[email protected] wrote:Finnish archaeologist Arthur, eager to find a urban dwelling worthy of Bagdodis, explored in scorching Middle East desert and uncovered a civilization fourteen centuries
older of a city than was the one known to Mesopotamian inhabitants.
A. older of a city than was the one known to Mesopotamian inhabitants
B. more ancient than the city known to Mesopotamian inhabitants
C. older than was the city known to Mesopotamian inhabitants
D. more ancient of a city than Mesopotamian inhabitants knew
E. older as was the city Mesopotamian inhabitants knew
Is the Answer for this C or B?
I'm happy to add my two cents.
With all due respect, I disagree with
vinay1983 about
(C) --- technically, "
than" can work as either a
preposition (in which case, it followed by only a noun) or as a
subordinate conjunction (in which case it followed by a full [noun] + [verb} clause).
In fact, if the independent clause involves a direct object, then a comparison to the subject almost requires a verb following "
than" to avoid ambiguity. For example:
I like Indian food more than Vinnie.
That's ambiguous --- am I comparing two people or two objects of my affection? The GMAT would find such ambiguity unacceptable. This has to be:
I like Indian food more than Vinnie does.
OR
I like Indian food more than does Vinnie.
Either is perfectly correct.
Therefore, the usage of "was" in
(C) is perfectly correct ---- it's not required to resolve ambiguity, but it's grammatically correct.
What is the source of this question? I think it's a poor question, insofar as strong arguments can be made for both
(B) and
(C). A good SC question has one clearly correct answer, and something unambiguously and definitively incorrect with each of the other four choices. I think whoever wrote the question is trying to get us to choose an answer based on some technicality (is
"more ancient" too wordy for them, and "
older" a significant improvement?????) Beware: there are numerous free practice GMAT SC questions floating around on the web, and many of these questions are of low quality. If someone out there says a question is a practice GMAT question, don't naively assume it will adhere to the high standards that the GMAT itself keeps.
Does all this make sense?
Mike
