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kaplan third set-is OA incorrect

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by vkb16 » Mon Oct 19, 2009 11:35 pm

Unlike George Washington, Thomas Jefferson,
and other revolutionary heroes, the reputation of
Thomas Paine suffered greatly, to the point
where
no church cemetery would accept Paine
for burial when he died in 1809.

OA is
The reputation of Thomas Paine, unlike
those of George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson, and other revolutionary heroes,
suffered so greatly that...

But I think the choice is wrong, as 'those'(plural) is not the suitable pronoun for reputation(singular), and hence the ans dsnt maintain parallel

Please correct me if I am wrong

thanks
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

Re: kaplan third set-is OA incorrect

by crackgmat007 » Tue Oct 20, 2009 4:40 pm
vkb16 wrote:
Unlike George Washington, Thomas Jefferson,
and other revolutionary heroes, the reputation of
Thomas Paine suffered greatly, to the point
where
no church cemetery would accept Paine
for burial when he died in 1809.

OA is
The reputation of Thomas Paine, unlike
those of George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson, and other revolutionary heroes,
suffered so greatly that...

But I think the choice is wrong, as 'those'(plural) is not the suitable pronoun for reputation(singular), and hence the ans dsnt maintain parallel

Please correct me if I am wrong

thanks
Although debatable, IMO 'those' seems correct. If you dont have an option with 'reputations', we need to choose this option. Lets see why.

Replacing 'reputation' in place of those, it means that all three have the same reputation. Since we are talking about reputations of multiple ppl, we need reputations.

The reason why I say it is debatable is coz, those is referring to singular antecendent 'reputation'. There is a rule that required repeating the noun, if we need to change the noun from singular to plural or viceversa. As in,

reputation vs those (reputations is better)

reputations vs that (reputation is better)

HTH
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by KapTeacherEli » Tue Oct 20, 2009 7:14 pm
English is a language of exceptions, and you've stumbled on one. In this case, "those" is replacing "the reputations" of Washington, Jefferson, and other heroes. "Reputations" doesn't show up as an antecedent per se, but since "those" are being compared to Paine's reputation, the meaning of "those" is unambiguous, and there is no error.
Eli Meyer
Kaplan GMAT Teacher
Cambridge, MA
www.kaptest.com/gmat

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