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Small Car Fuel Efficiency

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Small Car Fuel Efficiency

by cbenk121 » Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:23 pm

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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their production history.

(A) small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their
(B) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their
(C) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in
(D) more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their
(E) more fuel-efficient small cars now than at any time in

OA: C
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by adam15 » Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:22 pm

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can any one explain why not "D"

Thx
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by raghavakumar85 » Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:27 pm

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THEIR is causing ambiguity in D. Not sure if "their" refers to cars or manufacturers. C is correct. No pronoun antecedent issues.
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by pandeyvineet24 » Thu Nov 12, 2009 12:00 pm

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adam15 wrote:can any one explain why not "D"

Thx
adam15, D is also incorrect because "more" seems to modify fuel-efficient small cars indicating that the number of fuel-efficient small cars has increased, whereas in C, more correctly modifies fuel-efficient.
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Re: Small Car Fuel Efficiency

by cbenk121 » Thu Nov 12, 2009 12:12 pm

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cbenk121 wrote:Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their production history.

(A) small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their
(B) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their
(C) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in
(D) more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their
(E) more fuel-efficient small cars now than at any time in

OA: C
I think what threw me for a loop was "those". What is proper use of those? I know it's a demonstrative pronoun, as in "those cars, over there". Why can "those" not refer to manufacturers, just to play devil's advocate?

BTW: (D) and (E) are wrong because they change the meaning. (D) and (E) seem to imply manufacturers are able to make MORE (i.e. quantity) fuel-efficient cars, whereas A-C imply manufacturers are able to make cars MORE fuel-efficient.
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:16 am

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Can someone explain why "that" is needed? Why is the original sentence wrong?
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by brick2009 » Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:07 pm

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That introduces a restrictive clause...without that the sentence lacks coherence

meaning.. that clause is used to introduce useful information about small cars...

if you remove the that caluse.. the small cars is hanging up in air with no wheels..;-p

Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars (...) than those at any other time in history (you cant build a meaningful sentence without that clause)


For this: Please read.. THAT vs WHICH.. you will get a better picture..

Plz..correct me if i am wrong..
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by tanviet » Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:48 pm

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"cars" must be compared to "those"

"any other time" is right. "any time " is wrong. we need "other" to exclude the time of today. remember "ANY OTHER " from now on

In D, "more" modify "cars" and so is wrong
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by Target2009 » Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:15 pm

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IMO - C
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by pesfunk » Sat Mar 26, 2011 12:06 am

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Guys, as per the explanation, THEIR could refer to either cars or manufacturers. Thus, their should be eliminated.
However, I'm not sure if THEIR can refer to objects ( Cars in this case )

Could someone please help ?
Target2009 wrote:IMO - C
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by gmat_perfect » Sat Mar 26, 2011 9:03 am

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cbenk121 wrote:Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their production history.

(A) small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their
(B) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their
(C) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in
(D) more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their
(E) more fuel-efficient small cars now than at any time in

OA: C
The issues:

1. more fuel-efficient small cars has dual meaning:

--> More cars that are fuel efficient.
--> Cars that are more fuel efficient.

Since the duality is ambiguous, we can eliminate D and E.

In the option A, time has been compared, but the comparison is between cars.

When we use "than at any time", we should not use "they were", which indicates past time. All purpose "at any time" has been used, so the use of "they were" is redundant. --> Eliminate B.

Answer is C.
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by hoji » Sat Oct 15, 2011 11:48 am

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in my humble opinion, this question tests several concepts at a time:

redundancy=> today---->now;
ambiguity=> their----> manufacturers or small cars;
clarity=> "at any time" includes "today",other things being equal, then what is the purpose to compare "today" with "today"???? and "at any other time" excludes "today", then comparing makes sense.
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by TheGraduate » Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:09 pm

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C: Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in production history.

D: Today's technology allows manufacturers to make more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their production history.

Apart from other errors,
in D those is not essential to the construction while in C those is essential. Is that right?
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by GMATGuruNY » Sat Apr 22, 2017 3:03 am

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TheGraduate wrote:C: Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in production history.

D: Today's technology allows manufacturers to make more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their production history.

Apart from other errors,
in D those is not essential to the construction while in C those is essential. Is that right?
This line of reasoning is valid.
Incorrect: The manufacturer produced more cars this year than those last year.
Correct: The manufacturer produced more cars this year than last year.
The correct version implies the following comparison:
The manufacturer produced more cars this year than [it produced cars] last year.
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by TheGraduate » Sat Apr 22, 2017 4:08 am

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Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their production history.
A) small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their
B) small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their
D) more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their

Please comment on pronoun ambiguity of "their" in (A),(D) and of "they" and "their" in (B).
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