spinning figure skater

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gmatnmein2010: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 185; Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 3:06 am; Thanked: 6 times

by gmatnmein2010 » Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:44 am

During an ice age, the buildup of ice at the poles and the drop in water levels near the equator speed up the Earth's rotation, like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in.

(A) like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in
(B) like the increased speed of a figure skater when her arms are drawn in
(C) like a figure skater who increases speed while spinning with her arms drawn in
(D) just as a spinning figure skater who increases speed by drawing in her arms
(E) just as a spinning figure skater increases speed by drawing in her arms

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:44 am

Osirus@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1578; Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 8:02 amFollowed by: 34 members; Thanked: 128 times; GMAT Score:760

by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Mon Feb 08, 2010 6:12 am

I would choose E

A- "like" can't introduce an example

B- same as A

C- same as A

D- This isn't grammatically incorrect, I just feel that E better captures the meaning of the author

E- correct

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money9111: Legendary Member; Posts: 2109; Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:25 pmFollowed by: 79 members; Location: New Jersey; Thanked: 109 times; GMAT Score:640

by money9111 » Mon Feb 08, 2010 10:35 am

but I thought as could not be used to compare two things.... my choice was B

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Osirus@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1578; Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 8:02 amFollowed by: 34 members; Thanked: 128 times; GMAT Score:760

by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Mon Feb 08, 2010 10:36 am

money9111 wrote:but I thought as could not be used to compare two things.... my choice was B

I think "just as" is an idiom. I could be wrong though. I have yet to memorize those.

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money9111: Legendary Member; Posts: 2109; Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:25 pmFollowed by: 79 members; Location: New Jersey; Thanked: 109 times; GMAT Score:640

by money9111 » Mon Feb 08, 2010 10:57 am

you are correct osirus... just as is an idiom... i gotta be careful not to confuse those when I see "AS"

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thephoenix: Legendary Member; Posts: 1560; Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2009 2:38 amFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 137 times

by thephoenix » Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:05 am

IMO E
(A) like a spinning figure skater ...LIKE compares nouns, but the comparison is Earth's rotation = a spinning figure skater. Should be Earth = skater.

(B) like the increased speed of a figure skater...LIKE compares nouns, but the comparison is Earth's rotation = the increased speed. Should be Earth = skater.

(C) like a figure skater...LIKE compares nouns, but the comparison is Earth's rotation = a figure skater. Should be Earth = skater.

(D) just as a spinning figure skater (modifier: who increases speed by drawing in her arms)...AS incorrectly compares nouns. There is no verb in the as phrase, as required.

(E) just as a spinning figure skater increases speed by drawing in her arms. CORRECT. AS correctly compares the verbs speed up and increases speed.

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money9111: Legendary Member; Posts: 2109; Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:25 pmFollowed by: 79 members; Location: New Jersey; Thanked: 109 times; GMAT Score:640

by money9111 » Tue Feb 09, 2010 1:50 pm

thephoenix I have a question for you...

in your explanations of the answer choices... are you able to do that in your head in less than a minute and 30 seconds? i'm just curious because if so... I have a loooooong way to go.

thank you

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jeffedwards: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 109; Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2009 4:58 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 12 times; GMAT Score:720

by jeffedwards » Tue Feb 09, 2010 5:42 pm

That was a tricky one. For the record you can use like to compare nouns. Life is like a box of chocolates. As would be used to compare verbs. He throws as well as he (does).

At first I thought the sentence was comparing the Earth's rotation (noun) to a spinning figure skater (noun) - like, but then I realized that it was comparing how the drop in water levels speed up (verb).... to how the figure skater increases (verb) speed - as

BTW what is the official answer. I would appreciate people posting those.

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vscid: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 212; Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 4:19 pm; Thanked: 5 times

by vscid » Tue Feb 09, 2010 7:58 pm

gmatnmein2010 wrote:During an ice age, the buildup of ice at the poles and the drop in water levels near the equator speed up the Earth's rotation, like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in.

(A) like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in
(B) like the increased speed of a figure skater when her arms are drawn in
(C) like a figure skater who increases speed while spinning with her arms drawn in
(D) just as a spinning figure skater who increases speed by drawing in her arms
(E) just as a spinning figure skater increases speed by drawing in her arms

I think we are comparing clauses here, so A,B and C are eliminated straightaway.
I choose E for parallelism as D fails in parallelism.

Good question!

The GMAT is indeed adaptable. Whenever I answer RC, it proficiently 'adapts' itself to mark my 'right' answer 'wrong'.

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jhawar.rishikesh: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 6; Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:22 am

by jhawar.rishikesh » Wed Feb 10, 2010 5:32 am

vscid wrote:
gmatnmein2010 wrote:During an ice age, the buildup of ice at the poles and the drop in water levels near the equator speed up the Earth's rotation, like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in.

(A) like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in
(B) like the increased speed of a figure skater when her arms are drawn in
(C) like a figure skater who increases speed while spinning with her arms drawn in
(D) just as a spinning figure skater who increases speed by drawing in her arms
(E) just as a spinning figure skater increases speed by drawing in her arms
I think we are comparing clauses here, so A,B and C are eliminated straightaway.
I choose E for parallelism as D fails in parallelism.

Good question!

Hi, in the above question, is Earth's rotation the subject? if so, should we not compare Earth's rotation with the increased speed of a figure skater (i.e. B).

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bhumika.k.shah: Legendary Member; Posts: 941; Joined: Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:28 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 20 times

by bhumika.k.shah » Wed Feb 10, 2010 6:59 am

Step by step

the ratio is 3/2

lets start with D and E

You can clearly see that D violates the parallelism when compared to the first half of the question..

Left with A/B and C

Like is used for giving examples...

In this case we are comparing. hence i'd go with E

gmatnmein2010 wrote:During an ice age, the buildup of ice at the poles and the drop in water levels near the equator speed up the Earth's rotation, like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in.

(A) like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in
(B) like the increased speed of a figure skater when her arms are drawn in
(C) like a figure skater who increases speed while spinning with her arms drawn in
(D) just as a spinning figure skater who increases speed by drawing in her arms
(E) just as a spinning figure skater increases speed by drawing in her arms

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thephoenix: Legendary Member; Posts: 1560; Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2009 2:38 amFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 137 times

by thephoenix » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:37 am

hey money9111

i adopt a method
1)
spot the error----> try to think what will coorect form---->check the option the ans which matches yours is the one u will click----> but before clicking be sure to eliminate others---->eliminate first all the option repeating the error------> now for the left over options check what else is changed in the s/c---->justify whether its reqd or not---(in most cases if your spoting is correct u will find a second error)---> and if u think that bth are grammatically correct than go for the active/short/original meaning retained
2)
if u can't spot the error----> compare all option and observe the changes done ----> find out the effect and eliminate the one's which violates the rule------>this is known as POE---->the only left one is the ans and if its your day then u banged it [spoiler](ironically two times i couldn't)[/spoiler]

develop your own method initially u will face lots of failure but then one's u will master it u will never get defeated

hth

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mgmt_gmat: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 221; Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2008 6:24 pm; Thanked: 2 times

by mgmt_gmat » Thu Feb 11, 2010 3:59 am

Just as should be used here to provide a smilarity between action...

(D) is wordy here...

Hence (E).,..

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komal: Legendary Member; Posts: 777; Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2010 4:02 amFollowed by: 47 members; Location: Mumbai, India; Thanked: 117 times

by komal » Sun Feb 14, 2010 9:17 am

gmatnmein2010 wrote:During an ice age, the buildup of ice at the poles and the drop in water levels near the equator speed up the Earth's rotation, like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in.

(A) like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in
(B) like the increased speed of a figure skater when her arms are drawn in
(C) like a figure skater who increases speed while spinning with her arms drawn in
(D) just as a spinning figure skater who increases speed by drawing in her arms
(E) just as a spinning figure skater increases speed by drawing in her arms

Something i would like to add here :

Actions are compared here. Increase in earth's rotation is compared to the increase in speed of the skater. (D) uses 'who' to modify the 'skater' and as a result, the increase in earth's rotation is incorrectly compared to the 'skater', instead of the increase in speed. Hence (D) is incorrect.
(E) wins

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