Sentence Correction

mundasingh123 wrote: The reason i am finding it difficult is that the MGMAT SC guide says that we must use helping verbs "be , do , have " only to remove ambiguity else we prefer to do away with units , verbs and even clauses .
Could you please clarify

well, the important word here is "prefer".
anything that is just a "preference" is ALWAYS subordinate to anything that is actually a rule!

"as" must be followed by a clause in comparisons -- this is a RULE. therefore, it supersedes all "preferences".

lunarpower wrote:

sumit88 wrote:Can someone put light on why A is wrong..??

there is nothing on the left that is parallel to "...yet being...".

ron , why do we need something to be on the left said to make it parallel.
Does yet like "and " require parallelism .

The stars ,inspite of being many were not able to throw ligh enough to brighten up the dark sky .
Does this use of inspite also require parallelism ?
i thought "yet" in A is funtioning a bit like "inspite "

lunarpower wrote: there is nothing on the left that is parallel to "...yet being...".

@lunarpower, can you expand on the use of "being"...
I've heard from other instructors that "being" is usually wrong on the GMAT
especially when it is used as the main VERB in the sentence.
I've also heard "Being" often intros the passive voice, which the GMAT scuffs at!

I know these are not fast rules. So, please share your experience on the use of the nasty "Being"

IMO B

@lunarpower, can you expand on the use of "being"...
I've heard from other instructors that "being" is usually wrong on the GMAT
especially when it is used as the main VERB in the sentence.
I've also heard "Being" often intros the passive voice, which the GMAT scuffs at!

I know these are not fast rules. So, please share your experience on the use of the nasty "Being"

lunarpower wrote:

mundasingh123 wrote: The bay acted as a funnel for the tide (Pg. 142 of MGMAT SC Guide )
The verb does is missing in the sub. clause .

that's not a comparison, so the rule doesn't hold. (that is a sentence that actually says that the bay plays the role of a funnel; it doesn't compare a bay to a funnel.)

here are more examples to make things clearer.

Ron spoke at the trial as an expert


--> this is NOT a comparison; this means that ron is actually an expert, and was speaking in that capacity.

Ron spoke at the trial like an expert
Ron spoke at the trial as an expert would (note clause)
--> these are comparisons. they mean that ron is not necessarily an expert, but that he spoke in a comparable way.

Ron, pleas,tell me the difference between:
"Ron speak at the trial like an expert", or better, "like an expert, Ron speak at the trial. Dose this mean, Ron and the expert are similar in that they speak.

and

Ron speak at the trial as an expert do: Dose this mean Ron and the expert speak in the same way.

Is that right?

XLogic wrote:

lunarpower wrote: there is nothing on the left that is parallel to "...yet being...".

@lunarpower, can you expand on the use of "being"...

see here
https://www.beatthegmat.com/experts-plea ... tml#259089

I've heard from other instructors that "being" is usually wrong on the GMAT
especially when it is used as the main VERB in the sentence.

hmm?
-ING forms are not verbs, so this comment doesn't really make sense.

I've also heard "Being" often intros the passive voice, which the GMAT scuffs at!

the gmat DOES NOT "scoff at the passive" (note "scoff", not "scuff" -- to "scuff" means to scratch something such as a wall or a shoe).
in fact, OG12 has 33 "active vs. passive" decisions; of those 33 decisions, 17 go in favor of the passive, and the other 16 in favor of the active. so it's basically fifty-fifty.

active vs. passive is a meaning-based distinction; as is the case for choosing between verb tenses, you must understand the intended meaning to make the decision properly.

duongthang wrote:Ron, pleas,tell me the difference between:
"Ron speak at the trial like an expert", or better, "like an expert, Ron speak at the trial. Dose this mean, Ron and the expert are similar in that they speak.

the latter one doesn't really make much sense here, so i'll just use a different set of examples. (also, "Ron speak" is not correct grammar.)

NOTE:
for the purposes of the GMAT, you will not have to distinguish between "Like X, Y ..." and "Y ..., like X". the difference is rhetorical, and rhetoric is not tested in SC.
nevertheless, because you asked, i'll explain below. be aware that you will not need the following distinction to solve any problems.

Like X, Y...
--> the rhetorical purpose of this construction is to emphasize the idea that X and Y themselves are alike because they both share some action/trait/whatever. in other words, this construction is *not* meant to mean that Y is imitating X -- it's meant to draw a general similarity between X and Y.
for instance,
Like Uruguayans, Argentinos speak Spanish.
--> this sentence just makes the point that Uruguayans and Argentinos share a language. it does *not* imply that the two groups speak Spanish in similar ways.
Argentinos speak Spanish like Uruguayans.
--> this sentence implies not only that Argentinos speak Spanish, but also that they speak it in a manner similar to Uruguayans' way of speaking.

again, this difference will not be tested, but it may help you understand the rhetorical purpose if you encounter either of these constructions in your reading.

Ron i think you missed my question


lunarpower wrote:

sumit88 wrote:
Can someone put light on why A is wrong..??

there is nothing on the left that is parallel to "...yet being...".


ron , why do we need something to be on the left said to make it parallel.
Does yet like "and " require parallelism .

The stars ,inspite of being many were not able to throw ligh enough to brighten up the dark sky .
Does this use of inspite also require parallelism ?
i thought "yet" in A is functioning a bit like "inspite "

lunarpower wrote: the gmat DOES NOT "scoff at the passive" (note "scoff", not "scuff" -- to "scuff" means to scratch something such as a wall or a shoe).
in fact, OG12 has 33 "active vs. passive" decisions; of those 33 decisions, 17 go in favor of the passive, and the other 16 in favor of the active. so it's basically fifty-fifty.

active vs. passive is a meaning-based distinction; as is the case for choosing between verb tenses, you must understand the intended meaning to make the decision properly.

@Ron... Boy, did you make me eat my spinach.
Well, I guess I could have done a better job crafting my QUESTION... Anyways, Thanks for the feed-BACK. I'm good.

mundasingh123 wrote:ron , why do we need something to be on the left said to make it parallel.
Does yet like "and " require parallelism .

yes, "yet" employs parallelism in much the same way as "and" does.

The stars ,inspite of being many were not able to throw ligh enough to brighten up the dark sky .
Does this use of inspite also require parallelism ?
i thought "yet" in A is functioning a bit like "inspite "

"in spite of" is equivalent to a preposition, so, no.
(i wouldn't break that construction up any further -- i would just think of "in spite of" as a single preposition.)

XLogic wrote:@Ron... Boy, did you make me eat my spinach. :-)

spinach is my favorite vegetable.

lunarpower wrote:

duongthang wrote:Ron, pleas,tell me the difference between:
"Ron speak at the trial like an expert", or better, "like an expert, Ron speak at the trial. Dose this mean, Ron and the expert are similar in that they speak.

the latter one doesn't really make much sense here, so i'll just use a different set of examples. (also, "Ron speak" is not correct grammar.)

NOTE:
for the purposes of the GMAT, you will not have to distinguish between "Like X, Y ..." and "Y ..., like X". the difference is rhetorical, and rhetoric is not tested in SC.
nevertheless, because you asked, i'll explain below. be aware that you will not need the following distinction to solve any problems.

Like X, Y...
--> the rhetorical purpose of this construction is to emphasize the idea that X and Y themselves are alike because they both share some action/trait/whatever. in other words, this construction is *not* meant to mean that Y is imitating X -- it's meant to draw a general similarity between X and Y.
for instance,
Like Uruguayans, Argentinos speak Spanish.
--> this sentence just makes the point that Uruguayans and Argentinos share a language. it does *not* imply that the two groups speak Spanish in similar ways.
Argentinos speak Spanish like Uruguayans.
--> this sentence implies not only that Argentinos speak Spanish, but also that they speak it in a manner similar to Uruguayans' way of speaking.

again, this difference will not be tested, but it may help you understand the rhetorical purpose if you encounter either of these constructions in your reading.

Ron, please, help
what is meaning of " Argentinos speak Spanish as Uruguayans do"

I think we are way too formulaic in our approach... It might help to step back a bit.

Like compares nouns, pronouns or noun phrases (not clauses)
"As" (preposition) compares nouns, pronouns or noun phrases (not clauses)
"As" (conjunction) compares clauses

(Not sure we need to go much further than these rules for the GMAT)

For most SC questions, Rules + (some intuition) should suffice.

Source(s):
> https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/07/ ... like-vs-as
> https://www.1-language.com/englishcourse ... rammar.htm

PS. Please feel free to EDIT my comments if I'm in error.

duongthang wrote:Ron, please, help
what is meaning of " Argentinos speak Spanish as Uruguayans do"

this sentence basically means the same thing as Argentinos speak Spanish like Uruguayans.

if you wrote that sentence with a comma, on the other hand -- i.e., "Argentinos speak Spanish, as Uruguayans do" -- then it would have the same meaning as Like Uruguayans, Argentinos speak Spanish.