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burning calories

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by ken3233 » Tue Mar 31, 2009 12:10 pm
OA is D. Can someone explain why D is better than E? Is it for reasons of concision only?

Two new studies indicate that many people become obese more due to the fact that their bodies burn calories too slowly than overeating.

A
B due to their bodies burning calories too slowly than that they are overeaters.
C because their bodies burn calories too slowly than that they are overeaters.
D because their bodies burn calories too slowly than because they eat too much.
E because of their bodies burning calories too slowly than because of their eating too much.
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by Sher1 » Tue Mar 31, 2009 12:21 pm
There is a parallelism issue with E. "burning too slowly" is not parallel to "their eating too much". Using their in the second part of the sentence confuses what the referrant is.

D is concise and paralle with Verb + adverb in both parts of the sentence.

Others have issues with parallism

A Due to the fact is not a good way to phrase the sentence and also burn calories is not parallel to overeating

B burning calories too slowly vs. overeaters.....not parallel

C again not parallel



Two new studies indicate that many people become obese more due to the fact that their bodies burn calories too slowly than overeating.

A


B due to their bodies burning calories too slowly than that they are overeaters.
C because their bodies burn calories too slowly than that they are overeaters.
D because their bodies burn calories too slowly than because they eat too much.
E because of their bodies burning calories too slowly than because of their eating too much
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by ken3233 » Tue Mar 31, 2009 7:50 pm
Sher1 wrote:There is a parallelism issue with E. "burning too slowly" is not parallel to "their eating too much". Using their in the second part of the sentence confuses what the referrant is.

D is concise and paralle with Verb + adverb in both parts of the sentence.
1) I thought that "burning too slowly" is parallel with "eating too much". My reasoning was that each construction pairs a gerund with an adverb. How is my reasoning incorrect?

2) E also appeared parallel to me because it included the possessive pronoun "their" on each side of the parallel construction. Am I wrong in thinking that possessive pronouns should be included on both sides of a parallel construction, assuming a possessive pronoun appears on the first side?

3) In D (below), I was tempted to regard the construction as unparallel because one side includes "their bodies" while the other side uses the subject pronoun "they". What is my error in reasoning here...is neither noun/pronoun regarded as subject to the parallel construction rule in this case?

"...because their bodies burn calories too slowly than because they eat too much."
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Re: burning calories

by TedCornell » Tue Mar 31, 2009 9:58 pm
ken3233 wrote:OA is D. Can someone explain why D is better than E? Is it for reasons of concision only?

Two new studies indicate that many people become obese more due to the fact that their bodies burn calories too slowly than overeating.

D because their bodies burn calories too slowly than because they eat too much.
E because of their bodies burning calories too slowly than because of their eating too much.
Both D and E are parallel. D is much better than E as far as the GMAT is concerned however. The GMAT (and academia in general) considers "their burning", "their eating" and similar constructs weak writing (though not always wrong) and tends to prefer subject+verb constructs. Hence, "their bodies burn" and "they eat" is a much better choice.
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Re: burning calories

by karmayogi » Wed Apr 01, 2009 9:04 am
TedCornell wrote:
ken3233 wrote:OA is D. Can someone explain why D is better than E? Is it for reasons of concision only?

Two new studies indicate that many people become obese more due to the fact that their bodies burn calories too slowly than overeating.

D because their bodies burn calories too slowly than because they eat too much.
E because of their bodies burning calories too slowly than because of their eating too much.
Both D and E are parallel. D is much better than E as far as the GMAT is concerned however. The GMAT (and academia in general) considers "their burning", "their eating" and similar constructs weak writing (though not always wrong) and tends to prefer subject+verb constructs. Hence, "their bodies burn" and "they eat" is a much better choice.
Ted you are right. 'Their' requires a noun and we can not use gerund form of verb as a possessive noun. I have seen one such question in OG.
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by ken3233 » Wed Apr 01, 2009 5:24 pm
Ted and Karmayogi: thanks for the replies. Could you say anything about questions #2 and #3 above?

In parallel constructions (let's assume the possessive pronoun is paired with a bare form noun) does the possessive pronoun need to be repeated in the second half of the construction if it is already in the first?

I'm still a bit confused about the issue I raised in #3, too.
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by karmayogi » Wed Apr 01, 2009 7:40 pm
ken3233 wrote:Ted and Karmayogi: thanks for the replies. Could you say anything about questions #2 and #3 above?

In parallel constructions (let's assume the possessive pronoun is paired with a bare form noun) does the possessive pronoun need to be repeated in the second half of the construction if it is already in the first?

I'm still a bit confused about the issue I raised in #3, too.
OPTION D:
I would look for the subject.

X burn calories too slowly
Y eat too much

Where X and Y are subjects, and could be anything logical. Here, X = their bodies and Y = people.


OPTION E:
The issue is not possessive noun. In some context possessive forms on both the sides might be correct. For examples:
In swimming, out legs beat faster than our hands do.
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by ken3233 » Wed Apr 01, 2009 7:48 pm
karmayogi wrote:
ken3233 wrote:Ted and Karmayogi: thanks for the replies. Could you say anything about questions #2 and #3 above?

In parallel constructions (let's assume the possessive pronoun is paired with a bare form noun) does the possessive pronoun need to be repeated in the second half of the construction if it is already in the first?

I'm still a bit confused about the issue I raised in #3, too.
OPTION D:
I would look for the subject.

X burn calories too slowly
Y eat too much

Where X and Y are subjects, and could be anything logical. Here, X = their bodies and Y = people.


OPTION E:
The issue is not possessive noun. In some context possessive forms on both the sides might be correct. For examples:
In swimming, out legs beat faster than our hands do.
Very interesting....I have learned something. Thanks.
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Re: burning calories

by S0laris » Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:26 am
TedCornell wrote: .....
Both D and E are parallel. D is much better than E as far as the GMAT is concerned however. The GMAT (and academia in general) considers "their burning", "their eating" and similar constructs weak writing (though not always wrong) and tends to prefer subject+verb constructs. Hence, "their bodies burn" and "they eat" is a much better choice.
Yet, because of concstruction sometimes comsidered as wrong
actually, reading the 1-st sentence, I thought the problem would also revolve around "due to", "because", and "because of".
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by orel » Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:56 am
Hello!
I have a quick question here:

Would E be correct too if the sentence ended like following:

because of their bodies' burning calories too slowly than because of their eating too much.

Thanks
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by karmayogi » Thu Apr 02, 2009 10:56 am
Feruza Matyakubova wrote:Hello!
I have a quick question here:

Would E be correct too if the sentence ended like following:

because of their bodies' burning calories too slowly than because of their eating too much.

Thanks
This has bigger problem. "their bodies' burning" means burning is possessed by their bodies :), which definitely doesn't make sense.
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