OG 10th Problem No. 251

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raj_verma: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 4; Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:05 am; Location: mumbai

OG 10th Problem No. 251

by raj_verma » Wed Jun 27, 2007 10:49 am

Hi folks,
I am new to this forum and this is my first post, A SC from OG 10

The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with extinction; its numbers are now five
times greater than when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970's. .
(A) extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than
(B) extinction; its numbers are now five times more than
(C) extinction, their numbers now fivefold what they were
(D) extinction, now with fivefold the numbers they had
(E) extinction, now with numbers five times greater than

I chose D.Any Suggestions???

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
-Mark Twain

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Wed Jun 27, 2007 10:49 am

isisalaska: Community Manager; Posts: 363; Joined: Sun Dec 10, 2006 12:24 pm; Location: St. Louis; Thanked: 7 times; Followed by:3 members

by isisalaska » Wed Jun 27, 2007 11:09 am

Welcome!

Few things are going on here:

- Describing numbers alone needs the form “greater than”. Describing number of objects needs the from “more than”, so B is out.
- The gyrfalcon, a birth needs the singular pronoun “its” so C and D are out. That leaves A and E, I believe A is the correct answer

Isis Alaska

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givemeanid: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 277; Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2007 2:51 pm; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 6 times; Followed by:1 members

by givemeanid » Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:08 pm

Can semi colon be replaced with a comma? Doesn't semi colon imply its a new sentence. In that case C,D,E are out. B uses 'more than' which is incorrect.

Answer is A.

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Sadowski: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 91; Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 7:08 am; Location: Durham, NC; Thanked: 1 times

by Sadowski » Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:13 pm

givemeanid wrote:Can semi colon be replaced with a comma? Doesn't semi colon imply its a new sentence. In that case C,D,E are out. B uses 'more than' which is incorrect.

Answer is A.

A semi-colon can not be replaced by a comma and carry the same structure. However, just because the original sentence used a semi-colon doesn't mean that you should immediately overlook the comma options. It's always possible that the sentence could be constructed correctly with a comma even though the original uses a semi-colon.

A semi-colon does basically imply a new sentence. The two clauses should be related to eachother, but they both have to be complete clauses on their own.

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raj_verma: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 4; Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:05 am; Location: mumbai

by raj_verma » Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:04 am

Hi all,

thanks a lot for the replies.I chose D because i thought that " greater than " should always be followed by a noun with which the comparison is being made. Rest all options didn't have that.

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
-Mark Twain

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sck159: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 10; Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:58 am

by sck159 » Sun Jul 01, 2007 3:51 pm

This is a parallelism question.
The pronoun following the first sentence has to be about the noun grayfalcon.
That would leave us A and B.
'greater than' or 'more than'
Since the sentence is talking about numbers we should go with 'greater than'.
'More than' can be used if we are talking about nouns (like birds) themselves.

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hopefully: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 75; Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 5:35 am; Thanked: 2 times

by hopefully » Thu Jul 12, 2007 1:12 am

The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970's. .

In this both sides of THAN are not parallel then how can this be correct...

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beingAndNothing: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 59; Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:35 am; Thanked: 1 times

by beingAndNothing » Tue Jan 15, 2008 11:52 pm

Even I am confused how the two elements are parallel.

Its numbers now are five times greater than in the 1980s.

Another example

A) Small cars today are more fuel-efficient than in the 1980s.
B) Small cars today are more fuel-efficient than those in the 1980s.

I think (B) is better because 'small cars today' is parallel with 'those in the 1980s'.

thanks.

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camitava: Legendary Member; Posts: 645; Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2007 4:37 am; Location: India; Thanked: 34 times; Followed by:5 members

by camitava » Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:25 am

beingAndNothing, more/ much is used for non-countable nouns but number is a countable item. So "MUCH" will not be applicable here. A is the best option to chose. Getting me, beingAndNothing?

Correct me If I am wrong

Regards,

Amitava

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beingAndNothing: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 59; Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:35 am; Thanked: 1 times

by beingAndNothing » Wed Jan 16, 2008 1:00 am

Camitava:

Thanks for the response. My real confusion is regarding parallel elements. Take a look at this sentence

Bihar is India's poorest state, with an annual per-capita income of $111, lower than in the most impoverished countries in the world

a) lower than in
b) lower than that of
c) and lower than that of
d) which is lower than in
e) which is lower than it is in

Correct Answer is [spoiler](b)[/spoiler]. OG states that the elements for
X is lower than Y are not parallel.

- Per capita income in Bihar is lower than in other cities of the impoverished world.
- Its numbers now are five times greater than in the 1980s.

So are both of these sentences parallel?

thanks.

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camitava: Legendary Member; Posts: 645; Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2007 4:37 am; Location: India; Thanked: 34 times; Followed by:5 members

by camitava » Wed Jan 16, 2008 3:31 am

BeingAndNothing, ur Qs is -

Bihar is India's poorest state, with an annual per-capita income of $111, lower than in the most impoverished countries in the world

a) lower than in
b) lower than that of
c) and lower than that of
d) which is lower than in
e) which is lower than it is in

- I will again go for B. Here according to me, the problem is not the comparison but the parallelism. We are comparing the income of Bihar with the income of the most impoverished country but not between Bihar and the most impoverished country. And A is doing the same mistake - it is comparing between income of Bihar with any impoverished country but not with the income of any impoverished country. Now got it, BeingAndNothing?

Correct me If I am wrong

Regards,

Amitava

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resilient: Legendary Member; Posts: 789; Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 1:25 am; Location: Southern California, USA; Thanked: 15 times; Followed by:6 members

gyrfalcon

by resilient » Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:07 pm

a. nice correct answer
b. numbers are countable so needs more than not greater.
c. uses thier for pronoun and not in line with sungular subject gyrfalcon.
d. same problem as C but uses THEY
E. needs a pronoun.

Is E wrnong because it needs an IT.?

Appetite for 700 and I scraped my plate!

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hemanth28: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 157; Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 9:05 am; Thanked: 9 times; GMAT Score:680

by hemanth28 » Tue Jul 07, 2009 5:52 pm

beingAndNothing wrote:Camitava:

- Per capita income in Bihar is lower than in other cities of the impoverished world.
- Its numbers now are five times greater than in the 1980s.

So are both of these sentences parallel?

thanks.

I dont think it is per capita income in -- is right usage.

It should be "per capita income of"

And ofcourse parallelism should be taken care of.

GMAT First take :- 680
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ssuarezo: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 126; Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2009 1:12 pm; Location: Montreal; Thanked: 2 times; GMAT Score:510