Sentence Correction Questions/Discussion

[Matt P]

From Srabani (Moved it here):

"According to his own account, Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, modeled the face of the statue like his mother's and the body like his wife's.

(A) modeled the face of the statue like his mother's and the body like his wife's
(B) modeled the face of the statue after that of his mother and the body after that of his wife
(C) modeled the face of the statue like his mother and the body like his wife
(D) made the face of the statue after his mother and the body after his wife
(E) made the face of the statue look like his mother and the body look like his wife

Could you include explanation too. Thanks."

[Matt P]

Here is my approach to this question:

The first thing we notice is modeled ... like vs modeled ... after that vs modeled ... like vs made ... after vs made ... look like.
"Modeled ... after that" and "made ... look like" are idiomatically correct. (A), (C), and (D) are thus incorrect.
Both (B) and (E) are grammatically correct, so we refer to the meaning of the original sentence:

The face of the statue should be modeled after "his mother's"; i.e, his mother's face, and the body should be modeled after his wife's face.
Only option (B) satisfies this. Option (E) states that the face and body were made to look like his mother and wife, not his mother's face and wife's body.

So (B) is correct.

[srabani]

thanks MATT..my idiom sense is really horrible..any suggestion how to improve that..

that will be really helpful :)

[Matt P]

This is a very difficult question for me to answer; while I understand the grammar for most sentence correction problems, I also use a great deal of "native-speaker-intuition".

Maybe someone else would be able to provide some better advice on this; especially someone who isn't a native English speaker.

[Vaibhav Sinha]

This question primarily tests the correct idiom usages which are sometimes tough for non-natives to identify. I am not that great with idioms myself. But I have gone through the lists of Idioms on MGMAT-SC book and Aristotle SC Grail. They help to a certain extent. Here, one would have to know the difference between modeled like (which means the face modeled (verb-ed) like mother's face; presents a nonsensical comparison) and modeled after (which means the face looks similar to mother's face; makes more sense).

Also option A would be deemed as wrong also because it's missing "that" relative pronoun from the clause. Ideally the option A would have been correct if it were (Hypothetical Subjunctive expression):

modeled the face of the statue like that his mother's and the body like that his wife's

http://gmatclub.com/forum/according-to-his-own-account-frederic-auguste-bartholdi-80794.html

This link discusses this in detail. Also I would like to bring a point that in actual GMAT there a very limited chances of finding a question like this i.e. which requires us to know the correct idiom to get to the correct answer choice. In actual GMAT one would definitely have more than 1 idiom error in the sentence to identify the correct answer choice. GMAC is constantly looking to neutralize the advantage of Natives who knowing all the correct idioms and non-natives who don't. However, learning Idioms is gonna give you an edge over few SC- problems on actual GMAT. 

This article sheds more light on the subject:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index.php/2011/09/19/idioms-myths-and-more-news-from-the-gmac/

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index.php/2011/09/23/update-on-idioms-on-the-gmat/ 

Hope that helps.

Vaibhav

[Vaibhav Sinha]

[Vaibhav Sinha]

Fresh meat: 

Q2.

[Vaibhav Sinha]

Fresh Meat.

Q3.

[swati.pdh]

Are the answers B, C and E??

[Sulman Raja]

These are my ansewers:

Q1 The recent discovery.....

A

Q2: In principle, .....

E

Q3: Oracle is more adept....

B

On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 9:47 AM, swati.pdh <swat...@gmail.com> wrote:

Are the answers B, C and E??

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[Vaibhav Sinha]

@Swati and @Sulman: U guys want to try again. I won't tell which all answers is/are wrong yet, but would definitely like hear your reasoning in striking out answers and in selecting one.

This is a forum is to about out the correct reasoning. Lets get it out people. 

On Friday, 21 June 2013 18:10:14 UTC+5:30, Matt P wrote:

[swati.pdh]

sounds good :)

[Sulman Raja]

I agree Vaibhav! 

Q1 - This was a little difficult for me to apply grammatical rules to cross out wrong answers. After thinking through this one again I choose B as well :). I know switching answers on you!

My general approach to this type of question  is that when I see that there is a timeline of events in this sentence, I think i need to use the correct verb tense that puts the events in the correct order.  

A - The past perfect "had been dominated" is not applicable here becuase we are not talking about two different things that happend one ofter the other in the past but rather at the same time.  Leedsicthys did not domintae before the era existed rather Leedsicthys dominated during that era. Also the "now evolved currently into" is redundant in expressing the time. 

B - This is the right choice because it puts the events in correct order. Recent discovery -> Era existed -> dominted by Leedsicthys - > that are now evolved into basking sharks.

C- Again, the past perfect suggest that the Leedicthys dominated before the era existed. 

D - "that presently are now evolved into" is redundant. 

E - "that an era dominated by Leedsicthys, evolving now into basking sharks"  suggest that the era is evolving which does not make sense. 

Q2

 

In this sentence I mostly leveraged the meaning strategy. 

A -  This suggest that  the town of Varosha along with the Turkish- Cypriots have agreed in principle to hand over the 9% land. 

B-  "that they now occupy a ghost resort town south of F" is an independent clause and is a run on sentence. 

C - This is similar to A in that it suggest that TC and the town of V are ready to hand back the land. 

D -  In principle, that they now occupy. You cant occupy a principle!  does not make sense

E -  Correct answer. Clearly states the authors intent.  TC are ready to hand back 9% of 38% of C that hey occupy along with the town of V. 

Q3. 

In this one the main approach I took was the intent of the sentence strategy.  I first saw that the author is talking about three things here. Oracle, SAP and companies.  This is a little tricky because to remember the "and  at integrating"  part at the end of the sentence. 

A -  the noun closet to the verbs here is SAP which suggest that SAP has unique product line, non overlapping customers. This may be the case for SAP but that is not the intent of the author. 

B - Correct answer. "Oracle is more adept at acquiring companies  than SAP" is the correct comparison. The verbs unique product line, non overlapping customers refer back to companies. The "and at integrating their managements"   refers back Oracle because of the "and"

C - The "Oracle,"  makes the verbs distinct product line and non-overlapping customers refer back to Oracle. This changes the meaning of the sentence which is not the authors intent. 

D - "distinct product line" and "non-overlapping customers" refer back to Oracle. Also "more adept fashion" is a bit redundant/awkward. 

E -  The comparison here is ambiguous. Parallelism issue.  There should be  "than is SAP at  <somthing>"

Phew! that was a lot of work but I love it! This was really helpful :)

Sulman

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[Vaibhav Sinha]

Good work Sulman. Kudos for coming up for explanation. It really helps in pointing out why an answer choice is wrong. Infact in many cases there are more than 1 thing going wrong in a sentence. Its important to understand all the wrong stuff. Its like finding gold nuggets in the pile. Its always good practice to do so.

OA is indeed

B E B