THAT OF construction rule..

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sumanr84: Legendary Member; Posts: 758; Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2009 9:32 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Location: Bangalore,India; Thanked: 67 times

by sumanr84 » Tue Jul 13, 2010 7:33 pm

Starting a new thread to understand concept behind 'THAT OF': https://www.beatthegmat.com/widespread-b ... tml#272997

lunarpower wrote:
the biggest problem with (c) is "that of", which is not actually parallel to anything at all.

if you write "that of their parents and grandparents", then this MUST be parallel to one of the following two types of constructions:
* another OF construction (the commitment of young people)
* a POSSESSIVE construction (young people's commitment)

since neither of these constructions appears in the first part of the sentence, you can't use "that of" in the second part.
I have a doubt applying above rule to below question(OG12, Q-43)

Laos has a land area about the same as Great Britain but only four million in population, where many are members of hill tribes ensconced in the virtually inaccessible mountain valleys of the north.
Correct answer says:
E. comparable to that of Great Britain but a population of only four million people, many of whom

I am not posting all other options as the answer E is quite obvious than rest of the choices. My doubt is on the application of this rule to this new problem.

Here, we don't have either 'another OF construction' or 'a POSSESSIVE construction'. How do we justify "THAT OF" here. I think we need to add some more rules now to this list. Ron - please help.

I am on a break !!

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Tue Jul 13, 2010 7:33 pm

GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Wed Dec 01, 2010 4:06 am

sumanr84 wrote:Laos has a land area about the same as Great Britain but only 4 million in population, where many are members of hill tribes ensconced in the virtually inaccessible mountain valleys of the north.

A. about the same as Great Britain but only 4 million in population, where many
B. of about the same size as Great Britain is, but in Laos there is a population of only 4 million, and many
C. that is about the same size as Great Britain's land area, but in Laos with a population of only 4 million people, many of them
D. comparable to the size of Great Britain, but only 4 million in population, and many
E. comparable to that of Great Britain but a population of only 4 million people, many of whom .

I received a PM asking me to comment.

The sentence above is making a comparison. When a SC makes a comparison, we have to make sure that the sentence is comparing the right two things. In other words, the SC must compare apples to apples.

A and B incorrectly compare the land area to Great Britain. Eliminate A and B. The SC must compare apples to apples: it must compare either the two countries themselves (Laos and Britain) or the land area of one country to the land area of the other country.

D incorrectly compares land area to the size. Eliminate D.

C states that Laos has a land area...but many of them are members, incorrectly drawing a contrast between Laos (the country) and many (the people).

The correct answer is E.

E compares apples to apples:

Laos has a land area comparable to that of Great Britain.

In the sentence above, the pronoun that is standing in for the noun land area. Thus, the sentence is comparing land area to land area (apples to apples). The preposition of is needed because, idiomatically, it is correct to discuss the land area of a country.

When you see the construction that of, ask yourself the following questions:

What noun is the pronoun that standing in for?
Is the sentence comparing apples to apples?
Is of the correct preposition?

These should be your primary considerations. Hope this helps!

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EducationAisle: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 434; Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:42 pmFollowed by: 46 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 91 times

by EducationAisle » Wed Dec 01, 2010 6:24 am

While Mitch has addressed the comparison issue, another thing you can use to quickly eliminate few wrong answer choices is to break down the structure of this sentence to barebones. The structure clearly is: Laos has X but Y.

A would read: Laos has only 4 million in population - This is clearly not correct. Also, many are members does not clarify many of what.

B reads: ...in Laos there is a population of only 4 million, and many are members of hill tribes - Because of and (coordinating conjunction), this seems to suggest that there is no connection between the 'population' and 'members of hill tribes', while in actuality, 'members of hill tribes' are from the population (E establishes this connection by using many of whom).

C reads: in Laos with a population of only 4 million people - Seems to suggest that there might be 'many' Laos but we are talking about the Laos that has a population of 4 million

D reads: same issue as B. Also, again, many are members does not clarify many of what.

E reads: Laos has a population of only 4 million people - This is correct construction

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Onell: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 88; Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2010 1:20 am; Thanked: 1 times

by Onell » Wed Dec 01, 2010 4:59 pm

GMATGuruNY wrote:
sumanr84 wrote:Laos has a land area about the same as Great Britain but only 4 million in population, where many are members of hill tribes ensconced in the virtually inaccessible mountain valleys of the north.

A. about the same as Great Britain but only 4 million in population, where many
B. of about the same size as Great Britain is, but in Laos there is a population of only 4 million, and many
C. that is about the same size as Great Britain's land area, but in Laos with a population of only 4 million people, many of them
D. comparable to the size of Great Britain, but only 4 million in population, and many
E. comparable to that of Great Britain but a population of only 4 million people, many of whom .
I received a PM asking me to comment.

The sentence above is making a comparison. When a SC makes a comparison, we have to make sure that the sentence is comparing the right two things. In other words, the SC must compare apples to apples.

A and B incorrectly compare the land area to Great Britain. Eliminate A and B. The SC must compare apples to apples: it must compare either the two countries themselves (Laos and Britain) or the land area of one country to the land area of the other country.

D incorrectly compares land area to the size. Eliminate D.

C states that Laos has a land area...but many of them are members, incorrectly drawing a contrast between Laos (the country) and many (the people).

The correct answer is E.

E compares apples to apples:

Laos has a land area comparable to that of Great Britain.

In the sentence above, the pronoun that is standing in for the noun land area. Thus, the sentence is comparing land area to land area (apples to apples). The preposition of is needed because, idiomatically, it is correct to discuss the land area of a country.

When you see the construction that of, ask yourself the following questions:

What noun is the pronoun that standing in for?
Is the sentence comparing apples to apples?
Is of the correct preposition?

These should be your primary considerations. Hope this helps!

Thanks a lot for your reply..I am sort of confused now ... Ron @https://www.beatthegmat.com/widespread-b ... 40458.html said that

if you write "that of ", then this MUST be parallel to one of the following two types of constructions:
* another OF construction
* a POSSESSIVE construction
and in option E I see neither of these... So can you please clarify?

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Thu Dec 02, 2010 9:58 am

Onell wrote:
GMATGuruNY wrote:
sumanr84 wrote:Laos has a land area about the same as Great Britain but only 4 million in population, where many are members of hill tribes ensconced in the virtually inaccessible mountain valleys of the north.

A. about the same as Great Britain but only 4 million in population, where many
B. of about the same size as Great Britain is, but in Laos there is a population of only 4 million, and many
C. that is about the same size as Great Britain's land area, but in Laos with a population of only 4 million people, many of them
D. comparable to the size of Great Britain, but only 4 million in population, and many
E. comparable to that of Great Britain but a population of only 4 million people, many of whom .
I received a PM asking me to comment.

The sentence above is making a comparison. When a SC makes a comparison, we have to make sure that the sentence is comparing the right two things. In other words, the SC must compare apples to apples.

A and B incorrectly compare the land area to Great Britain. Eliminate A and B. The SC must compare apples to apples: it must compare either the two countries themselves (Laos and Britain) or the land area of one country to the land area of the other country.

D incorrectly compares land area to the size. Eliminate D.

C states that Laos has a land area...but many of them are members, incorrectly drawing a contrast between Laos (the country) and many (the people).

The correct answer is E.

E compares apples to apples:

Laos has a land area comparable to that of Great Britain.

In the sentence above, the pronoun that is standing in for the noun land area. Thus, the sentence is comparing land area to land area (apples to apples). The preposition of is needed because, idiomatically, it is correct to discuss the land area of a country.

When you see the construction that of, ask yourself the following questions:

What noun is the pronoun that standing in for?
Is the sentence comparing apples to apples?
Is of the correct preposition?

These should be your primary considerations. Hope this helps!

Thanks a lot for your reply..I am sort of confused now ... Ron @https://www.beatthegmat.com/widespread-b ... 40458.html said that

if you write "that of ", then this MUST be parallel to one of the following two types of constructions:
* another OF construction
* a POSSESSIVE construction

and in option E I see neither of these... So can you please clarify?

What I see the construction that of, I ask myself the questions outlined in my post above. That being said, answer choice E offers the possessive construction Laos has a land area: in other words, Laos possesses a land area.

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RBBmba@2014: Legendary Member; Posts: 944; Joined: Wed May 30, 2012 8:21 amFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 8 times

by RBBmba@2014 » Tue Nov 03, 2015 6:16 am

Hi GMATGuruNY,
Few quick questions on this SC -

1. Why EXACTLY the COMPARISON part in C and D is wrong ? Why can't we consider that here the SIZE means LAND AREA itself i.e. SIZE of Great Britain = LAND AREA of Great Britain ?

2. I think, this could be another potential reason to eliminate C : but in Laos with a population of only four million people, many of them are members of hill tribes -- INCORRECT usage of WITH-Modifier because here WITH seems to modify the following be-Verb.

Right ?

3. In OA, but [HAS] a population of only four million people, many of whom are members of hill tribes -- HAS seems to be dropped from the portion following BUT to make the Sentence more concise.

Am I correct ?

Last edited by RBBmba@2014 on Tue Feb 09, 2016 11:55 am, edited 2 times in total.

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