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by akhilsuhag » Fri May 15, 2015 2:40 pm
More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.

(A) More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.

(B) With 20 percent of the world's fresh water, that is more than all the North American Great Lakes combined, Siberia's Lake Baikal has more than 300 rivers that drain into it.

(C) Siberia's Lake Baikal, with more than 300 rivers draining into it, it holds more of the world's fresh water than all that of the North American Great Lakes combined, 20 percent.

(D) While more than 300 rivers drain into it, Siberia's Lake Baikal holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, which is more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.

(E) More than all the North American Great Lakes combined, Siberia's Lake Baikal, with more than 300 rivers draining into it, holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water.

The issue I faced is that I found errors with every option. My errors from option (B) to (E) were legitimate. I want to share why I thought (A) was wrong and would appreciate if someone could tell me where is my thinking wrong.

In option (A) the "which" part is between two commas- so i read the sentence ignoring the which part and it did not make sense to me. My understanding was the part between the commas is additional info- sentence should make sense without it. In this case the "more" after the comma modifies the part before the comma.

I would really help if someone could clarify.


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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Fri May 15, 2015 3:12 pm
The structure of answer choice A is: MAIN CLAUSE + MODIFIER (relative clause) + MODIFIER. So the core sentence, when read without either of the two succeeding modifiers, is "More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal." This works.

The relative clause, "which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water," correctly modifies "Lake Baikal." The subsequent modifier "more than all the North American Great Lakes combined" correctly modifies "20 percent of the world's fresh water supply."

Put another way, we have one modifier that modifies "Lake Baikal" and a second modifier that modifies the first modifier. This is fine, but if you're going to remove the first modifier to see if the core sentence makes sense, you must remove the second modifier as well.
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by j_shreyans » Fri May 15, 2015 10:53 pm
Hi David ,

Whats wrong with option B?

I wold appreciate , if you explain each point.

Thanks,

Shreyans

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by GMATGuruNY » Sat May 16, 2015 2:22 am
More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.

A. More than 300 rivers drain into Siberia's Lake Baikal, which holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.
B. With 20 percent of the world's fresh water, that is more than all the North American Great Lakes combined, Siberia's Lake Baikal has more than 300 rivers that drain into it.
C. Siberia's Lake Baikal, with more than 300 rivers draining into it, it holds more of the world's fresh water than all that of the North American Great Lakes combined, 20 percent.
D. While more than 300 rivers drain into it, Siberia's Lake Baikal holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water, which is more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.
E. More than all the North American Great Lakes combined, Siberia's Lake Baikal, with more than 300 rivers draining into it, holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water.
In B, that lacks a clear antecedent.
If that is standing in for 20% of the world's fresh water, we get:
With 20% of the world's fresh water, 20% of the world's fresh water is more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.
This meaning is nonsensical.
Eliminate B.

In C, holds serves as the verb for it.
Thus, Siberia's Lake Baikal (subject) lacks a verb.
Eliminate C.

On the GMAT, which + singular verb must refer to the nearest preceding singular noun.
In D, which seems to refer to the world's fresh water, implying that the WORLD'S FRESH WATER
is more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.
Not the intended meaning.
Eliminate D.

E implies that Siberia's Lake Baikal is more than all the North American Great Lakes combined.
This meaning is nonsensical: a lake cannot be MORE than another lake.
Eliminate E.

The correct answer is A.

B: Siberia's Lake Baikal has more than 300 rivers.
A lake is a body of water.
A body of water does not HAVE rivers.
Another reason to eliminate B.
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