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pls help with this PowerPrep sentence

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pls help with this PowerPrep sentence

by rickjan » Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:45 am
Hello,

Please help to understand this example from PowerPrep:

A study on couples' retirement transitions found that women who took new jobs after retiring from their primary careers reported high marital satisfaction, more than when retiring completely.

A. more than when retiring
B. more than if they were to retire
C. more so than who retired
D. which was more so than whose retiring
E. which was more than if they had retired

I think the correct answer is C.
But what I can't understand is what the fuction of "so" here. Does this word just distract attention making the right answer looks "more complicated"?

If it's so, then how often are there such kind of "tricky" words on the SC section (the words that might not add something important to the correct answer but make it more difficult to give a correct shot)?

And if my idea is correct then what kind of strategy should it be to spot these words and not be misled by them?


Thanks
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by iwant700plus » Mon Mar 30, 2009 11:48 am
Ok, he is what I think.

The sentence is comparing the satisfaction level of women for two cases:

1) satisfaction level if they take new jobs after retiring from their primary careers

2) satisfaction level if they retired completely

and 1 is more than 2.

C is comparing the satisfaction level of women who took jobs to that of women who retired compelety and changes the meaning of the sentence.

Following my logic above, IMO answer is E. What is the OA?
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by uymba » Mon Mar 30, 2009 3:37 pm
Here is my analysis.

A. more than when retiring - parallel with previous "after retiring". concise.
B. more than if they were to retire - wordy. tense not parallel with "retiring".
C. more so than who retired - compares satisfaction vs women.
D. which was more so than whose retiring - incorrect usage of whose. wordy.
E. which was more than if they had retired - wordy. past perfect tense unnecessary. also not parallel.

IMO A.

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by anishprabhu » Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:27 pm
IMO its B

Whats the OA please?
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by nasa » Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:12 pm
Focus on the skeletal statement:
A study found that women of class A reported high marital satisfaction, more than women of class B.

"who took new jobs after retiring from their primary careers" is a modifier which selects a class of women

IMO C
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by Ramp » Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:32 pm
I think underlined portion describes 'high marital satisfaction' so B seems to do that in a concise manner.
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by rseeker2 » Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:54 pm
agree with nasa. C.
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by ken3233 » Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:01 pm
My guess is that "B" is the answer. I believe that in this case, the subjunctive mood is necessary, because the the womens' actual circumstances are being compared to hypothetical circumstances.

But then again, I am confused by this question myself.
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by uymba » Tue Mar 31, 2009 3:22 am
https://www.beatthegmat.com/retirement-t ... 25376.html
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by nasa » Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:41 pm
OA pls
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no OA, but issues & the sentence are still the challange

by rickjan » Thu Apr 02, 2009 3:27 am
Guys thank you for participation, but I have to dissapoint your expectations because I don't have the OA for this sentence. I have occassionally deleted the results for that particular mock test and can't review them again now to see the official answer.

Anyway, I keep to Uymba's point of view that C is the correct answer. Please look at the link he gave. At the biggining of the post I said that, from my view, C is the choice, but I am/wasn't sure. That was the reason why I started this thread.

The questions I raised are still valid cause nobody has given something helping to understand the logic of such kind of tasks on the REAL test. Below I repeat those questions:

"What I can't understand is what the fuction of "so" here (in choice C). Does this word just distract attention making the right answer looks "more complicated"?

If it's so, then how often are there such kind of "tricky" words on the SC section (the words that might not add something important to the correct answer but make it more difficult to give a correct shot)?

And if my idea is correct then what kind of strategy should it be to spot these words and not be misled by them?"


It would be nice if you share your opinions here because it's not only about the right/wrong answer(s) on this particular sentence, but it's about the appropriate stategy (ies) for such sort of questions on the REAL test.

Thank you in adavnce! :)
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by ken3233 » Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:21 am
Rickjan: I am fairly certain that "more so" is a grammatically correct idiomatic phrase; I believe the same to be true of "more so than".

With C, I don't believe that the word "so" is the problem. The real problem with C, as I see it, is that it is ungrammatical in not putting "those" before "who".


COMPARE:

"more so than who retired"

vs.

"more so than those who retired"

This is a very strange Powerprep question. I wish we knew the correct answer. I am still picking B, but I admit being confused here.

It's interesting that this Powerprep question contains answers that are worded differently from the question in the link provided to us by uymba.

Incidentally, I have rejected A for the following reasons:

A. more than when retiring

1) "When" signifies "time period", and it is probably unidiomatic in this clause (MGMAT SC, page. 193, see "if").

2) "Retiring" is probably incorrect here as well. Many of the advanced posters on this forum point out that the GMAT frowns on using "-ing" nouns in answers.
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to Ken3233

by rickjan » Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:40 am
Hello Ken

Thank you for your view on the problem.
I think it can't be B) because I ticked this answer and the system said it's wrong!

Your are right that "more so" is idiomatic. However, I'm not sure that this is the right context to this phrase.

Here is what I found in Macmillan English Dicitionary:
It is used for referring back to a possibility, fact, or situation that has just been mentioned.

Regards,
Rickjan
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by karmayogi » Fri Apr 03, 2009 9:07 am
GMAT very often tests certain sentence formations that are not common. A sentence with ‘so’ is one such example. Always remember, ‘so’ replaces action/condition/manner. For example,

I want to get 800 in GMAT, but I am not sure whether I would be able to do so. – ‘do so’ replaced ‘get 800 in GMAT’ and ‘do replaced ‘get’ .

When we are young, we think that we will always remain so. – ‘so’ replaced condition ‘young’.

Now let’s see the question. The given sentence talks about a study. In a study, we at least need two groups to compare. Hence, logically, here we are talking about two women groups – one group took new job and other didn’t. Therefore, we can remove A, B and E. D is really awkward, but I am not able to grammatically express. In C, which I feel is the correct answer, ‘so’ has replaced ‘marital satisfaction’. Also, the option compares two group of women.

Couple of other points:
1. As Ken pointed out, I would always prefer non “-ing” options, until there is some grammatical mistake. Hence, ‘retired’ is a better option than ‘retiring’.
2. Again as Ken pointed out, I would prefer “those who retired” over “who retired.” But there might be some explanation, which we are not aware of, for ‘who retired’.

There are so many important idioms with ‘so’, so it’s worth knowing them.
Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divine within.
--By Swami Vivekananda
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by ken3233 » Fri Apr 03, 2009 9:40 am
karmayogi wrote: 2. Again as Ken pointed out, I would prefer “those who retired” over “who retired.” But there might be some explanation, which we are not aware of, for ‘who retired’.
I am stunned that "who retired" could be the correct answer. I am really interested in knowing why.

Rickjan: can you post the OA?

TedCornell: what do you think about this?
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