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idiom & parallelism

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idiom & parallelism

by Uri » Fri May 01, 2009 10:48 pm
Neuroscientists distinguish organic amnesia, which has some physical cause such as an occurrence of blunt force trauma to the head, from psychogenic amnesia, which is purely psychological in origin.
A. organic amnesia, which has some physical cause such as an occurrence of blunt force trauma to the head, from psychogenic amnesia, which is purely psychological in origin
B. organic amnesia from psychogenic amnesia, the first of which has some physical cause such as an occurrence of blunt force trauma to the head, and the second of which is purely psychological in origin
C. between organic amnesia, in which they have experienced some physical cause such as an occurrence of blunt force trauma to the head, and psychogenic amnesia, which is purely psychological in origin
D. between organic amnesia, which has some physical cause such as an occurrence of blunt force trauma to the head, and psychogenic amnesia, which is purely psychological in origin
E. between organic amnesia, in which some physical cause exists such as an occurrence of blunt force trauma to the head, and psychogenic amnesia, which is purely psychological in origin

Source: Kaplan
OA: [spoiler](D)[/spoiler]
Last edited by Uri on Sat May 02, 2009 9:05 am, edited 2 times in total.
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by 4meonly » Fri May 01, 2009 11:30 pm
Pls, use "underline" function, in SC it is more valuable than color :wink:

Neuroscientists distinguish organic amnesia, which has some physical cause such as an occurrence of blunt force trauma to the head, from psychogenic amnesia, which is purely psychological in origin.

A. organic amnesia, which has some physical cause such as an occurrence of blunt force trauma to the head, from psychogenic amnesia, which is purely psychological in origin
I do not like distinguish X from Y. It sounds good but it will be too easy.


B. organic amnesia from psychogenic amnesia, the first of which has some physical cause such as an occurrence of blunt force trauma to the head, and the second of which is purely psychological in origin.
awkward

C. between organic amnesia, in which they have experienced some physical cause such as an occurrence of blunt force trauma to the head, and psychogenic amnesia, which is purely psychological in origin
Neuroscientists experienced?


D. between organic amnesia, which has some physical cause such as an occurrence of blunt force trauma to the head, and psychogenic amnesia, which is purely psychological in origin
which has and which is. not parallel. But I guess it is correct.


E. between organic amnesia, in which some physical cause exists such as an occurrence of blunt force trauma to the head, and psychogenic amnesia, which is purely psychological in origin
in which ... which is....

I am between A and D.
distinguish between two things, distinguish between X and Y,

I think D
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by asdf29 » Fri May 01, 2009 11:45 pm
I agree it is between A & D, but I think it is A rather because there "distinguish ... from ..." is an idiom.
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by Vemuri » Sat May 02, 2009 12:38 am
asdf29 wrote:I agree it is between A & D, but I think it is A rather because there "distinguish ... from ..." is an idiom.
Well, both "distinguish X from Y" & "distinguish between X and Y" are correct idioms. That's why we are stuck with A & D.

IMO A should be the right answer, because "Neuroscientists distinguish organic amnesia from psychogenic amnesia" is more concise.
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by abhinav85 » Sat May 02, 2009 5:36 am
IMO D
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by codesnooker » Sat May 02, 2009 6:42 am
I am also between (A) and (D). But I would prefer original sentence irrespective of any special reason.
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by Uri » Sat May 02, 2009 9:12 am
The OA is [spoiler](D)[/spoiler].

OE: A quick scan reveals the two choices "distinguish X from Y" and "distinguish between X and Y". The second one, "distinguish between X and Y', is idiomatically preferred on the GMAT. Also note that (B) is wordy and awkward because it eliminates the two modifiers (the two "which" phrases) and replaces them with longer dependent clauses ("the first of which . . ." and "the second of which . . ."). Thus we eliminate (A) and (B).
Now we examine (C), (D) and (E). In choice (C), the pronoun "they" has no logical antecedent. Structurally, the antecedent would appear to be "Psychologists", but then we would have the illogical idea that psychologists have experienced blunt force trauma to the head. So we eliminate (C).
Between choices (D) and (E), (D) is better because (E) does not provide the appropriate parallel structure. (E) has the non-parallel "organic amnesia, in which . . . and psychogenic amnesia, which . . .", whereas (D) provides the parallel "organic amnesia, which . . . and psychogenic amnesia, which . . .". Therefore (D) is correct.

I never knew that GMAT prefers "dintinguish between" to "distinguish from". But ultimately this preference has played the main role in choosing the correct answer! Can any expert please throw some more light on this issue? Is it just the preference or is there any other issue that has influenced the preference in this specific case?
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by Vemuri » Sat May 02, 2009 10:03 pm
Uri wrote: I never knew that GMAT prefers "dintinguish between" to "distinguish from". But ultimately this preference has played the main role in choosing the correct answer! Can any expert please throw some more light on this issue? Is it just the preference or is there any other issue that has influenced the preference in this specific case?[/color]
Me too. I never knew this preferential criteria. Infact, I never saw a question which had both the idioms appear in the answer options. Kaplan is a reputed GMAT material & I would be cautious in challenging their explanation.

Someone please clear the cloud for us.
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by 4meonly » Mon May 04, 2009 10:23 pm
BINGO!
I was correct :D
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