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1000 Series 974 Question

by singhag » Sat Feb 20, 2010 11:10 am
One noted economist has made a comparison of the Federal Reserve and an automobile as racing through a tunnel, bouncing first off one wall, then the other: the car may get where it is going, but people may be hurt in the process.
(A) made a comparison of the Federal Reserve and an automobile as racing through a tunnel, bouncing
(B) made a comparison between the Federal Reserve and an automobile racing through a tunnel, bouncing
(C) compared the federal Reserve with an automobile as racing through a tunnel and which bounced
(D) compared the Federal Reserve to an automobile racing through a tunnel, bouncing
(E) compared the Federal Reserve with an automobile that races through a tunnel and it bounces

Kindly post your answer with an explanation...OA after some discussion
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by money9111 » Sat Feb 20, 2010 12:18 pm
At first I wanted to choose B... but I'm going to go with D
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by thephoenix » Sat Feb 20, 2010 7:32 pm
singhag wrote:One noted economist has made a comparison of the Federal Reserve and an automobile as racing through a tunnel, bouncing first off one wall, then the other: the car may get where it is going, but people may be hurt in the process.
(A) made a comparison of the Federal Reserve and an automobile as racing through a tunnel, bouncing
(B) made a comparison between the Federal Reserve and an automobile racing through a tunnel, bouncing
(C) compared the federal Reserve with an automobile as racing through a tunnel and which bounced
(D) compared the Federal Reserve to an automobile racing through a tunnel, bouncing
(E) compared the Federal Reserve with an automobile that races through a tunnel and it bounces

Kindly post your answer with an explanation...OA after some discussion
(A) made a comparison of the Federal Reserve and an automobile as racing through a tunnel, bouncing
(B) made a comparison between the Federal Reserve and an automobile racing through a tunnel, bouncing
(C) compared the Federal Reserve with an automobile as racing through a tunnel and which bounced
(D) compared the Federal Reserve to an automobile racing through a tunnel, bouncing
(E) compared the Federal Reserve with an automobile that races through a tunnel and it bounces
correct

use of it in E is redundant
use of as in A and C makes it in
in B made a comparison is too wordy

comapred with is wrng in C and E
here the comparison is b/n two diff entity
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by viidyasagar » Sun Feb 21, 2010 12:35 am
Dear Singhag:

I humbly request you to check once before posting!!!

please check this https://www.beatthegmat.com/present-part ... 15336.html

One noted economist has made a comparison of the Federal Reserve and an automobile as racing through a tunnel, bouncing first off one wall, then the other: the car may get where it is going, but people may be hurt in the process.

Citing only the 1st reason to eliminate


(A) made a comparison of the Federal Reserve and an automobile as racing through a tunnel, bouncing - made a comparison is wordy

(B) made a comparison between the Federal Reserve and an automobile racing through a tunnel, bouncing - made a comparison is wordy

(C) compared the federal Reserve with an automobile as racing through a tunnel and which bounced - total change in meaning

(D) compared the Federal Reserve to an automobile racing through a tunnel, bouncing - Compared to is Correct, everything right about the sentence

(E) compared the Federal Reserve with an automobile that races through a tunnel and it bounces - ambiguous it

I go with D
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by thephoenix » Thu May 06, 2010 10:53 pm
reopening this one
what is bouncing modyfying
as per the comma ing rule it should modify the previous clause and if it does than the meaning of the s/c with option D changes.
and if it is modyfying the autmobile ,the intended meaning of the s/c thenits violating the rule

source 1000 sc
can someone clarify
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by Stacey Koprince » Tue May 11, 2010 1:21 pm
Received a PM asking me to respond. Interesting question, interesting structure.

The economist has compared X to Y, -ing (etc)

Literally, yes, the -ing description is referring to Y (the car), because the Federal Reserve can't bounce off of walls. (At least, I hope not.) BUT, we're making a metaphorical comparison here. The economist is saying that X and Y are alike in some way. In what way are they alike? The -ing stuff: bouncing off the wall. So that -ing modifier does, indeed, refer to more than just the car part of the sentence... but in a metaphorical, not literal, way.

Phoenix, I'm not sure why you say D changes the meaning of the original? The original also uses the "comma -ing" structure so, whatever the initial meaning, that's maintained in D because it has the same structure (at least for this part of the sentence).
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by thephoenix » Tue May 11, 2010 8:20 pm
Stacey Koprince wrote:Received a PM asking me to respond. Interesting question, interesting structure.

Phoenix, I'm not sure why you say D changes the meaning of the original? The original also uses the "comma -ing" structure so, whatever the initial meaning, that's maintained in D because it has the same structure (at least for this part of the sentence).
hello stacey,
thanks for responding

Is there any difference ?? b/n intended meaning and original meaning
when the original is wrong not becuase of grammer ,but becuse of meaning. How we can ensure what is the actual meaning especilaly in compliacted s/c(where commonsense works for both sides). Should i bother about these thing?

coming back to this one ,
if i comprehending your statment correctly then D is not violating the -ing rule.In metaphorical comparison -ing can refer to Y.
does GMAT test this concept i.e a metaphorical comparison.
if yes then do we have any question in OG where -ing is reffering to the Y part.
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by thephoenix » Tue May 11, 2010 9:01 pm
thephoenix wrote:
Stacey Koprince wrote:Received a PM asking me to respond. Interesting question, interesting structure.

Phoenix, I'm not sure why you say D changes the meaning of the original? The original also uses the "comma -ing" structure so, whatever the initial meaning, that's maintained in D because it has the same structure (at least for this part of the sentence).
hello stacey,
thanks for responding

Is there any difference ?? b/n intended meaning and original meaning
when the original is wrong not becuase of grammer ,but becuse of meaning. How we can ensure what is the actual meaning especilaly in compliacted s/c(where commonsense works for both sides). Should i bother about these thing?
I JUST FOUND A S/C

Until Antoine Lavoisier proved otherwise in the eighteenth century, many scientists had believed that phlogiston was released by combustion and was an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood .

many scientists had believed that phlogiston was released by combustion and was an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood

many scientists believed that phlogiston was an imaginary substance released by combustion and its properties were not fully understood

phlogiston was an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood and which many scientists had believed was released by combustion

phlogiston, an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood, was believed by scientists to be released by combustion

many scientists had believed that combustion released phlogiston, an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood

[spoiler]I altered the options in order to understand the concept of intended meaning, in this new construction is there any grammatical error in the original , and if there is none then is there any error in E. which is better and what is the diff b/n the two??[/spoiler]
source is from another forum : https://gmatclub.com/forum/phlogiston-86875.html#p652269
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by ansumania » Tue May 11, 2010 9:22 pm
In the actual question:

why do we select D over B , is it because "only " that B is wordy or there are any other flaws?

Pl. reply.
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by paes » Tue May 11, 2010 9:49 pm
Stacey Koprince wrote:Received a PM asking me to respond. Interesting question, interesting structure.

The economist has compared X to Y, -ing (etc)

Literally, yes, the -ing description is referring to Y (the car), because the Federal Reserve can't bounce off of walls. (At least, I hope not.) BUT, we're making a metaphorical comparison here. The economist is saying that X and Y are alike in some way. In what way are they alike? The -ing stuff: bouncing off the wall. So that -ing modifier does, indeed, refer to more than just the car part of the sentence... but in a metaphorical, not literal, way.

Phoenix, I'm not sure why you say D changes the meaning of the original? The original also uses the "comma -ing" structure so, whatever the initial meaning, that's maintained in D because it has the same structure (at least for this part of the sentence).
Why b is wrong ?
compared and 'made a comparison' do not say the same meaning.
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by Stacey Koprince » Wed May 12, 2010 12:50 pm
Phoenix, you're asking good questions. FYI for future: a source is not a location; a source is the *author* of the question. Stating a location is like putting "the library" in your bibliography of sources for your term paper. :) But we're just discussing a general principle here, so it doesn't matter this time.

The only time we can say the meaning of the original sentence is wrong is if it is something that is essentially impossible. There was one OG problem that talked about buildings being "heavily damaged and destroyed" in an earthquake. You can't damage AND destroy something - it's either heavily damaged OR destroyed. So that was a clear case in which the original meaning was wrong (and the correct answer used "or" instead of "and").

Other than that, you assume that the original meaning is correct. In the Lavoisier sentence, the original sentence could not say, for example, that "Until Lavoisier proved otherwise, many scientists had believed phlogiston was an imaginary substance" - which says that Lavoisier proved that phlogiston was NOT imaginary - and then have the correct answer say that phlogiston was, indeed, imaginary the whole time.

The difference: there's no way we should be expected to know whether phlogiston is imaginary. We shouldn't have to bring in any outside knowledge here. But we don't need outside knowledge to know that a building can't be both heavily damaged and destroyed at the same time, because it can't exist in two different states at once.

The only time I've ever seen an OG question have a "wrong" meaning in the original sentence is when it's super obvious - along the lines of the "damaged and destroyed" example. And it doesn't happen that often.
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by A.Kiran » Sat May 15, 2010 3:42 pm
let me reiterate what you are saying


In Gmat official guide, there is one example stating building damaged and destroyed

In the example stated by Phoenix , scientists believed X was released by combustion and was imaginary substance.

In the First example: Federal Reserve and an automobile as racing through a tunnel


All the 3 sentences does not make sense literally.
They can be metaphorical things as they are true too.

When this happens, then the rules for the normal sentences ( like comma +ing , or use of AND (( in phoenixs example)) )
does not apply ?

Are they common type of question ?
And if so how to solve them ? what are the rules we should know to solve them ??
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by Stacey Koprince » Tue May 18, 2010 9:37 am
This particular issue is not common and, because it's tricky / borderline, you really want to pay attention to what OG does and not worry about other sources so much.

As I mentioned in my last post:
The only time I've ever seen an OG question have a "wrong" meaning in the original sentence is when it's super obvious - along the lines of the "damaged and destroyed" example. And it doesn't happen that often.
What happens more often is that some (wrong) answer choice changes the original meaning when there wasn't anything wrong with the original meaning. But that should be easier to distinguish, because or default is always that we stick with the original meaning UNLESS there's something very obviously illogical about it.
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