A. Comparing US and Rains
B. Comparing farmers and rains
C. part of Sri-Lanka's Rain ??
D. Comparing US and Rains
E. Correct

https://gmatclub.com/forum/sc-sri-lanka-rain-11978.html

greenwich wrote:Unlike the United States, where farmers can usually depend on rain or snow all year long. the rains in most parts of Sri Lanka are concentrated in the monsoon months, June to September, and the skies are generally clear for the rest of the year.
A. Unlike the United States, where farmers can usually depend on rain or snow all year long, the rains in most parts of Sri Lanka
B. Unlike the United States farmers who can usually depend on rain or snow all year long, the rains in most parts of Sri Lanka
C. Unlike those of the United States, where farmers can usually depend on rain or snow all year long, most parts of Sri Lanka's rains
D. In comparison with the United States, whose farmers can usually depend on rain or snow all year long, the rains in most parts of Sri Lanka
E. In the United States, farmers can usually depend on rain or snow all year long, but in most parts of Sri Lanka the rains

Hey Greenwich,

Great question - and this one provides a terrific platform for a strategy that I've borrowed (at least the name) from David@VeritasPrep:

Modifiers - Use it or Lose It

Basically, modifiers on the GMAT serve two purposes:

1) A decision point for you to eliminate misplaced modifiers

or

2) Extra description for the GMAT to use to make it harder for you to find the true decision point

In the first case, you'll "use it" - identify the improper modifier and eliminate the answer choice.

In the second case, you should "lose it" -- if the modifier is correct, then you can read as though it weren't there and reduce the word count that you need to read.

As an example, answer choice A says:

Unlike the United States, where farmers can usually depend on rain or snow all year long, the rain...

Well, "where farmers..." is a modifier - and because "where" logically modifies the place (the US), it's a proper modifier. Because it works, you should "lose it", leaving you with:

Unlike the United States, the rains...

This should clearly be incorrect - the main reason that the GMAT might have left you with doubt is that the in-between "where" modifier distanced the initial "Unlike the US" modifier from the subject "rains".


If you employ the "Use it or Lose It" methodology here, you can streamline each of answer choices A-D to where the modifiers are simply illogical, leaving E as the only plausible (and therefore the correct) answer.

Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:Hey Greenwich,

Great question - and this one provides a terrific platform for a strategy that I've borrowed (at least the name) from David@VeritasPrep:

Modifiers - Use it or Lose It

Basically, modifiers on the GMAT serve two purposes:

1) A decision point for you to eliminate misplaced modifiers

or

2) Extra description for the GMAT to use to make it harder for you to find the true decision point

In the first case, you'll "use it" - identify the improper modifier and eliminate the answer choice.

In the second case, you should "lose it" -- if the modifier is correct, then you can read as though it weren't there and reduce the word count that you need to read.

As an example, answer choice A says:

Unlike the United States, where farmers can usually depend on rain or snow all year long, the rain...

Well, "where farmers..." is a modifier - and because "where" logically modifies the place (the US), it's a proper modifier. Because it works, you should "lose it", leaving you with:

Unlike the United States, the rains...

This should clearly be incorrect - the main reason that the GMAT might have left you with doubt is that the in-between "where" modifier distanced the initial "Unlike the US" modifier from the subject "rains".


If you employ the "Use it or Lose It" methodology here, you can streamline each of answer choices A-D to where the modifiers are simply illogical, leaving E as the only plausible (and therefore the correct) answer.

thank you for your explanation

choice E in my book is
" In the United States, farmers can usually depend on rain or snow all year long, but in most parts of Sri Lanka, the rains. "

, but......, the rain... do not make the sentence awkward?