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by goelmohit2002 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:46 am
Hi All,

In the below question, the OA is [spoiler]"A"[/spoiler]. Can somebody please tell why [spoiler]"A"[/spoiler] is better than [spoiler]"B"[/spoiler] ?

Freedman's survey showed that people living in small towns and rural areas consider themselves no happier than do people living in big cities.

a) no happier than do people living
b) not any happier than do people living
c) not any happier than do people who live
d) no happier than are people who are living
e) not as happy as are people who live

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Mohit
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by karmayogi » Tue Mar 24, 2009 3:06 am
I was also confused between A and B. Selected A just because it sounded better than B.
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by goelmohit2002 » Tue Mar 24, 2009 6:25 am
But how to eliminate without basing on "sounding right" ? :-)
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by karmayogi » Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:15 am
goelmohit2002 wrote:But how to eliminate without basing on "sounding right" ? :-)
True. Sometime, it's matter of sheer luck :). But, I am sure, there must be some grammatical reasoning behind this.
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by Kunal_gmat » Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:40 am
My feeling is that one cannot have "any" follow" "not" and have a comparison follow it.

e.g. Not any greater is better said as no greater than or not greater than.

Hence (A).
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by quocbao » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:48 am
I am also confused between A & B. But I think A is better (shorter) so I pick A
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by TedCornell » Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:42 pm
A is better than B for concision's sake

B is also incorrect because "not any" is incorrect. This doesn't have to do with a comparison like Kunal surmised. It's in all cases

"not anyone" wrong but "no one" is right.
"not anything" wrong but "nothing" is right.
"not anywhere" wrong but "nowhere" is right.

"not any happier" wrong but "no happier" is right.

An alternative answer using "any" would put the "not" earlier:

"People living in small towns don't consider themselves any happier than do those living in big cities."

In this sentence, the not is modifying consider rather than any, so it doesn't pose a problem or sound bad.

(I study with OG, MGMAT SC and GMATFix Verbal Flashcards)
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by karmayogi » Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:27 am
TedCornell wrote:A is better than B for concision's sake

B is also incorrect because "not any" is incorrect. This doesn't have to do with a comparison like Kunal surmised. It's in all cases

"not anyone" wrong but "no one" is right.
"not anything" wrong but "nothing" is right.
"not anywhere" wrong but "nowhere" is right.

"not any happier" wrong but "no happier" is right.

An alternative answer using "any" would put the "not" earlier:

"People living in small towns don't consider themselves any happier than do those living in big cities."

In this sentence, the not is modifying consider rather than any, so it doesn't pose a problem or sound bad.

(I study with OG, MGMAT SC and GMATFix Verbal Flashcards)
This makes sense. Nice explanation Ted.
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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Mar 25, 2009 6:04 am
Thanks Kunal and Ted for nice explanation.

Please also tell based on above discussion, does that mean that both "Original A" and "Modified B" ( please see the same below) would have been fine....or we will prefer one over the another ?

Original....a) no happier than do people living
Modified.....b) not happier than do people living

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by TedCornell » Thu Mar 26, 2009 7:06 pm
consider themselves no happier Correct.

consider themselves not happier Incorrect

don't consider themselves any happier Correct

consider themselves not any happier Incorrect
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