Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Pronouns + Comparisons + Idioms

• “as A as B” is a correct, idiomatic usage.
• A pronoun and its derivatives can only refer to one noun in a sentence.
• Comparison must always be made between similar elements.

A: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun phrase "a historical account" with the plural verb "are" and the plural pronouns "their" and "they". Further, Option A incorrectly uses the pronoun "their" to refer to "a historical account of the military garrison in the first and second centuries" and uses the pronoun "they" to refer to the historical account from Pompei; please remember, a pronoun and its derivatives can only refer to one noun in a sentence. Additionally, Option A incorrectly compares the noun phrase "a historical account of the military garrison in the first and second centuries" to the clause "they are from Pompeii"; please remember, a comparison must always be made between similar things. Besides, Option A incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction "so A as B"; please remember, “as A as B” is the correct, idiomatic usage.

B: Trap. This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun phrase "a historical account" with the plural verb "are" and the plural pronouns "their" and "those".

C: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun phrase "a historical account" with the plural pronoun "their".

D: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the singular noun phrase "a historical account" with the singular verb "is" and the singular pronouns "its" and "that". Further, Option D correctly uses the pronoun "its" to refer to only "a historical account of the military garrison in the first and second centuries" and uses the pronoun "that" to refer to the historical account from Pompei. Additionally, Option D correctly compares "a historical account of the military garrison in the first and second centuries" with "that (a historical account) gathered from Pompeii". Besides, Option D correctly uses the idiomatic construction "as A as B".

E: This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction "so A as B"; please remember, “as A as B” is the correct, idiomatic usage.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

This is a really good example of how you must be focused one hundred % on each question and really aggressive all the time. In fact I read it without enough attention and I picked it wrong. However, a good lesson that reminds me and this is the good news.

Back to question: so as is wrong so A and E out.

Eliminate the filler (good question because is really long and convoluted in its construction) so the subject is account then singular.

Between C and D : is doesn't agree with their so we have D as definitive answer.

+1 regards

A. are so vivid in their details about personal life as they are verb must be singular; pronoun reference must be singular; verb in comparison clause compares letters to Pompeii
B. are as vivid in their details of personal life as those gathered verb must be singular; pronoun must be singular
C. is as vivid in their detail about personal life as that gathered their must be singular
D. is as vivid in its details of personal life as that gathered OK
E. is so vivid in its details of personal life as is that Trap answer because the comparison is between the letters of the military garrison and the letters from Pompeii; not letters and Pompeii

3 steps to solve this problem.

1.a historical account of the military garrison,use singular form “is". A,B out

2.as...as correct usage. E out

3.As a historical account of the military garrison before, again singular form "its". C out.

Correct Answer: D

First of all, we can rule out A and E because so...as is clearly wrong, we're left with B,C,D. Now you have to see, that the comparison in the underlined part refers to "a historical account.." and not the letters, documents and so on. So it must be singular.
Hence, since it's the only answer where all forms are in singular, answer D is correct.

In option D

As vivid in its details of personal life as that gathered

as per my understanding the elements X and Y in the expression "as X as Y" should be parallel, but here the two elements are not parallel

Is the construction "as X as that Y" correct?

This construction is similar to:

jrashish has a car that is as new as that of srashish.

This is equivalent to saying:

jrashish has a car that is as new as that (car) of srashish (is).

Similarly, in this sentence, that in that gathered refers to account.

Actually this beware of of-phrase is true only in its own clause. Here, that is/are so vivid in their details.... is a different clause altogether, and so, Y (in the structure X of Y) can definitely be the subject of that is/are so vivid in its/their details.... depending on what makes logical and grammatical sense.

In this case, logically what makes sense is that historical account is vivid; clearly from the context of the sentence, neither military garrison nor centuries are vivid.

Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and documents on wooden tablets excavated at the site of the old roman fort at vindolanda in northern England are yielding a historical account of the military garrison in the first and second centuries that are so vivid in their details about personal life as they are from Pompeii

Gist: Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and documents are yielding a historical account that [color=#ff0000]are so vivid in their details about personal life as they are from Pompeii[/color]

A. are so vivid in their details about personal life as they are – Wrong verb and pronoun.
B. are as vivid in their details of personal life as those gathered - Wrong verb and pronoun
C. is as vivid in their detail about personal life as that gathered – wrong pronoun.
D. is as vivid in its details of personal life as that gathered – Correct. A is As vivid As B
E. is so vivid in its details of personal life as is that – So-As is wrong idiom on GMAT, it is So-as-to for showing purpose of action. Second ‘is’ redundant. Wrong idiom: A is So vivid As is B..

Kudos please if found useful...

The original sentence has sub verb disagreement for the dependent clause. 'that' refers to 'account' - hence, a singular 'is' is required
So, A and B are out.

C is out because it uses plural 'their' to refer to 'account'

D = correct ans. It uses the comparison idiom 'as X as Y' properly.

E uses the idiom 'so X as Y' . It does not express the comparison properly.

Meaning analysis –
more than 2,000 letters and documents on wooden tablets are yielding a historical account of military garrison ,
military garrison are vivid and it vividness is compared to the historical account found in pompeii.

Sentence analysis:

Written in ink or engraved by stylus – Modifies – “more than 2,000 letters and documents on wooden tablets” – correct

“Excavated at … England” – Ved modifier modifies – “more than 2,000 letters and documents on wooden tablets”” - Correct

“more than 2,000 letters and documents on wooden tablets” Compound subject (plural) – Plural verb are (plural verb) – correct

….historical account of the military garrison in the first and second centuries that are so vivid in their details about personal life as they are from Pompeii – relative pronoun that refers to singular preceding noun “Historical account of Military garrison” (Singular),
Singular Subject “That” (Historical account of Military garrison) does not agree with Plural Verb “Are” – Incorect
“Their/They” – Plural Pronoun, is referring to Singular antecedent “historical account of the military garrison”

Written in ink or engraved by stylus,more than 2,000 letters and documents on wooden tablets excavated at the site of the old roman fort at vindolanda in northern England are yielding a historical account of the military garrison in the first and second centuries that are so vivid in their details about personal life as they are from Pompeii

Cutting the fluff out of this question
that should refer to the historical account hence options A , B and C are out because of S-V error.
Now coming to the comparison in options D and E.
We need to compare historical account of first and second centuries to historical account from Pompeii.

(D) Historical account is as vivid in its details of personal life as that (historical account ) gathered - Correct comparison.
(E) is so vivid in its details of personal life as is that
Historical account in X is so vivid in its details as is historical account from Pompeii. -> This does not make any sense and hence incorrect.

Also the correct idiom is As X as Y.
In answer choice D we have the idiom - So X As is Y , which is incorrect

A historical account is singular so , it will take a singular verb is so options (A) and (B) negated

A. are so vivid in their details about personal life as they are
B. are as vivid in their details of personal life as those gathered

We are left with 3 options -

C. is as vivid in their detail about personal life as that gathered
D. is as vivid in its details of personal life as that gathered
E. is so vivid in its details of personal life as is that

Sentence (E) has So ........as ( an incorrect GMAT Structure)

We are left with (C) and (D)

C. is as vivid in their detail about personal life as that gathered
D. is as vivid in its details of personal life as that gathered

(C) uses their to refer to a historic account ; hence incorrect.

We are left with only (D) the correct answer !!

is So X as Y is Unidiomatic .
Why we are preferring as X as y Structure here ? it is not even parallel
how do we know its a incorrect Idiom. Do we need to look for other errors in the Sentence?

soapbolt


Idioms have been developed over the years as customs and conventions. While natives take them as such, sometimes non-natives do get doubts about their usage.

If as per GMAT, so X as Y is unidiomatic in the given context, let's respect that convention and go forward.
Probably I feel that while ' x as y' is a forthwith compariosn, 'so x as y' seems to be an intensifier and emphasizer of the extent of coldness in the given context. Nevertheless, the intent is not to emphasize. It is just to indicate that both are as good and not one up over the other.

in option E), if the so...as... is changed to as...as..., is it correct then?

thanks.

GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo generis DmitryFarber

"As X so Y" is the correct idiom can we use it always as a rule and in this context to eliminate option E.
I did not understand the negative connotation being talked about for usage of "so X as Y" (as in option E), I guess it will always be incorrect.
Kindly, shed some light.