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towns with pollution problem

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by anantbhatia » Sun Aug 15, 2010 4:56 am
Each of the factory towns which has pollution as
a severe problem is in need of a drastically
reformed system of industrial waste disposal.
(A) which has pollution as a severe problem is
(B) where the pollution problem has become
severe is
(C) where the pollution problem has become
severe are
(D) in an area in which the pollution problem
has become severe are
(E) in which the pollution problem has become
severe are

From Kaplan SC workbook. The OA is B. Can someone explain the correct usage of which vs where in this sentence.
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by pradeepkaushal9518 » Sun Aug 15, 2010 9:39 am
Where is used to point to a region/area/place

which is used with non essential modifier with comma before it
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by anantbhatia » Sun Aug 15, 2010 11:17 am
so does that mean that a town\city\place can never be pointed to using 'which'.

eg. Singapore is the city which is famous for superb shopping.
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by indiantiger » Sun Aug 15, 2010 4:20 pm
bhatia sahab,
please underline and format the SC before posting

Each of the factory towns which has pollution as a severe problem is in need of a drastically reformed system of industrial waste disposal.
(A) which has pollution as a severe problem is
(B) where the pollution problem has become severe is
(C) where the pollution problem has become severe are
(D) in an area in which the pollution problem has become severe are
(E) in which the pollution problem has become severe are

my answer is B
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by Tani » Sun Aug 15, 2010 4:32 pm
Actually, the correct form would be "Singapore is the city that is famous for superb shopping." "That" is restrictive - you need what follows for the sentence to convey its meaning. Information following "which" is non-essential.

"Which" versus "that" aside, the best form of the statement above would be the simple "Singapore is famous for superb shopping."
Tani Wolff
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by GMATMadeEasy » Mon Aug 16, 2010 3:59 am
Tani Wolff - Kaplan wrote:Actually, the correct form would be "Singapore is the city that is famous for superb shopping." "That" is restrictive - you need what follows for the sentence to convey its meaning. Information following "which" is non-essential.

"Which" versus "that" aside, the best form of the statement above would be the simple "Singapore is famous for superb shopping."
In the original problem, in the correct answer "where" can be replaced by "that " ?

Could you explain more on this please.
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by anantbhatia » Mon Aug 16, 2010 4:10 am
Thanks Tani.

@indiantiger: fine.. Thanks for pointing out.
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by tomada » Mon Aug 16, 2010 12:24 pm
One more vote for B.
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by KapTeacherEli » Tue Aug 17, 2010 1:19 pm
GMATMadeEasy wrote:
Tani Wolff - Kaplan wrote:Actually, the correct form would be "Singapore is the city that is famous for superb shopping." "That" is restrictive - you need what follows for the sentence to convey its meaning. Information following "which" is non-essential.

"Which" versus "that" aside, the best form of the statement above would be the simple "Singapore is famous for superb shopping."
In the original problem, in the correct answer "where" can be replaced by "that " ?

Could you explain more on this please.
In the original sentence, "where" can be replaced by "in which." Prepositional 'which' clauses follow a different set of rules from the word 'which' by itself, and can provide essential or non-essentail information depending on the presence of commas.

Note that we can only use 'where' because a town is a physical location. A common incorrect GMAT construction involves 'a situation where' or 'a system where'. Since neither a situation nor a system is a location, the usage of 'where' in these cases is incorrect; me must use 'in which'.
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by manuag » Fri Feb 10, 2012 10:29 pm
in the question, does "which" modify "factory towns" or "each of factory towns"? in first case which will be followed by a plural verb and in second case it will be followed by a singular verb.

Please advise.
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by GmatKiss » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:50 am
Please underline, its so confusing without the underline!

IMO: B
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by mansiarora1009 » Sun Jul 06, 2014 10:57 am
I have a doubt.
I think that although (B) is the grammatically correct answer, don't you think the meaning of the sentence has changed?

The author means that the factory towns have a pollution problem already, not that it has become a problem recently or something like that; while the other options seem to imply that.
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