Tani Wolff - Kaplan wrote:As a native speaker and former Director of marketing in the Mexican food industry I can tell you from consumer research that many native speakers use the term "hot sauces" (plural) because of the wide range of options available.

Not saying it's wrong, but definitely still sounds weird to me though, as I said before, the sentence seems to be indicating hot sauces in general, not many types of sauces that happen to be hot. Not sure if I got my point across! Anyways, again, it could just be me, or the sentence really is just talking about the many different types of hot sauce.

As for the use of "these", in the posts below Ron gives us insight on the usage of "this" and "these".

https://www.beatthegmat.com/oceangoing-g ... 55352.html

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/sc- ... 11621.html

Am I applying this rule incorrectly here?

"This" is perfectly acceptable as a stand alone pronoun as long as it refers clearly to something else in the passage.

lunarpower wrote:more importantly, the gmat has *never* used "this" as a pronoun in a correct official SC answer (if you know of an exception, please tell us).

yes, please look at this question from GMAT Prep

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/bes ... t3219.html

I believe a Manhattan tutor has even stated in the thread that the company will reflect on this issue. As a matter of fact I have even asked for a clarification in the last post. Will be glad if you can clarify your position.

Its A

Can i know the OA for this ?

I think A is the best answer, although it has error. I would read the answer choice A as:
these hot sauces have a painrelieving effect like morphine's
or
they have a painrelieving effect like morphine's

I am getting confused with the link provided in the post above. Ron says 'these' cannot be used as standalone pronouns. Help Ron.

lunarpower wrote:https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/bes ... t3219.html

i'm confused -- that's the same problem that appears at the start of this thread. did you mean to link to another question?

Hi Ron, yes its the same problem that is asked in this thread. What I meant to point out is that this is an official GMAT question and according to GMAC "these" is correct usage. Considering this position, should we or should we not chose answer options with "these" or "this" or any other demonstrative pronoun.

Merriam Webster approves, GMAC approves and Shakespeare uses it. I would not hesitate if the rest of the sentence is correct and the other options are incorrect.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

lunarpower wrote:

champmag wrote:I am getting confused with the link provided in the post above. Ron says 'these' cannot be used as standalone pronouns. Help Ron.

it normally shouldn't, but apparently GMAC allows this usage. (this is the only official problem in which this sort of thing has ever happened, so you should still consider this an extremely low-priority topic.)

i would still eliminate any choice using "THIS" as a standalone pronoun immediately.

THIS.

ahahahahhaha

You are obviously entitled to do as you please, but I don't understand why you would reject something that both the Merriam-Webster style manual and GMAC say is acceptable.