The reasons---comparison question

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atulmangal: Legendary Member; Posts: 1112; Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:16 am; Thanked: 77 times; Followed by:49 members

The reasons---comparison question

by atulmangal » Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:29 am

The reasons for yesterday's sharp rise in the stock market were much the same as that behind last week's rally: a surge in the economy to a 5.6 percent annual growth rate and improved corporate earnings balanced by the lack of signs of inflationary pressure.
A. that
B. those
C. what was
D. for that
E. they were

Guys i'm still struggling in comparison and parallelism concepts...in this question i understand, the structure is
X SAME AS Y

so CAN we see this question in this way:-

The reasons..were SAME AS they were---Op E

secondly, can we use they to refer things...for example here can we use they to refer THE REASONS...????

Please explain..

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:29 am

HSPA: Legendary Member; Posts: 1101; Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 7:26 am; Thanked: 47 times; Followed by:13 members; GMAT Score:640

by HSPA » Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:37 am

why not those?? those is plural ( reasons )

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aspirant2011: Legendary Member; Posts: 1574; Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:52 am; Thanked: 88 times; Followed by:13 members

by aspirant2011 » Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:38 am

I would go with B i.e "those" because i feel that those is succinct and does a proper comparison..............wats the OA?

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atulmangal: Legendary Member; Posts: 1112; Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:16 am; Thanked: 77 times; Followed by:49 members

by atulmangal » Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:43 am

HSPA wrote:why not those?? those is plural ( reasons )

OA is B, Use of THOSE is the only correct answer, i want to know why E is NOT CORRECT

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HSPA: Legendary Member; Posts: 1101; Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 7:26 am; Thanked: 47 times; Followed by:13 members; GMAT Score:640

by HSPA » Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:48 am

they is a personal pronoun.. who is they here?

Now i have read your entire question... I think you want to differenciate btw persoanl pronouns and demonstrative pronouns

this, that, those... demonstrative

he, she , it , they personal pronouns.

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aspirant2011: Legendary Member; Posts: 1574; Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:52 am; Thanked: 88 times; Followed by:13 members

by aspirant2011 » Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:49 am

"those" is less wordy then "they were" therefore i feel it should be B.........................though both are pointing towards "reasons" only...............

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atulmangal: Legendary Member; Posts: 1112; Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:16 am; Thanked: 77 times; Followed by:49 members

by atulmangal » Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:59 am

HSPA wrote:they is a personal pronoun.. who is they here?

Now i have read your entire question... I think you want to differenciate btw persoanl pronouns and demonstrative pronouns

this, that, those... demonstrative

he, she , it , they personal pronouns.

So you mean THEY can not refer to THE REASONS????

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HSPA: Legendary Member; Posts: 1101; Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 7:26 am; Thanked: 47 times; Followed by:13 members; GMAT Score:640

by HSPA » Mon Mar 28, 2011 9:04 am

I am not totally sure if we can use they for reasons.

I use personal pronouns almost for persons... either 1,2 or third...

I am not totally good at SC so kindly ping an expert

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MAAJ: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 243; Joined: Sun Jul 12, 2009 7:12 am; Location: Dominican Republic; Thanked: 31 times; Followed by:2 members; GMAT Score:480

by MAAJ » Mon Mar 28, 2011 12:24 pm

We are comparing reasons for yesterday's sharp rise to reasons behind last week's rally. If we use "those" the meaning is crystal clear.

Can "they" refer to things, although being a personal pronnoun? Not sure

...

I had many reasons to quit my job; they were very interesting [reasons] if you ask me.

"There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permit. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results."

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GMATMadeEasy: Legendary Member; Posts: 768; Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2009 3:46 am; Thanked: 21 times; Followed by:7 members

by GMATMadeEasy » Mon Mar 28, 2011 1:12 pm

@atulmangal : have you gone through the video of RON for parallelism ?

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chendawg: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 163; Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:56 am; Location: Philadelphia; Thanked: 13 times; Followed by:4 members; GMAT Score:660

by chendawg » Mon Mar 28, 2011 4:24 pm

atulmangal wrote:
HSPA wrote:why not those?? those is plural ( reasons )
OA is B, Use of THOSE is the only correct answer, i want to know why E is NOT CORRECT

This is really a meaning issue. In answer choice A, those DOES NOT refer back to reasons; in A those has the word "reasons" implied. It reads:

The reasons for yesterday's sharp rise in the stock market were much the same as those <reasons> behind last week's rally......

The reason you can't use "they" here is because using "they" here would modify the EXACT same reasons. The sentence here is intending to say that the reasons are similar, but the reasons are ANOTHER set of reasons. Even if the reasons were EXACTLY the same here, you still can't use "they" as the sentence here is trying to indicate there is another set of reasons in play here. Using "they" would refer back to the SAME set of reasons, and the sentence wouldn't make sense. The sentence is trying to say two sets of reasons are similar.

For example:

The yellow boxes were the same as those <boxes>. Makes sense.

The yellow boxes were the same as they were. Does not compute.

Using "those" makes it clear that there is another set of reasons that is being compared, as the word reasons is implied.

Hopefully this makes sense.

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