Small Cars manufacturing

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goelmohit2002: Legendary Member; Posts: 1799; Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:03 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 36 times

by goelmohit2002 » Wed May 06, 2009 11:39 am

Hi All,

In the below question OA is [spoiler]"B"[/spoiler]....Can somebody please help me understand what is wrong in option [spoiler]"A"[/spoiler] below ? The explanation said "their" is an illogical personal pronoun choice...so [spoiler]"A"[/spoiler] is wrong. Can somebody please tell me why "their" is wrong in option [spoiler]"A"[/spoiler] ?

a) Today’s technology allows manufacturers to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in "their" production history.
b) Today’s technology allows manufacturers to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in production history.

Thanks
Mohit

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Wed May 06, 2009 11:39 am

rseeker2: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 77; Joined: Sun Feb 22, 2009 5:51 am; Thanked: 1 times

by rseeker2 » Wed May 06, 2009 7:25 pm

The sentence seems to be talking about car production in general. Nowhere in history had that happened.

And I also felt the usage of 'their' is redundant... because when it is the manufacturers who produce the cars, why explicitly mention 'their production' , when it is themselves who do it?

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goelmohit2002: Legendary Member; Posts: 1799; Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:03 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 36 times

by goelmohit2002 » Fri May 15, 2009 9:21 am

rseeker2 wrote:The sentence seems to be talking about car production in general. Nowhere in history had that happened.

And I also felt the usage of 'their' is redundant... because when it is the manufacturers who produce the cars, why explicitly mention 'their production' , when it is themselves who do it?

IMO here "their" refers to cars and not producers. Kindly tell if I am missing something here. In that case, can someone please help me in clarifying why the usage of "their" makes the choice "A" wrong.

Thanks
Mohit

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bluementor: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 418; Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2008 5:29 am; Thanked: 65 times

by bluementor » Sat May 16, 2009 4:07 am

goelmohit2002 wrote:
rseeker2 wrote:The sentence seems to be talking about car production in general. Nowhere in history had that happened.

And I also felt the usage of 'their' is redundant... because when it is the manufacturers who produce the cars, why explicitly mention 'their production' , when it is themselves who do it?
IMO here "their" refers to cars and not producers. Kindly tell if I am missing something here. In that case, can someone please help me in clarifying why the usage of "their" makes the choice "A" wrong.

Thanks
Mohit

I believe the problem with A is that you have two possible antecedents: manufacturers and small cars. This ambiguity is cleared in B by talking about production history in general, i.e. neither manufacturer's production history specifically nor small car's.

-BM-

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rahulg83: Legendary Member; Posts: 575; Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 2:58 amFollowed by: 4 members; Location: India; Thanked: 18 times; GMAT Score:710

Re: Small Cars manufacturing

by rahulg83 » Sat May 16, 2009 6:48 am

goelmohit2002 wrote:Hi All,

In the below question OA is [spoiler]"B"[/spoiler]....Can somebody please help me understand what is wrong in option [spoiler]"A"[/spoiler] below ? The explanation said "their" is an illogical personal pronoun choice...so [spoiler]"A"[/spoiler] is wrong. Can somebody please tell me why "their" is wrong in option [spoiler]"A"[/spoiler] ?

a) Today’s technology allows manufacturers to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in "their" production history.
b) Today’s technology allows manufacturers to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in production history.

Thanks
Mohit

I think u only gave the answer by quoting their..
Its ambiguous here, which is not the case with B

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goelmohit2002: Legendary Member; Posts: 1799; Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:03 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 36 times

by goelmohit2002 » Sat May 16, 2009 8:06 am

But how can their refer to Manufacturers....manufactures cannot have any production history....

...

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goelmohit2002: Legendary Member; Posts: 1799; Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:03 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 36 times

by goelmohit2002 » Wed Jun 03, 2009 11:21 am

Experts kindly share your opinion !!!

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scoobydooby: Legendary Member; Posts: 1035; Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:56 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 104 times

by scoobydooby » Sun Aug 02, 2009 12:18 pm

their refers to cars. manufacturers cannot have production history, niether can technology. only cars can have production history. "their" is not necessary in the sentence

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russland: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 22; Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:31 am; GMAT Score:730

by russland » Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:08 pm

I think the first answer-choice should be small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their

And the question is supposed to be:

Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their production history.

A. small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their
B. small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their
C. small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in
D. more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their
E. more fuel-efficient small cars now than at any time in

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goelmohit2002: Legendary Member; Posts: 1799; Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:03 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 36 times

by goelmohit2002 » Sun Oct 04, 2009 3:28 am

I guess D is wrong because it contains...."fuel efficient small cars"....so "those" refers to complete noun phrase....which is wrong....

Can someone please tell is there any flaw in my reasoning ?

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scoobydooby: Legendary Member; Posts: 1035; Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:56 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 104 times

by scoobydooby » Sun Oct 04, 2009 10:54 am

D is also wrong because it does not have "now". we are comparing with the situation now with the situation then. so we need the "now". "those" is uneccessary. also D changes the meaning from the intended "degree of fuel efficiency" to "number of fuel efficient cars"

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