The frog are a small green amphibian characterize

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aditya8062: Legendary Member; Posts: 774; Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2012 4:32 amFollowed by: 14 members; Thanked: 46 times

by aditya8062 » Tue Apr 08, 2014 6:10 am

The frog are a small green amphibian characterized by long hind legs, a short body, webbed digits, protruding eyes, and the absence of a tail.

(A) are a small green amphibian characterized by long hind legs, a short body, webbed digits, protruding eyes, and the absence of a tail"¨
(B) is a small green amphibian that is characterized by long hind legs, a short body, webbed digits, protruding eyes, and the absence of a tail
"¨(C) is a small green amphibian characterized by long hind legs, a short body, webbed digits, protruding eyes, and the existence of a tail
"¨(D) is a little green amphibian characterized by long hind legs, a short body, webbed digits, protruding eyes, and the absence of a tail
"¨(E) are a small green amphibian characterized by long hind legs, a short body, webbed digits, protruding eyes, and the absence of a tails

my doubt: what makes B a bad answer ? is it because of usage of "small" as an adjective? i suppose we can always call an animal as "small" if it small in size!
or is B a bad answer because of usage of "that" clause .honestly when i read option B i didn't find "that" clause as redundant

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Tue Apr 08, 2014 6:10 am

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KevinRocci: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 166; Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 3:17 pmFollowed by: 21 members; Location: Berkeley, Ca; Thanked: 30 times

by KevinRocci » Tue Apr 08, 2014 9:06 am

aditya8062 wrote:The frog are a small green amphibian characterized by long hind legs, a short body, webbed digits, protruding eyes, and the absence of a tail.

(B) is a small green amphibian that is characterized by long hind legs, a short body, webbed digits, protruding eyes, and the absence of a tail

my doubt: what makes B a bad answer ? is it because of usage of "small" as an adjective? i suppose we can always call an animal as "small" if it small in size!
or is B a bad answer because of usage of "that" clause .honestly when i read option B i didn't find "that" clause as redundant

Happy to help! So the problem with (B) is not the use of "small." Using "that" here is unnecessary. It adds extra verbiage which is unnecessary for conveying an idea. Remember that the GMAT SC questions are testing your knowledge of grammar and style. Part of style is being concise. So (B) is not as concise as (D), which I assume is the correct answer. So always be looking for the most concise construction in the answer choices as well as the grammatically correct ones.

Hope that helps!

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by [email protected] » Tue Apr 08, 2014 4:15 pm

Hi aditya8062,

Kevin is correct that the GMAT will test your understand of proper English grammar and style. One style rule worth knowing is: Don't be redundant.

For example, the phrase "a new initiative" is redundant because the word "initiative" means "new." That phrase is the equivalent of saying "a new new idea", which is bad style.

In answer B, the words "that is..." are redundant to the words "is a...green amphibian."

As far as the rest of the question is concerned, what is the source of this SC? Some of the answers are written in an odd way that doesn't quite match the Official GMAT.

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Rich

Contact Rich at [email protected]

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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 Apr 10, 2014 5:45 am

I received a PM requesting that I comment.

In the correct answer choice, EVERY WORD will serve a CLEAR PURPOSE.
If an answer choice includes a word that can be omitted without any loss of clarity or meaning, eliminate the answer choice.
B: The frog is a small green amphibian that is characterized by long hind legs.
Here, that is can be removed with no loss of clarity or meaning:
The frog is a small green amphibian characterized by long hind legs.
Eliminate B.

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