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555-605 Level|   Comparisons|      
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu Updated on: 18 Dec 2018, 03:07
Originally posted by sivasanjeev on 25 Jan 2014, 23:43.
Last edited by Bunuel on 18 Dec 2018, 03:07, edited 3 times in total.
Edited the question.
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Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

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68% (01:35) correct 32% (01:39) wrong based on 4191 sessions

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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


(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

(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
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 13 Nov 2014, 12:37
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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

Be aware the OF-phrase.

A. are so vivid in their details about personal life as they are
Wrong. "account" is singular --> "are" is wrong. Remember the OF-phrase "X OF Y" <-- X is the main subject, NOT Y.

B. are as vivid in their details of personal life as those gathered
Wrong. Same problem as in A.

C. is as vivid in their detail about personal life as that gathered
Wrong. "account" is singular --> "their" is wrong.

D. is as vivid in its details of personal life as that gathered
CORRECT.
 S-V agreement ok.
"as...as" is good comparison.
"it" - singular vs. "that". OK

E. is so vivid in its details of personal life as is that
Wrong. "so....as" is used for negative comparison.

Hope it helps.
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 29 Jul 2019, 22:02
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"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.
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Real GMAT questions have used "so ___ as to ___" and "not so much ___ as ___" in the past, so I wouldn't necessarily assume that an answer choice is wrong if you see "so ___ as ___". In fact, memorizing which idioms are "right" vs. "wrong" isn't super helpful for the test — there are so many varieties of the same idiom, and I've seen a lot of students miss questions because they didn't like a totally valid but less common construction.

What's more useful here is to focus on meaning. "So" is used to express an extent ("It is so cold that I can't feel my toes" or "It is so cold as to cause frostbite"), while "as" is used to create a comparison ("My toes are as cold as ice"). Here, we are trying to draw a comparison between the historical account from Vindolanda and the historical account from Pompei, so "as" is the correct choice for meaning. Note that sentences like "The historical account from Vindolanda was so vivid that it could be compared to the account from Pompei" or "The historical account from Vindolanda was so vivid as to draw comparisons to the account from Pompei" would both be fine, but those both express extent rather than comparison.
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 04 Apr 2022, 05:13
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Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
sivasanjeev
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


(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

(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
Show more

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!
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 26 Jan 2014, 14:02
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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
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 03 Feb 2014, 19:50
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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
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 04 Feb 2014, 00:15
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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
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 04 Feb 2014, 04:57
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sivasanjeev
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

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
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

Edited : corrected the underlining and typos. Thanks carcass
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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.
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 14 Jul 2014, 00:33
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sivasanjeev
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

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
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

Edited : corrected the underlining and typos. Thanks carcass
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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?
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 14 Jul 2014, 05:12
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jrashish

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?
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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.
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 13 Nov 2014, 22:05
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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

Be aware the OF-phrase.

A. are so vivid in their details about personal life as they are
Wrong. "account" is singular --> "are" is wrong. Remember the OF-phrase "X OF Y" <-- X is the main subject, NOT Y.
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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.
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 17 Nov 2014, 07:52
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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... :o
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 28 Dec 2014, 10:56
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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

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
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
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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.
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 19 Jul 2015, 00:40
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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”
Quote:
A. are so vivid in their details about personal life as they are
Incorrect – Reasons discussed above.
B. are as vivid in their details of personal life as those gathered
Incorrect – “are” does not agree with singular subject “That” (Historical account of Military garrison)
C. is as vivid in their detail about personal life as that gathered
Incorrect - “Their” – Plural Pronoun, is referring to Singular antecedent “historical account of the military garrison”
D. is as vivid in its details of personal life as that gathered
Correctt
E. is so vivid in its details of personal life as is that
Incorrect construction – “so vivid” and that does not make sense
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 19 Jul 2015, 09:05
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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
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 29 Feb 2016, 08:14
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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

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
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
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Quote:
more than 2,000 letters and documents ...... are yielding a historical account ...... that is/are ......
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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 !!
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 16 Dec 2018, 16:44
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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?
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 17 Dec 2018, 01:14
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soapbolt

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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?
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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.
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yunbao
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 20 May 2019, 04:22
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in option E), if the so...as... is changed to as...as..., is it correct then?

thanks.
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MAnkur
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Written in ink or engraved by stylus, more than 2,000 letters and docu 29 Jul 2019, 20:11
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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.
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