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finest Italian marble

by satishchandra » Mon Nov 07, 2011 8:43 pm
Constructed with the finest Italian marble, the floor of the church is its greatest attraction and is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows.

A. attraction and is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows.
B. attraction, itself more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows.
C. attraction, itself more attractive to tourists as are its ornate stained-glass windows.
D. attraction, being more attractive to tourists than its ornate stained-glass windows.
E. attraction as it more is attractive to tourists than are the church's stained-glass windows.

[spoiler]OA: B; This is one of the hugely discussed questions in forum. Convincing Explanation is yet to be received.
My Questions: (i)What's wrong with 'A'? Why should it be eliminated?
(ii) Option 'E' : As per the possessive poison rule, non-possessive 'it' can not have antecedent in the object/possessive form. 'it' looks to refer back to floor instead of church. Am i correct?
Are there any more issues with 'E' ? [/spoiler]
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by immaculatesahai » Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:11 pm
Ok looks like an interesting question. Lets see the explanation below:

Constructed with the finest Italian marble, the floor of the church is its greatest attraction and is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows.

A. attraction and is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows.
B. attraction, itself more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows.
C. attraction, itself more attractive to tourists as are its ornate stained-glass windows.
D. attraction, being more attractive to tourists than its ornate stained-glass windows.
E. attraction as it more is attractive to tourists than are the church's stained-glass windows.

The moment we look at the choices, C,D and E can be eliminated almost immediately. It boils down to A and B.

A is wrong because of the context and meaning. See below:
...the floor of the church is its greatest attraction and (the floor of the church)is more attractive to tourists than are its (referring to floor of the church) ornate stained-glass windows.

How can the floor have any windows !!!

B is also wrong.

....attraction, itself (referring to floor of the church) more attractive to tourists than are its (again referring to floor of the church) ornate stained-glass windows.

Again, floor of the church cannot have ornate stained glass windows.

So, unfortunately it looks like all options are wrong. Its just a badly structured problem. Don't worry about it and IMO focus on better problems.
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by ArunangsuSahu » Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:23 pm
The question seems to be wrong.Consider the following 2 things
Church has
1)floor
2)windows

'its' is ambiguous.
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by VivianKerr » Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:46 am
The "are" in (A) is extraneous, and does not make a proper comparison. This is the same error with (E).

The comparison would be parallel if we said "The floor...is more attractive...than...THE WINDOWS." (X is more __ than Y).

(B) makes the comparison clear by comparing "itself" to "its WINDOWS."

"its" can only logically refer to the church, since a floor does not have windows.
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by bpdulog » Tue Nov 08, 2011 1:07 pm
I was 100% sure it was A.

The "than are its" still seems logical in A as it does in B and I thought it was just a difference in style.

Can someone elaborate further on this issue? Thanks.
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by satishchandra » Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:53 pm
VivianKerr wrote:The "are" in (A) is extraneous, and does not make a proper comparison. This is the same error with (E).

The comparison would be parallel if we said "The floor...is more attractive...than...THE WINDOWS." (X is more __ than Y).
I thought the parallelism is existing in the sentence.

The floor is more attractive to tourists than the windows are (to tourists)
The floor is more attractive to tourists than are the windows (to tourists)

X is more to Z than Y is (to Z); "to Z" does not require to be mentioned as it is assumed.
Please explan if anything is wrong in my sentence.
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by mad2011 » Wed Nov 09, 2011 5:53 am
hi vivian

Can you please help me understand why "are" is incorrect.

"Are" is for plural noun "windows"
"is" is for singular now "floor",, I don't see any err
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by vishal.pathak » Thu Dec 01, 2011 1:27 am
VivianKerr wrote:The "are" in (A) is extraneous, and does not make a proper comparison. This is the same error with (E).

The comparison would be parallel if we said "The floor...is more attractive...than...THE WINDOWS." (X is more __ than Y).

(B) makes the comparison clear by comparing "itself" to "its WINDOWS."

"its" can only logically refer to the church, since a floor does not have windows.
Hi Vivian,

Does this mean that pronoun ambiguity does not exist if we see that there is only 1 logical antecedent of a pronoun even if multiple grammatical antecedents exist

Please help

Regards,
Vishal
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by vishal.pathak » Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:45 pm
vishal.pathak wrote:
VivianKerr wrote:The "are" in (A) is extraneous, and does not make a proper comparison. This is the same error with (E).

The comparison would be parallel if we said "The floor...is more attractive...than...THE WINDOWS." (X is more __ than Y).

(B) makes the comparison clear by comparing "itself" to "its WINDOWS."

"its" can only logically refer to the church, since a floor does not have windows.
Hi Vivian,

Does this mean that pronoun ambiguity does not exist if we see that there is only 1 logical antecedent of a pronoun even if multiple grammatical antecedents exist

Please help

Regards,
Vishal
Hi Everyone,

Please help

Regards,
Vishal
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by 1947 » Sat Dec 03, 2011 10:40 pm
VivianKerr wrote:The "are" in (A) is extraneous, and does not make a proper comparison. This is the same error with (E).

The comparison would be parallel if we said "The floor...is more attractive...than...THE WINDOWS." (X is more __ than Y).

(B) makes the comparison clear by comparing "itself" to "its WINDOWS."

"its" can only logically refer to the church, since a floor does not have windows.
Constructed with the finest Italian marble, the floor of the church is its greatest attraction and is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows.

whats wrong between these 2 comparisons ?
floor is compared to windows.
If my post helped you- let me know by pushing the thanks button. Thanks
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by jumsumtak » Sun Dec 04, 2011 1:46 am
VivianKerr wrote:The "are" in (A) is extraneous, and does not make a proper comparison. This is the same error with (E).

The comparison would be parallel if we said "The floor...is more attractive...than...THE WINDOWS." (X is more __ than Y).

(B) makes the comparison clear by comparing "itself" to "its WINDOWS."

"its" can only logically refer to the church, since a floor does not have windows.
2 doubts here:

1) doesn't B also have 'are' ?
2) I agree that there might be some ambiguity in the first comparison - whether the floor's windows or the church's windows, but I fail to understand how that is removed in the second sentence..

It would be down to pure luck, whether I will be able to crack something like this on the real test.. :)
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