Constructed with finest italian marble---comparison

Question

Constructed with the finest italian marble, the floor of the church is its greatest attraction
and is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows.

a) attraction and is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows.

b) attraction,itself more attractive to tourists than its ornate stained glass windows.

c) attraction,itself more attractive to tourists as are its ornate stained glass windows.

d) attraction,being more attractive to tourists than its ornate stained glass windows are

e) attraction as it more is attractive to tourists than are the church's stained glass windows.

Answer after some discussion

tpr-becky · Answer

This is a pronoun question. on the GMAT pronouns cannot be ambiguous and is each of A, B, C and D the "it" coudl refer to the church or the floor. therefore the answer must be E. best of Luck

champmag · Answer

Even IMO the answer should be E as the option fairly compares the floor of the church to windows of the church. However the answer is mentioned as B. Source:Kaplan GMAT 800

tpr-becky · Answer

if you wanted to compare the floor of the church to the windows of the church you would have to use the same format. you can't say "floor of the church" and "the church's stained glass windows" that is not parallel.

Becky
Master GMAT Instructor
The Princeton Review
Irvine, CA

AIM GMAT · Answer

tpr-becky wrote:if you wanted to compare the floor of the church to the windows of the church you would have to use the same format. you can't say "floor of the church" and "the church's stained glass windows" that is not parallel.

Totally agree with Becky .

IMO E too.

Thanks & Regards,
AIM GMAT

champmag · Answer

Thanks Becky...it helped.

amir_hatef · Answer

Hi everybody, can expert come and help me on choice E construction?? The choice skeleton is strange for me and I can NOT undrstand what elements are being compared together!!! Your nice help would be appreciated.

atulmangal · Answer

tpr-becky wrote:if you wanted to compare the floor of the church to the windows of the church you would have to use the same format. you can't say "floor of the church" and "the church's stained glass windows" that is not parallel.

Totally agree with Becky .

IMO E too.

Thanks & Regards,
AIM GMAT

gmat_perfect · Answer

Constructed with the finest italian marble, the floor of the church is its greatest attraction
and is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows.
a) attraction and is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows.
b) attraction,itself more attractive to tourists than its ornate stained glass windows.
c) attraction,itself more attractive to tourists as are its ornate stained glass windows.
d) attraction,being more attractive to tourists than its ornate stained glass windows are
e) attraction as it more is attractive to tourists than are the church's stained glass windows.

The skeleton of the sentence:

The floor is its greatest attraction and is more attractive than are its windows.

--> I don't find any error in this sentence.

C and D are wrong.

If we follow B:

The floor is its greatest attraction, itself more attractive than its windows.

--> What role does "COMMA + Itself more attractive than its windows"?

I don't get it. I eliminate it.

In option E, "more is attractive" is awkward.

I like A.

Thanks.

GMATMadeEasy · Answer

What role does "COMMA + Itself more attractive than its windows"? This is an absolute phrase.Howevern pronoun is certainly an issue here. 'floor of the church' is subject and then author uses 'it' to refer to church ; you infer so based on meaning of course. Any Kaplan expert ? or any other expert please ? @GMAT perfect: A is wrong because of inappropriate use of 'and' E has typo error i suppose.@Original poster could you confirm please.

rohu27 · Answer

see reply from Tani - Kaplan expert https://www.beatthegmat.com/confusing-us ... 73754.html according to her, it shud be A (best of worst)

tetura84 · Answer

I came up with answer choice B.

The idiom is, MORE X THAN Y
where, X and Y must be parallel.
A. more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows
First part is a phrase, 2nd is a fragment.
C. C is wrong because it uses MORE ... AS
D. May be correct, but uses being .. it is wrong in GMAT.
E. Same as A

Experts, please comment.

Also, about the pronoun-antecedent issue, it is not always an issue if meaning is clear(there is a great post of Ron about this, don't have the reference right now)

rohu27 · Answer

tetura84 wrote:I came up with answer choice B.

The idiom is, MORE X THAN Y
where, X and Y must be parallel.
A. more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows
First part is a phrase, 2nd is a fragment.
C. C is wrong because it uses MORE ... AS
D. May be correct, but uses being .. it is wrong in GMAT.
E. Same as A

Experts, please comment.

Also, about the pronoun-antecedent issue, it is not always an issue if meaning is clear(there is a great post of Ron about this, don't have the reference right now)

im not an expert but i take the leeway to comment.
i agree wth you, pronoun ambiguity shud can be ignored if the meanign is clear, but if u look closely at option B, we do have a clear meaning error.
i will better put it in Ron's words:

"none of the choices here are correct. (b) is intended as the correct answer, but it contains a flagrant pronoun error (which causes the sentence to say that the floor itself has windows in it)."

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/dif ... t7627.html

AIM GMAT · Answer

Now i am really confused , Adam says that its ok it the sentence conveys the meaning and there is no other possible way , floor cant have windows so certainly its about church . But now as rohu quotes about Ron's approach . What is to be followed ?

Thanks & Regards,
AIM GMAT

rohu27 · Answer

AIM GMAT wrote:Now i am really confused , Adam says that its ok it the sentence conveys the meaning and there is no other possible way , floor cant have windows so certainly its about church . But now as rohu quotes about Ron's approach . What is to be followed ?

I am in the same boat AIM

but still let me try if can clear somethng here.

option B itself - refers to floor of the church, and then the next its refers to church - dont we have an error here, same pronoun refering to 2 diff antecendents.
option A - we only have its and wth the help of meaning we can relate it to church.
option E would have been a better choice if not for as it more is - whtever tht means?
or is it a typo?

hope i didnt confuse u more.
may be the original poster can give OE
or may be we can consider this a not so good question and ignore

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