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SC comparision Q doubt

by atulmangal » Sat Mar 19, 2011 6:30 pm
In his eagerness to find a city worthy of Priam, the German archaeologist Schliemann cut through Troy and uncovered a civilization a thousand years older as was the city Homer's heroes knew.
(A) older as was the city Homer's heroes knew
(B) more ancient than the city known to Homer's heroes
(C) older than was the city known to Homer's heroes
(D) more ancient of a city than Homer's heroes knew
(E) older of a city than was the one known to Homer's heroes

The OA is B, but i don't think its correct...as it is comparing civilization to city...though both are common in many aspects but still i think its not correct to compare them directly....Any suggestions?????
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by vineeshp » Sat Mar 19, 2011 7:11 pm
WELL, I would have gone for B.

All options seem to be doing the same thing, compare what he unconvered to the city.

(A) uncovered a civilization a thousand years older as was the city Homer's heroes knew. - Grammatically incorrect.
(B) seems ok.
(C) uncovered a civilization a thousand years older than was the city.. - Very awkward. older than was the city is wrong.
(D) more ancient of a city... - Wrong grammar.
(E) older of a city... - Wrong grammar.
Vineesh,
Just telling you what I know and think. I am not the expert. :)
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by aspirant2011 » Sun Mar 20, 2011 8:09 am
with the word "civilization", "ancient" word needs to be used always therefore, left with B and D, out of which D is awkward.............
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by gmat_perfect » Sun Mar 20, 2011 9:54 am
atulmangal wrote:In his eagerness to find a city worthy of Priam, the German archaeologist Schliemann cut through Troy and uncovered a civilization a thousand years older as was the city Homer's heroes knew.
(A) older as was the city Homer's heroes knew
(B) more ancient than the city known to Homer's heroes
(C) older than was the city known to Homer's heroes
(D) more ancient of a city than Homer's heroes knew
(E) older of a city than was the one known to Homer's heroes

The OA is B, but i don't think its correct...as it is comparing civilization to city...though both are common in many aspects but still i think its not correct to compare them directly....Any suggestions?????
A city cannot be older than other city. A city can be more ancient than another city.

--> Eliminate A, C, and E.

In D, what does " thousand years more ancient of city" mean? It is just awkward--a true awkward sentence. Eliminate D.

Answer is B.
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by GMATMadeEasy » Mon Mar 21, 2011 8:00 am
@ atulmangal : You have got some good but difficult questions . What is the source ?

I could see some from 100SC as well but I dnot practice them :) .
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by atulmangal » Tue Mar 22, 2011 8:15 am
GMATMadeEasy wrote:@ atulmangal : You have got some good but difficult questions . What is the source ?

I could see some from 100SC as well but I dnot practice them :) .
The source is just the same u mentioned in your above post...some questions are good so i mark them and keep them separate..
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:51 am
Hey guys,

Just chiming in to hopefully add clarity to this one and the reasons that each wrong answer is incorrect.

First off, it's a comparison of two things, so we need either: "Older than" or "More ancient than" - the word "than" must be in there...we can't say "older of" or "more ancient as" or any of those. Those are just comparison structures that you have to know.

Now, I'd caution you to say that "a city cannot be older than another; it has to be more ancient" - I'd definitely say that "New York is older than Las Vegas"; "more ancient" doesn't work there because neither city is more than 400 years old!

The difference between B and C is the verb tense - another classic GMAT error category. "Was" the old civilization of Troy older than the city that Homer's heroes knew? "Was" indicates past-tense - at some point that previous civilization would have had to stop being older in order to use "was". It just "IS" older, or more ancient. So "was" in C is an incorrect verb tense, and that's why C is wrong.
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by GMATMadeEasy » Tue Mar 22, 2011 11:05 am
@Brian@VeritasPrep : thanks for pointing it out Brian.

Question : Could we also say that usage of tense in C is incorrect because it is fact that remains true ? Or I am misinterpreting ?

e;g. In seventeenth century , a french scientist discovered why blood is red .
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Wed Mar 23, 2011 11:19 am
Exactly right, GMATMadeEasy - if the fact is still true, then it doesn't really make sense to use the past tense. Your example is perfect.

That's pretty subtle for a GMAT question, but I could definitely see some harder questions hinging on that as a decision point, so it's definitely worth being aware of.
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by vaibhavalw » Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:13 pm
Brain,
in that case will this sentence be correct :

In his eagerness to find a city worthy of Priam, the German archaeologist Schliemann cut through Troy and uncovered a civilization a thousand years older than is the city known to Homer's heroes
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