Sentence Correction

Inuits of the Bering Sea were in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than Aleuts or Inuits of the North Pacific and northern Alaska.

(A) in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than
(B) isolated from contact with Europeans longer than
(C) in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than were
(D) isolated from contact with Europeans longer than were
(E) in isolation and without contacts with Europeans longer than

isolation or isolated, which one is better in this sentence. Please explain each answer choice.

hi aspirant
imo verb is always better then prep+noun. and it happens that isolated is better than in isolation
but main issue here is not isolated vs in isolation, but avoiding ambiguity in comparison
to point out that: inuit were isolated from contacts with europeans longer than aleuts were isolated from contacts with europeans
and another version may looks like:
inuit were isolated from contacts with europeans longer than with aleuts-this is wrong
only C and D contain were after than. and in choice verb vs prep +noun,(other things being equal)verb wins
so my answer D

hi clock60,

don't you feel that usage of "were isolated" changes the meaning of the sentence as it seems that "someone isloated them"..........please correct me if i am wrong............

i think it is a good catch Aspirant. i did not think about this.
when the sentence touchs meaning, in most cases i am silent
may be ||-ism also in C better version
in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than were inbut i am not sure
also i think that passive voice is not too wrong here
harsh climate, or other nature forces can contribute to the isolation too.

IMO D .

"in isolation from X" is unidiomatic . It can be used as "in isolation".

hi AIMGMAT,

I didn't get the meaning of your last post i.e "It can be used as "in isolation"". Can you please elaborate on the same and also can u please clarify whether "were isolated" changes the intended meaning or not????

Too deep a thought guys. The only difference i see is that one is a verb the other one a noun.
Hence D is better than the others.

aspirant2011 wrote:hi AIMGMAT,

I didn't get the meaning of your last post i.e "It can be used as "in isolation"". Can you please elaborate on the same and also can u please clarify whether "were isolated" changes the intended meaning or not????

Idiomatically "in isolation" is better than "in isolation from" .

" were isolated " doesn't change the meaning .

EX - I was isolated from social circuit so as to prepare for GMAT.

HTH

As Manhattan SC guide suggests, when confused in meaning based question one should apply

VAN principal...+1 for D

aspirant2011 wrote:Inuits of the Bering Sea were in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than Aleuts or Inuits of the North Pacific and northern Alaska.

(A) in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than
(B) isolated from contact with Europeans longer than
(C) in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than were
(D) isolated from contact with Europeans longer than were
(E) in isolation and without contacts with Europeans longer than

isolation or isolated, which one is better in this sentence. Please explain each answer choice.

Hi!

it would be idiomatically acceptable to say "They were in isolation." It would also be acceptable to say "They were isolated from contact with X." However, it's not acceptable to say "There were in isolation from contact with X."

Since (A) and (C) both have "in isolation from", we can eliminate both choices.

(E) has "in isolation and without contacts with X". We can eliminate (E) for any number of reasons, including:

- "contacts" should be "contact";
- "in isolation" and "without contact" are redundant; and
- "isolation" requires "from" and "contact" requires "with". So, to be idiomatically correct (although still wrong for the other reasons noted), (E) would have to read "in isolation from and without contact with".

The only difference between (B) and (D) is "than" vs "than were". Since we're comparing actions, not things, we want the verb "were" to make the comparison complete.

Eliminate (B), choose (D)!

aspirant2011 wrote:Inuits of the Bering Sea were in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than Aleuts or Inuits of the North Pacific and northern Alaska.

(A) in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than
(B) isolated from contact with Europeans longer than
(C) in isolation from contact with Europeans longer than were
(D) isolated from contact with Europeans longer than were
(E) in isolation and without contacts with Europeans longer than

isolation or isolated, which one is better in this sentence. Please explain each answer choice.

Answer should be D. There's no meaning change from "in isolation" to "isolated" - they they say the same thing, but "in isolation from contact" is just wordy and awkward.

thanks a lot guys