment.

'just' and 'refers' cannot be parallel.

(2) D compares 'the word' to 'president'/'priest' which is nonsense.

=> D cannot be the OA.

I think E will be a better choice in this case.

rishabhmishra · Answer

rishabhcool1993@gmail.com

arvind910619 · Answer

Imo E
It has correct comparison between words and it maintains parallelism.
D on the other hand compares the word Buddha with priest and president .This is a serious mistake as the comparison should be between words.

amarsinha · Answer

a. just like is incorrect. 
b just like is incorrect. 
c. words...(i think it should be word 'president' or 'priest' ) entire class of people, those who have ...
just after people, those is not needed....it could be entire class of people who have....
d. seems correct. 
e. but rather is redundant.

sobby · Answer

i am not convinced with any of answer choice..

A-- it is a fragment.
B-comparison issue ..president / priest is directly compared with word Buddha.
c- meaning issue ..
d- comparison is fine ..but lacks ||ism ...
The word 'Buddha' denotes not just  the historical figure , Siddhartha Gautama, but, like 'president' or 'priest',  refers to a type of person , - in this case, one who has achieved enlightenment.
E-||ism issue ..refer is missing in second part of sentence

Expert please advice .

turbodev · Answer

I also answered E, but after carefully going through the explanations provided, indeed it seems that E is distorting the meaning. Very nice question. Should be D

sayantanc2k · Answer

Yes, D has a parallelism problem. The correct sentence could be:
The word 'Buddha' not just denotes the historical figure, Siddhartha Gautama, but (also), like 'president' or 'priest', refers to a type of person, - in this case, one who has achieved enlightenment.
In such case two verbs "denotes" and "refers" would be in parallel.

abhimahna · Answer

Please provide the OA for this question. I rejected option A, B and D. Down to C and E.

I think C has the problem 'those who have'.

So, I will go with E. Kindly confirm.

rekhabishop · Answer

The word 'Buddha' denotes not just the historical figure, Siddhartha Gautama, it refers to a type of person, one who has achieved enlightenment, just like the term 'president' or 'priest'.

A - The correct idiom is "Not only X but also Y"
B -  Just like president or priest, the word  'buddha' denotes not just the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama, but a type of person, one who has achieved enligtenment. - 'The word' is not like president or priest. Modifier error 
C - The word 'Buddha', similar to the words 'president' or 'priest', denotes not just the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama,  but an entire class of people, those who have achieved enlightenment  -Incorrect use of pronoun 'THOSE'
D - The word 'Buddha' denotes not just the historical figure, Siddhartha Gautama, but, like 'president' or 'priest', refers to a type of person, - in this case, one who has achieved enlightenment.   -Correct!  
E -  Like the word 'president' or the word 'priest', the word 'Buddha' does not just refer to the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama , but rather to a class of persons, who have achieved enlightenment  - The word president and priest do not refer to Siddhartha Gautam

sayantanc2k · Answer

In E the word "just" is misplaced - "just" should come before "to the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama" to maintain parallelism with "but rather to a class of persons". 
Another problem is the wrong usage of "but rather" - usage of "but rather" implies that the word "Budhha" does NOT refer to the historical person - this meaning is wrong: The word "Buddhha" DOES refer to the hiostorical person and in addition a class of persons. Instead of "but rather", the phrase "but also" should be used.
Rectified the errors and added OA.

Dh4035 · Answer

Both options A and B use the phrase ‘just like’. This is considered too informal for the GMAT. C and E both distort the meaning of the original sentence.
 
D is the right answer.

ravigupta2912 · Answer

A - 'As above' -- Incorrect. "Not just X, but also Y" is the correct idiom.

B - Just like president or priest, the word 'buddha' denotes not just the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama, but a type of person, one who has achieved enligtenment. -- Incorrect. 1) "president or priest" is ambiguous here. Are we referring to a specific president or priest? or generally? Not clear. 2) "Not just X, but also Y". Incorrect.

C - The word 'Buddha', similar to the words 'president' or 'priest', denotes not just the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama, but an entire class of people, those who have achieved enlightenment -- Incorrect. This vanishes the comparison that we have created between a particular class of words. Also "those" here modifies people, when really we want to modify "class".

D - The word 'Buddha' denotes not just the historical figure, Siddhartha Gautama, but, like 'president' or 'priest', refers to a type of person, - in this case, one who has achieved enlightenment. -- Incorrect. "Not just X, but also Y"

E - Like the word 'president' or the word 'priest', the word 'Buddha' refers not just to the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama, but also to a class of persons, who have achieved enlightenment. Correct idiom. "Not just X, but also Y". Correct comparison. Word 'president' or 'priest' with the word 'Buddha'. Correct.

Milind39 · Answer

Is NOT JUST BUT ALSO correct idiom??

Posted from my mobile device

mysterymanrog · Answer

This is an interesting question.

I picked D because the quotations around the 'president' and 'priest' seemed to refer directly to the words themselves, not to a president or priest. The usage of quotations is not present in B, which I did indeed eliminate for comparing priest and president, to the word Buddha.

E also has a subtle meaning error, at least from my POV. By placing the "just like" at the start, it implies that the words "president" or "priest" have a specific person they refer to, just as Buddha refers to the original Buddha. To me that meaning is clearly illogical, since there is no specific person who the word "priest" or "president" would be used to refer to, like the word Buddha refers to.

I did some very brief research on grammar, and found this  https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/quotes/about  from University of Sussex that talks about this particular usage of quotation marks. As well as this  https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punctuation-and-conventions/punctuation/quotation-marks#draw_attention_to_words_using_quotation_marks  from Australian Government Style Manual.

I am curious if some experts are willing to shed light on this
 GMATNinja   mikemcgarry   MartyTargetTestPrep

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Yes, (E) is clearly incorrect because it conveys that the word "Buddha" is like the words "president" and "priest" in that Buddha "refers not just to the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama, but also to a class of persons, who have achieved enlightenment."

Of course that means that "president" and "priest" also refer "not just to the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama, but also to a class of persons, who have achieved enlightenment." We can see that, since "president" and "priest" do not refer to the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama or to a class of persons who have achieved enlightenment, the meaning conveyed by the (E) version is nonsensical.

(D) is incorrect because of flaws in its parallel structure, but the meaning conveyed by the (D) version is logical, and the quotation marks are used properly in the (D) version.

mysterymanrog · Answer

Hey Marty. Thank you for the swift reply. 
Would this be a poor quality question with no correct answer then? 
I missed the parallelism issue on D (the word buddha denotes not.... but the word buddha denotes refers..),A,B,C each have solid grounds for elimination, and E is wrong for obvious reasons.

Posted from my mobile device

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Yes, exactly. While SC correct answers can have minor flaws, this question has no answer correct enough to be considered acceptable.

The word 'Buddha' denotes not just the historical figure, Siddhartha

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The word 'Buddha' denotes not just the historical figure, Siddhartha

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards