GMAT 12th edition verbal question

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hongwang9703: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 73; Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 6:46 pm; Location: Buffalo

GMAT 12th edition verbal question

by hongwang9703 » Sun Feb 28, 2010 2:03 pm

on page 654, logical predication

in giving an example of incorrect usage, the sentence reads; In the Middle Ages, the world was flat.

I dont understand where the incorrection lies...

The correct version is: In the Middle Ages, the world was believed to be flat.

But as a sentence, the incorrect usage confines to all the rules of the standard written english language.

Please clarify for me.

thank you

i got utterly defeated by the gmat.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Verbal Reasoning | Sun Feb 28, 2010 2:03 pm

singhag: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 99; Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2009 7:56 pm; Thanked: 5 times; GMAT Score:720

by singhag » Sun Feb 28, 2010 9:21 pm

Hi,

Requesting you to please post the full question...we will be glad to answer the same.

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David@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2193; Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:30 pm; Location: Vermont and Boston, MA; Thanked: 1186 times; Followed by:512 members; GMAT Score:770

by David@VeritasPrep » Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:05 am

I see that this was not from an actual question, but rather from the lesson portion of the Official Guide and that you have posted the entire error and correction, so there is nothing additional that you could have posted.

This particular error is one of "accuracy." This is a relatively rare error in sentence correction compared to something like subject-verb number agreement (singular vs plural).

The error in accuracy is that the original says, "In the Middle Ages, the world was flat." Of course the world was not actually flat but was mistakenly believed to be flat. The corrected version accurately captures the fact that it was a belief that the world was flat, not a fact.

At Veritas, we categorize this lack of accuracy as a secondary error and as such you would save this type of error for last. The page in the Official Guide does not make it very clear, but I would recommend that you use grammar errors as the first way to eliminate incorrect answers and then watch for these secondary errors once you have narrowed the choices down a bit and especially when your remaining choices do not contain any obvious grammar errors.

Hope that helps!

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