Sentence Correction

GmatKiss wrote:How to choose between despite and although?

[email protected] wrote:Hello Everyone!

This is a great example of a GMAT question that focuses on both modifiers and idiomatic structure! Let's start by looking closely at the original question, and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

Despite its covering the entire planet, Earth has a crust that is not seamless or stationary, rather it is fragmented into mobile semirigid plates.

(A) Despite its covering the entire planet, Earth has a crust that is not seamless or stationary, rather it is
(B) Despite the fact that it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor is it stationary, but is
(C) Despite covering the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor is it stationary, but rather
(D) Although it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor stationary, but rather
(E) Although covering the entire planet, Earth has a crust that is not seamless or stationary, but

After a quick glance over the options, we have 3 main things we can focus on:

1. How they begin (modifier-antecedent agreement)
2. Earth has a crust / Earth's crust (modifier-antecedent agreement)
3. not/neither seamless or/nor stationary (idioms)

Since #1 and #2 deal with the same grammar issue (modifier-antecedent agreement), let's start there. When we deal with modifiers on the GMAT, the first thing we should focus on is if the modifier is directly before/after the word it's modifying.

The modifiers at the beginning of each option are supposed to refer to the Earth's crust - NOT the Earth as a whole!

Here is now our options handle the modifier at the beginning of the sentence:

(A) Despite its covering the entire planet, Earth has a crust that is not seamless or stationary, rather it is
(B) Despite the fact that it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor is it stationary, but is
(C) Despite covering the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor is it stationary, but rather
(D) Although it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor stationary, but rather
(E) Although covering the entire planet, Earth has a crust that is not seamless or stationary, but

We can rule out options A & E because the modifier should refer to the Earth's crust, rather than the Earth as a whole. The Earth cannot cover itself!

Now that we only have a few options left, let's focus on #3 on our list: neither...nor. Since they all include the word "neither," we need to make sure they all follow this format:

Neither X nor Y
(where X and Y are written using parallel wording or structure)

Let's see how each option handles this:

(B) Despite the fact that it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor is it stationary, but is --> neither X nor is it Y = WRONG/NOT PARALLEL
(C) Despite covering the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor is it stationary, but rather --> neither X nor is it Y = WRONG/NOT PARALLEL
(D) Although it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor stationary, but rather --> neither X nor Y = CORRECT!

There you have it - option D is the right option because it uses the correct "neither X nor Y" idiomatic structure, and it uses modifiers correctly!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

I came to option D too. I have a small question. After comma and any FANBOYS which in this case is "but" the rest of the phrase needs to be complete clause. But here it is not. Kindly help