Sentence Correction

Hey everyone,

Here's the Knewton Verbal Challenge question for Friday, 1/21. Once you've looked it over, reply to this thread with your answer and an explanation for how you got it. Just like yesterday, I'll choose the best explanation at 11 pm EST, and the daily winner will get free access to the Beat the GMAT Practice Questions!

Again, congrats to yesterday's winner, hja379!

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Question 3.

Max Weber claimed that the traditions that theodicean societies, civilizations in which people feel a need to reconcile the imperfections of the world with a "perfect" divinity, develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non-theodicean societies develop.

(A) are those that non-theodicean societies develop
(B) what non-theodicean societies develop
(C) non-theodicean societies' development would
(D) non-theodicean societies' traditions do
(E) traditions of non-theodicean societies

is it B

AdamKnewton wrote:Hey everyone,

Here's the Knewton Verbal Challenge question for Friday, 1/21. Once you've looked it over, reply to this thread with your answer and an explanation for how you got it. Just like yesterday, I'll choose the best explanation at 11 pm EST, and the daily winner will get free access to the Beat the GMAT Practice Questions!

Again, congrats to yesterday's winner, hja379!

--

Question 3.

Max Weber claimed that the traditions that theodicean societies, civilizations in which people feel a need to reconcile the imperfections of the world with a "perfect" divinity, develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non-theodicean societies develop.

(A) are those that non-theodicean societies develop
(B) what non-theodicean societies develop
(C) non-theodicean societies' development would
(D) non-theodicean societies' traditions do
(E) traditions of non-theodicean societies

IMO D.

To attack this one we can neglect the highlighted text while reading :-

Max Weber claimed that the traditions that theodicean societies, civilizations in which people feel a need to reconcile the imperfections of the world with a "perfect" divinity, develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non-theodicean societies develop.


A] are those that non-theodicean societies develop [What are those ? leave with incorrect meaning ]

B]what non-theodicean societies develop [missing what NT societies must develop ?]

C]non-theodicean societies' development would [How can relegious adherence be more than NT Society development , for comparison similar entities must be compared]

D] non-theodicean societies' traditions do [Here "the tradition that theodicean scocieties...., develop ..... " than "non theodicean societies' tradition " , same entities compared , and presence of "do" makes it clear.]

E] traditions of non-theodicean societies [here verb "do" is missing , so the meaning is incorrect]

SUBJECT + VERB more than SUBJECT + VERB

Question 3.

Max Weber claimed that the traditions that theodicean societies, civilizations in which people feel a need to reconcile the imperfections of the world with a "perfect" divinity, develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non-theodicean societies develop.

Question tests parallelism. It tries to compare the traditions of theodicean societies with the traditions of non-theodicean societies


(A) are those that non-theodicean societies develop

Incorrect. ambiguous use of "those" - unclear antecedent.

(B) what non-theodicean societies develop

Incorrect. In this choice, "what" could mean not just traditions, but anything that non-theodicean societies would develop. I do have trouble with all choices, but would go with E.

(C) non-theodicean societies' development would

Incorrect. Compares traditions of theodicean societies with "development of non-theodicean societies"

(D) non-theodicean societies' traditions do

Incorrect. compares traditions of theodicean societies with " likelihood of religious adherence of non-theodicean societies" - because of the word "do".

(E) traditions of non-theodicean societies

Correct. It compares the traditions of theodicean societies with those of non-theodicean societies.

I had a change of heart. I find trouble with both B and E, but chose E.

E compares traditions of theodicean societies that are yet to be developed with existing traditions of non-theodicean societies, which could be correct depending on context.

AdamKnewton wrote:Hey everyone,
Question 3.

Max Weber claimed that the traditions that theodicean societies, civilizations in which people feel a need to reconcile the imperfections of the world with a "perfect" divinity, develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non-theodicean societies develop.

(A) are those that non-theodicean societies develop
(B) what non-theodicean societies develop
(C) non-theodicean societies' development would
(D) non-theodicean societies' traditions do
(E) traditions of non-theodicean societies

@Adam -- Nice layering
Let's try:

Since Modifier in non underline part lets get rid of that..So sentence to solve will look as below.

Max Weber claimed that the traditions that theodicean societies develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non-theodicean societies develop.

Lets simplify the structure by replacing some phrases to understand Sentence structure & meaning:

Max Weber claimed that the traditions that theodicean societies develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non- theodicean societies develop.

"traditions that theodicean societies develop" = "theodicean societies's traditions"

Max Weber claimed that the theodicean societies's traditions are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non- theodicean societies develop.

Now it is clear that we need "non-theodicean societies's traditions"

"non-theodicean societies's traditions" = "traditions that non-theodicean societies develop"
Now since Traditions need not repeated in sentence we have to look for "that non-theodicean societies develop" or its equivalent.
And B "what non-theodicean societies develop " looks most closer. So My choice is B.

(A) are those that non-theodicean societies develop - Are is problem here - incorrect parallelism.
(B) what non-theodicean societies develop - Correct
(C) non-theodicean societies' development would - changes the meaning.
(D) non-theodicean societies' traditions do - Repetition of traditions + incorrect parallelism.
(E) traditions of non-theodicean societies - Repetition of traditions + incorrect parallelism.

Max Weber claimed that the traditions that theodicean societies, civilizations in which people feel a need to reconcile the imperfections of the world with a "perfect" divinity, develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non-theodicean societies develop.

The question checks for parallelism signaled by use of idiom 'more.....than'.

i.e. X are more likely to ....than Y.

the adjectival modifier within comma can be blanked for comparison purpose.

(A) are those that non-theodicean societies develop

traditions that theodicean societies,......, develop are more likely to.........than are.... .

Incorrect. The two elements are not parallel.....traditions......are..... Noun parallel to verb

(B) what non-theodicean societies develop

This is the correct choice. it compares the two traditions to be developed by the two socities.

(C) non-theodicean societies' development would

Incorrect. 'traditions' compared to 'development'. proper Noun is compared to possessive form.Also two different tenses.

(D) non-theodicean societies' traditions do

ncorrect. proper Noun is compared to possessive form. Moreover use of 'do' instead of 'develop'

(E) traditions of non-theodicean societies

Changes the meaning of the sentence. ALSo incorrect use of 'of' as compared to 'that'.

Thanx

Max Weber claimed that the traditions that theodicean societies, civilizations in which people feel a need to reconcile the imperfections of the world with a "perfect" divinity, develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non-theodicean societies develop.

(A) are those that non-theodicean societies develop
(B) what non-theodicean societies develop
(C) non-theodicean societies' development would
(D) non-theodicean societies' traditions do
(E) traditions of non-theodicean societies

We need to compare traditions with traditions
Only D & E remains
Here tradition is not the subject.
Hence E

I have gone back and forth a million times on this one. Here is the part of the sentence that we really need to look at:

the traditions that theodicean societies develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non-theodicean societies develop.

What is really the comparison here? Traditions. The author wants to compare the traditions of the theodocian with the traditions of the non-theodicean societies.

A. Incorrect. Use of the word are here is wrong (more likely than....are than).

B. Incorrect. I did not like the use of the word what here. I dont believe what can refer back to traditions.

C. Incorrect. The comparison of development to traditions is wrong.

D. Incorrect. you can not use the word do in place of the word are (more likely than...do)

E. correct. Here we have the proper comparison with the proper construction. We are comparing traditions of the two groups. Traditions that X develop are more likely to result in adherence than traditions of Y are. (are can be implied).

2 traditions are being compared. The criterion of comparison is their ability to result in something (that something = religious adherence).

The 2 traditions are - (i) those developed by theodicean societies, and (ii) those developed by non-theodicean societies

In my view, the answer is D.

Traditions that theodicean societies.... develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than non-theodicean societies' traditions do

1. Option A creates unnecessary wordiness. The 2 traditions in terms of their ability to result in something are being compared.
The essential comparison is between the 2 "traditions." D achieves this objective in a much more efficient manner.
"Those" in A also lacks a clear antecedent. Does "those" refer to "traditions" referred to earlier in the sentence? But these traditions of non-theo socs are qualitatively different. Use of "those" creates some ambiguity.

2. Option B is incorrect as it uses "what." The comparison is not between something developed by non-theo.. (the "what") and the traditions of the theo. societies. In any event it is not clear what "what" refers to.

3. Option C is incorrect as it compares traditions with DEVELOPMENT. Also "development" is not parallel with "develop" which has been used earlier in the sentence.

4. Option E is wrong as it literally states that the traditions of theo. socs would more likely result in rel adherence (x) THAN traditions of non-theo socs (y), i.e., traditions would more likely result in x than y. It doesn't seem to be intended that the traditions of theo. socs should at all result in another set of traditions. So this is quite illogical.

D:

correctly uses "non-theodicean societies' traditions do." This means the 2 traditions - theo. socs and non-theo. socs are compared in terms of their ability to result in something. Presence of the helper verb "do" is vital here, else option D may have also suffered the same fate as option E.

The helper verb "do" in present tense agrees with use of "develop" (also present tense) earlier on in the sentence.

Max Weber claimed that the traditions that theodicean societies, civilizations in which people feel a need to reconcile the imperfections of the world with a "perfect" divinity, develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non-theodicean societies develop.

(A) are those that non-theodicean societies develop
(B) what non-theodicean societies develop
(C) non-theodicean societies' development would
(D) non-theodicean societies' traditions do
(E) traditions of non-theodicean societies


I think the author wants to compare 'the traditions that theodicean societies develop' with 'the traditions that non-theodicean societies develop'.
So one of the strongest contenders, E (traditions of non-theodicean societies) is out because it misses 'develop'.

B) what non-theodicean societies develop
'what'- doesn't refer to traditions, so B is out.

C) non-theodicean societies' development would
Here, 'non-theodicean societies' development' is being compared with 'the traditions', So C is out.

D) non-theodicean societies' traditions do
Awkward construction.

Now between B and A, I think A is a better option:

The sentence can be rewritten as -

Max Weber claimed that
the traditions that theodicean societies, <X> , develop are
more likely <to result in religious adherence> than
are those<traditions> that non-theodicean societies develop.

Here the comparison is between 'the traditions that theodicean societies develop' and 'those<traditions> that non-theodicean societies develop', and the sentence structure is proper(X are more likely to do<something> than are Z).

Answer: A

Max Weber claimed that the traditions that theodicean societies, civilizations in which people feel a need to reconcile the imperfections of the world with a "perfect" divinity, develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non-theodicean societies develop.

(A) are those that non-theodicean societies develop
(B) what non-theodicean societies develop
(C) non-theodicean societies' development would
(D) non-theodicean societies' traditions do
(E) traditions of non-theodicean societies

My answer is D. hard one,well, we asked for it .

The core issue is the comparison of 'the degree of religious adherence' caused by the traditions that theodicean societies develop and the traditions that non-theodicean societies develop . The correct answer has to keep the intended meaning intact and comparison straight with no ambiguity , and to preserve the parallelism . And the choice D does just that.

A> Incorrect : Placement of "are" in "are those that non-theodicean societies develop" is incorrect . The verb that is needed is "result" and it can be replaced using proper action verb "do" not an auxiliary verb "are" .

B> Incorrect comparison between 'what non-theodicean societies develop ' and 'results of traditions of theodicean societies' .

C> Incorrect: Incorrect usage of tense by using 'would' , destroys the parallelism.

D> Correct as explained in the beginning.

E> Incorrect : Ambiguous meaning ;it says , literally speaking , the traditions that theodicean societies develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than they (the traditions that theodicean societies develop) result in 'traditions of non-theodicean societies' . Another meaning that can be interpreted is 'what is intended meaning' as explained earlier.

I will go with D

Comparison is between - traditions that theodicean societies develop and traditions that non-theodicean societies develop.

Only D demonstrated it correctly.

AdamKnewton, you really did not promise too much when you said that this question was going to be harder than the last one. It really is!

As far as the correct answer is concerned, I side with fitzgerald23. I also think that E is the best option here.

To make our task a little easier, we can first eliminate the relative clause which only adds specific information, something that is unnecessary for SC questions. Also, we can take out the subject of the sentence because it does not have any influence on the structure. Hence, we are left with:

"the traditions that theodicean societies develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non-theodicean societies develop.

Now this is a lot easier to work with than the original sentence! B,C, and D can be eliminated fairly quickly!

(B) what non-theodicean societies develop

The use of what is awkward here. The author should compare a theory with another theory, yet he only uses the very broad placeholder "what", which could stand for basically anything. Also, the sentence contains the verb "develop" twice, which is redundant.

(C) non-theodicean societies' development would

The sentence would read: "X are more likely than Y would". That is clearly wrong and does not constitute a full sentence. If anything, the author should use "are" instead of "would" to maintain the parallelism.

(D) non-theodicean societies' traditions do

We can eliminate this answer choice by using the same logic as in C. The sentence reads: "X are more likely than Y do". Clearly not parallel and very awkward!

Now we are left with A and E and since the testwriters usually don't gave out consolation gifts for the second best answer, we should see if there's a way to find THE correct answer.

(A) are those that non-theodicean societies develop

In a very abbreviated form, the sentence reads: X are more likely than are Y. By shrinking the sentence down to its core elements it becomes obvious that the second "are" is actually not needed here, although it isn't technically wrong. If this redundancy isn't enough to drop this answer choice, maybe the following is.

Replacing X and Y with the original parts yields: "the traditions that theodicean societies develop are more likely (to do something) than are those that non-theodicean societies develop." Here we have the word "develop" twice, just as in answer choice B.

Two redundancies must really be enough to eliminate this answer choice, even if it is not grammatically wrong!

(E) traditions of non-theodicean societies

By POE, E must be the correct choice. The sentence reads: "X are more likely than Y", which is a correct comparison. One could argue that answer choice E isn't as parallel as A, but it doesn't need to be! As with a couple of other GMAT questions, a concise and grammatically correct answer choice (such as E in this question) is preferable to one that parallels every item of the sentence by using redundancies.

Hence, the correct answer is E.

Max Weber claimed that the traditions that theodicean societies, civilizations in which people feel a need to reconcile the imperfections of the world with a "perfect" divinity, develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non-theodicean societies develop.

(A) are those that non-theodicean societies develop -
(B) what non-theodicean societies develop
(C) non-theodicean societies' development would
(D) non-theodicean societies' traditions do
(E) traditions of non-theodicean societies

We can omit the modifier that describes societies - "civilization........divinity". The actual sentence is

Max Weber claimed that the traditions that theodicean societies,...............,develop are more likely to result in religious adherence than are those that non-theodicean societies develop.

We have to compare religious adherence of traditions of theodician societies to religious adherence of non theodician societies.


Contruction is X is more likely ......than Y


A - introduces incorrect comparison - noun "traditions" is compared to a clause
B - What modifies religious adherence, incorrect comparison
C - incorrect comparison tradition adherence to "developement"
D - Correct comparison.
E - incorrect comparison[/u]

IMO - A