Sentence Correction

Jatinder wrote:I will try to put my 2 cents here

Discrimination in wages paid in occupations that are predominantly male over the predominantly female have given rise to substantial differentials between the wage of housepainters and secretaries and between the wages of parking-lot attendants and library assistants.

(A) paid in occupations that are predominantly male over the predominantly female have
(B) paid in occupations that are predominantly make over those that are predominantly female have
(C) that favors predominantly male occupations over the predominantly female have
(D) that favors predominantly male occupations over those that are predominantly female has
(E) paid in predominantly male occupations over the predominantly female has

D is not correct bcoz of the meaning...

Discrimination in wages that favors predominantly male occupations ....


favours is singular here, so we would assume that it is reffering to Discrimination

Now I am just wondering that Discrimination can also favor???
May be, if somebody by the name Discrimination is favouring X, but that will sound quite stupid, although not impossible..

E is correct bcoz of the ellipse(in bold):
paid in predominantly male occupations over the predominantly female [occupations] has

I'm fairly certain that in this case, "favor" is used idiomatically. It's a way of saying that the discrepancy in wages -- the unfairness of the male vs. female pay difference -- works to the advantage of men, as they get higher wages for equitable work.

This is just my guess, so be careful about my explanation.

How did you know that an ellipse could be used correctly in "E"...what is the grammatical rule there?

This is a brutal GMAT question!

although i used my previous explanation to rule out D.
there is one more error in D if you look closely..

"those that" -- this is wrong usage--2 pronouns consecutively

E: Ellipse is correctly used.

We generally remove the redundancy by employing ellipses:

e.g Bangalore is better than delhi [is]

Now 2nd "is" is optional here..

I understand the sentence D like this
that favors predominantly male occupations over those that are predominantly female has ==> I think here "those" refer to occupations so that the sentence correctly compares male occupations with female occupations.

Where as in sentence E
paid in predominantly male occupations over the predominantly female has ==> I think here male occupations are compared with female!

Please tell me where I am going wrong! The correct answer is E

Can you please quote the source of this problem. none of the options seems to be correct!

2 + 2 = 4 , i doubt , may be some great mathematicain can prove it wrong

but

as far as option E is concern,

It is undisputedly WRONG....! no matter wat is OA...


sometimes ppl put their DOUBTED ANS as OA to see whether peole get biased towards it....

same case here i believe...!

I got this problem from 1000SC. I will post the whole thing...

245.Discrimination in wages paid in occupations that are predominantly male over the predominantly female have given rise to substantial differentials between the wage of housepainters and secretaries and between the wages of parking-lot attendants and library assistants.
(A) paid in occupations that are predominantly male over the predominantly female have
(B) paid in occupations that are predominantly make over those that are predominantly female have
(C) that favors predominantly male occupations over the predominantly female have
(D) that favors predominantly male occupations over those that are predominantly female has（E）
(E) paid in predominantly male occupations over the predominantly female has

I chose the answer as D. but here the answer given is E!!!

Can this be a case in which the original answer marked here is wrong?

Hi all,

This is a tough one. Let's try to take it apart.

It's true that the phrase, "discrimination in wages paid in occupations that are predominately male over the predominantly female" seems a bit awkward; most test-takers are probably looking for an answer choice that improves this comparison's construction. However, if you look closer, you'll see that this question is actually dealing with subject/verb agreement. If you can ignore all the fluff, the question is easier than it looks!

Looking at the answer choices:

A) Incorrect. Why?
Subject/verb agreement, of course! "Discrimination" is a singular subject; "have" is a plural noun. I know what you're thinking--what if "wages" is actually the subject of the sentence? Short answer: It isn't. Long answer: We know "wages" can't be the subject because our subject will never be located inside a prepositional phrase. Keep that rule in mind on the test! "Discrimination" must be our subject in this clause, since both "wages" and "occupations" are contained within prepositional clauses.

(B) Incorrect, for the same reason as Choice A.

(C) Incorrect. Why?
Subject/verb agreement, again. "Wages" is a plural noun; "favors" is a singular verb. Doesn't work! How do we know "favors" goes with "wages" and not the singular "discrimination"? Because "that" is a relative pronoun--which means it must modify the word immediately preceding it, in this case "wages."

(D) Incorrect for the same reason as Choice C.

(E) Correct. "Discrimination... has" is correct. The phrase "the predominantly female" might seem awkward, but remember that "occupations" is implied.

Hope this was helpful!

Hi Josh,

Wonderful explanation. Thank you.

I somehow missed "that" referring to the immediate word preceding it, and also the subject-verb agreement between them.

Regards,
Viju

IMO E

D is not possible
Discrimination doesnt favor male occupation

josh@knewton wrote:Hi all,

This is a tough one. Let's try to take it apart.

It's true that the phrase, "discrimination in wages paid in occupations that are predominately male over the predominantly female" seems a bit awkward; most test-takers are probably looking for an answer choice that improves this comparison's construction. However, if you look closer, you'll see that this question is actually dealing with subject/verb agreement. If you can ignore all the fluff, the question is easier than it looks!

Looking at the answer choices:

A) Incorrect. Why?
Subject/verb agreement, of course! "Discrimination" is a singular subject; "have" is a plural noun. I know what you're thinking--what if "wages" is actually the subject of the sentence? Short answer: It isn't. Long answer: We know "wages" can't be the subject because our subject will never be located inside a prepositional phrase. Keep that rule in mind on the test! "Discrimination" must be our subject in this clause, since both "wages" and "occupations" are contained within prepositional clauses.

(B) Incorrect, for the same reason as Choice A.

(C) Incorrect. Why?
Subject/verb agreement, again. "Wages" is a plural noun; "favors" is a singular verb. Doesn't work! How do we know "favors" goes with "wages" and not the singular "discrimination"? Because "that" is a relative pronoun--which means it must modify the word immediately preceding it, in this case "wages."

(D) Incorrect for the same reason as Choice C.

(E) Correct. "Discrimination... has" is correct. The phrase "the predominantly female" might seem awkward, but remember that "occupations" is implied.

Hope this was helpful!

fine... agreed ..!

but

wat abt predominantly male occupations over the predominantly female as in E option...

shouldn't it be

predominantly female's OR predominantly female occupations

i know You will say OCCUPATION is there in default or implied afte female..

BUT

Atleast 30 times all Experts warned that ......

DON'T CONSIDER SUCH THINGS IN DEFAULT UNTILL THEY ARE GIVEN EXPLICITLY...!

PLEASE COMMENT ON IT...

Thanks...!

@martin

The rule for ellipsis is

reinsert the exact same omited words and make sure that sentence make sense

for example

fishing boats have and do navigate the waters at bay

now we insert what was omitted exactly.

fishing boats have navigate.....does not make sense
fishing boats do navigate....is ok

so the point is that you have to put in "exactly" the same phrase and check

the correct construction above would be

fishing boats have navigated bay, and they still do

Similarly we need to put in exact phrase, that is "occupations" here

and it makes sense

Thanks josh@knewton...
excellent explanation...
As you said we all were running after the comparison mistake these sentences could have... option D had bigger mistake!!!
Thanks...

Hey all.... one small doubt regarding PM...
some of my messages are still in OUTBOX!!! I mean if its sent then it should come in SENTBOX, right?
or is it just ok???

ayushiiitm wrote:@martin

The rule for ellipsis is

reinsert the exact same omited words and make sure that sentence make sense

for example

fishing boats have and do navigate the waters at bay

now we insert what was omitted exactly.

fishing boats have navigate.....does not make sense
fishing boats do navigate....is ok

so the point is that you have to put in "exactly" the same phrase and check

the correct construction above would be

fishing boats have navigated bay, and they still do

Similarly we need to put in exact phrase, that is "occupations" here

and it makes sense

i used to do it earlier lots of time until RON himself asked to stop such practice...

do not assume anything on GMAT.... until given...

So am not convince on this...

It wud ge GREAT if Expert come again and comment on it...

this is the reverse of they told earlier....!

martin.jonson007 -- I hear what you're saying about the implied "occupations," and ordinarily I'd agree with all the other experts who would caution you against such assumptions. However, the awkwardness of "the predominantly female" seems mild when compared to the faulty subject/verb agreement present in all the other answer choices. E might not be perfect--but it is the best answer!