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One in fifty

by greenshadow » Thu Jun 09, 2011 11:19 am
Q. The John Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research revealed that half of all American men keep a gun in the house, and that on any given day, one out of every fifty adults carry a handgun away from home.

A. one out of every fifty adults carry
B. every one out of fifty adults carry
C. out of every fifty adults, one carries
D. each adult among fifty carries
E. one adult in fifty carries

Can you please help in cracking this question ?
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by sanabk » Thu Jun 09, 2011 4:09 pm
C
that half of all American men keep a gun in the house
and
that on any given day one carries a handgun away from home.

Here , out of every fifty adults, is useful, but extra information.


Best!!!
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by atulmangal » Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:49 pm
greenshadow wrote:Q. The John Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research revealed that half of all American men keep a gun in the house, and that on any given day, one out of every fifty adults carry a handgun away from home.

A. one out of every fifty adults carry
B. every one out of fifty adults carry
C. out of every fifty adults, one carries
D. each adult among fifty carries
E. one adult in fifty carries

Can you please help in cracking this question ?
IMO C

Op A and Op B has sub-verb agreement error. one / everyone takes sing verb not a plural "carry"...Op D "each adult among fifty" doesn't makes sense if u relate if with the preceding clause...Op E "one adult in fifty" is unclear...one adult out of a no...nonsensical..

Op C seems good. What's the OA
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by bubbliiiiiiii » Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:40 pm
greenshadow wrote:Q. The John Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research revealed that half of all American men keep a gun in the house, and that on any given day, one out of every fifty adults carry a handgun away from home.

A. one out of every fifty adults carry
B. every one out of fifty adults carry
C. out of every fifty adults, one carries
D. each adult among fifty carries
E. one adult in fifty carries

Can you please help in cracking this question ?
Regards,

Pranay
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by Shifa@CrackVerbal » Thu Jun 09, 2011 11:23 pm
greenshadow wrote:Q. The John Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research revealed that half of all American men keep a gun in the house, and that on any given day, one out of every fifty adults carry a handgun away from home.

A. one out of every fifty adults carry
B. every one out of fifty adults carry
C. out of every fifty adults, one carries
D. each adult among fifty carries
E. one adult in fifty carries

Can you please help in cracking this question ?
A & B can be eliminated due to Subject-Verb disagreement - 'one' is singular, but 'carry' is plural.
D can be eliminated because it changes the meaning of the sentence - 'eachadult among fifty' implies that there are fifty adults and that each of them carries a gun.
E can be eliminated due to the ambiguity of the phrase 'in fifty'.

Hence, C is the correct answer.
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by greenshadow » Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:14 am
Thanks for your input !
I too felt it was C, but the answer key says that it is E.

The following is the explanation:-
Here's a stellar example of the subject-verb sucker punch. Many students are
inclined to pick (A) because "adults carry" makes sense to the ear. But the
subject of this latter thought is "one", which needs to be paired up with the
verb "carries". Use the two/three split and cross off (A) and (B). The rest comes
down to the proper use of the statistics cited in the sentence. (C) and (D) are
incorrect because they use "every" and "each", which suggest that if you take
fifty people off the street and put them in a room, exactly one will be carrying
a handgun. But the point of the sentence is to establish a more general ratio: for
every forty-nine people who don't pack heat, there is one person who does.

This question is from "Princeton Verbal Workout".
I am not able to figure out why E is his choice.
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by atulmangal » Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:25 am
greenshadow wrote:Thanks for your input !
I too felt it was C, but the answer key says that it is E.

The following is the explanation:-
Here's a stellar example of the subject-verb sucker punch. Many students are
inclined to pick (A) because "adults carry" makes sense to the ear. But the
subject of this latter thought is "one", which needs to be paired up with the
verb "carries". Use the two/three split and cross off (A) and (B). The rest comes
down to the proper use of the statistics cited in the sentence. (C) and (D) are
incorrect because they use "every" and "each", which suggest that if you take
fifty people off the street and put them in a room, exactly one will be carrying
a handgun. But the point of the sentence is to establish a more general ratio: for
every forty-nine people who don't pack heat, there is one person who does.

This question is from "Princeton Verbal Workout".
I am not able to figure out why E is his choice.
Request you to pm Ron, he explains such issues in detail. His insights and thoughts gonna be really helpful here.
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by Ron Corcillo » Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:45 am
First of all, as others have pointed out, A and B are wrong because the subject is "one," not "fifty," so the verb should be "carries," not "carry." The correct idiom when you are expressing a ratio is "one in fifty," not "one out of every fifty." "One out of every fifty" sounds like out of every group of fifty people, there would be one carrying a handgun, but that's not really what the sentence is saying. It's saying that on average, one fiftieth of people carry handguns. "One in fifty" is the correct way to express a general fraction such as this one. "Each adult among fifty" would actually mean that all fifty are carrying handguns, which is obviously not what the sentence is meant to say.
Another tip is that in general, shorter phrasing is better, and phrasings that use excessive commas are usually wrong. "One in fifty carries..." is much simpler than "out of every fifty, one carries..." so it's a better choice.
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by greenshadow » Sat Jun 11, 2011 12:14 am
That explains it. Thanks a lot Ron !
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by itheenigma » Tue Jun 14, 2011 6:46 am
Phew!
The information posted by Ron Corcillo and greenshadow frankly reinstated my faith in myself. :)
I had chosen (E) and was disheartened to see a string of answer choices pointing to (C).

Basically I looked at this question in a different manner.
The moment I read this question, I identified this as an idiom question with the correct answer being 'one in fifty'. To my good fortune, I had only one answer choice with the correct idiom.
Then I quickly eliminated A and B because of the subject verb disagreement.
Both C and D sounded long and awkward.
I finally checked E for any obvious syntax issues. Finally homed in on (E).
45 seconds.

What do you guys think about this approach? I tend to make some mistakes in SC because of predispositions and by relying too much on how the sentence 'sounds'. :( But I get it right most of the time...Should I change to a more scientific approach?

PS - I feel GMAT SC questions will have at least 2 options with the correct idiom. Don't you think so?
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