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all dogs are descended

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by gmatmachoman » Wed Jun 09, 2010 1:21 am
Although all dogs are descended from the
wolf and the jackal, the various breeds of
dog are so different from one another that
it hardly seems possible that they had a
common ancestry.

(A) are so different from one another that
it hardly seems possible that they had
a common ancestry.
(B) are so different from each other that it
hardly seems possible that they have
a common ancestry.
(C) are so different, one from another,
that their having a common ancestor
hardly seems possible.
(D) being so different from one another
makes it hard to believe that they had
a common ancestry.
(E) that having a common ancestry hardly
seem possible in that they are so different
from one anothe
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by paes » Wed Jun 09, 2010 1:26 am
IMO B :

C, D E : easily eliminated

between A and B, I selected B because :

B is using same tense 'have' while A unnecessarily changing the tense.

OA Please.
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by vijay_venky » Wed Jun 09, 2010 1:35 am
My first option was B, but each other is a bit suspicious (though it is generally used colloquially) so I went for C rather.

OA Please.
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by hardik.jadeja » Wed Jun 09, 2010 1:39 am
Agree with Paes,

B should be the answer.

All dogs still have a common ancestry. Ancestry doesn't change over the period of time. 'had' in the original sentence suggests that dogs had a common ancestry but not any more. That's not the intended meaning. So 'had' is wrong in the original sentence. B correctly replaces 'had' with ''have".
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by hardik.jadeja » Wed Jun 09, 2010 1:43 am
vijay_venky wrote:My first option was B, but each other is a bit suspicious (though it is generally used colloquially) so I went for C rather.

OA Please.
In fact, "one from another" is wrong. The correct usage would have been 'different from one another'.
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by andrey_tsi » Wed Jun 09, 2010 1:57 am
My answer is A.
B is wrong because it use "each other" instead of "one another"...
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by hardik.jadeja » Wed Jun 09, 2010 2:50 am
I believe this SC is from ARCO Master the GMAT book.

OA is A. OE says that "each other" implies that there are only two breeds of dogs, whereas "one another" implies that there are several.

When I searched, I did find couple discussions where people have said the same thing. Use "each other" only for two individuals and "one another" only for more than two. I would appreciate if one of the experts can confirm this.

I still have a problem with option A. OE doesn't mention anything about the tense ('had' is A Vs. 'have' in B). I think 'had' in the original sentence wrongly implies that dogs had a common ancestry but not anymore. And that's why we need 'have' not 'had'. Am I correct?
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by jube » Wed Jun 09, 2010 4:39 am
hardik.jadeja wrote:I believe this SC is from ARCO Master the GMAT book.

OA is A. OE says that "each other" implies that there are only two breeds of dogs, whereas "one another" implies that there are several.

When I searched, I did find couple discussions where people have said the same thing. Use "each other" only for two individuals and "one another" only for more than two. I would appreciate if one of the experts can confirm this.

I still have a problem with option A. OE doesn't mention anything about the tense ('had' is A Vs. 'have' in B). I think 'had' in the original sentence wrongly implies that dogs had a common ancestry but not anymore. And that's why we need 'have' not 'had'. Am I correct?
Was thinking the same thing that hardik.jadeja mentioned in the last para. Can Ron or one of the experts weigh in on this one? Would be super if someone could help out with the difference between "one another" and "each other" as well.
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by martin.jonson007 » Wed Jun 09, 2010 5:38 am
Each other OR One another is debatable

BUT

HAVE BEEN is undisputably RIGHT tesnse here b'cos

ancestry is still there...

IMO B
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by FightWithGMAT » Wed Jun 09, 2010 5:46 am
gmatmachoman wrote:Although all dogs are descended from the
wolf and the jackal, the various breeds of
dog are so different from one another that
it hardly seems possible that they had a
common ancestry.

(A) are so different from one another that
it hardly seems possible that they had
a common ancestry.
(B) are so different from each other that it
hardly seems possible that they have
a common ancestry.
(C) are so different, one from another,
that their having a common ancestor
hardly seems possible.
(D) being so different from one another
makes it hard to believe that they had
a common ancestry.
(E) that having a common ancestry hardly
seem possible in that they are so different
from one anothe
Two things:

1. We need "one another" as we are talking about various breeds..not just two.
2. Dog's having common ancestry is a phenomenon that happened in the past. We can say that dogs are descended from / descendant of a common species. But it is logically as well as grammatically unacceptable to say that dogs have common ancestor. The ancestor is not alive anymore.......
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