Oyster Problem

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Oyster Problem

by Dean Jones » Sat Nov 26, 2011 5:53 am

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Dear Friends,

I was having problems in answering the following question.

Over the next few years, increasing demands on the Chattahoochee River, which
flows into the Apalachicola River, could alter the saline content of Apalachicola Bay,
which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size,
less distinctive, and less in demand.

A. which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size
B. and it would rob the oysters there of their flavor, make them smaller
C. and rob the oysters there of their flavor, making them decrease in size
D. robbing the oysters there of their flavor and making them smaller
E. robbing the oysters there of their flavor, and making them decrease in size



Please help.

OA after some discussions.

I picked option C

Regards
Deano.

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by HSPA » Sat Nov 26, 2011 6:01 am

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I am also with C

Increasing demands could 'alter' the saline content of Bay and rob the oysters there of their flavour

smaller, less distintive and less in demand .. this is also good.
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by mankey » Sat Nov 26, 2011 8:48 am

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It should be E looking at parallel issues.

What is the OA?

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by aspirant2011 » Sat Nov 26, 2011 9:00 am

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I would rather go with option D......

E &C changes the intended meaning by the use of decrease in size

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by Dean Jones » Sat Nov 26, 2011 10:40 pm

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OA is option DCan't understand why option C is incorrect. Cab anyone please help.

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by patanjali.purpose » Sun Nov 27, 2011 4:58 am

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Dean Jones wrote:Dear Friends,

I was having problems in answering the following question.

Over the next few years, increasing demands on the Chattahoochee River, which
flows into the Apalachicola River, could alter the saline content of Apalachicola Bay,
which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size,
less distinctive, and less in demand.

A. which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size
B. and it would rob the oysters there of their flavor, make them smaller
C. and rob the oysters there of their flavor, making them decrease in size
D. robbing the oysters there of their flavor and making them smaller
E. robbing the oysters there of their flavor, and making them decrease in size



Please help.

OA after some discussions.

I picked option C

Regards
Deano.
C vs D

C : DEAMANS could alter the content and rob the oysters - can the demands ROB!. No, it cannot. The clause after BAY is the 'rob the oysters....' is actually the result of 'saline content of the Bay'. In other words, COULD ALTER and ROB are not related events and therefore they need not be connected with AND.

IMO D

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by sam2304 » Sun Nov 27, 2011 6:01 am

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If you look more closely at the meaning of the sentence then its quite easier to choose. Main clause of the sentence is "increasing demands on the Chattahoochee River could alter the saline content of Apalachicola Bay"

in option D "robbing the oysters there ..." is a modifying phrase of the main clause on how the saline content is altered.

C is wrong as it changes the meaning. Increasing demands alters the saline content as well as rob the oysters of their flavor.
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by GMATGuruNY » Sun Nov 27, 2011 7:06 am

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Dean Jones wrote:Dear Friends,

I was having problems in answering the following question.

Over the next few years, increasing demands on the Chattahoochee River, which
flows into the Apalachicola River, could alter the saline content of Apalachicola Bay,
which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size,
less distinctive, and less in demand.

A. which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size
B. and it would rob the oysters there of their flavor, make them smaller
C. and rob the oysters there of their flavor, making them decrease in size
D. robbing the oysters there of their flavor and making them smaller
E. robbing the oysters there of their flavor, and making them decrease in size



Please help.

OA after some discussions.

I picked option C

Regards
Deano.
In A, which seems to refer to Apalachicola Bay, implying that the BAY itself would rob the oysters of their flavor. The intended meaning of the sentence is that the ALTERING OF THE SALINE CONTENT would rob the oysters of their flavor. Eliminate A.

In B, it lacks a clear antecedent. Eliminate B.

In C and E, decrease in size (verb + adverb) is not parallel with less distinctive (adverb + adjective). Eliminate C and E.

The correct answer is D.
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by amit2k9 » Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:12 am

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smaller ..robbing ..making ...correct usage of verbs here.

D
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by varun289 » Mon Jun 24, 2013 5:07 am

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as usual mitch explains best

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by [email protected] » Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:00 am

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GMATGuruNY wrote:
Dean Jones wrote:Dear Friends,

I was having problems in answering the following question.

Over the next few years, increasing demands on the Chattahoochee River, which
flows into the Apalachicola River, could alter the saline content of Apalachicola Bay,
which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size,
less distinctive, and less in demand.

A. which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size
B. and it would rob the oysters there of their flavor, make them smaller
C. and rob the oysters there of their flavor, making them decrease in size
D. robbing the oysters there of their flavor and making them smaller
E. robbing the oysters there of their flavor, and making them decrease in size



Please help.

OA after some discussions.

I picked option C

Regards
Deano.
In A, which seems to refer to Apalachicola Bay, implying that the BAY itself would rob the oysters of their flavor. The intended meaning of the sentence is that the ALTERING OF THE SALINE CONTENT would rob the oysters of their flavor. Eliminate A.

In B, it lacks a clear antecedent. Eliminate B.

In C and E, decrease in size (verb + adverb) is not parallel with less distinctive (adverb + adjective). Eliminate C and E.

The correct answer is D.
I'm sorry to bring this topic up again..
My doubt is: " smaller" should require "than" with it. Smaller than what????... I eliminated D based on that logic.. Is my logic flawed?

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by MartyMurray » Sun Mar 08, 2015 12:10 pm

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[email protected] wrote:

Over the next few years, increasing demands on the Chattahoochee River, which flows into the Apalachicola River, could alter the saline content of Apalachicola Bay, which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size, less distinctive, and less in demand.

A. which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size
B. and it would rob the oysters there of their flavor, make them smaller
C. and rob the oysters there of their flavor, making them decrease in size
D. robbing the oysters there of their flavor and making them smaller
E. robbing the oysters there of their flavor, and making them decrease in size



The correct answer is D.

I'm sorry to bring this topic up again..
My doubt is: " smaller" should require "than" with it. Smaller than what????... I eliminated D based on that logic.. Is my logic flawed?
Actually, smaller does not require a than.

Consider this. He ate too much and made himself fatter. He then starved himself and became much smaller.

Maybe a than he was before is understood in both cases.

In any case, those sentences work without the use of the word than and so do smaller, less distinctive and less in demand in choice D.

Even if you were pretty sure that smaller should be followed by a than, you could have gotten it right in the following way.

Notice that smaller, less distinctive and less in demand are parallel.

Then notice that less distinctive and less in demand are not in the underlined portion, and so they can't be changed.

So the question writer is comfortable with not using a than after either of them. In other words we don't have less in demand than or less distinctive than, so it's a safe bet that according to the writer of the question you don't need a than after smaller either.

What you do need to get a GMAT verbal question right is parallelism, and in this question the only available way to create a parallel list is to use the word smaller.

Noticing details is key to getting verbal questions right, and a hack can often be more useful than any rule you think you might apply.
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by GMATGuruNY » Sun Mar 08, 2015 1:25 pm

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[email protected] wrote: I'm sorry to bring this topic up again..
My doubt is: " smaller" should require "than" with it. Smaller than what????... I eliminated D based on that logic.. Is my logic flawed?
As long as the implied comparison is clear, a comparative such as smaller does not need to be followed by than.

D: Increasing demands on the Chattahoochee River could alter the saline content of Apalachicola Bay, robbing the oysters of their flavor and making them smaller.
Here, it is clear from context that future oysters would be SMALLER than current oysters.

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Here, it is clear from context that the future level of control would be BETTER than the current level of control.
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by nirav2610 » Sun Mar 22, 2015 2:29 am

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Yeah..I would go with D as well

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by [email protected] » Tue Mar 19, 2019 9:49 am

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Hello Everyone!

This is a great example of a list question you might find on the GMAT! Let's take a closer look at this question, one issue at a time, and determine our best course of action! First, here is the original question with any major differences between the options highlighted in orange:

Over the next few years, increasing demands on the Chattahoochee River, which flows into the Apalachicola River, could alter the saline content of Apalachicola Bay, which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size, less distinctive, and less in demand.

(A) which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size,
(B) and it would rob the oysters there of their flavor, make them smaller,
(C) and rob the oysters there of their flavor, making them decrease in size,
(D) robbing the oysters there of their flavor and making them smaller,
(E) robbing the oysters there of their flavor, and making them decrease in size,

After a quick glance over the options, a couple things clearly need to be addressed:

1. rob vs. robbing
2. decrease in size vs. smaller


We know already that this is an example of a list question. Whenever we see list questions, we know we must focus on the following:

1. Parallelism (ALL items in the list must be similar in word use, verb tense, structure, etc.)
2. Conciseness (ALL items should use the most concise wording whenever possible)


The best place to start with any list question is to find any part of the list that isn't underlined. Since that part of the sentence cannot change, ALL other items on the list must match it in verb tense, wording, tone, etc.

Over the next few years, increasing demands on the Chattahoochee River, which flows into the Apalachicola River, could alter the saline content of Apalachicola Bay[/color], which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size, less distinctive, and less in demand.

The two items on the list that aren't underlined are "less distinctive" and "less in demand." Would it make more sense to use "decrease in size" or the more concise "smaller" here? Remember - we must use concise wording whenever possible!

(A) which would rob the oysters there of their flavor, and to make them decrease in size,
(B) and it would rob the oysters there of their flavor, make them smaller,
(C) and rob the oysters there of their flavor, making them decrease in size,
(D) robbing the oysters there of their flavor and making them smaller,
(E) robbing the oysters there of their flavor, and making them decrease in size,

We can eliminate options A, C, and E because they are overly wordy. Saying "decrease in size" and "smaller" mean the same thing. The GMAT prefers you use the most concise option whenever possible, so we have to throw these out.

Now that we're left with only options B & D, let's take a closer look. I've included the rest of the sentence surrounding it so problems might be easier to spot:

(B) Over the next few years, increasing demands on the Chattahoochee River, which flows into the Apalachicola River, could alter the saline content of Apalachicola Bay, and it would rob the oysters there of their flavor, make them smaller, less distinctive, and less in demand.

This option is INCORRECT because it includes a vague pronoun "it." We're not 100% sure what the pronoun is referring to: increasing demands of the Chattahoochee River, the Apalachicola River, or the Apalachicola Bay?

(D) Over the next few years, increasing demands on the Chattahoochee River, which flows into the Apalachicola River, could alter the saline content of Apalachicola Bay, robbing the oysters there of their flavor and making them smaller, less distinctive, and less in demand.

This is CORRECT! It doesn't contain any confusing pronouns, and the parallelism with "robbing" and "making" sounds nice. Also, it uses the concise "smaller" rather than the wordy "decrease in size."


There you go - option D is the best choice!


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