Laos has a land area about the

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Laos has a land area about the

by jose.mario.amaya » Fri Oct 04, 2013 7:59 am
Laos has a land area about the same as Great Britain but only four million in population, where many are members of hill tribes ensconced in the virtually inaccessible mountain valleys of the north.
(A) about the same as Great Britain but only four
million in population, where many
(B) of about the same size as Great Britain is, but inLaos there is a population of only four million,
and many
(C) that is about the same size as Great Britain's
land area, but in Laos with a population of only
four million people, many of them
(D) comparable to the size of Great Britain, but onlyfour million in population, and many
(E) comparable to that of Great Britain but a
population of only four million people, many of
whom

I know this question has already been discussed but i have a doubt. How do you know what is being compared, is it comparing Laos vs Great Britain or is it comparing Laos land area vs Great britain land area. I was stuck between A and E, i know B, C and D are comparing size vs land area.
thanks

E
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by theCodeToGMAT » Fri Oct 04, 2013 8:23 am
Land Area of Laos is being compared with Land Area of Great Britain

{A} --> incorrect comparison..

It's similar to:

I have a house of Land Area about the same as Ram. --> house's land area is being compared with Ram
R A H U L

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by vinay1983 » Fri Oct 04, 2013 9:01 am
jose.mario.amaya wrote:Laos has a land area about the same as Great Britain but only four million in population, where many are members of hill tribes ensconced in the virtually inaccessible mountain valleys of the north.
(A) about the same as Great Britain but only four
million in population, where many
(B) of about the same size as Great Britain is, but inLaos there is a population of only four million,
and many
(C) that is about the same size as Great Britain's
land area, but in Laos with a population of only
four million people, many of them
(D) comparable to the size of Great Britain, but onlyfour million in population, and many
(E) comparable to that of Great Britain but a
population of only four million people, many of
whom

I know this question has already been discussed but i have a doubt. How do you know what is being compared, is it comparing Laos vs Great Britain or is it comparing Laos land area vs Great britain land area. I was stuck between A and E, i know B, C and D are comparing size vs land area.
thanks

E
Jose how about eliminating what could be the point of comparison here?

Can people be compared here?No since we are told" Britain has 4 million population" and "Laos has people who live in tribes"

Can we compare Laos and Great Britain? Yes we can technically, but for what can we compare them?There is nothing to compare.

Then can we compare land area? Yes we can since we are told something about land area at the beginning!

Remember (it is cliche` for comparison discussion) you can compare oranges to oranges and not apples to oranges.When you can't recognize what is being done atleast try to know what is not done!

Hope I could help you
You can, for example never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to!

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by [email protected] » Fri Oct 04, 2013 1:52 pm
Hi jose.mario.amaya,

This grammar issue sometimes shows up on the GMAT, so you have to train yourself to spot the proper "comparison"; this situation also tends to use a rare pronoun: typically "that" or "those".

The first part of the sentence uses the phrase "Laos has a land area", which we have to compare to Great Britain's LAND AREA. We'll either need the phrase "Great Britain's land area" OR the pronoun equivalent "THAT of Great Britain."

With this rule, the rest of the question is fairly straight-forward.

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