Usage of what

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enniguy
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Topic: Usage of what
PostTue Nov 03, 2009 4:03 am
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His Studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1857 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas.

A. in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas.
B. in which great ice sheets existed in what are now temperate areas.
C. when great ice sheets existed where there were areas now temperate.
D. when great ice sheets had existed in current temperate areas.
E. when great ice sheets existed in areas now that are temperate.

OA:B. My question is what does "what" here is referring to?

Source: OG 12.
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PostTue Nov 03, 2009 4:05 am
I remember, Stacey has mentioned in one of the posts that "what" is used as either interrogative pronoun or interrogative adjective.

I could not figure out which one makes sense here.
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PostWed Nov 04, 2009 4:35 am
alway check basic grammar before check meaning. gmat is basic

let check the basic grammar:

"now" in E is wrong

"now currently" in A is wrong

"had existed" has no reason to be used.

check meaning

C change the meaning and is wrong.
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PostWed Nov 04, 2009 9:40 am
enniguy wrote:
Not interested in the answer but a different question regarding the answer. Check the Spoiler.

His Studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1857 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas.

A. in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas.
B. in which great ice sheets existed in what are now temperate areas.
C. when great ice sheets existed where there were areas now temperate.
D. when great ice sheets had existed in current temperate areas.
E. when great ice sheets existed in areas now that are temperate.

OA:B. My question is what does "what" here is referring to?

Source: OG 12.
His Studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1857 to propose the concept of an age [u]in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas

here "which" refer to concept. But in CDE when is referring to an age which is Incorrect.

AB remains.

now and currently- redundant.

B is the answer.
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PostWed Nov 04, 2009 9:51 am
enniguy wrote:
Not interested in the answer but a different question regarding the answer. Check the Spoiler.

His Studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1857 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas.

A. in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas.
B. in which great ice sheets existed in what are now temperate areas.
C. when great ice sheets existed where there were areas now temperate.
D. when great ice sheets had existed in current temperate areas.
E. when great ice sheets existed in areas now that are temperate.

OA:B. My question is what does "what" here is referring to?

Source: OG 12.
what refers to"ice sheets"
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PostFri Nov 06, 2009 3:52 pm
Received a PM asking me to respond to the "what" question. We're not supposed to discuss OG questions online, so I won't, but I will discuss the word "what" in a totally unrelated example that just happens to look like... er... Smile

"What" is one of those annoying flexible words - it can be a pronoun, an adjective, even an adverb...

Look at this:

The cat slept in what is now the dog's bed.

What did the cat sleep in? A bed. Was it the dog's bed? Well, no, not when the cat slept there - it became the dog's bed later. When the cat slept there, it was the cat's bed, or maybe somebody else's bed, but it wasn't the dog's bed.

So the "what" is referring to the bed - just not the dog's bed. It's referring to the bed at a different point in time, before it became the dog's bed.

The cat slept in [a bed that] is now the dog's bed.
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PostFri Nov 06, 2009 4:19 pm
Stacey Koprince wrote:
We're not supposed to discuss OG questions online, so I won't, but I will discuss the word "what" in a totally unrelated example that just happens to look like... er... Smile

For clarification (and the BTG staff can correct me if I'm wrong):

we're not allowed to post OG questions, because to do so would be to violate GMAC's copyright. So, no one should ever type an OG question (or a question from an official GMAT CAT) verbatim on the board.

However, it's perfectly fine to discuss OG questions, since they've been released to the public. If you want to ask about an OG question, the best thing to do is to cite the OG edition, page and question number in your subject line. You can then ask your question referring to details of the exercise as required.

The only thing we're not even allowed to discuss is live GMAT questions; for example, if you or a friend just wrote the actual GMAT, you're not allowed to disclose any specifics of the test at all.
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PostSat Nov 07, 2009 3:58 pm
in what are now temperate areas

What is = that which is
what are = those which are

Now it is easy to figure out what referents.
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