SC- Unlike usage

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SC- Unlike usage

by khurram » Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:44 am
Unlike most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warbler are very difficult to tell apart.

A Unlike most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warbler are very difficult to tell apart.
B Unlike most warbler species, the gender of the blue-winged warbler is very difficult to distinguish.
C Unlike those in most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warblers are very difficult to distinguish.
D It is very difficult, unlike in most warbler species, to tell the male and female blue-winged warbler apart.
E Blue-winged warblers are unlike most species of warbler in that it is very difficult to tell the male and female apart

Ans E

Only thing I can find wrong with A is are instead of is.
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:53 pm
Whenever we see "unlike" we're being testing on a comparison. We need to make sure that the things that we're comparing are both structurally and logically similar.

The problem with (a) is that the comparison isn't logically similar; on the one hand, we have "most warbler species" and on the other we have "the male and female blue winged warbler".

We can't compare species to warblers - we can only compare species to species or specific birds to specific birds.

To be honest, I'm also not thrilled with (e). On the GMAT (and in proper english usage everywhere), when we compare one member of a group to the rest of the group we need to use "other" as part of the comparison. So, when we compare Blue Winged Warblers to other species of warbler, we really need to say "are unlike most OTHER warbler species".

Just curious, where is this question from?
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by khurram » Tue Feb 19, 2008 7:45 am
Thanks very much.

That makes sense.

I think it was a Kaplan or one of the old SC questions.

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by khurram » Tue Feb 19, 2008 7:45 am
Thanks very much.

That makes sense.

I think it was a Kaplan or one of the old SC questions.

Khurram

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by logitech » Sat Jan 17, 2009 9:34 pm
Great question:

1) Thanks Stuart for an excellent explanation
2) OA is not always the prettiest choice!
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