GMATPREP -In 1852 Robert Angus Smith published

[guerrero]

In 1852 Robert Angus Smith published a detailed report of the chemistry of rain in a large area around the city of Manchester, England, noting that the closer one came to town, the more the city air would become increasingly acidic.

A)that the closer one came to town, the more the city air would become increasingly acidic
B)that the city air became increasingly acidic the closer one came to town
C)that coming closer to town, the city air became increasingly acidic
D)that the more the city air became increasingly acidic, the closer one was to town
E)the city air becoming increasingly acidic as one would come closer to town

SOURCE:GMATPREP

OA B

[mevicks]

In 1852 Robert Angus Smith published a detailed report of the chemistry of rain in a large area around the city of Manchester, England, noting that the closer one came to town, the more the city air would become increasingly acidic.

A)that the closer one came to town, the more the city air would become increasingly acidic
would become should be in the past tense; more & increasingly are redundant here
B)that the city air became increasingly acidic the closer one came to town
Correct past tense used; redundancy removed. Intended meaning conveyed.
C)that coming closer to town, the city air became increasingly acidic
coming closer should be in the past tense to match a past action; coming closer incorrectly modifying the city air
D)that the more the city air became increasingly acidic, the closer one was to town
more & increasingly are redundant here
E)the city air becoming increasingly acidic as one would come closer to town
incorrect tense - the city air becoming; should be becomes .. as one comes closer

Is the answer B?

[theCodeToGMAT]

+1 for [spoiler]{B}[/spoiler]

[Mike@Magoosh]

Dear Rahul & Vivek,
I've been thinking about this question, and I think it is not up to GMAT standards. In my understanding, the structure of this idiom is
"the" [comparative][noun][verb], "the" [comparative][noun][verb]
as in
The higher they fly, the harder they fall.
The faster I go, the more I fall behind.
This idiom has a narrowly defined form. The Oxford Practical English Usage gives this form with no variations, and the OG13 (in SC #2) also conforms to this strict form.

In this sense, I would say no given answer choice fits. Choice (B) would work in colloquial conversation, but it lacks the sharp parallelism of this idiom's form.

I would say the truly correct answer, the only answer the GMAT would accept as correct, would be something along the lines of ...
that the closer one came to town, the more acidic the city air became.
If that were an answer, it would be the OA. As this question stands, I assert that none of its five answer choices would be minimally acceptable on the real GMAT.

What do you two scholars think?

With respect,
Mike

[GMATGuruNY]

In 1852 Robert Angus Smith published a detailed report of the chemistry of rain in a large area around the city of Manchester, England, noting that the closer one came to town, the more the city air would become increasingly acidic.

A)that the closer one came to town, the more the city air would become increasingly acidic
B)that the city air became increasingly acidic the closer one came to town
C)that coming closer to town, the city air became increasingly acidic
D)that the more the city air became increasingly acidic, the closer one was to town
E)the city air becoming increasingly acidic as one would come closer to town

A: THE MORE the city air would become INCREASINGLY
D: THE MORE the city air became INCREASINGLY
Here, the more and increasingly are redundant.
Eliminate A and D.

In C, coming seems to be modifying the city air, implying a nonsensical meaning: that the CITY AIR was coming closer to town.
Eliminate C.

In E, noting the city air implies that Robert Angus Smith was noting the AIR itself.
Not the intended meaning.
Rather, Robert Angus Smith was noting what the air DID:
THAT the city air BECAME increasingly acidic.
Eliminate E.

The correct answer is B.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
For a discussion of this structure -- along with an official SC that employs this structure -- check my posts here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/as-rare-as-t81926-15.html

[Mike@Magoosh]

Mitch,
I have great respect for your expertise, so I will pose the question to you that I posed in the post directly above yours.
Yes, (B) is probably better than all the other answers, and it certainly would pass as correct in colloquial speech, but do you think it is really up to the standards of the GMAT? My understanding, reflected in various grammar books as well as in the OG13, is that this idiom has considerably less leeway than many other idioms: the comparative must come directly after the word "the". Therefore, even (B) falls short of the correct idiom.
What do you think?
With respect,
Mike

[GMATGuruNY]

Mitch,
I have great respect for your expertise, so I will pose the question to you that I posed in the post directly above yours.
Yes, (B) is probably better than all the other answers, and it certainly would pass as correct in colloquial speech, but do you think it is really up to the standards of the GMAT? My understanding, reflected in various grammar books as well as in the OG13, is that this idiom has considerably less leeway than many other idioms: the comparative must come directly after the word "the". Therefore, even (B) falls short of the correct idiom.
What do you think?
With respect,
Mike

Mike, since this SC is from GMAT Prep, there is no point in questioning the legitimacy of the OA.
Any idiom or grammatical construction that appears in the OA to an official SC must be considered correct.
I personally see nothing wrong with the following construction:
The city air became increasingly acidic the closer one came to town.
Here, the closer one came to town serves as an adverb indicating HOW the city air BECAME increasingly acidic.

[Mike@Magoosh]

Mike, since this SC is from GMAT Prep, there is no point in questioning the legitimacy of the OA.
Any idiom or grammatical construction that appears in the OA to an official SC must be considered correct.
I personally see nothing wrong with the following construction:
The city air became increasingly acidic the closer one came to town.
Here, the closer one came to town serves as an adverb indicating HOW the city air BECAME increasingly acidic.

Mitch,
I think part of the problem is the source. The user who started this blog certainly seems to think that the sentence came from GMAT Prep, but I have searched on the web, and I can find no independent verification that is, in fact, a GMAT Prep question. (This user posted the same question here and on GC, and tagged it as from GMAT Prep in both places.) I would be reluctant to accord this question respect because of its putative source.
My contention is that the structure
"the" [comparative]{noun][verb], "the" [comparative]{noun][verb]
as in
"the higher they fly, the harder they fall,"
is a legitimate idiomatic structure that is discussed in a number of grammar sources and which appears as a correct answer in the OG13.
The structure this question uses:
the city air became increasingly acidic the closer one came to town
is a variant. It certainly sounds plausible to ear. Certainly your explanation of the second part as a stand-alone adverbial clause is plausible. Can we use stand-alone clauses of the form
"the" [comparative]{noun][verb]
to modify virtually any comparative statement? It's not clear to me that this would be correct in more formal circles, as no grammar source which discusses the former structure even discusses this option. Even if it is correct, it's not clear to me that it's anything which which GMAT students should trouble themselves. If the question at the top were show to have a source other than something official, would you still recommend this structure as something with which GMAT students should be concerned?
Mike

[GMATGuruNY]

Mitch,
I think part of the problem is the source. The user who started this blog certainly seems to think that the sentence came from GMAT Prep, but I have searched on the web, and I can find no independent verification that is, in fact, a GMAT Prep question.

One of my students recently presented this SC to me.
I believe that it's included in the question pool for Exam Pack 1 (https://www.mba.com/store/store-catalog/ ... ack-1.aspx).
Because the Exam Pack was just released, its questions might be difficult to track down on the web.

[ppravin88]

Yes, this question is from GMAT Exam Pack 1! I encountered this Q during GMAT Prep Exam 3.