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Archaeologists have shown that ingesting lead

by tony4mba » Sat Jun 26, 2010 3:00 am
Archaeologists have shown that ingesting lead in drinking water was a significant health hazard for the ancient Romans, like that of modern Americans.
(A) like that of modern Americans
(B) as that for modern Americans
(C) just as modern Americans do
(D) as do modern Americans
(E) as it is for modern Americans

Hi all, I got this question in Kaplan Practice Test.
I hope that all will agree with me to eliminate A,C and D. (parallelism "for ancient Romans...... for modern Americans")
But between B and E, which one you will choose?

I chose B because I thought there is contradiction between "was a significant..." and "it is for...." ==> past tense and present tense...

The original answer given is E...

Please tell me where I am going wrong...
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by tony4mba » Sat Jun 26, 2010 3:07 am
On reading my post once again... I feel that its okay to use "is.." as the word modern is used there... :idea:
But what is the problem with B
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by gmat_perfect » Sat Jun 26, 2010 4:15 am
Archaeologists have shown that ingesting lead in drinking water was a significant health hazard for the ancient Romans, like that of modern Americans.

(A) like that of modern Americans
(B) as that for modern Americans
(C) just as modern Americans do
(D) as do modern Americans
(E) as it is for modern Americans

Official Explanation

Again we are presented with the need to choose the correct pronouns in order to allow for a parallel sentence structure. Here, the pronoun that tries to stand in for the entire phrase ingesting lead in drinking water was a significant health hazard, but it fails. That tries to do too much; a single pronoun can only refer to a noun, not a noun and a verb. A correct option needs a pronoun that refers back to the subject of the phrase ("ingesting lead") and a verb to recall was. Take out (A) and (B). You can eliminate (C) and (D) as well because do, like that in (A) and (B), doesn't refer accurately to the first part of the sentence; nobody was doing anything to begin with. (E) is right because it refers to ingesting lead and is refers to was a significant health hazard, creating a grammatically correct parallel.
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by sars72 » Sat Jun 26, 2010 4:21 am
tony4mba wrote:Archaeologists have shown that ingesting lead in drinking water was a significant health hazard for the ancient Romans, like that of modern Americans.
(A) like that of modern Americans
(B) as that for modern Americans
(C) just as modern Americans do
(D) as do modern Americans
(E) as it is for modern Americans

Hi all, I got this question in Kaplan Practice Test.
I hope that all will agree with me to eliminate A,C and D. (parallelism "for ancient Romans...... for modern Americans")
But between B and E, which one you will choose?

I chose B because I thought there is contradiction between "was a significant..." and "it is for...." ==> past tense and present tense...

The original answer given is E...

Please tell me where I am going wrong...
the sentence is just trying to say that it was dangerous for Romans and is also dangerous for the modern Americans

you were spot on the elimination of choices A,C and D

we have to use the present tense coz we are comparing with modern aka "present day" Americans .. not ancient Americans

e.g. blah blah blah.. lead was a health hazard for dinosaurs as it for humans

hope that helps :)
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by hardik.jadeja » Sat Jun 26, 2010 4:26 am
The case in hand is to compare X with Y.

Our options: X like Y OR X as Y

Now, we know that X and Y should be ||.

X in our case is : ingesting lead in drinking water, which is a noun phrase.

We have a form of verb 'to be' (was) following it. So, the construction becomes noun/pronoun + a form of to be (was, is etc). This construction is X in our case and only option E has the same construction as X

Pick E.

Hope that helps...
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by nikhilkatira » Sat Jun 26, 2010 6:05 am
hardik.jadeja wrote:The case in hand is to compare X with Y.

Our options: X like Y OR X as Y

Now, we know that X and Y should be ||.

X in our case is : ingesting lead in drinking water, which is a noun phrase.

We have a form of verb 'to be' (was) following it. So, the construction becomes noun/pronoun + a form of to be (was, is etc). This construction is X in our case and only option E has the same construction as X

Pick E.

Hope that helps...
What role does ingesting play here ?
Best,
Nikhil H. Katira
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by hardik.jadeja » Sat Jun 26, 2010 6:29 am
nikhilkatira wrote: What role does ingesting play here ?
Its part of the noun phrase(acting as gerund phrase) "ingesting lead in drinking water".

Ingesting lead in drinking water was a significant health hazard for the ancient Romans. (X was a significant health hazard for the ancient Romans)
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