Ankitaverma wrote:St. John's, Newfoundland, lies on the same latitude as Paris, France, but in spring St. John's residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes than to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or seeking shelter from a raging northeast storm.

(A) residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes than to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or seeking
(B) residents are less likely to sit at outdoor cafes, and more to be brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or be seeking
(C) residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes, and more likely to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or to be seeking
(D) residents, instead of sitting at outdoor cafes, they are more likely to be brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or seek
(E) residents, instead of sitting at outdoor cafes, are more likely to brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or to be seeking

Q/a-a why not c

Dear Ankitaverma,
I'm happy to respond.
Both (A) and (C) are perfectly grammatically correct. Choice (A) is more concise and more elegant, and choice (C) is longer and unnecessarily wordy. That makes choice (A) the better answer. Does this make sense?
Mike

AnjaliOberoi wrote:Hi Mike,

For this question, i think that in (c) "to be" is getting repeated with seeking....so that's also make this answer choice as incorrect.
Please let me know, whether m correct or not.

Anjali

Dear Anjali,
I'm happy to respond.

Be careful not to think of grammar they way we think of math --- in math, everything is 100% correct or 100% incorrect. Sentence Correction is simply not like that. Math is black and white. Sentence Correction involves shades of gray.

GMAT Sentence Correction tests a few things --- grammar, logic, and rhetorical construction. Here's a blog on logic on the GMAT SC:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/logical-pr ... orrection/
Here's a blog on rhetorical construction:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/rhetorical ... orrection/

On the level of grammar, pure grammar, choice (C) is 100% correct. In fact, even this version is perfectly grammatically correct.
St. John's, Newfoundland, is located on the same latitude as the latitude where Paris, France, is located, but in spring the residents who make their home in St. John's are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes, and these same residents are more likely to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or to be seeking shelter from a raging northeast storm.
Purely on the issue of grammar, that is 100% correct. On the issue of rhetorical construction, this version is an unholy disaster that should be taken out back and shot. Something can be completely grammatically correct yet rhetorically flawed if it is too long, too wordy, and too indirect.

That was an extreme example. In this question, choice (C) is 100% grammatically correct. Grammar is not where it has a problem. The wording, especially with the repeated "to be", is rhetorically suspect. It's not ideal. If choice (A) were something incorrect, and the other choices were incorrect as they are now, then (C) could be a correct answer. Again, it's not ideal, but sometimes GMAT SC has correct answers that are not ideal, just much better than the other four answer choices. In that sense, even on grounds of rhetorical construction, we can't say that choice (C) is completely "wrong." All we can say is that choice (A) is much better.

Does this make sense?
Mike