Use of hyphen in SC

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prachich1987: Legendary Member; Posts: 752; Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:47 amFollowed by: 10 members; Thanked: 20 times; GMAT Score:700

by prachich1987 » Wed Jan 05, 2011 9:46 am

66. Archaeologists in Egypt have excavated a 5,000-year-old wooden hull that is the earliest surviving example of example of a "built" boat-in other words, a boat constructed out of planks fitted together-and that thus represents a major
advance, in terms of boat-building technology, over the dugout logs and reed vessels of more ancient vintage.

A. together-and that thus represents
B. together-and this has represented
C. together, and it represents
D. together that was representing
E. together to represent

OA : after some discussion

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Wed Jan 05, 2011 9:46 am

shovan85: Community Manager; Posts: 991; Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 6:19 amFollowed by: 24 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 146 times

by shovan85 » Wed Jan 05, 2011 10:20 am

prachich1987 wrote:66. Archaeologists in Egypt have excavated a 5,000-year-old wooden hull that is the earliest surviving example of example of a "built" boat-in other words, a boat constructed out of planks fitted together-and that thus represents a major
advance, in terms of boat-building technology, over the dugout logs and reed vessels of more ancient vintage.

A. together-and that thus represents
B. together-and this has represented
C. together, and it represents
D. together that was representing
E. together to represent

OA : after some discussion

The answer I think is A

Saw it quite a while back. The problem here contains dash (hyphen) both smaller and longer one. If you see the "boat-building" it is just a usage of dash, whereas if you see the longer hyphen you see in the options is "aside". Aside is used to show example or some more information about the preceding noun. When your example of information is complete you have to close it with one more aside (just as we do for brackets). Ideally, there is always used a Pair of longer dashes .

Back to problem:

You can eliminate C, D, and E by not finding the closing longer dash. Between A and B, A follows the parallelism.

that X..... and that Y... (Parallelism)

If the problem is Easy Respect it, if the problem is tough Attack it

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VivianKerr: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1035; Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:13 amFollowed by: 365 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 474 times

by VivianKerr » Wed Jan 05, 2011 11:16 am

Hi Shovan!

Just to clarify on the two uses of the "dash" (Technically the punctuation here is a dash, not a hyphen. A hyphen is used within individual words).

1. To indicate a break in thought.

Example: I forget which way to go- wait, now I remember!

Here the dash functions like a semicolon. Notice there is just ONE dash.

2. To set off a parenthetical phrase.

Example: My cousin Liz - whom you have never met - saw "Black Swan" last night.

Here the dashes function like commas setting apart non-essential information. Notice there are TWO dashes.

I agree with Prachich. The answer is (A).

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shovan85: Community Manager; Posts: 991; Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 6:19 amFollowed by: 24 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 146 times

by shovan85 » Wed Jan 05, 2011 11:20 am

VivianKerr wrote:Hi Shovan!

Just to clarify on the two uses of the "dash" (Technically the punctuation here is a dash, not a hyphen. A hyphen is used within individual words).

Thanks!! so when we use the dash between two words as "boat-technology" this is called Hyphen Not dash?

If the problem is Easy Respect it, if the problem is tough Attack it

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VivianKerr: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1035; Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:13 amFollowed by: 365 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 474 times

by VivianKerr » Wed Jan 05, 2011 11:22 am

You got it!

Dash = Between words

Hyphen = Between syllables

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prachich1987: Legendary Member; Posts: 752; Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:47 amFollowed by: 10 members; Thanked: 20 times; GMAT Score:700

by prachich1987 » Wed Jan 05, 2011 7:02 pm

VivianKerr wrote:You got it!

Dash = Between words

Hyphen = Between syllables

Thanks VivianKerr for making it clear.
If in option A , we remove the dash & place a comma will it be a correct sentence
which one of the below three is best.
Actually I am not understanding the purpose of using "dash"

1) together-and that thus represents

2) together, and that thus represents

3) together and that thus represents

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EducationAisle: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 434; Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:42 pmFollowed by: 46 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 91 times

by EducationAisle » Thu Jan 06, 2011 3:07 am

Amitabh, a great thespian, is now aging.

a great thespian is called an appositive and in the above sentence, is delimited by commas.

In the sentence under consideration, the appositive is:

-in other words, a boat constructed out of planks fitted together-

This is an appositive delimited by dash.

Function of the delimiter (comma in the example I gave and dash in the above example) is similar. Hence, we cant have 2) and 3) that you suggest, since in that case the first dash that appears in the non-underlined portion (and hence cannot be changed), will not have any balancing end-delimiter.

Basically, since appositive in this case starts with a dash, it must end with a dash (or a full-stop which would mark the end of the sentence).

Ashish
MBA - ISB, GMAT - 99th Percentile
GMAT Faculty @ EducationAisle
www.EducationAisle.com

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iqbalgmat: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 7; Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2011 10:41 pm

by iqbalgmat » Thu Jan 06, 2011 8:02 am

Dash is like a comma.

Example:

Dash + FANBOYS is very like "COMMA + FANBOYS":

Example:

We are going to Delhi, Kolkata, and Darjiling.

if we use Dash:

We are going to Delhi, Kolkata-- and Darjiling.

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