Comparison question

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Comparison question

by abcgmat » Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:35 am
He was less successful after he had signed with the washington bullets compared to the New York knicks, small forward bernard king nevertheless earned a steadfast grup of admirers who consider him oneof the greatest scorers in basketball history

a. He was less successful after he had signed with the washington bullets compared to
b. Being less successful after he had signed with the washington bullets as compared to
C. Less successful after he signed with the washington bullets than he had been with
d. Although he was less successful after signing with the washington bulets compared to
E. He had been less successful after signing with the washington bullets than with
the washington bullets compared to

I get confused with comparisons all the time. Here in few sentences the comparision is between X and Y and sometimes between success. Can somene help. This question is from Veritas prep

Are the below comparisions fine
1. He was less successful with washington bullets than with New York knicks
--Less succesful with X than with Y (comparison is between X and Y)
2. He was less successful with washington bullets than he had been with Y`
--Less succesfull with Y than had been with Y
(Comparision is over how successful there were with each of the companies)
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by aspirant2011 » Sat Oct 15, 2011 6:35 am
abcgmat wrote:He was less successful after he had signed with the washington bullets compared to the New York knicks, small forward bernard king nevertheless earned a steadfast grup of admirers who consider him oneof the greatest scorers in basketball history

a. He was less successful after he had signed with the washington bullets compared to
b. Being less successful after he had signed with the washington bullets as compared to
C. Less successful after he signed with the washington bullets than he had been with
d. Although he was less successful after signing with the washington bulets compared to
E. He had been less successful after signing with the washington bullets than with
the washington bullets compared to

I get confused with comparisons all the time. Here in few sentences the comparision is between X and Y and sometimes between success. Can somene help. This question is from Veritas prep

Are the below comparisions fine
1. He was less successful with washington bullets than with New York knicks
--Less succesful with X than with Y (comparison is between X and Y)----Yup I feel its correct
2. He was less successful with washington bullets than he had been with Y`
--Less succesfull with Y than had been with Y-----Yup I feel this one is also correct
(Comparision is over how successful there were with each of the companies)

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by sam2304 » Sat Oct 15, 2011 6:51 am
abcgmat wrote: Are the below comparisions fine
1. He was less successful with washington bullets than with New York knicks
--Less succesful with X than with Y (comparison is between X and Y)
2. He was less successful with washington bullets than he had been with Y`
--Less succesfull with Y than had been with Y
(Comparision is over how successful there were with each of the companies)
Less successful with X than (successful) with Y

Less successful with X than (successful) had been with Y - This doesn't seem fine.

Hope i am right with the comparison.

I have a doubt in this question.

Why is D wrong ?

Although he was less successful ..., small forward bernard king nevertheless earned a steadfast group of admirers who consider him oneof the greatest scorers in basketball history.

Is this wrong ? When we use nevertheless as conjunction this seems fine to me. Please explain :(.
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by zaarathelab » Sat Oct 15, 2011 7:30 am
sam2304

i am not too sure why 'Less successful with X than (successful) had been with Y' is not correct

Can you please elaborate?

Ok I think I got it. This is a classical ellipsis problem. Basic rule of ellipsis: The omitted word should be exactly the same as the word it is being compared with (mentioned in the sentence).

I also read somewhere that the GMAT will tolerate some sentences with ellipsis issues as long as the verb tense does not change

The above sentence changes the tense by using 'had been'

Not too sure why A is INCORRECT.
Last edited by zaarathelab on Sun Oct 16, 2011 3:38 am, edited 2 times in total.
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by abcgmat » Sat Oct 15, 2011 7:55 am
OA: C
D is wrong because 'Less...than' is the correct idiom 'Less with X....compared to'
should be 'less with X than with Y'.
Also 'compared to ' is used to describe similarity and 'compared with ' is used to describe' as differnece
E.g She was compared to Teresa --- similarity
E.g. Compared to Teresa, Gini is sweet -- difference


I need help in understanding the comparisons , I need help in knowing why A is wrong. :(

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by avik.ch » Sat Oct 15, 2011 8:22 am
abcgmat wrote:OA: C
D is wrong because 'Less...than' is the correct idiom 'Less with X....compared to'
should be 'less with X than with Y'.
Also 'compared to ' is used to describe similarity and 'compared with ' is used to describe' as differnece
E.g She was compared to Teresa --- similarity
E.g. Compared to Teresa, Gini is sweet -- difference


I need help in understanding the comparisons , I need help in knowing why A is wrong. :(
1. GMAT dont test the difference between compared to and compared with. It solely depends on the authors intent and it is very difficult to understand which one author is stressing,similarities or difference,from just reading one sentence. Refer to OG11, question number 16 explanation - both these forms are correct.

2. Why A is wrong : Refer MGMAT SC : usage of past perfect.
There is no need to use had along with after/before. Its redundancy.

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by GmatKiss » Sat Oct 15, 2011 9:35 am
Nice questions, was between C and D, unable to make a choice!

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by saketk » Sun Oct 16, 2011 9:26 pm
GmatKiss wrote:Nice questions, was between C and D, unable to make a choice!
Option D-

less successful after he signed with the washington bullets (WB) than he had been with New York Knicks (NYK). -- Parallel.

Option D

Although he was less successful after signing with the WB compared to NYK. -- Comparision issue


See this example -- I love X more than Y ( this can have different meanings)

1) I love X more than I love Y
2) I love X more than Y loves X

So there is a amiguity issue here in option D.

Hope this helps.

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by mankey » Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:55 am
Is it C? What is the OA?

Thanks.

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by abcgmat » Mon Oct 17, 2011 12:23 pm
OA is C

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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Mon Oct 17, 2011 2:28 pm
I'd say "great question", but I guess I shouldn't since there' a really good chance that I wrote this one a few years ago (I loved Bernard King as a kid...really a shame what happened to his knee).

The biggest problem with A is "He was" - the underlined portion is a modifier that has to set up "King nevertheless earned". A is its own clause, which leaves "King earned" without a proper transition to set it apart from the previous clause.

For example, you could say:

King was X, but he was also Y.

But you can't say:

King was X, King was Y. You'd need a semicolon to break the two clauses here. And that's the problem with A - it's two clauses and not a modifier-then-clause like C is.


C is correct, as it sets up that proper modifier, and does so as a parallel comparison with logical verb tenses. A, B, and D all compare "he (was less successful)" to "the New York Knicks", when the logical intent is to compare "he" in both cases (he with the Bullets, he with the Knicks). And A, B, and E all use "had been" without the presence of another past-tense action. C uses "had been" properly to distance his NY Knicks performance well before his signing with the Bullets.

This question rolls in some Modifier, Verb Tense, and Comparison logic all together, and C is the only one that does them all properly.


ABC - both comparisons you proposed in your original post would work, because they're both parallel. Nicely done!
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by abcgmat » Tue Oct 18, 2011 12:31 am
Thanks Brian,

It was a good explanation addressing my question on comparisons
Thanks a lot

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