Relative pronoun, modifier etc in a problem

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Relative pronoun, modifier etc in a problem

by aagar2003 » Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:45 am
Need to find errors in the following sentence:
By adding a value menu and allowing customers to choose side orders such as salads and baked potatoes, Wendy's has not only lured customers away from Burger King and McDonald's, but has enticed them to choose fast-food over meals prepared by finer dining establishments.
Source: Some coaching institute in Bengaluru, India

OA: [spoiler]By adding a value menu and allowing customers to choose side orders such as salads and baked potatoes, Wendy's has not only lured customers away from Burger King and McDonald's, but has enticed the customers to choose fast-food over meals prepared by finer dining establishments. [/spoiler]

Questions:
(1) Is Wendy's correct? Shouldn't it be "the Wendy"? Don't we need articles "the" before Burger King and McDonald?
(2) Should it be McDonald's or McDonald?
(3) How about idiom Not Only X but ALSO Y? OA does not contain ALSO. Is it implied?
(4) Is "the customers" needed? Them only had only one plural noun to refer before and that was "customers" . In this case it is really not essential to replace "them" with "the customers". Correct?
(5) In the last clause, the customers who are enticed can be the same as those in second clause or they can be different. Sentence does not provide any clue why they should or should note be the same. What is the SC strategy in such problems?
(6) Fast-Food over meals: Is an article required before fast-food? Should it be fast-food over meal?

My answer would be:
By adding a value menu and allowing customers to choose side orders such as salads and baked potatoes, THE WENDY has not only lured THE customers away from THE BURGER KING and THE MCDONALD, but has ALSO enticed THEM to choose A fast-food over A MEAL prepared by finer dining establishments.
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by arun@crackverbal » Thu Jul 14, 2011 9:29 am
Hi Ashish,

My answer below:
[email protected] wrote: Questions:
(1) Is Wendy's correct? Shouldn't it be "the Wendy"? Don't we need articles "the" before Burger King and McDonald?
No you don't need to use the article "THE" for businesses. Would you say THE Samsung is a good company? Or THE IBM has offered me a job?
[email protected] wrote: (2) Should it be McDonald's or McDonald?
If you are referring to the company then it is "McDonald's"
[email protected] wrote: (3) How about idiom Not Only X but ALSO Y? OA does not contain ALSO. Is it implied?
"Not only" should have a "but also" to follow it. The opposite is not true i.e. I can have a statement containing "but also" but without "not only".
[email protected] wrote: (4) Is "the customers" needed? Them only had only one plural noun to refer before and that was "customers" . In this case it is really not essential to replace "them" with "the customers". Correct?
"Burger King and McDonald's" can be taken as a plural.
[email protected] wrote: (5) In the last clause, the customers who are enticed can be the same as those in second clause or they can be different. Sentence does not provide any clue why they should or should note be the same. What is the SC strategy in such problems?
I didn't understand the question.
[email protected] wrote: (6) Fast-Food over meals: Is an article required before fast-food? Should it be fast-food over meal?
Why would you need an article before fast-food? Think of it as a food category. Would you say "the chat"? i.e. meaning there is only one of its kind. Here it is just means a category - bhelpuri, sevpuri, ragada pattis etc all coming under it (non-Indian readers can ignore this example :)

Secondly "meal" is singular i.e. a 5-course meal. "meals" are plural i.e. 2 square meals a day. Here it means all types of "meals" prepared by fine dining establishments.(I have never heard of "finer" dining restaurants - this is a new one to me).

I think you are reading too much into this. This doesn't make for good GMAT prep sense i.e. you should be focusing on what GMAT is testing you on - not frivolous stuff such as the one above. GMAT will NEVER test you on articles i.e. THE Wendy's v/s Wendy's. Also, I would stick to only questions from the official source than picking up from anywhere else.

Play safe! :-)

Arun
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