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which VS where

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which VS where

by Dante » Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:46 pm
At Shiprock, New Mexico, a perennially powerful girls' high school basketball team has become a path to college for some and a source of pride for a community where the household incomes of 49 percent of
them are below the poverty level.
(A) where the household incomes of 49 percent of them are
(B) where they have 49 percent of the household incomes
(C) where 49 percent of the household incomes are
(D) which has 49 percent of the household incomes
(E) in which 49 percent of them have household incomes

OA is 'C'. OG explains that "which has" in option 'D' gives the meaning as if community possess 49% of households below poverty level which is wrong. I didn't understand why it is wrong if the community possess 49% of household incomes below poverty level. Any help???
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by pranavc » Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:42 am
Hi,
I will try this answering this. To be perfectly honest, I thougt the subject was the "community" and NOT "Shiprock, New Mexico". Hence, I arrived at answer 'E' (which is clearly wrong). But now that I know that "Shiprock" is the subject, it rules out options D and E automatically. Shiprock is a place - hence the use of the word "where" as opposed to "which".

A - is wrong because of the use of the phrase "49% of them"
B - is wrong because of the use of the phrase "where they have". Who is "they"?

Hence, "C" is the answer. If anyone has any tips on figuring out how to narrow down to the right subject, that would be great. It really wasn't clear what the subject was in this case. Anyway, I hope the explanation helps.
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by senthil » Wed Jun 11, 2008 5:35 am
I accept with pranav explanation but the challenge here is to identify the correct subject ! as per the sentence why we shud refer to shiprock ? why cant we refer to the community ?
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by senthil » Wed Jun 11, 2008 5:40 am
on re reading the question the subject cud have been community provided it is preceeded by 'the' rather than 'a' .
But here it is a community hence the pronoun which cant be used it ends in wrong reference ! hence where is the only option that can be used
Does that clears to some extent ?
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by pranavc » Wed Jun 11, 2008 6:17 am
senthil wrote:on re reading the question the subject cud have been community provided it is preceeded by 'the' rather than 'a' .
But here it is a community hence the pronoun which cant be used it ends in wrong reference ! hence where is the only option that can be used
Does that clears to some extent ?
To an extent, yes. But the more I think about it, I feel like "E" really should have been correct. Linking "where" the the subject "Shiprock" would make sense if the "where" was immediately preceded by Shiprock but here it only shows up at the end. I hope something this nasty doesn't actually show up on my GMAT.
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by clawhammer » Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:34 am
can anyone please provide a proper reasoning for not choosing D ?

I'll repeat Dante's query: Why is it wrong if the community possess 49% of household incomes below poverty level?
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by uwhusky » Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:21 am
The intended meaning of the sentence is that 49% of the families "within" the community are below the poverty level.

Look at it this way:

In a classroom, 49% of the students have less than $10 dollars with them.

Does that mean these students combined have 49% of the money in the classroom?

Certainly not, but that is what D is suggesting.
Yep.
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by clawhammer » Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:57 pm
Thanks uwhusky. Wonder if I'd be able to dig sentences and their meanings this deep in a real exam - with so little time and so much stress.
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by apex231 » Sun Sep 19, 2010 9:12 pm
clawhammer wrote:Thanks uwhusky. Wonder if I'd be able to dig sentences and their meanings this deep in a real exam - with so little time and so much stress.
am 100% with you on this :) I would have marked D as the answer.

The option C also has a few issues such as

-> the the placement of "where" far away from the subject "Shiprock".
-> "where" refering to community instead of "shiprock" - at least it appears so because its placed closer to "community".
Last edited by apex231 on Sun Sep 19, 2010 9:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by uwhusky » Sun Sep 19, 2010 9:26 pm
But the community is Shiprock, and where is intended to refer to community.
Yep.
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by apex231 » Sun Sep 19, 2010 10:01 pm
uwhusky wrote:But the community is Shiprock, and where is intended to refer to community.
uwhusky, then isn't it more appropriate to write "source of pride for the community" instead of "source of pride for a community"?

The way this sentence sounds to me is as if Shiprock has many communities and the basketball team is a source of pride for one particular community.
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by gmat_perfect » Sun Sep 19, 2010 10:32 pm
Dante wrote:At Shiprock, New Mexico, a perennially powerful girls' high school basketball team has become a path to college for some and a source of pride for a community where the household incomes of 49 percent of
them are below the poverty level.
(A) where the household incomes of 49 percent of them are
(B) where they have 49 percent of the household incomes
(C) where 49 percent of the household incomes are
(D) which has 49 percent of the household incomes
(E) in which 49 percent of them have household incomes

OA is 'C'. OG explains that "which has" in option 'D' gives the meaning as if community possess 49% of households below poverty level which is wrong. I didn't understand why it is wrong if the community possess 49% of household incomes below poverty level. Any help???
The issues:

1. The Pronouns:

All the pronouns used in a sentence MUST have clear references.

Look at the options A, B, and E. "them" in A, "they in B, and "them" in E do not have clear references.

===> Actually there is no plural NOUN that can be the reference of the pronouns.

--> This kills A, B, and E.

We are left with C and D:

D is wrong for two reasons:

1. As we all know "which", as per GMAT OG and GMATPREP, is used as non essential modifier. The "COMMA + WHICH" is the correct use in GMAT sentence correction. I have not seen any sentence in OG and GMATPREP in which "which" has been used without COMMA. So, the "which" that has been used in the option D is wrong in this regard.

2. If the "which" is seemed correct, there is still another error in the option D. Community which has....-is wrong because it is not the community that can have incomes rather it is the member of the community who can have incomes.

Same errors can be made in the following sentence:

The bank is rich .....WRONG. A bank can have huge amount of deposited money, but the bank is not rich. It is the person who can be rich.

So, we are left with A, the best answer.
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by psychomath » Tue Sep 21, 2010 3:02 am
Good explanation GMAT_Perfect....I get it now...option C is better than option D
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