sc 1000

[lawalx]

80. Although films about the American West depict coyotes as solitary animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills, in reality these gregarious creatures live in stable groups that occupy the same territory for long periods.
(A) films about the American West depict coyotes as solitary animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills
(B) in films about the American West coyotes are depicted to be solitary animals that howl mournfully on the tops of distant hills
(C) coyotes are depicted as solitary animals howling mournfully on the tops of distant hills in films about the American West
(D) films about the American West depict coyotes as if they were solitary, mournfully howling animals on the tops of distant hills
(E) films about the American West depict coyotes to be solitary and mournfully howling animals on the tops of distant hills

[ranji]

idiom is 'depict as'

So B and E are wrong

C) the sentence is in present tense. Hence depicted as is wrong
D) 'mournfuly howling ........' is not placed corretly and is awkward

So ans A

OA pls

[Danielle]

Great job with this one Ranji!

[ranji]

thanks Danielle..

I do follow all your posts closely in this forum..and needless to say, benefitting very well from those! thanks again!

[jan08]

Danielle/ Ranji,

I have a doubt here.. You say that sentence should be in present tense thats why "Depicted" is wrong..but I think "are depicted" in C is in present tense and definitely makes sense over A. Here is my take..

If we consider the idiom "Although...yet", in this case yet is hidden...
so we say that "Although coyote....yet (hidden) these animals..." makes sense in C..but in A "Although films..yet (hidden) these animals" does not make sense...

Please explain...Thanks

[Danielle]

I am not familiar with any idiom although...yet. The word although does not require a second word like other idiomatic expressions like "not only... but also".

Jan08, you're right about choice C being in present tense like choice A. But A is still the answer, not because it is the only grammatically correct choice, but because it's the best choice.

The real reason that C is wrong is because it's in passive voice. A is in active voice. It places films as subject and depict as the verb, whereas C has coyotes as the subject and the passive construction 'are depicted as' which is less desirable.

[jan08]

Thanks Danielle

[Danielle]

Your welcome jan08. I really value your questions, because you critically think about the explanations for answers and it seems like you're committed to really internalizing the lesson there. You're sure to knock the GMAT out of the park!