Sentence Correction

Overwhelming proportion of women work OR WORKS

this is the confusion...

what is the subject here... and why...

overwhelming proportion OR women ?

plz comment

thanks...

I can't say why I picked E.

IMO E

Like should be used. And women (plural subject) needs a plural verb (work)

btgyes wrote:Overwhelming proportion of women work OR WORKS

this is the confusion...

what is the subject here... and why...

overwhelming proportion OR women ?

plz comment

thanks...

IMO C

proportion of women is COUNTABLE and so we need plural WORK

"In X" so we need "In Y" for parallelism

Few points I want to mention,
1, There is a clear split between as AND like.
I prefer like because, like is used when comparison is between nouns or noun phrases.
Whereas, as is used when the comparison is between actions.
A,B,C out.
Between D & E,
I think in is required. D sounds like, many women are middle management and light industry, which is clearly meaningless.

However, I have confusion between
an overwhelming proportion of women works
VS
an overwhelming proportion of women work

I think "a proportion" is always plural while "the proportion" is always singular. So B is wrong. Further B has two more issues: uses of "with" looks weird, at the same time, "many" doesn't have an "of " construction.

tetura84 wrote:Few points I want to mention,
1, There is a clear split between as AND like.
I prefer like because, like is used when comparison is between nouns or noun phrases.
Whereas, as is used when the comparison is between actions.
A,B,C out.
Between D & E,
I think in is required. D sounds like, many women are middle management and light industry, which is clearly meaningless.

However, I have confusion between
an overwhelming proportion of women works
VS
an overwhelming proportion of women work

TWO DOUBTS are there ....

first is that what is the Subject here... an overwhelming proportion OR Women

and second doubt is , WORK is correct but

whether it is because of an overwhelming proportion is plural subject

OR

Whether because WOMEN is plural subject

EXPERTS.. PLz commet.. it is an critical issue....

Thanks....!

subject in the sentence is "overwhelming proportion" .............i would have gone with C option because of the correct comparison...................wats the OA??????????

In Hungary, as in much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women work, many of which are in middle management and light industry.

A. as in much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women work, many of which are in
B. as with much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women works, many in
C. as in much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women work, many of them in
D. like much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women works, and many are
E. like much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women work, many are in

Quick approach:

A comparison must compare apples to apples: the right two things must be compared. In the SC above, what is happening in Hungary must be compared to what is happening in much of Eastern Europe. Eliminate B, D and E.

Since the verb are in answer choice A is plural, the pronoun which is referring to the plural noun women. The pronoun which cannot be used to refer to people. Eliminate A.

The correct answer is C.

The subject of the verb work/works is the noun proportion. The prepositional phrase of women is an adjective describing the proportion. What kind of overwhelming proportion? An overwhelming proportion of women.

The noun proportion is singular when it refers to a non-countable noun:

An overwhelming proportion of the female population works.

The noun proportion is plural when it refers to a countable noun:

An overwhelming proportion of women work.

Use as to compare prepositional phrases:

In Hungary, as in much of Eastern Europe...

Use like to compare the nouns themselves:

Hungary, like much of Eastern Europe....

GMATGuruNY wrote:

In Hungary, as in much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women work, many of which are in middle management and light industry.

A. as in much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women work, many of which are in
B. as with much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women works, many in
C. as in much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women work, many of them in
D. like much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women works, and many are
E. like much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women work, many are in

Quick approach:

A comparison must compare apples to apples: the right two things must be compared. In the SC above, what is happening in Hungary must be compared to what is happening in much of Eastern Europe. Eliminate A, D and E.

Since the verb are in answer choice A is plural, the pronoun which is referring to the plural noun women. The pronoun which cannot be used to refer to people. Eliminate A.

The correct answer is C.

The subject of the verb work/works is the noun proportion. The prepositional phrase of women is an adjective describing the proportion. What kind of overwhelming proportion? An overwhelming proportion of women.

The noun proportion is singular when it refers to a non-countable noun:

An overwhelming proportion of the female population works.

The noun proportion is plural when it refers to a countable noun:

An overwhelming proportion of women work.

Use as to compare prepositional phrases:

In Hungary, as in much of Eastern Europe...

Use like to compare the nouns themselves:

Hungary, like much of Eastern Europe....

AWESOME.....!

EXCELLENT.....!

PERFECT....!

Thanks a lot...

Could you plz comment on my other threads as well ...

hi mitch,
thnks for this awesum explanation
plz explain a difference between |"MANY OF WHICH " AND MANY OF THEM" AFTER COMMA , ARE THEY REFER TO NOUN JUST BEFORE COMMA.
THNKS
SHWETA

shweta.kalra wrote:hi mitch,
thnks for this awesum explanation
plz explain a difference between |"MANY OF WHICH " AND MANY OF THEM" AFTER COMMA , ARE THEY REFER TO NOUN JUST BEFORE COMMA.
THNKS
SHWETA

In A, many of which work is a RELATIVE CLAUSE modifying women.
Here, the use of WHICH is incorrect.
When a relative clause refers to PEOPLE, we use who or whom:
...women, many of WHOM work in middle management...

In the OA, many of them in middle management is an ABSOLUTE PHRASE modifying the entire preceding clause.
An absolute phrase:

-- typically is composed of a noun + noun modifier, perhaps with a few other words
-- often includes a participle
-- does NOT include a main verb
-- does not include a conjunction (such as and)
-- is connected to the rest of the sentence by a comma or dashes
-- supplies context for the preceding clause

A KEY DIFFERENCE between the two types of modifiers:
A relative clause -- a modifier that begins with a RELATIVE PRONOUN such as that, which, who, or whom -- REQUIRES A VERB.
An absolute phrase -- by definition -- does NOT include a verb.

@Mitch :

as in much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women work, many of which are in

Isn't many of which also wrong because it is after verb not after the noun it is intended to modify ?

@Mitch :

The noun proportion is singular when it refers to a non-countable noun:
An overwhelming proportion of the female population works.

The noun proportion is plural when it refers to a countable noun:
An overwhelming proportion of women work.

What if the phrase is "The overwhelming proportion of women " ? In that case we treat this as singular ? Could you confirm please.

Hi Mitch
Once again you are spot on ....
but I have one doubt ,I guess there is no clear refferent of "them" in option C
because in option C we always talked about proportion of women not about women
Please Help .....