Important concept

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Important concept

by ayushiiitm » Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:36 am
OG 10 question has a question

Like most religions, the teachings of Sikhism are codified in a book.

(A) Like most religions, the teachings of Sikhism are codified in
(B) Like most other religions, the teachings of Sikhism are codified in
(C) Sikhism’s teachings, like those of most other religions, are codified in
(D) For their codification, like the teachings of most religions, Sikhism has
(E) Like those of most religions, Sikhism has codified its teachings in

OA is C


I have doubt regarding option B

B) Like those of most religions, Sikhism has codified its teaching in a book'



Reason for B being wrong is given as

because a pronoun like those must refer to an already expressed noun

what is meant by this

Another sentence that i found in OG12 has the following construction

His studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present-day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1837 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in what are now temperate areas

why his is considered rightly placed, even if it comes before the referrant
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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:54 am
When a comparison is being made, make sure the sentence is comparing the right two things. We have to compare apples to apples. We can't compare apples to oranges.

In the sentence below, we have to compare Sikhism to another religion, or the teachings of Sikhism to the teachings of another religion. A, B, D and E are all incorrect because they're comparing apples to oranges.

Like most religions, the teachings of Sikhism are codified in a book.

(A) Like most religions, the teachings of Sikhism are codified in
(B) Like most other religions, the teachings of Sikhism are codified in
(C) Sikhism’s teachings, like those of most other religions, are codified in
(D) For their codification, like the teachings of most religions, Sikhism has
(E) Like those of most religions, Sikhism has codified its teachings in


Only answer choice C makes a correct comparison. (In C, the pronoun those = teachings.)
Last edited by GMATGuruNY on Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:04 am, edited 4 times in total.
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by pradeepkaushal9518 » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:00 am
the rule is :- a pronoun must refer unambiguously to a specific noun.

pronoun " those" noun " teachings"

hence C

In sentence below, we have to compare Sikhism to another religion, or the teachings of Sikhism to the teachings of another religion. A, B, C and E are all lncorrect because they're comparing apples to oranges.

gmat guru u wrongly write A,B,C AND E ALL ARE INCORRECT PLZ CORRECT IT

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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:03 am
pradeepkaushal9518 wrote:the rule is :- a pronoun must refer unambiguously to a specific noun.

pronoun " those" noun " teachings"

hence C

In sentence below, we have to compare Sikhism to another religion, or the teachings of Sikhism to the teachings of another religion. A, B, C and E are all lncorrect because they're comparing apples to oranges.

gmat guru u wrongly write A,B,C AND E ALL ARE INCORRECT PLZ CORRECT IT
Thanks! I corrected my post.
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by indiantiger » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:04 am
I will try to explain it but I am not very good at explaining stuff in general:

In (B) Like most other religions, the teachings of Sikhism are codified in

As it is a comparison, it should show it is being compared. In case of (B) it seems like most other religions are being compared to the teachings.

Try to answer the question using B
What exactly about most other religions is comparable to Sikhism?

- Its not very clear.

I hope it helps.
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by ayushiiitm » Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:25 am
ayushiiitm wrote:OG 10 question has a question

Like most religions, the teachings of Sikhism are codified in a book.

(A) Like most religions, the teachings of Sikhism are codified in
(B) Like most other religions, the teachings of Sikhism are codified in
(C) Sikhism’s teachings, like those of most other religions, are codified in
(D) For their codification, like the teachings of most religions, Sikhism has
(E) Like those of most religions, Sikhism has codified its teachings in

OA is C


I have doubt regarding option B

B) Like those of most religions, Sikhism has codified its teaching in a book'



Reason for B being wrong is given as

because a pronoun like those must refer to an already expressed noun

what is meant by this

Another sentence that i found in OG12 has the following construction

His studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present-day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1837 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in what are now temperate areas

why his is considered rightly placed, even if it comes before the referrant

sorry i pointed to a wrong option

I wanted clarification on explanation to option E
I understand the rules of comaprison

MY doubt is on the explanation given in OG for a wrong option
Reason for E being wrong is given as

because a pronoun like those must refer to an already expressed noun

what is meant by this

Does it mean that whenever we are using a pronoun such as those, his, its, the referrant should be stated before they are used
Another sentence that i found in OG12 has the following construction

His studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present-day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1837 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in what are now temperate areas

why his is considered rightly placed, even if it comes before the referrant

Experts please look into it
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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:51 am
ayushiiitm wrote:
ayushiiitm wrote:OG 10 question has a question

Like most religions, the teachings of Sikhism are codified in a book.

(A) Like most religions, the teachings of Sikhism are codified in
(B) Like most other religions, the teachings of Sikhism are codified in
(C) Sikhism’s teachings, like those of most other religions, are codified in
(D) For their codification, like the teachings of most religions, Sikhism has
(E) Like those of most religions, Sikhism has codified its teachings in

OA is C

MY doubt is on the explanation given in OG for a wrong option
Reason for E being wrong is given as

because a pronoun like those must refer to an already expressed noun
E is incorrect not because of the reason stated above but because it makes an incorrect comparison.

It's ok to say:

His work done, John left the office and drove home.

Answer choice E would be ok if it said:

Like those of most religions, the teachings of Sikhism are codified in a book.

However, it is usually better to place a pronoun after the noun that it's replacing.
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by ayushiiitm » Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:18 am
Thanks Mitch

I was carrying this wrong concept in mind for so many days
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by Kushal Kumar » Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:42 am
The question deals mainly with comparison and I would also go for option (C) since this would be the most logical comparison of all.

Regarding (E), it is eliminated on the basis close to "Parallelism" and "Grammatical Construction". Although one may perceive option (E) as correct in the first pass, but once carefully viewed you can understand that the comparison is correct one but the Grammatical Construction is bit awkward. I would have gone for it if it would have written as:

"Like those of most religions, the teachings of Sikhism is codified in" as it sounds correct according to parallelism (those of ~ teachings of)

And regarding your doubt concerning the explanation in OG:
MY doubt is on the explanation given in OG for a wrong option
Reason for E being wrong is given as

because a pronoun like those must refer to an already expressed noun

what is meant by this
See generally it is preferred that pronoun is best fitted when a noun acts as its unambiguous antecedent, and especially for demonstrative pronouns: that, those, these, and this. The explanation given in OG obviously cannot be generalized. Its simply an incomplete and blunt explanation for opting 'C' of the two possible choices.

Yes but we'll always practice this OG concept at times when the possible options are very close (as in this question) to distinguish between "best grammatically constructed sentence" and "better grammatically constructed sentence".

Hope this explanation serves your purpose. Nice question though. You may refer Pg-71, Manhattan SC Guide for detailed basics on demonstrative pronouns.
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by ayushiiitm » Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:50 am
Kushal Kumar wrote:The question deals mainly with comparison and I would also go for option (C) since this would be the most logical comparison of all.

Regarding (E), it is eliminated on the basis close to "Parallelism" and "Grammatical Construction". Although one may perceive option (E) as correct in the first pass, but once carefully viewed you can understand that the comparison is correct one but the Grammatical Construction is bit awkward. I would have gone for it if it would have written as:

"Like those of most religions, the teachings of Sikhism is codified in" as it sounds correct according to parallelism (those of ~ teachings of)

And regarding your doubt concerning the explanation in OG:
MY doubt is on the explanation given in OG for a wrong option
Reason for E being wrong is given as

because a pronoun like those must refer to an already expressed noun

what is meant by this
See generally it is preferred that pronoun is best fitted when a noun acts as its unambiguous antecedent, and especially for demonstrative pronouns: that, those, these, and this. The explanation given in OG obviously cannot be generalized. Its simply an incomplete and blunt explanation for opting 'C' of the two possible choices.

Yes but we'll always practice this OG concept at times when the possible options are very close (as in this question) to distinguish between "best grammatically constructed sentence" and "better grammatically constructed sentence".

Hope this explanation serves your purpose. Nice question though. You may refer Pg-71, Manhattan SC Guide for detailed basics on demonstrative pronouns.
Which edition of Manhattan SC guide
I have 03 (which follows og10) and 05 (which follows og11) edition at disposal
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by Kushal Kumar » Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:57 am
Fourth Edition (Updated for 12th edition of OG)
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by ayushiiitm » Wed Jul 14, 2010 12:07 pm
Kushal Kumar wrote:Fourth Edition (Updated for 12th edition of OG)

Can you give a brief of important concepts written in it.

It would be really kind
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by Kushal Kumar » Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:21 pm
Okay I'll mail you the scanned version of the topic.
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by frank1 » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:34 pm
i was able to comeup with C as answer after coming down to C and E
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by Kushal Kumar » Thu Jul 15, 2010 1:35 am
Please find the pdf attached.
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Demonstrative Pronouns.pdf
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