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Emily Dickinsons letters ...

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by II » Tue Nov 25, 2008 2:55 pm
Would be grateful for input on why each of the incorrect choices are wrong.

Thanks, II

P.S. What level of difficulty would this one be classified as ? 500, 550, 600, 650+ ? Thanks.
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by parallel_chase » Tue Nov 25, 2008 3:52 pm
IMO A

Option A - beginning ....and ending [parallel], participle - outnumbering correctly refers to the subject of the preceding clause i.e. Emily Dickinson's letters.

Option B period that begins.......and ended [incorrect]

Option C beginning.....and that ends [incorrect]

Option D and Option E - "which" - relative pronoun always refers to preceding noun, "which" should refer to letters instead of Susan Dickinson


To be honest I am not in a position to judge the level of this question, but if I must, I would say around 500-550 range, considering the time I took, to solve it.

OA?
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by II » Tue Nov 25, 2008 4:07 pm
OA is E.

I am struggling to pick out why A is incorrect ... anyone have any ideas on why the incorrect choices are incorrect.

Parallel,
I think you identified a good point which rules out some of the answer choices (parallelism: beginning/ending)

I do think this is at least a 600+ level question ... any thoughts ? By the way, this was the first SC question I got after getting 8 questions right (in a row), which may indicate that this is a higher level difficulty question (it was number 29 on the GMATPrep test)

Thanks.
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by parallel_chase » Tue Nov 25, 2008 4:30 pm
E should be wrong.

I can correlate to the fact that "outnumber" should be used instead of "outnumbering" but usage of "which" in E is totally wrong.

Refer to pg78 MGMAT 2007 edition.

Indeed help is needed.
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by II » Tue Nov 25, 2008 5:18 pm
parallel_chase wrote:E should be wrong.

I can correlate to the fact that "outnumber" should be used instead of "outnumbering" but usage of "which" in E is totally wrong.

Refer to pg78 MGMAT 2007 edition.

Indeed help is needed.
Yes E is shown as the correct answer ... see attached screenshot.
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by Tryingmybest » Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:11 pm
parallel_chase

which is used for things not for people.
So which in choice E is for letters not Dickinson.

Please correct me if I am wrong.
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by aditi_bc » Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:51 pm
'which' is referring to letters. Watch for the possessive Emily Dickerson's
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by niraj_a » Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:57 pm
agreed

now tell us what is wrong with A, thats the whole point anyway
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by Tryingmybest » Tue Nov 25, 2008 7:02 pm
Emily Dickinson's Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson ....... outnumber her letters to anyone else.

Outnumbering sounds awkward.
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by dmateer25 » Tue Nov 25, 2008 7:07 pm
Tryingmybest wrote:Emily Dickinson's Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson ....... outnumber her letters to anyone else.

Outnumbering sounds awkward.
I agree with tryingmybest.
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by schumi_gmat » Wed Nov 26, 2008 11:36 am
IMO E

I eliminated A because outnumbering sounds like the action is still in progress

So outnumber is a correct verb.

This comes to B and E.

B is wrong as begins.........ended are not parallel.

Hence E.
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by vaishalijain7 » Sun May 31, 2009 2:21 pm
Hi All,

In this question still I have not understood why the use of which is correct here. Why 'which' is modifying 'letters' instead of 'Dickinson'? Can anybody please explain it for me?
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by Arsene Lupin » Mon Jun 01, 2009 7:12 am
vaishalijain7 wrote:Hi All,

In this question still I have not understood why the use of which is correct here. Why 'which' is modifying 'letters' instead of 'Dickinson'? Can anybody please explain it for me?
I think that is because "which" refers to things not people.
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by SanjeevK » Mon Jun 01, 2009 8:01 am
A: Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period begining a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumbering her letters to anyone else

This option suggests that the period is outnumbering her letters. Hence A is wrong.
IMO E
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by sudeep_ar » Mon Jun 01, 2009 8:02 am
vaishalijain7 wrote:Hi All,

In this question still I have not understood why the use of which is correct here. Why 'which' is modifying 'letters' instead of 'Dickinson'? Can anybody please explain it for me?

[Emily Dickinson's Letters ( to Susan Huntington Dickinson )] is subject to which 'which' is referring.

This subject(s) outnumber the (..)
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