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Carbon-14 dating

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Carbon-14 dating

by limestone » Sun Oct 03, 2010 12:30 am
Carbon-14 dating reveals that the megalithic monuments in Brittany are nearly 2,000 years as old as any of their supposed Mediterranean predecessors.

A.
B. older than any of their supposed
C. as old as their supposed
D. older than any of their supposedly
E. as old as their supposedly

[spoiler]OA: B. IMO: C. I think that B changes that meaning of the sentence. Any other opinions?[/spoiler]
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by ashokkadam » Sun Oct 03, 2010 2:01 am
B is correct because 'older than' is preferred to 'as old as' in GMAT.

Can someone explain why B is preferred, though it changes the meaning of sentence?
limestone wrote:Carbon-14 dating reveals that the megalithic monuments in Brittany are nearly 2,000 years as old as any of their supposed Mediterranean predecessors.

A.
B. older than any of their supposed
C. as old as their supposed
D. older than any of their supposedly
E. as old as their supposedly

[spoiler]OA: B. IMO: C. I think that B changes that meaning of the sentence. Any other opinions?[/spoiler]
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by winner's attitude » Sun Oct 03, 2010 2:52 am
why not C or D .. pls explain
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by gmatrix » Sun Oct 03, 2010 3:19 am
hmmm............
D and E eliminated.....because supposed=adjective is needed to modify the a noun Mediterranean predecessors and not the adverb supposedly for it cannot modify a noun/pronoun.

now b/w....A,B and C the best is B

older than any of their supposed Mediterranean predecessors....is right

x is 20 years older than y
or
x is as old as y.....but not.....x is 20 years as old as y
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by mj78ind » Sun Oct 03, 2010 7:54 am
limestone wrote:Carbon-14 dating reveals that the megalithic monuments in Brittany are nearly 2,000 years as old as any of their supposed Mediterranean predecessors.

A.
B. older than any of their supposed
C. as old as their supposed
D. older than any of their supposedly
E. as old as their supposedly

[spoiler]OA: B. IMO: C. I think that B changes that meaning of the sentence. Any other opinions?[/spoiler]
This is more of a logic question - a direction which is believe the GMAT has taken. The Mediterr. were thought of as predecessors of Brittany, but lo an behold what happened C - 14 and we find that the Brittany are older!!

Thus even though B changes the meaning it brings the sentence to the correct meaning! All the choices have 'supposed' which is an indicator that the medi were supposed to be older than Brittany hence C-14 smashed that fact.

Now coming to the choices:
A - 2000 years as old as ?? Nonsense
B - Looks good
C - as old as ......same as A out
D - supposedly .......GMAT land does not prefer 'ly' type of stuff ........but by no means eliminate
E - Same as A

Left with B and D.

Supposedly is awkward .....

Hence B
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by tomada » Sun Oct 03, 2010 11:49 am
It's not that "supposedly" is awkward; it changes the meaning of the sentence. Using "supposedly" refers to "Mediterranean", as in "the predecessors were supposedly Mediterranean" (as opposed to another region)

mj78ind wrote:
limestone wrote:Carbon-14 dating reveals that the megalithic monuments in Brittany are nearly 2,000 years as old as any of their supposed Mediterranean predecessors.

A.
B. older than any of their supposed
C. as old as their supposed
D. older than any of their supposedly
E. as old as their supposedly

[spoiler]OA: B. IMO: C. I think that B changes that meaning of the sentence. Any other opinions?[/spoiler]
This is more of a logic question - a direction which is believe the GMAT has taken. The Mediterr. were thought of as predecessors of Brittany, but lo an behold what happened C - 14 and we find that the Brittany are older!!

Thus even though B changes the meaning it brings the sentence to the correct meaning! All the choices have 'supposed' which is an indicator that the medi were supposed to be older than Brittany hence C-14 smashed that fact.

Now coming to the choices:
A - 2000 years as old as ?? Nonsense
B - Looks good
C - as old as ......same as A out
D - supposedly .......GMAT land does not prefer 'ly' type of stuff ........but by no means eliminate
E - Same as A

Left with B and D.

Supposedly is awkward .....

Hence B
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by mj78ind » Sun Oct 03, 2010 4:57 pm
tomada wrote:It's not that "supposedly" is awkward; it changes the meaning of the sentence. Using "supposedly" refers to "Mediterranean", as in "the predecessors were supposedly Mediterranean" (as opposed to another region)

Can you elaborate, I find both to mean the same........both supposedly and supposed referring to Mediterranean.

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