lunarpower wrote:this sort of modifier (COMMA + ABSTRACT NOUN) can be used to refer back to the WHOLE IDEA of the preceding clause.

thanks Ron!

My god, Ron, you are great

We wish you stay in this forum with us. Your explanation is simple, and concise.

From now on, please, cite the questions in OG to illustrate your explanation as you have done.

lunarpower wrote:as for why (b) is correct:

Step 3: Choice (B) makes it an incomplete sentence. We need verb here to complete the sentence.

nope. this is a correct, albeit not very common, form of modifier.

i'm not 100% sure what it's called -- it might be "absolute phrase", though i don't think that's quite right -- but here's how it's used:

this sort of modifier (COMMA + ABSTRACT NOUN) can be used to refer back to the WHOLE IDEA of the preceding clause.

let's say that scientists discover that X is 60 percent of Y, and that they are shocked by this finding.

then:
recent studies have shown that X is 60 percent of Y, which has shocked many in the scientific community.
incorrect.
this sentence implies that Y itself has shocked many in the scientific community. that's not true.

recent studies have shown that X is 60 percent of Y, a finding that has shocked many in the scientific community.
or
recent studies have shown that X is 60 percent of Y, a statistic that has shocked many in the scientific community.
these are correct.
the abstract noun "finding" or "statistic" may refer to the whole idea of the preceding clause.

in fact, that's the whole point of these modifiers. they are fatally awkward in spoken language (i.e., you can NEVER EVER say them out loud), but they do things that more "normal-sounding" modifiers (such as "which") aren't allowed to do.

for 2 problems that use this sort of modifier, see:
* #59 in the purple OG verbal supplement (in which this sort of modifier is present in the NON underlined section)
* #79 in the same source (in which it's present in the correct answer choice)

Excellent Explanation. Thanx.

lunarpower wrote:
(2) if you're going to describe a problem as "a very simple question ... easily solved" -- first, make sure you don't post the wrong answer.

the answer to this problem is NOT (c).
the answer to this problem is (b).

see the post below

Wow - you are my hero.... I laughed for a good 10 sec at this!!

Ron,

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation. I selected (B) but, after reading a few posts, I started to doubt my own answer. Specifically, I started to question whether appropriate parallelism exists between the two sides of the comma. In retrospect - and I'm just guessing - I think some folks were looking for a choice which would have generated proper parallelism, but maybe those choices merely provide superficial parallelism (yes, I'm reading the MGMAT SC guide).

Anyway, please excuse the rambling, and thanks again.

Dan

lunarpower wrote:as for why (b) is correct:

Step 3: Choice (B) makes it an incomplete sentence. We need verb here to complete the sentence.

nope. this is a correct, albeit not very common, form of modifier.

i'm not 100% sure what it's called -- it might be "absolute phrase", though i don't think that's quite right -- but here's how it's used:

this sort of modifier (COMMA + ABSTRACT NOUN) can be used to refer back to the WHOLE IDEA of the preceding clause.

let's say that scientists discover that X is 60 percent of Y, and that they are shocked by this finding.

then:
recent studies have shown that X is 60 percent of Y, which has shocked many in the scientific community.
incorrect.
this sentence implies that Y itself has shocked many in the scientific community. that's not true.

recent studies have shown that X is 60 percent of Y, a finding that has shocked many in the scientific community.
or
recent studies have shown that X is 60 percent of Y, a statistic that has shocked many in the scientific community.
these are correct.
the abstract noun "finding" or "statistic" may refer to the whole idea of the preceding clause.

in fact, that's the whole point of these modifiers. they are fatally awkward in spoken language (i.e., you can NEVER EVER say them out loud), but they do things that more "normal-sounding" modifiers (such as "which") aren't allowed to do.

for 2 problems that use this sort of modifier, see:
* #59 in the purple OG verbal supplement (in which this sort of modifier is present in the NON underlined section)
* #79 in the same source (in which it's present in the correct answer choice)

hi ron, I really need some help on this.
To make sentence structure simple, I am replacing some of the terms in following fashion.
Z= Soaring television costs
more than half the spending in the presidential campaign of 1992 = 50%

Z accounted for 50%, a greater proportion than in any previous election.

I am confused with the structure of underlined portion of the sentence. It looks like a phrase(not sure if it is an absolute phrase). Shouldn't the underlined portion have something to compare with?
I mean I would have been happy with sentence.
Z accounted for 50%, a greater proportion.

But, extra appendage of "than in any previous election" part is making me nuts as we don't have any thing(noun reference to be specific) to compare with.
To be frank, shouldn't we expect another noun entity to compare after than next to greater proportion. I am providing the exact sentence structure below as expected.
Z accounted for 50%, a greater proportion than Y.
Y could be 30% and sentence would still be correct.

And this is where I am stuck. I don't see any thing(Y) to compare after than in choice B with just in any previous election and no noun form to compare with the earlier noun "a greater proportion".

Please let me know where my line of thinking to reduce sentence as above and expected behavior wrt than is wrong.

I did check your references to 59 and 79. I see that 59 does have this comparison but still has the repetition of the noun(soils) after than. From phrase perspective, I agree with your assessment of this part(a greater proportion than it was in any previous election.) being an Absolute Phrase.
https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-computer- ... 46549.html
https://gmatclub.com/forum/certain-pesti ... l#p1317932