Sentence Correction

Some scientists contend that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like a warm-blooded mammal's than a cold-blooded reptile's.

A. that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like
B. that the metabolism of many dinosaur species were more like
C. that the metabolisms of many species of dinosaurs were more like those of
D. there were many species of dinosaurs that had metabolisms more like those of
E. there were many dinosaur species that had a metabolism more like that of

[spoiler]OA: Later[/spoiler]

I would request to explain every option. Why are the wrong options wrong?

Thanks.

gmat_perfect wrote:Some scientists contend that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like a warm-blooded mammal's than a cold-blooded reptile's.

A. that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like
B. that the metabolism of many dinosaur species were more like
C. that the metabolisms of many species of dinosaurs were more like those of
D. there were many species of dinosaurs that had metabolisms more like those of
E. there were many dinosaur species that had a metabolism more like that of

[spoiler]OA: Later[/spoiler]

I would request to explain every option. Why are the wrong options wrong?

Thanks.

those of = redundant --> C and D are out
that of = redundant --> E is out
metabolism were --> SV-agreement B is out

Thus the answer is a. Where is the trick?

gmat_perfect wrote:Some scientists contend that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like a warm-blooded mammal's than a cold-blooded reptile's.

A. that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like
B. that the metabolism of many dinosaur species were more like
C. that the metabolisms of many species of dinosaurs were more like those of
D. there were many species of dinosaurs that had metabolisms more like those of
E. there were many dinosaur species that had a metabolism more like that of

[spoiler]OA: Later[/spoiler]

I would request to explain every option. Why are the wrong options wrong?

Thanks.

"that" is required after contend. ---> D and E are out

also "those of" ,"that of" unncessary and creating confusiong. (C is out)

metabolisms of.X were more like "metabolisms of" <those of> Y's than Z's
metabolisms of.X were more like "metabolisms of" <those of> Y than Z --> then it "may be" correct gramatically unless other errors are there.


metabolism ... were --> wrong in B.


A is the best.

The trick was in the use of that of x's.

That of ---possessive.

X's ==possessive.

So the use of "that of X's" is wrong for double possessive.

Mojar kotha holo:

Every one has caught the trick.

You are doing well men.

Thanks.

Thanks, Gmat_Perfect - i got one more point / lesson from your question.

Is metabolism is singular or plural?

reply2spg wrote:Is metabolism is singular or plural?

It is singular.

I would narrow it down to A/E.

A. that many species of dinosaur had a metabolism more like
E. there were many dinosaur species that had a metabolism more like that of

Other than that/there distinction, why is E wrong. Whats wrong with that of?

that of = metabolism .. right ... but then we have the possessives which makes the "that of" redundant

So it could have been " that of a warm blooded animal ........ reptile"

but then you cannot change it from animal's to animal because it is in the non under-lined part

IMO A

There is an appostrophe after mammal's. So we can say that " many species of dinosaur had a metabolism of warm-blooded mammal vs metabolism of cold-blooded reptile....". So I got rid of C, D, and E. B has faulty subject-verb agreement issue.

I agree A is best. But I have a problem

in A, there is no "of " phrase at the begining, why can we use "'s " at the end.

I think that only if there is "of " phrase at the bigining, we can use "'s " at the end

for example:

the hat of my friend is like my sister's

please, explain. where is this question from? I think it is not from good source.

Let's be as definitive as we can:

B has bad subject-verb agreement ("the metabolism [...] were")
C and D imply that a singular mammal has multiple metabolisms ("those of")
E (i) doesn't have a parallel comparison ("that of a warm-blooded mammal's" and simply "a cold-blooded reptile's") and (ii) has the arguably redundant "that of a warm-blooded mammal's".

vietmoi999 wrote:I agree A is best. But I have a problem

in A, there is no "of " phrase at the begining, why can we use "'s " at the end.

I think that only if there is "of " phrase at the bigining, we can use "'s " at the end

for example:

the hat of my friend is like my sister's

please, explain. where is this question from? I think it is not from good source.

That example sentence isn't right: we'd say something like "My friend's hat is like my sister's".

For an excellent discussion of double possessives, I'll link you to Grammar Girl and give you the summary here:

1:: When describing something that belongs to a human or (sometimes) an animal, you can use a single or a double possessive depending on how you structure the sentence. If you use the possessor before the thing possessed ("Tom's bike") you use a single possessive; if you don't ("a bike of Tom's"), you use a double possessive.

FINE: "He's Jimmy's friend." (single possessive)
ALSO FINE: "He's a friend of Jimmy's." (double possessive)
NOT FINE: "He's a friend of Jimmy." (single possessive, but unidiomatic)

FINE: "This is a problem of mine." (I'm a person)
NOT FINE: "This is a problem of its." (Whatever "it" is, it isn't a person)

2:: When describing something inanimate (something that isn't alive), you CAN'T use a double possessive.

FINE: "He's a friend of the museum." (single possessive)
NOT FINE: "He's a friend of the museum's." (double possessive)
ALSO NOT FINE: "He's the museum's friend." (single possessive, but unidiomatic)

The source cited for this is Fowler, so these rules are reasonably reliable, but the GMAC does buck traditional authorities from time to time.

I think the easiest way to do this question is

First, Spot "a warm-blooded mammal's than a cold-blooded reptile's. "

this means the sentence is talking about somethings that belong to those two.
So there is no point to use "those of or that of" (It's not redundant, but it creates wrong comparison)

C D E out

Then, B is S-V agreement error, which is easy to spot. So the correct answer is A.

This really is a tricky one, when the question isn't a real question. A is the correct answer. Metabolisms should not be use in this.