Sentence Correction

aspirant2011 wrote:According to recent studies comparing the nutritional value of meat from wild animals and meat from domesticated animals, wild animals have less total fat than do livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat they think is good for cardiac health.

A. wild animals have less total fat than do livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat they think is
B. wild animals have less total fat than livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat thought to be
C. wild animals have less total fat than that of livestock fed on grain and have more fat of a kind thought to be
D. total fat of wild animals is less than livestock fed on grain and they have more fat of a kind thought to be
E. total fat is less in wild animals than that of livestock fed on grain and more of their fat is of a kind they think is

Hi Expert,
can you help me by finding out my mistake in this regard?
I'm totally stuck with this sentence. The sentence is going to compare between meat from 'wild animals' and meat from 'domesticated animals'.
B says that:
----------wild animals have less total fat than livestock fed on grain.
If I say: He is less successful than his father's.
Or, He is less successful than his father does.
I'm not sure whether my sentence is right or wrong. If my above sentence is right, then same application should be used here.
Is it something like??: ------------ wild animals have less total fat than wild animals have livestock fed on grain. If this is the case, then it makes me confused. If I apply my example here, then I'll get it as below:
--------------- wild animals have less total fat than livestock fed on grain have.
Or, ------------ wild animals have less total fat than livestock fed's on grain.
Or, ------------- wild animals have less total fat than livestock fed on grain does.

What is the issue with D? Can we not interpret D as:

total fat of wild animals is less than (total fat of) livestock fed on grain.

Hello Everyone!

This is a great example of a GMAT question that includes a comparison! Let's start off by looking at the original question and highlighting any major differences between the options in orange:

According to recent studies comparing the nutritional value of meat from wild animals and meat from domesticated animals, wild animals have less total fat than do livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat they think is good for cardiac health.

(A) wild animals have less total fat than do livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat they think is
(B) wild animals have less total fat than livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat thought to be
(C) wild animals have less total fat than that of livestock fed on grain and have more fat of a kind thought to be
(D) total fat of wild animals is less than livestock fed on grain and they have more fat of a kind thought to be
(E) total fat is less in wild animals than that of livestock fed on grain and more of their fat is of a kind they think is

After looking over the options quickly, a few key differences pop out:

1. starting off the comparison with "wild animals" vs. "total fat" (meaning/clarity)
2. than do livestock / than livestock / than that of livestock (parallelism)
3. more of a kind of fat / more fat of a kind (meaning/clarity)
4. pronouns toward the end = make sure they're clear

Since we know we're dealing with a comparison question, let's start by checking that the comparisons are parallel. This is the basic format they should follow:

X less than Y

Let's save the ones that are parallel for later, and rule out the ones that aren't:

(A) wild animals have less total fat than do livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat they think is --> PARALLEL

(B) wild animals have less total fat than livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat thought to be --> PARALLEL

(C) wild animals have less total fat than that of livestock fed on grain and have more fat of a kind thought to be --> NOT PARALLEL (Comparing wild animals to "that of" livestock; what is "that of" referring to? We don't know, but we do know it's not parallel.)

(D) total fat of wild animals is less than livestock fed on grain and they have more fat of a kind thought to be --> NOT PARALLEL (Compares "total fat" to "livestock," which are not parallel things.)

(E) total fat is less in wild animals than that of livestock fed on grain and more of their fat is of a kind they think is --> NOT PARALLEL (Compares wild animals to "that of" livestock, which isn't parallel.)

We can eliminate options C, D, & E because the comparisons made were not parallel.

Now that we have this narrowed down to 2 options, let's take a closer look at each to find any potential problems:

(A) wild animals have less total fat than do livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat they think is

This is INCORRECT because it has a vague pronoun! Who/what is "they" referring to? It's not clear at all! This is a great example of the "Mysterious they." The sentence never refers to WHO conducted the studies mentioned in the beginning - in fact, there are no people in this sentence at all! So let's toss this option out.

(B) wild animals have less total fat than livestock fed on grain and more of a kind of fat thought to be

This is CORRECT! The comparison is parallel, and there are no problems with vague or misleading pronouns!


There you have it - option B is the correct choice!


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