There are over 110 million dogs and cats in the United States, which i

Question

There are over 110 million dogs and cats in the United States,  which is more than the population of any Western European country.

a. which is more than the population of any Western European country

b.which are more than the population of any Western European country.

c. being more than the population of any Western European country.

d.more than any Western European country in population.

e. more than in any Western European country by population

Source:  Master GMAT

saurabh4098 · Answer

Can anyone pls share their 2 cents on how A is the answer?

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

The correct answer is  (A).   (B)  is incorrect because of the plural verb form  “are.”

(C)  is incorrect because a clause, not an adjective phrase, is needed to express the complete thought underlined in the original sentence. 
 (D)  changes the meaning of the original by making an illogical comparison. 
 And (E)  is not idiomatic.

Hope it helps

gvij2017 · Answer

Please explain how A is correct. 
Is it exception to "touch rule"?

Which doesn't modify US.

Parv26 · Answer

How can A be the answer. Which is used for words which precede it (before the comma). Here, A makes the sentence look like which is used for United States, making no sense.

Posted from my mobile device

sourabh292 · Answer

Quite confused between A and E.

"Which" modifies the noun it follows so :
 United States, which is more than the population of any Western European country.  - How can this be correct ?
Is there an exception which I am not aware of ..

Whereas Option E - 
"more than in any Western European country by population" - it correctly modifies the meaning of the words written before the comma.

Please assist ..

EducationAisle · Answer

Agreed  sourabh292 . In option A,  which  is intended to modify the figure  110 million . This is quite rare and non-standard from a GMAT perspective. However, A would still be the best among the  given  choices.

Let's look at option E

Notice that E completely  changes  the meaning of the original sentence. Original sentence is comparing 110 million with population of any Western European country.

On the other hand, by introducing  in , option E is comparing population of dogs and cats in the United States, with (population of dogs and cats)  in  any Western European country. That's a clear deviation from the intended meaning.

devavrat · Answer

Hi can someone please explain why A is the right answer choice and E isn't

saukrit · Answer

I hate the exception to touch rule questions. How in the world could  ,which  not modify the preceding noun,  United States

EMPOWERgmatVerbal   EMPOWERgmatRichC  : Would you like to comment on the correctness of this question. I have been seeing a similar touch rule violation on many unofficial questions these days

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  saukrit , you have to be prepared for  touch rule violation  on  official  questions as well (though, as I mentioned in my post above, it is pretty  rare ).

So, sometimes, it will just boil down to choosing the  best , among the given choices.

An officially correct answer:

Gusty westerly winds will continue  to usher a seasonably cool air mass into the region while a broad area of high pressure builds, which will  bring fair and dry weather for several days .

The usage of participial phrase ( bringing fair and dry weather for several days ) would have been an  ideal  usage here, but test-makers had  other  ideas:).

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Hello!

While there has been some great discussion about this issue, let's add our two cents!

Let's first figure out logically what the modifier and antecedent should be:

There are over  110 million dogs and cats  in the United States,  which is more than the population of any Western European country .

Modifier  = which is more than the population of any Western European country
 Antecedent  = 110 million dogs and cats

So what part of speech is "in the United States" then??

The problem we're dealing with here is tricky.  The phrase "in the United States" is NOT the noun you're looking for - it's a prepositional phrase that has been placed between the noun and the "which" phrase.  In most cases, it can muddle or mislead readers and you should not do this. However, in cases like this one, the reader can easily tell that the "which" phrase is referring to the number (110 million) and not the country.

Here are a couple examples of other sentences that do this without being confusing or misleading:

Horace made a donation to the new  animal shelter  in San Francisco,  which was in desperate need of funds to get started.

Modifier  = which was in desperate need of funds to get started
 Antecedent  = animal shelter
 Prepositional Phrase stuck between them = in San Francisco

People starting leaving during  the first act  of the film,  which was before all of the cool stuff really started happening.

Modifier  = which was before all of the cools tuff really started happening
 Antecedent  = the first act
 Prepositional Phrase stuck between them = of the film

Remember that the GMAT isn't asking you to find a  perfect  answer - they want you to find the  best  answer. In this case, option A isn't perfect - but it has far fewer (and less problematic) mistakes than the other options.

I hope this helps!

There are over 110 million dogs and cats in the United States, which i

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There are over 110 million dogs and cats in the United States, which i

Prep Toolkit

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