Usage of what

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enniguy: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 156; Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:41 am; Thanked: 8 times

Usage of what

by enniguy » Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:03 am

Not interested in the answer but a different question regarding the answer. Check the Spoiler.

His Studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1857 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas.

A. in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas.
B. in which great ice sheets existed in what are now temperate areas.
C. when great ice sheets existed where there were areas now temperate.
D. when great ice sheets had existed in current temperate areas.
E. when great ice sheets existed in areas now that are temperate.

[spoiler]OA:B. My question is what does "what" here is referring to?[/spoiler]

Source: OG 12.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:03 am

enniguy: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 156; Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:41 am; Thanked: 8 times

Additional Details

by enniguy » Tue Nov 03, 2009 3:05 am

I remember, Stacey has mentioned in one of the posts that "what" is used as either interrogative pronoun or interrogative adjective.

I could not figure out which one makes sense here.

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tanviet: Legendary Member; Posts: 1404; Joined: Tue May 20, 2008 6:55 pm; Thanked: 18 times; Followed by:2 members

by tanviet » Wed Nov 04, 2009 3:35 am

alway check basic grammar before check meaning. gmat is basic

let check the basic grammar:

"now" in E is wrong

"now currently" in A is wrong

"had existed" has no reason to be used.

check meaning

C change the meaning and is wrong.

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farooq: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 140; Joined: Sat Feb 28, 2009 8:51 am; Location: India; Thanked: 14 times; Followed by:3 members

Re: Usage of what

by farooq » Wed Nov 04, 2009 8:40 am

enniguy wrote:Not interested in the answer but a different question regarding the answer. Check the Spoiler.

His Studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1857 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas.

A. in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas.
B. in which great ice sheets existed in what are now temperate areas.
C. when great ice sheets existed where there were areas now temperate.
D. when great ice sheets had existed in current temperate areas.
E. when great ice sheets existed in areas now that are temperate.

[spoiler]OA:B. My question is what does "what" here is referring to?[/spoiler]

Source: OG 12.

His Studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1857 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas

here "which" refer to concept. But in CDE when is referring to an age which is Incorrect.

AB remains.

now and currently- redundant.

B is the answer.

Regards,
Farooq Farooqui.
London. UK

It is your Attitude, not your Aptitude, that determines your Altitude.

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gmatmachoman: Legendary Member; Posts: 2326; Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2008 3:54 am; Thanked: 173 times; Followed by:2 members; GMAT Score:710

Re: Usage of what

by gmatmachoman » Wed Nov 04, 2009 8:51 am

enniguy wrote:Not interested in the answer but a different question regarding the answer. Check the Spoiler.

His Studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1857 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas.

A. in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas.
B. in which great ice sheets existed in what are now temperate areas.
C. when great ice sheets existed where there were areas now temperate.
D. when great ice sheets had existed in current temperate areas.
E. when great ice sheets existed in areas now that are temperate.

[spoiler]OA:B. My question is what does "what" here is referring to?[/spoiler]

Source: OG 12.

what refers to"ice sheets"

R&D on GMAT algorithm:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/r-d-on-gmat- ... tml#305739

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Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; Followed by:694 members; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Fri Nov 06, 2009 2:52 pm

Received a PM asking me to respond to the "what" question. We're not supposed to discuss OG questions online, so I won't, but I will discuss the word "what" in a totally unrelated example that just happens to look like... er...

"What" is one of those annoying flexible words - it can be a pronoun, an adjective, even an adverb...

Look at this:

The cat slept in what is now the dog's bed.

What did the cat sleep in? A bed. Was it the dog's bed? Well, no, not when the cat slept there - it became the dog's bed later. When the cat slept there, it was the cat's bed, or maybe somebody else's bed, but it wasn't the dog's bed.

So the "what" is referring to the bed - just not the dog's bed. It's referring to the bed at a different point in time, before it became the dog's bed.

The cat slept in [a bed that] is now the dog's bed.

Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT

Contributor to Beat The GMAT!

Learn more about me

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Stuart@KaplanGMAT: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3225; Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:40 pm; Location: Toronto; Thanked: 1710 times; Followed by:614 members; GMAT Score:800

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Fri Nov 06, 2009 3:19 pm

Stacey Koprince wrote: We're not supposed to discuss OG questions online, so I won't, but I will discuss the word "what" in a totally unrelated example that just happens to look like... er...

For clarification (and the BTG staff can correct me if I'm wrong):

we're not allowed to post OG questions, because to do so would be to violate GMAC's copyright. So, no one should ever type an OG question (or a question from an official GMAT CAT) verbatim on the board.

However, it's perfectly fine to discuss OG questions, since they've been released to the public. If you want to ask about an OG question, the best thing to do is to cite the OG edition, page and question number in your subject line. You can then ask your question referring to details of the exercise as required.

The only thing we're not even allowed to discuss is live GMAT questions; for example, if you or a friend just wrote the actual GMAT, you're not allowed to disclose any specifics of the test at all.