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Do we need a verb after "as" comparison indicatior

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Do we need a verb after "as" comparison indicatior

by hanspaul » Sun Oct 31, 2010 2:10 pm
Quoted from OG

Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the
Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an
ancient civilization that flourished at the same time
as the civilizations in the Nile Delta and the river
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.

According to what I have learnt, when using "as" for comparison, 2 clauses are being compared. The above OG sentence is a correct sentence in OG. I think we are missing a verb in the second clause that describe the civilization in the Nile Delta.

I think the sentence should be:

Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the
Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an
ancient civilization that flourished at the same time
as did the civilizations in the Nile Delta and the river
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.
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by pesfunk » Sun Oct 31, 2010 4:24 pm
Can you please post the complete questions with all the answers..

we would love to workout a solution with that one.
hanspaul wrote:Quoted from OG

Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the
Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an
ancient civilization that flourished at the same time
as the civilizations in the Nile Delta and the river
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.

According to what I have learnt, when using "as" for comparison, 2 clauses are being compared. The above OG sentence is a correct sentence in OG. I think we are missing a verb in the second clause that describe the civilization in the Nile Delta.

I think the sentence should be:

Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the
Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an
ancient civilization that flourished at the same time
as did the civilizations in the Nile Delta and the river
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.
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by hanspaul » Mon Nov 01, 2010 9:44 pm
Sorry, here is the original question.

Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the
Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an
ancient civilization that flourished at the same time
as the civilizations in the Nile Delta and the river
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.
(A) that flourished at the same time as the
civilizations
(B) that had flourished at the same time as had
the civilizations
(C) that flourished at the same time those had
(D) flourishing at the same time as those did
(E) flourishing at the same time as those were
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by pesfunk » Mon Nov 01, 2010 10:09 pm
if you have a parallel construction involving tensed verbs, and the tensed verb is EXACTLY THE SAME in both (or all, if there are more than 2) parts of the construction, then you may omit the verb in all but the first part.

for instance:
the rain was torrential and the wind fierce.
in this case, we're allowed to omit the second 'was', because it's identical to the 'was' in the first part.

same goes here: since the verb is exactly the same ("flourished") in both parts, you can omit it from the second part.


https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/sal ... t5617.html
hanspaul wrote:Sorry, here is the original question.

Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the
Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an
ancient civilization that flourished at the same time
as the civilizations in the Nile Delta and the river
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.
(A) that flourished at the same time as the
civilizations
(B) that had flourished at the same time as had
the civilizations
(C) that flourished at the same time those had
(D) flourishing at the same time as those did
(E) flourishing at the same time as those were
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by Rezinka » Mon Nov 01, 2010 10:46 pm
GMAT is about selecting the best answer choice. Out of all the choices in the stated question, only A fits.
We do not look for the correct answer, but the best possible answer out of the options given.
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by EducationAisle » Tue Nov 02, 2010 2:01 am
Rezinka wrote:GMAT is about selecting the best answer choice. Out of all the choices in the stated question, only A fits.
We do not look for the correct answer, but the best possible answer out of the options given.

While that is kind-of true, in this case, it actually is a perfect answer in this case. As pesfunk mentioned above, this is a good case of 'ellipsis' (omitted certain words, especially verb) in the latter part of the sentence if exactly same words have appeared in the first half of the sentence and omitting those words does not introduce any ambiguity in the sentence.

So, the above can be interpreted as:

Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile Delta and the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates (flourished).
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by mundasingh123 » Tue Nov 02, 2010 4:23 am
Please consider the sentence below
"The tycoon contributed more to the candidate's campaign than anyone else in the industry"

Guys i know i know its a long post but i request that you be a bit patient and go through my reply and weigh my response.
@Ron
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/pos ... html#p4074
Ron u found the above sentence to be ambiguous and gave an example of a similar sentence to point out 2 interpretations (a) and (b) quoted below.
As per ron
as an example of a construction that is genuinely ambiguous, consider the following:
the tycoon supported Jones more than anyone else in the industry
this sentence genuinely has two meanings: (a) the tycoon supported jones more than the tycoon supported anyone else; (b) the tycoon supported jones more than anyone else supported jones.
the key to the ambiguity of this sentence (and also the key to why the preceding sentence is NOT ambiguous) is the fact that all three of "the tycoon", "jones", and "anyone else" are parallel -- they are all people -- and thus that both (a) and (b) above are properly parallel comparisons.

in the original example, the only two parallel constructions are "the tycoon" and "anyone else", so that sentence is unambiguous even without the helping verb.

@Ron, the candidate is not there in the sentence below
"The tycoon contributed more to the candidate's campaign than anyone else in the industry"
Cant Interpretation (a) of the sentence be overruled because campaign is an inanimate thing and "anyone else " in the industry is a person.so how can campaign and person be parallel[/url]
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by Dani@MasterGMAT » Tue Nov 02, 2010 6:28 am
mundasingh123 wrote:Please consider the sentence below
"The tycoon contributed more to the candidate's campaign than anyone else in the industry"

Guys i know i know its a long post but i request that you be a bit patient and go through my reply and weigh my response.
@Ron
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/pos ... html#p4074
Ron u found the above sentence to be ambiguous and gave an example of a similar sentence to point out 2 interpretations (a) and (b) quoted below.
As per ron
as an example of a construction that is genuinely ambiguous, consider the following:
the tycoon supported Jones more than anyone else in the industry
this sentence genuinely has two meanings: (a) the tycoon supported jones more than the tycoon supported anyone else; (b) the tycoon supported jones more than anyone else supported jones.
the key to the ambiguity of this sentence (and also the key to why the preceding sentence is NOT ambiguous) is the fact that all three of "the tycoon", "jones", and "anyone else" are parallel -- they are all people -- and thus that both (a) and (b) above are properly parallel comparisons.

in the original example, the only two parallel constructions are "the tycoon" and "anyone else", so that sentence is unambiguous even without the helping verb.

@Ron, the candidate is not there in the sentence below
"The tycoon contributed more to the candidate's campaign than anyone else in the industry"
Cant Interpretation (a) of the sentence be overruled because campaign is an inanimate thing and "anyone else " in the industry is a person.so how can campaign and person be parallel[/url]
Not sure if i follow your reasoning all the way, but the sentence can still be read in two ways:
a) The tycoon contributed more to the campaign than anyone else contributed to the campaign.
b) The tycoon contributed more to the campaign that TO anyone else in the industry.
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by JK. » Tue Nov 09, 2010 6:52 am
I am NOT clear about what is compared in underlined portion. To me, the structure looks like the one below.

The site of
ancient civilization
that
{
flourished at the same time
as
civilizations in the Nile
}

Not the civilizations, but the time in which they flourished is compared.Hence the OA seems to compare TIME and Civilizations.
Could somebody please help me comprehend correctly?

For purposes of discussion, i think we can use the simple sentence below.

"Kareena danced at the same time as Priya"
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by lunarpower » Sat Nov 20, 2010 1:58 am
mundasingh --
mundasingh123 wrote:Ron u found the above sentence to be ambiguous and gave an example of a similar sentence to point out 2 interpretations (a) and (b) quoted below.
hm, no, that's exactly the opposite of what i said. please go back and read that post again. in my very first sentence in that post, i wrote "there's NO ambiguity in [that sentence]".

i then included the second example (the one with jones), as a contrast, to show a sentence in which there actually IS a genuine ambiguity.
the only reason i went to the effort of writing a second example was precisely because the first example is NOT ambiguous!

please read that post again, more carefully ... thx

(the post is located at
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/pos ... tml#p40743)
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by lunarpower » Sat Nov 20, 2010 2:04 am
JK. wrote:I am NOT clear about what is compared in underlined portion. To me, the structure looks like the one below.

The site of
ancient civilization
that
{
flourished at the same time
as
civilizations in the Nile
}

Not the civilizations, but the time in which they flourished is compared.Hence the OA seems to compare TIME and Civilizations.
Could somebody please help me comprehend correctly?
i've colored the correctly parallel items in red.

this is not an ambiguous sentence, because there are no other parallel elements that could legitimately be compared.

BY CONTRAST, here's a sentence that actually *is* ambiguous:
tom has known stephanie longer than clara.
2 interpretations:
1) tom has known stephanie longer than clara has known stephanie --> here, "tom" and "clara" are the parallel elements
2) tom has known stephanie longer than he has known clara --> here, "stephanie" and "clara" are the parallel elements

note the reason for the ambiguity: there are two possible comparisons, and both comparisons are reasonable and logical, involving elements that are actually parallel to each other.

you don't need to worry about "time vs. civilizations" as a source of possible ambiguity, because (a) that comparison is complete nonsense, and (b) time and civilizations aren't parallel concepts (which is why the comparison is complete nonsense).
For purposes of discussion, i think we can use the simple sentence below.

"Kareena danced at the same time as Priya"
this is a completely clear, unambiguous comparison, with only one possible interpretation.
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