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Qn 200 from 1000 SC

by becnil » Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:01 pm
Qn:200

Carbon-14 dating reveals that the megalithic monuments in Brittany are nearly 2,000 years as old as any of their supposed Mediterranean predecessors.

(A) as old as any of their supposed
(B) older than any of their supposed
(C) as old as their supposed
(D) older than any of their supposedly
(E) as old as their supposedly

Could anybody please explain the use of "supposed" vds "supposedly" in this question.
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by money9111 » Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:14 pm
IMO C... I ruled out B & D because they change the meaning of the sentence. The sentence isn't saying that the it was revealed that the monuments were 2,000 olders...
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by becnil » Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:20 pm
the megalithic monuments in Brittany are nearly "2,000 years as old as": cannot be right. I think you need to say that the monuments are 2,000 years older than the others. So, C is not right.
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by bigmonkey31 » Wed Feb 10, 2010 6:18 pm
You cannot linke 2000 years and "as old as"...

Eliminate A, C, & E

Look at B&D and the only difference is 'supposed' vs. 'supposedly'. Now think of the logic in the sentence... what is supposed/supposedly modifying?

Is it saying that that the monuments are 2000 years older than the predecessors that were supposedly Mediterranean? no... that can't be right.

Instead, the meaning of the sentence is meant to say that carbon dating shows that the monuments are older than their SUPPOSED predecessors (i.e. they were thought to be predecessors before carbon dating, but now with carbon dating, the idea debunked).

Hope that helps.

--> B is the best choice
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by bigmonkey31 » Wed Feb 10, 2010 6:20 pm
money9111 wrote:IMO C... I ruled out B & D because they change the meaning of the sentence. The sentence isn't saying that the it was revealed that the monuments were 2,000 olders...
You can changet the meaning of the sentence if the original sentence was nonsensical.
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by money9111 » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:42 pm
bigmonkey31 which is where if I recognized that the "as old as" was incorrect I would have went down that route.
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by onedayi'll » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:51 pm
Choice B ('supposed Mediterranean predecessors') --> There's no doubt that the other monuments are Mediterranean, but what was supposed is that they were the predecessors of the ones in Brittany.

Choice D ('supposedly Mediterranean predecessors') --> There's no doubt that the other monuments are the predecessors of the ones in Brittany, but what was supposed is that they were Mediterranean.


B makes sense; D doesn't.
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by thephoenix » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:36 pm
IMO B is correct

we can't say that something is nearly 2000 yrs as old as ; rather 2000 yrs older is more correct form

that brings us to B and D

supposedly is an adverb and needs to modify a verb,adverb or adjective; however in present case Mediterranean predecessors is a noun phrase and therefore we need a noun modifier(adjective) ,which is supposed

so D is wrng
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by bhumika.k.shah » Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:23 pm
https://www.beatthegmat.com/carbon-14-t38116.html

Hope this link is useful :)
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by mgmt_gmat » Thu Feb 11, 2010 4:13 am
IMO (B) ..

supposed is better than supposedly....

and any of their should be used here.
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by arora007 » Thu Feb 10, 2011 4:15 am
Guys I know that B is the answer... but I am very bad at the SC section too.... plz help me with my very specific query.

Carbon-14 dating reveals that the megalithic monuments in Brittany are nearly 2,000 years <> Mediterranean predecessors.

(B) older than any of their supposed
(D) older than any of their supposedly

as I see..

supposedly ->adverb modifying Mediterranean

Mediterranean -> adjective modifying predecessors--> noun


AS i read the MGMAT SC pg 73 an adjective can modify a noun and a pronoun

and only an adverb can modify another adverb, an adjective etc.....

so should D not be correct ?? OR in identifying what have i goofed up?

supposedly ->adverb
Mediterranean -> adjective
or
predecessors--> noun
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by Fatehdeep Singh » Sat Mar 12, 2011 1:09 am
Carbon-14 dating reveals that the megalithic monuments in Brittany are nearly 2,000 years as old as any of their supposed Mediterranean predecessors.

(A) as old as any of their supposed
(B) older than any of their supposed
(C) as old as their supposed
(D) older than any of their supposedly
(E) as old as their supposedly

Down to B/D

supposed : adjective
supposedly: adverb

supposed Mediterranean predecessors: We are not sure whether they are predecessors.
supposedly Mediterranean predecessors: We are sure that other monuments are certainly megalithic monument's predecessors but we are not sure whether other monuments are Mediterranean.

So in this context as we are sure we are comparing megalithic monuments with their predecessors,shouldn't we use adverb to modify Mediterranean(adjective).

Anyone,please help to clear the confusion.
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by HSPA » Sat Mar 12, 2011 1:23 am
(Mediterranean predecessors) is combined -- NOUN

Older than their supposed predecessors....

As in --- "My younger son is the supposed successor for my throne"

INTENDED
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by GMATGuruNY » Tue Mar 15, 2011 8:26 am
becnil wrote:Qn:200

Carbon-14 dating reveals that the megalithic monuments in Brittany are nearly 2,000 years as old as any of their supposed Mediterranean predecessors.

(A) as old as any of their supposed
(B) older than any of their supposed
(C) as old as their supposed
(D) older than any of their supposedly
(E) as old as their supposedly

Could anybody please explain the use of "supposed" vds "supposedly" in this question.
I received a PM asking me to comment.

In A, C and E, nearly 2000 years as old as makes no sense. The intended meaning of the sentence is that the monuments are nearly 2000 years older. Eliminate A, C and E.

In D, supposedly Mediterranean changes the intended meaning of the sentence. The sentence is not about origin -- whether the monuments actually were Mediterranean -- but about age: whether their supposed...predecessors actually were predecessors. Eliminate D.

The correct answer is B.
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