Sentence Correction - Idioms ~ Educate Yourself..!

Few Important Points to remember:

(less preferred) being
As Such

such = nominal equivalent to the foregoing clause.

Clause1 and as such, Clause2 = clause1, and as clause1, clause2.

Caesarea was Herod's city, founded as a Romanized counterweight to Hebraic Jerusalem, and as such it was regarded with loathing by the devout.

The meaning of the above sentence is similar to the following:

Because Caesarea was Herod's city, founded as a Romanized counterweight to Hebraic

Jerusalem, it was regarded with loathing by the devout.
Reduced Costs = Reduction IN costs (result of reduction)

"Reduction of" is used when reducing by a certain amount. e.g. reduction of 20%.

Second, for all means despite, and along with means in addition to. I'm sure you'll agree that the meanings are different, right?

For example:

I haven't visited Bora Bora, and neither has Kerry [visited Bora Bora].

In this case, I can omit visited Bora Bora because it already appears in the sentence.

Let's look at another example:

I haven't visited Bora Bora, and I probably never will visit Bora Bora .

This is wrong, at least on the GMAT, since visited and visit are different.
It

quote:

Hi, can someone explain the following questions to me? Thanks.

1) Why the answer is E? I chose A

Schliemann determined at the age of seven to find the site of ancient Troy and devoted his subsequent career to do it.

a)...

b) has devoted his subsequent career to do that

c) devoted his subsequent career to such an end

d) has devoted his subsequent career for that

e) devoted his subsequent career to that end

Option E here is wrong since it uses the pronoun 'it' replaces 'find the site of ancient'

First off, and you'll get used to this pretty quickly, every single time you see a pronoun, especially the word "it," you MUST CHECK THE ANTECEDENT.

This question is a favorite one--using "it" to replace a sentence. In GMATland, "it" must always replace a noun.

For example, this sentence would be wrong in GMATland:

My little brother said I took his cookies, but I didn't do it.

"it" doesn't replace any noun; it "tries" to replace a sentence: "I took his cookies."

The correct phrase is "helpful in demonstrating" and not "help to demonstrate".
- "until" is used to express a point of time in the future. So, (A) would mean that the sale will continue until a certain point in time, and that point in time is when the sale "lasts." That doesn't make sense; if we wanted to use "until" in that sentence, we should say something like "the sale will continue until customers stop coming in."
"as long as" implies that one thing will occur while another thing is still true;

for example, "we will stay outside as long as it's light out."
Semicolon: Any sentence after a semicolon (;), should be an independent clause.
- One of the: The pattern to remember is 'one of the NOUN (this noun will always be plural) + that/who + PLURAL VERB
  
  Example : He is one of the persons who make money.
     This is one of the cars that run on hydrogen.

         A number of people are waiting for the bus.

         The number of cars in the city is decreasing.

         Any of the stockholders who disapprove – is the right use

         Three cats, each eat

         Three cats, each of which eats
- Resumptive modifiers
Since the 1930's aircraft manufacturers have tried to build airplanes with frictionless wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly that the air passing over them would not become turbulent.
- wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly
  - wings, wings so smooth and so perfectly shaped
- wings that are shaped so smooth and perfect
- wings, shaped in such a smooth and perfect manner（B）
- wings, wings having been shaped smoothly and perfectly so
B is the correct answer.

Wings is required to unambiguously convey the meaning of the sentence.

A resumptive modifier picks up a word or phrase from a sentence that seems to be finished and then adds information and takes the reader into new territory of thought.

In a crowded, acquisitive world, the disapperance of lifestyles such as those once followed by southern Africa's Bushmen and Australia's aborigines, requiring vast wild spaces and permitting little accumulation of goods, seem inevitably doomed.
- requiring vast wild spaces and permitting little accumulation of goods, seem inevitably doomed
- requiring vast wild spaces and permitting little accumulation of goods, seems to be inevitably doomed
- which require vast wild spaces and permit little accumulation of goods, seems to be inevitably doomed
- life-styles that require vast wild spaces and permit little accumulation of goods, seem inevitable
- life-stlyes requiring vast wild spaces and permitting little accumulation of goods, seems inevitable
E is the correct answer.
- The Swiss watchmakers' failure to capitalize on the invention of the digital timepiece was both astonishing and alarming — astonishing in that the Swiss had, since the beginnings of the industrial revolution in Europe, been among the first to capitalize on technical innovations, alarming in that a tremendous industrial potential had been lost to their chief competitors, the watchmakers of Japan.
  
  The defensive coaches taught risk-taking, ball-hawking, and perpetual movement — three strategies that bewildered the opposition and resulted in many bad passes, steals, and easy fastbreak baskets.
  
  Another example in the same league…
Proponents of artificial intelligence say they will be able to make computers that can understand English and other human languages, recognize objects, and reason as an expert does—computers that will be used to diagnose equipment breakdowns, deciding whether to authorize a loan, or other purposes such as these.

(A) as an expert does—computers that will be used to diagnose equipment breakdowns, deciding whether to authorize a loan, or other purposes such as these

(B) as an expert does, which may be used for purposes such as diagnosing equipment breakdowns or deciding whether to authorize a loan

(C) like an expert—computers that will be used for such purposes as diagnosing equipment breakdowns or deciding whether to authorize a loan

(D) like an expert, the use of which would be for purposes like the diagnosis of equipment breakdowns or the decision whether or not a loan should be authorized（C）

(E) like an expert, to be used to diagnose equipment breakdowns, deciding whether to authorize a loan or not, or the like

C is the answer.

e.g. 1) His father demanded that he return home by 9 PM.

Return – Simple present tense

Demanded- precedes 'that' in the sentence.

The manager demanded that the staff stay late to finish the work.
Jack suggested that Sylvia should buy a new watch – Incorrect (Should must be removed)

Jack suggested that Sylvia buy a new watch.

List of verbs normally followed by Infinitives

List of verbs that can only have gerunds after them

e.g. anticipate implementing is correct (Anticipate to implement is wrong).

Even though she didn't anticipate manager's proposal to strengthen her department.

A) to implement it, the advertising manager agreed with the personal

B) implementing it, the advertising manager agreed with the personal

C) implementing it, the advertising manager agreed with the personnel

D) to implement it, the advertising manager agreed with the personnel

E) implementing it, the advertising manager agreed to the personnel

(E) NOTE: all answer choices are indeed different here. 'Personal' deals with a person's own special things; 'Personnel' deals with a lot of people. Verbs like 'anticipate' must be followed by a gerund, the verb form in '-ing'. The correct idiom usage should read: a person 'agrees with' another person, not with an inanimate thing such as a proposal. Therefore, she agrees 'to the proposal.' (E) is correct.

THE EXPLETIVE 'IT' and 2 questions, testing the same fundamentals:

1) For many travelers, charter vacations often turn out to cost considerably more than they originally seemed.

a. they originally seemed
b. they originally seem to
c. they seemingly would cost originally
d. it seemed originally
e. it originally seemed they would.

2) Researchers are finding out that plastics are taking more time to deteriorate than they originally seemed.

A) They originally seemed.
B) they seemed originally
C) it seemed that they would originally
D) it originally seemed
E) it originally seemed they would

From Kaplan: The Kaplan thing says about this. (About plastics)

'The tricky part is to choose between it and they. 'They' would imply that the plastics themselves first seemed to do one thing and then ended up doing another. The expletive 'it', the pronoun with no clear antedecent - makes more sense, it simply suggests that initial indications were misleading. Using 'it', it is necessary to include the phrase 'they would' to make it clear what seemed to be the case. So E is the best answer.

Erin says: (About charter vacations)

B would need to be in past tense, seemed. In fact, I often teach GMAT and TOEFL students that the words original (and its derivations) and first usually require past tense.

Furthermore, the "past future" of would in E is more precise than the simple past in A (or that B is lacking, in case you're going to ask if B would be correct if we changed seem to seemed). Since we're talking about something we'd learn after a certain point in the past, would is better.

For example:

This Acura is a lot better than I thought it would be.

is better than

This Acura is a lot better than I thought it was.

In the first example, we are saying that something turned out to be true. In the second example, we are saying that we were not aware of a fact that was true at that time.

And in the charter vacations question, there is no fact that the travelers were unaware of when they purchased the charter vacation--after the original purchase of the charter vacation (and probably toward the end of the vacation), the charter vacation turned out to be more costly than they had at first believed it would be.

It is as difficult to prevent crimes against property as those that are against a person.

(A) those that are against a

(B) those against a

(D) preventing those against a（E）

(E) it is to prevent those against a

Answer is E, for the expletive it.

During

"during" + time period is WRONG.

For example:

During two hours, I felt sleepy.

but

During the last two hours, I have felt sleepy.

To make our sentence correct with "during," we'd need to add some information that would identify which two decade-period we are talking about.

For example:

Even though its per capita food supply hardly increased during the two decades between 1940

and 1960...

Think of x as y ----- correct idiom (not 'to be')

'So' is used to replace a Verb in a Sentence whereas 'It' is used to replace a Noun.

First, memorize the pattern:

no sooner + inversion + than + sentence

Quote:

This was a question that was posted a little while ago. The answer was said to be D, but it seems that it should be E.

The domesticated camel, which some scholars date around the twelfth century B.C., was the key to the development of the spice trade in the ancient world.

a. The domesticated camel, which some scholars date

b. The domesticated camel, which some scholars have thought to occur

c. Domesticating the camel, dated by some scholars at

d. The domestication of the camel, thought by some scholars to have occurred

e. The camel's domestication, dated by some scholars to have been

In D, it seems that "thought by some scholars..." modifies camel, rather than domestication

Okay, I checked out the other topic, and there was no explanation of the answer. Okay, to be honest, I didn't catch the mistake in E the very first time I read the question, either. I picked D, because somehow it sounded better, but I wasn't sure why.

Later, when a student asked me specifically what was wrong with E, I looked at the question a little more carefully. E has a classic mistake, albeit a well disguised one!

I teach this mistake frequently in my SAT II classes for high school students. Let me

show you an example of what my high school students might write:

The greatest change in my life was when I immigrated to the US.

Can you see the mistake in this sentence?

Let me try again, with a little hint:

The greatest change in my life was when I immigrated to the US.

Can you see it now?

Okay, just in case, let me give you one more sentence (I'm pretty much doing now what I do in class to explain this grammar point.)

This pen is a bargain because it's only ten cents.

Hint again:

This pen is a bargain because it is only ten cents.

Okay, got it yet?

Let's work backward. The last sentence is incorrect because it is incorrectly saying that the pen and the ten cents are the same thing; a pen cannot be ten cents; it can be a writing instrument, it can be a bargain, it can even be a weapon in some cases, but it cannot be ten cents. One-tenth of a dollar is ten cents, a dime is ten cents, but a pen is not.

Are you getting it? Probably, but since I've already started, please let me finish...

Okay, now let's look at the immigration sentence:

The greatest change in my life was when I immigrated to the US.

This sentence means that "change" and "when I immigrated..." are the same thing; they in fact are not.

Like I said, this is a classic mistake, and the classic correction is:

The greatest change in my life occurred/happened when I immigrated to the US.

(Do you see where I'm heading now???). So, in our original question, E says:

The camel's domestication was around the twelfth century B.C....

GMAT cleverly hides this mistake by using "to have been" instead of a simple be verb, but "to have been" is one of the many variants of was, were, is, are, am, etc.

The funny thing is that GMAT uses the classic correction as well:

domestication... occurred... when...

Finally, I just have to comment: I imagine that if GMAT had to explain this grammar point, they would say in their typical, cryptic fashion something like this:

E incorrectly uses an adverb clause as the noun complement of the subject "domestication."

Okay, what have we learned???

This:

NOUN + BE-VERB + NOUN/ADJECTIVE

For example:

The change was good for me.

The change was a good one for me.

The change was an important step for me in my life.

BUT NEVER

The change was when I came to the US.

In other words, noun complements (the words that come after a be-verb and modify nouns) should only be nouns or adjectives (although we often use adverbs when we want to describe location, but more on that later, if you like; this explanation is getting pretty long!!).

Quote:

6. Why the answer is A? I picked E

The central issue before the court was how far the regulatory agencies should go in requiring better working conditions in factories.

a. in requiring better working conditions in factories

b. as far as requiring better working conditions in factories

c. in their requirement that factories should have better working conditions

d. as far as requiring that factories should have better working conditions

e. to require factories to have better working conditons

Thanks

Whew! What a tricky question! Both A and E are grammatically correct, but they have a very slight difference in meaning. For this question, we most likely want the meaning in A, not the meaning in E. And, whenever we have two options that are both grammatically correct, and the only difference is one of meaning, we MUST go with the original meaning. In other words, if A is grammatically correct, not wordy, redundant, awkward, etc., and another answer choice is also grammatically correct, not wordy, redundant, awkward, etc., we must go with A.

But I'm sure you want to know the meaning difference and the rule, right? Okay, here you go:

I know you won't like this, but with this meaning, we use "in." For example:

I want to know how far you will go in helping me.

I think you remember from class that we talked about "helpful" + "in," right? Well, this is very similar--"helping me" is a process. In this sentence, I am wondering how long you would stay with me while you are helping me, how many different things you would do to help me. For example, would you break the law while you are helping me if you thought I would benefit? Would you ignore your friends and family while you are helping me? Again: During the process, how much would you do?

(A) has a similar meaning in this sentence. Let's now look at the meaning of E.

I want to know how far you will go to help me.

In this sentence, we are using the infinitive of purpose, which we use to express a goal. If I use this structure, I am wondering how much effort you would expend to help me. In other words, would you come to me at midnight? Would you travel 50 miles, 100 miles, 1,000 miles to help me? Would you spend all your time and money to come to help me? Would you give up your job, health, and family to help me? Again: How much would you do to be able to be in a situation to help me?? I know that these two are very, very close in meaning, but read what I've written very carefully, and be sure to post back with any further questions!

quote:

3. Why A is correct? I chose C

Although about 99 percent of the more than 50 million Turks are Muslims, the republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923 is resolutely secular.

a...

b. Although about 99 percent of over 50 million of the

c. Although about 99 percent of more than 50 million

d. Despite the fact that about 99 percent of more than 50 million

e. Despite the fact that about 99 percent of over 50 million

Whew! This is one of the most commonly asked questions... I think it's going to take a while to explain, and I don't think I can do it tonight since I've got class in the morning.

Here's the short answer: if we use "the," we are saying that there are only 50 million

Turks in the whole world; if we don't use "the," we are saying that there are possibly more than 50 million Turks in the world.

This one's similar to the one in the Official Guide, the one about the "Thomas Jefferson... setting free the more than 500 slaves..."

All things being equal, I'd have to say that "invest in" is slightly preferable to "invest into."

I think there's also a very slight difference in meaning--"invest in" would be the better choice for such traditional investments as stocks and bonds, while "invest into" could be used in more metaphorical investments, such as the time, energy, and love you might shower upon your children.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

quote:

The visiting doctors concluded that the present amalgram is probably as good as or better than, any other system that might be devised for the patients.

This is correct. One of the answer choices used 'might' instead of 'may'... what's the difference between may and might?

Whew, hard question. In general, may has more of a concrete meaning, so should therefore be used more in statements of fact, whereas might is a bit less tangible, and tends to be used more in expressions of things that don't yet exist (hypothetical situations). Also, a bit more simply, since might is the past tense form of may, we use might more in the past tense.

All that said, we often use them interchangeably in many constructions--there is a lot of overlap between may and might.

• credit SB with STH (verb): give responsibility for. Thomas Edison is credited with inventing the light bulb.

• credit X to Y (verb): give money or credit to. The bank credited $1 million to trebla's account.

• credit for (noun): money received for or in exchange for something. The customer received a $20 credit for the interruption in service.

So there are a few things you need to know here for GMAT Sentence Correction.

First is this--you should know that GMAT likes to test you on "thinking words." These are words that indicate some sort of mental process, such as believe, belief, idea, theory, notion, concept, etc. Please note that both verbs and nouns can be considered "thinking words."

GMAT typically likes to follow these words with that and a sentence. For example, on the

GMAT it's better to say:

• Lucise's belief that the Earth is flat was easily accepted.

than to say:

• Lucise's belief of the Earth being flat was easily accepted.

It is okay to use 'of' if we want to indicate only a noun. That's why, for example, we say theory of relativity. In this case, if we choose answer choices that use of instead of that, we seem to be talking more about theories of land mammals; we are not identifying the action of those land mammals. In other words, with the 'that', we are leaving out what it is that the theory purports the mammals
did.

Crises is the plural of crisis

Data is plural of datum

In SAE, we generally use do to replace "regular" verbs, i.e., verbs that are not linking verbs, verbs that use modals, etc.

For example:

Megumi speaks Japanese better than I do.

But you already knew that, I'm sure.

Look at the following examples for something (perhaps) new:

Megumi has visited more countries than I have.

We can use have again because have is an auxiliary verb here.

Megumi has more skirts than I do.

Here, has is NOT an auxiliary verb, and in SAE, we cannot use the verb have in the second bit.

Here's what you need to know:

having + past participle

is used to express actions that are finished and to show that one thing comes after another. Furthermore, there is usually a "because relationship between the two.

For example:

Having eaten already, I turned down Megumi's invitation to dinner.

This sentence is okay.

But this next sentence is NOT okay, because the two things should be happening at the same time (basically the same grammar point found in this question):

Having been sick and having felt tired, Alan did not want to go to work.

All the things in this sentence are happening at the same time, so we should NOT use the "having + past participle" construction here.

And this sentence is incorrect because there's no "because relationship" between the two parts of the sentence:

Having set, the Sun rose some hours later.

The Sun will set and rise no matter what; setting doesn't cause rising, so we shouldn't use the "having + past participle" construction here.

"Modeled After" is the correct idiom

Hopefully is almost always wrong on GMAT

Usage Note: Writers who use hopefully as a sentence adverb, as in Hopefully the measures will be adopted, should be aware that the usage is unacceptable to many critics, including a large majority of the Usage Panel. It is not easy to explain why critics dislike this use of hopefully. The use is justified by analogy to similar uses of many other adverbs, as in Mercifully, the play was brief or Frankly, I have no use for your friend. And though this use of hopefully may have been a vogue word when it first gained currency back in the early 1960s, it has long since lost any hint of jargon or pretentiousness for the general reader. The wide acceptance of the usage reflects popular recognition of its usefulness; there is no precise substitute. Someone who says Hopefully, the treaty will be ratified makes a hopeful prediction about the fate of the treaty, whereas someone who says I hope (or We hope or It is hoped) the treaty will be ratified expresses a bald statement about what is desired. Only the latter could be continued with a clause such as but it isn't likely. ·It might have been expected, then, that the initial flurry of objections to hopefully would have subsided once the usage became well established.

Instead, critics appear to have become more adamant in their opposition. In the 1969

Usage Panel survey, 44 percent of the Panel approved the usage, but this dropped to 27 percent in our 1986 survey. (By contrast, 60 percent in the latter survey accepted the comparable use of mercifully in the sentence Mercifully, the game ended before the opponents could add another touchdown to the lopsided score.) It is not the use of sentence adverbs per se that bothers the Panel; rather, the specific use of hopefully in this way has become a shibboleth.

None is one of the indefinite pronouns that is singular or plural. There used to be a old rule that defined that none is less than zero so it inherits a singular verb. However it is used in different context many times, and I would agree with you that since 'pregnancies' is plural, it should take a plural verb, but with the choices given...D is definitely the best answer, and that is what ETS will look for.

Example: In this question I think none of the answers are correct.

Jojo had so little money when she was in college that she couldn't even afford to buy new clothes, much less take a vacation.

___________________________________________

quote:

10. However much United States voters may agree that there is waste in government and that the government as a whole spends beyond its means, it is difficult to find broad support for a movement toward a minimal state.

(A) However much United States voters may agree that

(B) Despite the agreement among United States voters to the fact

(D) Even though United States voters may agree

(E) There is agreement among United States voters that

This is a very commonly asked question. The reason C is not the answer is that C changes the meaning.

Look at these simplified sentences:

• However much you complain, I will not change my mind.

This sentence means no matter how much you complain, I will not change my mind.

Or, to put it in a more precise way, my resolve to stick to my decision will not wane even if the degree of your complaining increases.

This meaning is quite specific. Now compare it to this sentence:

• Although you complain, I will not change my mind.

This sentence means even though you complain, I will not change my mind. This meaning is pretty simple, and doesn't need any more explanation, I think. So, even though the two meanings are quite close, they are in fact different, and between two grammatically correct and plausible sentences, we must go with the one that doesn't change the meaning of A.

4. What does "that which" refer to in this sentence. (correct answer is D)

The inhabitants of Somalia greeted the measures outlawing polygamy with a similar defiance that welcomed the prohibition of alcohol in the United States in the nineteen-twenties.

a...

b. a similar defiance which welcomed

c. a similar defiance to what welcomed

d. a defiance similar to that which welcomed

e. the same defiance welcoming

In English, instead of saying something like "that that" we say "that which."

For example:

The number we recorded this week is greater than that which we recorded last week.

is preferable to

The number we recorded this week is greater than that that we recorded last week.

In this sentence

The number we recorded this week is greater than that which we recorded last week.

that = number

and

which = number

Notice that this sentence equals

The number we recorded this week is greater than the number that we recorded last week.

So in our sentence here, we want to say:

The inhabitants of Somalia greeted the measures outlawing polygamy with a defiance that was similar to the defiance that welcomed the prohibition of alcohol in the United States in the nineteen-twenties.

This is a great SC trick!

Adjectives modify nouns; adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

Sometimes in SC we must choose which to use according to the meaning.

• supposed Mediterranean predecessors.

This sentence means that we are not sure whether these things are actually predecessors.

• supposedly Mediterranean predecessors.

This sentence means that we are not sure whether these things are actually Mediterranean.

The answer is B, not D.

Notes

Posted in: GMAT

Educate Yourself..!

Sentence Correction - Idioms

**Second, for all means despite, and along with means in addition to. I'm sure you'll agree that the meanings are different, right?**

Think of x as y ----- correct idiom (not 'to be')

'So' is used to replace a Verb in a Sentence whereas 'It' is used to replace a Noun.

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