the man was

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paes: Legendary Member; Posts: 995; Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:56 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 31 times

by paes » Tue Sep 07, 2010 3:50 am

The man was always aware, sometimes proudly and sometimes resentfully, that he was a small-town Midwesterner who was thrust into a world that was dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than him.

(A) who was thrust into a world that was dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than him
(B) who had been thrust into a world that was dominated by more wealthy, educated, and polished people than him
(C) who had been thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and people more polished than he was
(D) thrust into a world dominated by more wealthy, educated, and polished people than him
(E) thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than he

OA Later
Please explain A D and E.

Last edited by paes on Tue Sep 07, 2010 4:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Tue Sep 07, 2010 3:50 am

thephoenix: Legendary Member; Posts: 1560; Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2009 2:38 amFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 137 times

by thephoenix » Tue Sep 07, 2010 3:59 am

imo e

Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working

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niksworth: Legendary Member; Posts: 520; Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 10:44 amFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 70 times

by niksworth » Tue Sep 07, 2010 6:23 am

I am not totally convinced with any of the choices, but D looks the best of the lot.

A - was after who is incorrect. I think past perfect tense is required here. Also, that was after world looks superfluous.

B - Again, that was after world was looks superfluous.

C - people more polished than he was is wordy and awkward.

D - Best.

E - than he is wrong. than him is required.

However, if I were to rephrase this sentence, it would be something like the following:

The man was always aware, sometimes proudly and sometimes resentfully, that he was a small-town Midwesterner thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than him.

scio me nihil scire

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scorpionz: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 98; Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 10:00 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 7 times; GMAT Score:760

by scorpionz » Tue Sep 07, 2010 7:11 am

paes wrote:The man was always aware, sometimes proudly and sometimes resentfully, that he was a small-town Midwesterner who was thrust into a world that was dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than him.

(A) who was thrust into a world that was dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than him
(B) who had been thrust into a world that was dominated by more wealthy, educated, and polished people than him
(C) who had been thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and people more polished than he was
(D) thrust into a world dominated by more wealthy, educated, and polished people than him
(E) thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than he

OA Later
Please explain A D and E.

IMO: A

I agree with @niksworth though that none of the options seem very convincing

A - Best of the lot in my opinion although I would have preferred the past perfect (who had been) here..
B - "more wealthy, educated and polished" are not parallel.
C - "people more polished" breaks the parallelism
D - same as B
E - "more polished than he" incorrect

OA Plz..??

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paes: Legendary Member; Posts: 995; Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:56 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 31 times

by paes » Tue Sep 07, 2010 7:28 am

OA is E.

thanks guys to share your analysis.

I took this question from BTG only.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/the-man-was- ... 25168.html

https://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentenc ... an-he.html

Everywhere the answer is E.

I am not convinced with 'he' in E.
I think it should be him.

Can somebody explain it .

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FightWithGMAT: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 364; Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 5:13 amFollowed by: 3 members; Thanked: 31 times

by FightWithGMAT » Tue Sep 07, 2010 7:52 am

paes wrote:OA is E.

thanks guys to share your analysis.

I took this question from BTG only.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/the-man-was- ... 25168.html

https://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentenc ... an-he.html

Everywhere the answer is E.

I am not convinced with 'he' in E.
I think it should be him.

Can somebody explain it .

I think the use of HE is perfectly OK.

John is older than him
John is older than he (is).......is- ellipsis.

She can dance better than him
She can dance better than he can.

we can not compare dance with HIM.

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uwhusky: Legendary Member; Posts: 1172; Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 6:20 pmFollowed by: 4 members; Thanked: 74 times

by uwhusky » Tue Sep 07, 2010 8:00 am

"He was a small-town Midwesterner thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than he."

The sentence just doesn't seem right ending with he, unless the sentence was meant for a comparison with implied [was]. Anyhow, I think this sentence might do more harm at confusing someone than at helping.

Yep.

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niksworth: Legendary Member; Posts: 520; Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 10:44 amFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 70 times

by niksworth » Tue Sep 07, 2010 9:08 am

I did some searching on this.

It seems that there has been a lot of debate among grammarians on this topic. i.e. when personal pronouns follow except, but, than, or as , what form should that pronoun take (subjective or objective)?

Traditionally, these words have been regarded as conjunctions and the personal pronoun that follows has been regarded as the subject of a clause (which might not be completed).
E.g. 1. No one could be as happy as I [am].
2. My father is still taller than she [is]

Many grammarians have argued, however, that these words are often used as prepositions, not conjunctions
E.g. 1. My mother is a lot like her - Here, undoubtedly, like is a preposition.

So, why can't we, then, use than and but as prepositions in sentences such as
1. Dad's a lot taller than him
2. No one in this class has done the homework but me

Such usage is now widely regarded as acceptable in all but the most formal writing.

To resolve this debate, Bryan A. Garner in The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style, 1995 suggested the following.-
1. when the verb precedes the but/than phrase, the objective case should be used (None of the students were interested but him)
2. when the but/than phrase precedes the verb, the subjective case is appropriate (None of the students but he were interested)

The argument goes that in the former case but is behaving as a preposition, in the second as a conjunction.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming to the question, here the first case applies (verb before than), so objective case (him) should be applied.

However, since all other options have obvious errors (including D, where educated and polished people are not qualified by an adjective to make a comparison possible), it is better to choose an option on which there has been a major debate among grammarians (making it a contender).

In other words, if such a question comes, it is advisable to choose something like E.

scio me nihil scire

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pradeepkaushal9518: Legendary Member; Posts: 1309; Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 11:41 pmFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 33 times

by pradeepkaushal9518 » Tue Sep 07, 2010 11:20 am

E is parallel and best comparison

A SMALL TOWN GUY

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adi_800: Legendary Member; Posts: 544; Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2009 9:14 amFollowed by: 2 members; Location: Pune, India; Thanked: 31 times

by adi_800 » Thu Sep 09, 2010 7:47 pm

than is not a preposition to require us to make use of objective pronoun...
refer to bob notes for more details..

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