MGMAT Discussion on BTG - OG 12 SC 26

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MGMAT Discussion on BTG - OG 12 SC 26

by mundasingh123 » Fri Jun 10, 2011 2:12 am
Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington
Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few
years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and
ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886,
outnumbering
her letters to anyone else.
(A) Dickinson were written over a period beginning a
few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's
brother and ending shortly before Emily's death
in 1886, outnumbering
(B) Dickinson were written over a period that begins
a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's
brother and ended shortly before Emily's death
in 1886, outnumber
(C) Dickinson, written over a period beginning a few
years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother
and that ends shortly before Emily's death in
1886 and outnumbering
(D) Dickinson, which were written over a period
beginning a few years before Susan's marriage
to Emily's brother, ending shortly before Emily's
death in 1886, and outnumbering
(E) Dickinson, which were written over a period
beginning a few years before Susan's marriage
to Emily's brother and ending shortly before
Emily's death in 1886, outnumber
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/po ... tml#bottom

Quoting Ron from the discussion on MGMAT (4th Last Post)
in general, there are two correct uses of "comma -ing" after a clause:
(1) to describe a direct and immediate consequence of the action in the clause;
ray scored a perfect 100 on his most recent exam, bringing his average for the semester up to 93.
OR
(2) to describe an action that is simultaneous with and subordinate to the action in the preceding clause.
ray ran down the sidewalk, flailing his arms.
Ron , You eliminated A because outnumbering can not be deemed an effect of the
period beginning a few
years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and
ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886,
But the main verb in A is "were written " so cant we say that outnumbering in (A) describes an action that is simultaneous with and subordinate to the action in the preceding clause and is similar to the 2nd example you gave in the quoted portion .
Last edited by mundasingh123 on Sat Jun 11, 2011 7:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by lunarpower » Fri Jun 10, 2011 4:27 am
mundasingh123 wrote:But the main verb in A is "were written " so cant we say that outnumbering in (A) describes an action that is simultaneous with and subordinate to the action in the preceding clause and is similar to the 2nd example you gave in the quoted portion .
no -- "subordinate" implies that there is actually a relationship between the actions. (remember that this construction is a MODIFIER -- so it has to make logical sense for it to modify what it's modifying!)
the time at which the letters were written is unrelated to their outnumbering other letters, so it doesn't make sense to use a modifier here.
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by mundasingh123 » Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:00 am
lunarpower wrote:
mundasingh123 wrote:But the main verb in A is "were written " so cant we say that outnumbering in (A) describes an action that is simultaneous with and subordinate to the action in the preceding clause and is similar to the 2nd example you gave in the quoted portion .
no -- "subordinate" implies that there is actually a relationship between the actions. (remember that this construction is a MODIFIER -- so it has to make logical sense for it to modify what it's modifying!)
the time at which the letters were written is unrelated to their outnumbering other letters, so it doesn't make sense to use a modifier here.
Hi Ron,
But the Main verb here in A is "were written " . We could also interpret A as saying that the letters were written over such a long period that they finally outnumbered the letter written to anyone else . Is it incorrect to think on these lines?
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by lunarpower » Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:33 am
mundasingh123 wrote: But the Main verb here in A is "were written " . We could also interpret A as saying that the letters were written over such a long period that they finally outnumbered the letter written to anyone else.
there are no grounds for interpreting the statement this way -- again, the period of time over which the letters were written has no apparent relationship to such a comparison. (even if they were written over a long period, how would you know this? why couldn't she have written large numbers of letters to other people during that period, too?)
you can't just make up unlikely interpretations of a sentence.

in any case, you're definitely overthinking this -- if you just look at the sentence and use common-sense interpretation, you'll come up with "ok, the sentence is giving me 2 separate, unrelated facts about the letters". i.e., you will not conjecture a relationship between those facts.
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by Sanjay2706 » Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:55 pm
Could you post the question with the underlines please?

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by mundasingh123 » Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:18 pm
776565789
Last edited by mundasingh123 on Sat Jun 11, 2011 7:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by lunarpower » Sat Jun 11, 2011 6:07 am
mundasingh123 wrote:This Is how people post generally on this Forum going bu my experience of 1222 posts
SC problems are not habitually posted on this forum without underlines.
(just to make sure, i went ahead and opened up the first 15 problems currently listed in the SC sub-forum -- yep, *all* with the underline.)

... in addition, even if they were habitually posted without underlines, they still shouldn't be -- after all, the problems should be posted in form as close as possible to the authentic version.

please go back, edit, and add the underline in the appropriate place; thank you.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by mundasingh123 » Sat Jun 11, 2011 7:08 am
lunarpower wrote:
mundasingh123 wrote:This Is how people post generally on this Forum going bu my experience of 1222 posts
SC problems are not habitually posted on this forum without underlines.
(just to make sure, i went ahead and opened up the first 15 problems currently listed in the SC sub-forum -- yep, *all* with the underline.)

... in addition, even if they were habitually posted without underlines, they still shouldn't be -- after all, the problems should be posted in form as close as possible to the authentic version.

please go back, edit, and add the underline in the appropriate place; thank you.
Done That
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by mundasingh123 » Sat Jun 11, 2011 7:23 am
lunarpower wrote:
mundasingh123 wrote:This Is how people post generally on this Forum going bu my experience of 1222 posts
SC problems are not habitually posted on this forum without underlines.
(just to make sure, i went ahead and opened up the first 15 problems currently listed in the SC sub-forum -- yep, *all* with the underline.)

... in addition, even if they were habitually posted without underlines, they still shouldn't be -- after all, the problems should be posted in form as close as possible to the authentic version.

please go back, edit, and add the underline in the appropriate place; thank you.
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