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Shoppers in sporting goods stores

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by Vemuri » Sat Apr 25, 2009 8:26 am
Shoppers in sporting goods stores, unlike in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, not buying a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but they leave with a basketball only.

A. in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, not buying a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but they leave with a basketball only

B. in department stores, shop impulsively very little; someone who comes in for a basketball will leave with a basketball only and not also buy a pair of skis and a boomerang as well

C. those in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, do not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but leave with only a basketball

D. those in department stores, do very little impulse shopping; someone who comes in for a basketball will leave with a basketball only and not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang as well

E. department stores, shop impulsively very little; someone will not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball but will leave with only a basketbal

Source is www.takegmat.com. No OA provided.
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by rseeker2 » Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:22 am
My take... D

'those in department stores' is necessary... because we are talking about shoppers in both kind of stores.

The basketball example further explains 'impulse shopping', and therefore should come after a semi-colon.
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by lilu » Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:35 am
I also think that the answer is D
"those in department stores" is used correctly to identify shoppers
the semicolon is put in the sentence correctly to identify two parts of it.
C is a run on sentence
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by lokeshg98 » Wed Dec 09, 2009 3:41 pm
Q. Shoppers in sporting goods stores, unlike in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, not buying a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but they leave with a basketball only.

Choice : D. those in department stores, do very little impulse shopping; someone who comes in for a basketball will leave with a basketball only and not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang as well

In D, it's not clear whether someone refers to shoppers of sporting goods stores or shoppers of departmental stores. Someone could logically refer to anyone.

C retains the meaning and hugs the grammar rules.
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by tanviet » Wed Dec 16, 2009 6:41 pm
why C is run-on sentence?

because

"do" and " do not do " require "and"

I learn English and do not learn French

is that right?, pls, help
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by viju9162 » Wed Dec 16, 2009 9:29 pm
I would also go with D.

duongthang: I beleive C is not related to run-on issue. In run-on problem, you should have two independent sentences, separated by a comma.

But in C, the phrases are just separated by commas with improper parallelism.

Experts can comment on this. I carry one query about run-on sentence : When two independent ( please clarify whether the sentences should be independent) are separated by comma with no logical connection between them, then it is a run-on sentence - as defined in MGMAT SC guide.

Regards,
Viju
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by ssgmatter » Fri Jun 11, 2010 8:22 pm
any thoughts on this one guys?
Best-
Amit
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by brijesh » Fri Jun 11, 2010 8:47 pm
Vemuri wrote:Shoppers in sporting goods stores, unlike in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, not buying a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but they leave with a basketball only.

A. in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, not buying a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but they leave with a basketball only

B. in department stores, shop impulsively very little; someone who comes in for a basketball will leave with a basketball only and not also buy a pair of skis and a boomerang as well

C. those in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, do not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but leave with only a basketball

D. those in department stores, do very little impulse shopping; someone who comes in for a basketball will leave with a basketball only and not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang as well

E. department stores, shop impulsively very little; someone will not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball but will leave with only a basketbal

Source is www.takegmat.com. No OA provided.
I think C is the right ans.
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by mohit11 » Fri Jun 11, 2010 9:56 pm
brijesh wrote:
Vemuri wrote:Shoppers in sporting goods stores, unlike in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, not buying a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but they leave with a basketball only.

A. in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, not buying a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but they leave with a basketball only

B. in department stores, shop impulsively very little; someone who comes in for a basketball will leave with a basketball only and not also buy a pair of skis and a boomerang as well

C. those in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, do not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but leave with only a basketball

D. those in department stores, do very little impulse shopping; someone who comes in for a basketball will leave with a basketball only and not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang as well

E. department stores, shop impulsively very little; someone will not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball but will leave with only a basketbal

Source is www.takegmat.com. No OA provided.
I think C is the right ans.
Answer has to be between C and D. Placement of "Only" and "as well" in D is incorrect.

someone who comes in for a basketball will leave with a basketball only and not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang as well

Or

someone who comes in for a basketball will only leave with a basketball and not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang.

My Pick is C , but i wont bother too much since this is some random website coming up with random questions. Better to avoid such question banks
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by hardik.jadeja » Sat Jun 12, 2010 1:17 am
Here is what I think.

Original Sentence: Shoppers in sporting goods stores, unlike in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, not buying a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but they leave with a basketball only.

If you see, the original sentence is only this much - Shoppers in sporting goods stores, unlike in department stores, do very little impulse shopping.

The part of the sentence in bold modifies "impulse shopping".

Now lets see the options:
B) Wrong. The modifier has to touch the noun it is modifying and the noun and the modifier must be separated by comma. This rule is not met here.

D) The noun and the modifier must be separated by comma. This rule is not met here.

E) "Shoppers in sporting goods stores, unlike department stores". "Shoppers in sporting goods stores" is being compared to "department stores". Wrong comparison.

Now we are left with A and C.

I think if you notice the modifier part of the original sentence, its not parallel "X but Y". X and Y parts in modifier in A are not parallel.

My pick would be C.
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by RumpelThickSkin » Sat Jun 12, 2010 1:58 am
hardik.jadeja wrote:
D) The noun and the modifier must be separated by comma. This rule is not met here.
.
Is that an absolute rule i.e. no exceptions?
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by hardik.jadeja » Sat Jun 12, 2010 2:04 am
RumpelThickSkin wrote:
hardik.jadeja wrote:
D) The noun and the modifier must be separated by comma. This rule is not met here.
.
Is that an absolute rule i.e. no exceptions?
No, there are exceptions such as adverbial modifiers.
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by RumpelThickSkin » Sat Jun 12, 2010 2:28 am
hardik.jadeja wrote:
RumpelThickSkin wrote:
hardik.jadeja wrote:
D) The noun and the modifier must be separated by comma. This rule is not met here.
.
Is that an absolute rule i.e. no exceptions?
No, there are exceptions such as adverbial modifiers.
gotcha thanks for the help once again hardik :-) ... most of your explanations are very easy to understand.
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by hardik.jadeja » Sat Jun 12, 2010 2:35 am
RumpelThickSkin wrote: gotcha thanks for the help once again hardik :-) ... most of your explanations are very easy to understand.
Just remember, if the modifier is modifying a noun then the modifier has be to placed adjacent to the noun, but if the modifier is modifying a verb, an adjective or an adverb, then the modifier should be placed in the sentence in such a way that it doesn't create ambiguity.

Hope that helps..
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by Ad_Astra_Per_Aspera » Mon Sep 27, 2010 9:09 am
hardik.jadeja wrote:Here is what I think.

Original Sentence: Shoppers in sporting goods stores, unlike in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, not buying a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but they leave with a basketball only.

If you see, the original sentence is only this much - Shoppers in sporting goods stores, unlike in department stores, do very little impulse shopping.

The part of the sentence in bold modifies "impulse shopping".

Now lets see the options:
B) Wrong. The modifier has to touch the noun it is modifying and the noun and the modifier must be separated by comma. This rule is not met here.

D) The noun and the modifier must be separated by comma. This rule is not met here.

E) "Shoppers in sporting goods stores, unlike department stores". "Shoppers in sporting goods stores" is being compared to "department stores". Wrong comparison.

Now we are left with A and C.

I think if you notice the modifier part of the original sentence, its not parallel "X but Y". X and Y parts in modifier in A are not parallel.

My pick would be C.
Ok, just some quick background on why I am typing this up. I got this question in Gmat Prep and I want to point out for the benefit of others (like me) who will probably stumble upon this when googling for this question. The answer is *NOT* C as stated above. The correct answer is D because of better parallelism and clarity.

For greater and in-depth explanations , just copy/paste the entire problem stem in your favorite browser.
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