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GMAT PREP SC

by thisisvb » Mon Jul 14, 2008 5:06 am
Since 1990 the global economy has grown more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture to 1950.

A. Since 1990 the global economy has grown more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture

B. Since 1990 the growth of the global economy has been more than that during 10,000 years, from when agriculture began

C. The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds that which had been for 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture

D. The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds what it has been for 10,000 years, from when agriculture began

E. The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds what it did for the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture


In D, E 'it' has an ambiguous referent, i.e. could refer to 'growth' or 'global economy'. C uses past perfect 'had been'

what's wrong with B? Also, what is the correct way the sentence should end? any other errors you can spot?
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by Vignesh.4384 » Mon Jul 14, 2008 5:51 pm
Even I thought B was the right choice cos it seems 2 be better than all the other choices.

But since u are telling B is wrong .. this is the only possible reason why i thought B could be wrong :

Since 1990 the growth of the global economy has been more than that during 10,000 years, from when agriculture began

i think here "that" refers to "growth" and not the "growth of the global economy" .

Any other views??
Whats the OA anyway ?

Regards,
Vignesh
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by thisisvb » Mon Jul 14, 2008 9:33 pm
OA = A
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by codesnooker » Tue Jul 15, 2008 3:00 am
Vignesh.4384 wrote:Even I thought B was the right choice cos it seems 2 be better than all the other choices.

But since u are telling B is wrong .. this is the only possible reason why i thought B could be wrong :

Since 1990 the growth of the global economy has been more than that during 10,000 years, from when agriculture began

i think here "that" refers to "growth" and not the "growth of the global economy" .

Any other views??
Whats the OA anyway ?

Regards,
Vignesh
Vignesh, there is one more reason over here to out choice (B) from the list.

The usages of HAS/HAVE vs. HAS/HAVE BEEN.

HAS/HAVE - is used when action is done in past and still continues in the present.

HAS/HAVE BEEN - is used to mention the experience or the action that happen many time in recent past. That is the action is over.

For example:
1. He's gone to the bank. He should be back soon.
2. He's been to London many times.
3. I've been to Disneyland twice.

So, according to question we are comparing the present growth of global economy (which is of course still going on) with the growth happened earlier.

Since the growth is still going on and we can't designate this as the experience in the present sentence, hence HAS is the perfect use of verb rather than using HAS BEEN.

Hope it helps...
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by Vignesh.4384 » Tue Jul 15, 2008 4:56 am
Hey codesnook,

Are you telling me that if i chose option B i would actually be changing the meaning of the original sentence?

Regards,
Vignesh
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by raunekk » Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:05 am
IMO A
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by cubicle_bound_misfit » Tue Jul 15, 2008 7:20 am
Common Mistakes in all the other choices

Pronoun reference
use of past perfect in a wordy way.

Is ther any other errors?

Please let me know.

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by ildude02 » Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:26 am
You can use has/have been for both actions tht just finished or for actions that are still continuing. So youy can't base your answer on the usage og has/have been. Especially with "SINCE" which refers to time, has been is a valid present perfect continuous tense.
eg: I have been reading for 2 hrs. (this one says, I'm still still reading)
codesnooker wrote:
Vignesh.4384 wrote:Even I thought B was the right choice cos it seems 2 be better than all the other choices.

But since u are telling B is wrong .. this is the only possible reason why i thought B could be wrong :

Since 1990 the growth of the global economy has been more than that during 10,000 years, from when agriculture began

i think here "that" refers to "growth" and not the "growth of the global economy" .

Any other views??
Whats the OA anyway ?

Regards,
Vignesh
Vignesh, there is one more reason over here to out choice (B) from the list.

The usages of HAS/HAVE vs. HAS/HAVE BEEN.

HAS/HAVE - is used when action is done in past and still continues in the present.

HAS/HAVE BEEN - is used to mention the experience or the action that happen many time in recent past. That is the action is over.

For example:
1. He's gone to the bank. He should be back soon.
2. He's been to London many times.
3. I've been to Disneyland twice.

So, according to question we are comparing the present growth of global economy (which is of course still going on) with the growth happened earlier.

Since the growth is still going on and we can't designate this as the experience in the present sentence, hence HAS is the perfect use of verb rather than using HAS BEEN.

Hope it helps...
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by aj5105 » Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:09 pm
from the beginning of agriculture to 1950 --from x to y.
Hence eliminated B,D.
Exceeds can use in case of numbers-C,E gone.
A- correct.

thoughts?
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by iamcste » Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:45 pm
aj5105 wrote:from the beginning of agriculture to 1950 --from x to y.
Hence eliminated B,D.
Exceeds can use in case of numbers-C,E gone.
A- correct.

thoughts?
Dude, source of this idom looks dubious

Idiom i know is range from X to Y..?
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by karmayogi » Fri Nov 21, 2008 7:55 pm
I selected A only.

Following was my reasoning to rule out B:

1. during 10,000 years: 'the' is needed before 10,000 years. We are talking about particular years and not any years.
2. "...years, from when...": in this context, the information after comma is none essential and even after removing the information the sentence should make sense. Check this out: "Since 1990 the growth of the global economy has been more than that during 10,000 years."
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by schumi_gmat » Sat Nov 22, 2008 12:47 am
IMO A


A. Since 1990 the global economy has grown more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture

It has clear referrent and correct idiom from x to Y

B. Since 1990 the growth of the global economy has been more than that during 10,000 years, from when agriculture began

C. The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds that which had been for 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture

D. The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds what it has been for 10,000 years, from when agriculture began

E. The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds what it did for the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture
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by CaptainM » Thu Oct 07, 2010 7:55 am
C. The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds that which had been for 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture

Could someone please explain the usage of "no comma+ which" in general.
I read somewhere that only preposition can be used before "no comma+ which".How true is that?
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by GMATGuruNY » Fri Oct 08, 2010 6:24 am
thisisvb wrote:Since 1990 the global economy has grown more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture to 1950.

A. Since 1990 the global economy has grown more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture

B. Since 1990 the growth of the global economy has been more than that during 10,000 years, from when agriculture began

C. The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds that which had been for 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture

D. The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds what it has been for 10,000 years, from when agriculture began

E. The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds what it did for the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture


In D, E 'it' has an ambiguous referent, i.e. could refer to 'growth' or 'global economy'. C uses past perfect 'had been'

what's wrong with B? Also, what is the correct way the sentence should end? any other errors you can spot?
The sentence is comparing the way the economy has grown (present tense) with the way it did grow (past tense) during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture to 1950. Only A and E use the correct combination of present tense and past tense. Eliminate B, C and D.

In E, the phrase what it did is ambiguous. Did what exactly? Eliminate E. (In A, did is standing in for the verb grew).

The correct answer is A.

I received a PM asking me to discuss when the pronoun which needs to be preceded by a comma.

The pronoun which is preceded by a comma when it introduces a non-restrictive clause:

Seals, which are mammals, like to play in the water.

The clause which are mammals is non-restrictive because it is not restricting the scope of the noun seals; even with the inclusion of the which clause, the sentence is talking about all seals, not just certain types. A non-restrictive clause can be removed from the sentence without affecting the meaning:

Seals like to play in the water.

When the pronoun which is part of a prepositional modifier that is necessary for the meaning of the sentence, no comma is used:

The table on which Mary placed the lamp is wobbling.

The modifier on which Mary placed the lamp is necessary for the meaning of the sentence. If the modifier were removed, we wouldn't know which table was being discussed. Hence, no comma precedes the modifying phrase.

The following sentence employs the rarely used construction that which:

I eat that which I cook.

This construction should be avoided on the GMAT. It's better to say:

I eat what I cook.

Hope this helps!
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by [email protected] » Thu Dec 22, 2011 11:48 pm
GMAT-Prep SC: Final solution at one place:

Important: The purpose of this post (and all the other posts by me) is to give a complete solution to all GMAT-Prep Verbal questions at one place. Sometimes students have to wade through dozens of posts to get to the final answer. My posts will give one complete and crisp solution required to arrive at the correct answer by eliminating the wrong ones. Some of the content in these posts may have been taken from various other sources (discussion forums).

Since 1990 the global economy has grown more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture to 1950.
(A) Since 1990 the global economy has grown more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture
(B) Since 1990 the growth of the global economy has been more than that during 10,000 years, from when agriculture began
(C) The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds that which had been for 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture
(D) The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds what it has been for 10,000 years, from when agriculture began
(E) The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds what it did for the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture

This question can be very easily answered by VAN ... Verb > Adjective > Noun ... verb forms are preferred to the adjective forms; the adjective forms are preferred to the noun forms.

Choice A has 'has grown (verb form)'. All the other choices have 'growth (noun form). So A has to be correct provided there are no other errors in A.

A. 'Since 1990' definitely mandates present perfect tense, so 'has grown' is correct. 'Has grown more than it (the global economy) did (grew)' ... this shows proper parallelism and comparison.

We have to be specific as to 'which 10000 years?' The use of the word 'the' is correct here. It shows a specific period with a starting point (the beginning of agriculture ... this is a noun ... exact point in time when agriculture started) and an end point (1950).

So choice A has no grammatical errors. CORRECT.

B: the word 'the' is missing ... WRONG
C: 'that which' ... wrong; 'had been (past perfect tense)' ... wrong as there is only one past action.
D: 'has been' is definitely wrong as we are referring only up to 1950, not till now.
E: The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds what it (the growth) did ... wrong meaning. The 'growth' didn't do anything.
Also, the word 'exceeds' is definitely wrong in such a construction (C, D, and E eliminated).

Another similar question from GMAT-Prep:

Between 1990 and 2000 the global economy grew more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture to 1950.
A. Between 1990 and 2000 the global economy grew more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture
B. Between 1990 and 2000 the global economy grew more than that during 10,000 years, from when agriculture began
C. The growth of the global economy between 1990 and 2000 exceeds that which has been for 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture
D. The growth of the global economy between 1990 and 2000 exceeds what it has been for 10,000 years, from when agriculture began
E. The growth of the global economy between 1990 and 2000 exceeded what it did for 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture

Correct answer: A (refer to the explanation above).
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