<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>How to Find the Core Sentence &#8211; GMAT</title>
	<atom:link href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/tag/how-to-find-the-core-sentence/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat</link>
	<description>GMAT Prep Course, Best GMAT Class &#38; Study Books &#124; Manhattan Prep GMAT</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 30 Aug 2019 17:36:50 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en-US</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>
	hourly	</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>
	1	</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.2</generator>
	<item>
		<title>GMAT Sentence Correction: How to Find the Core Sentence (Part 7)</title>
		<link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-7/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Stacey Koprince]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Apr 2018 16:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[For Current Studiers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GMAT Prep]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GMAT Resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GMAT Strategies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GMAT Study Guide]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How to Study]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sentence Correction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Verbal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How to Find the Core Sentence]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=15563</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Guess what? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free—we’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. Welcome to the latest installment of our Core Sentence series on GMAT Sentence Correction problems! If you haven’t seen this series before, start here. Last time, we talked about how [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-7/">GMAT Sentence Correction: How to Find the Core Sentence (Part 7)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-15604" src="//cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2018/04/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-7-stacey-koprince.png" alt="Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - GMAT Sentence Correction: How to Find the Core Sentence (Part 7) by Stacey Koprince" width="1200" height="628" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2018/04/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-7-stacey-koprince.png 1200w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2018/04/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-7-stacey-koprince-300x157.png 300w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2018/04/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-7-stacey-koprince-768x402.png 768w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2018/04/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-7-stacey-koprince-1024x536.png 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></p>
<p><strong><em>Guess what? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free—we’re not kidding! <a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Check out our upcoming courses here</a>.</em></strong></p>
<hr />
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Welcome to the latest installment of our Core Sentence series on GMAT Sentence Correction problems! If you haven’t seen this series before, </span><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2015/01/02/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">start here</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span><span id="more-15563"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2018/04/04/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-6/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Last time</a>, we talked about how the test-writers will sometimes use a full-sentence underline to distract you with a lot of different changes—when there’s one “big” change sitting right in front of you that you can use to eliminate all or most of the 4 wrong answers.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’ve got another full-underline SC for you, also from the GMATPrep® free exams, but maybe with some different angles this time&#8230; Go for it!</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">* <u>&#8220;There are no legal limits, as there are for cod and haddock, on the size of monkfish that can be caught, a circumstance that contributes to their depletion through overfishing.</u></span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(A) There are no legal limits, as there are for cod and haddock, on the size of monkfish that can be caught, a circumstance that contributes to their depletion through overfishing.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(B) There are no legal limits on the size of monkfish that can be caught, unlike cod or haddock, a circumstance that contributes to depleting them because they are being overfished.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(C) There are legal limits on the size of cod and haddock that can be caught, but not for monkfish, which contributes to its depletion through overfishing.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(D) Unlike cod and haddock, there are no legal size limits on catching monkfish, which contributes to its depletion by being overfished.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(E) Unlike catching cod and haddock, there are no legal size limits on catching monkfish, contributing to their depletion because they are overfished.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ready? Let’s do this!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Our standard </span><a href="http://tinyurl.com/scprocess" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">GMAT Sentence Correction Process</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> has us start with a First Glance—a look at the beginning of the underline and how that changes in each of the five answers. My first thought? The word </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">There</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is useless. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/263a.png" alt="☺" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But! I did notice something as I scanned down those answers. Choices (D) and (E) both start with the word </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unlike</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">! Boom: I know there’s a comparison (or a contrast, actually) going on. Given that the opener of the original sentence told me nothing, this is really useful to know.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Okay, let’s read the sentence and see what it means:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><u>“There are no legal limits, as there are for cod and haddock, on the size of monkfish that can be caught, a circumstance that contributes to their depletion through overfishing.&#8221;</u></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Even though there’s no obvious contrast marker (like </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">unlike</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">), I know to look for a contrast and I’ve spotted it: Monkfish don’t have legal limits on size, but cod and haddock do. That complete thought takes me through this much of the sentence:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><u>“There are no legal limits, as there are for cod and haddock, on the size of monkfish that can be caught, &#8230;&#8221;</u></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That is a complete sentence. Is the whole thing the core sentence? Or can I strip any part of it out as “extra?”</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><u>“There are no legal limits, <span style="color: #999999;">as there are for cod and haddock</span>, on the size of monkfish that can be caught, &#8230;&#8221;</u></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I can ignore the comparison part, actually—the stuff between the commas. Let your eyes sort of skip over it and concentrate just on the main information. The core sentence is really just this info about the monkfish.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now, what comes after that last comma?</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><u>“… a circumstance that contributes to their depletion through overfishing.”</u></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s not a complete sentence. If this part is correct, then, these words must be acting as a modifier. Let’s see…</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><u>“There are no legal limits, <span style="color: #999999;">as there are for cod and haddock,</span> on the size of monkfish that can be caught, a circumstance that contributes to their depletion through overfishing.&#8221;</u></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The words </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">a circumstance</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> refer back to the situation described in the core. This is the circumstance: There are no legal limits on the size of monkfish that we’re allowed to catch.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If that’s true, does it make sense that this could lead to their depletion? Yes, definitely. Okay, so this modifier makes sense.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now you have a choice, since the whole sentence is underlined. Do you want to look at the other modifier portions in the other choices to see what else you can eliminate on that potential issue? Or would you rather loop back around to the comparison and deal with that?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I personally find comparisons easier, so I’m going to start there. (But I’ll show you the modifier part later, too.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Okay, what about that comparison? Is it properly made in the original sentence?</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><u>“There are no legal limits, <span style="color: #999999;">as there are for cod and haddock,</span> on the size of monkfish that can be caught, &#8230;&#8221;</u></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’m not 100% sure, actually. This does sound a little funny—they’re mentioning the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">cod and haddock</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> before even saying </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">monkfish</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Maybe the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unlike</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> setup I spotted in the later answers will be better?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Time to compare the answers—efficiently. Which parts do I need to look at? Since I just want to look at the comparison issue, I can ignore the ending modifier stuff for now.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Also, note that the first three sentences have a different structure than the final two—so deal with each in a group.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(A) There are no legal limits, as there are for cod and haddock, on the size of monkfish that can be caught ….</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(B) There are no legal limits on the size of monkfish that can be caught, unlike cod or haddock ….</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(C) There are legal limits on the size of cod and haddock that can be caught, but not for monkfish ….”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Answer (B) does also use that </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">unlike</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> word to signal the contrast. If you are going to use </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">unlike</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, then you have to follow the same rules for the word </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">like</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. You’re comparing nouns (so far, so good, since </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">cod</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">haddock</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> are both nouns). </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The problem with choice (B) is in the structure of the first part about monkfish. The word monkfish is part of a prepositional phrase (</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">of monkfish</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">). You can compare prepositional phrases to prepositional phrases or nouns to nouns—but not a prepositional phrase to nouns. (It’s also a good idea, when using unlike to compare nouns, to have the two sets of nouns closer to each other, by the way.) Eliminate (B).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Answer (C) seems to fix this problem—we have </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">of cod and haddock</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">for monkfish</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Both prepositional phrases!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why did I say it only </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">seems</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to fix the problem? When you use the word </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">but</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to make a contrast, the rules change. The word </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">but</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is a conjunction. Before the conjunction we have an entire clause (</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are legal limits…</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">). After the conjunction, then, we have to have another clause—but we don’t. There’s only the prepositional phrase </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">for monkfish</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Eliminate (C). You could fix this part of this choice by saying something like “</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">but there are not for monkfish</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">…”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Okay, time to look at those other two that used the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unlike</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> setup. In this case, the comparison marker comes right at the beginning of the sentence, so the structure should be </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unlike X, Y</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (where </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">X</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Y</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> are the elements being compared).</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(D) Unlike cod and haddock, there are no legal size limits on catching monkfish ….</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(E) Unlike catching cod and haddock, there are no legal size limits on catching monkfish &#8230;.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the case of choice (D), the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">X</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> element consists of plain nouns (</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">cod </span></i><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">and</span></em><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> haddock</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">) but the</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Y</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> element is what comes after the comma: the word </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">there</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. If we’re going to have </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">cod and haddock</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> as the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">X</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> element, we need </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">monkfish</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> after that comma.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Answer (E) is similar. The </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">X</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> element is </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">catching cod and haddock</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, so the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Y</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> element should be something like </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">catching monkfish</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. They do say </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">catching monkfish</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> later in the sentence—but this element needs to be right after the comma, not later on after the main subject and verb (</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">there are</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">) of the sentence.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Eliminate choices (D) and (E). We’re left with choice (A) as the correct answer.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wait, I thought that sounded funny! It still does, frankly—but that’s because nobody ever speaks this way. It’s absolutely okay, though, to “break up” the contrast and stick what seems to be the second element (</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">cod and haddock</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">) before the first element (</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">monkfish</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If this sounds funny to you, too, make yourself a flash card with the full correct sentence. Also try to write another comparison sentence—with your own topic—that mimics this structure. Put that one on a flash card too. Review until you ingrain into your brain that this sentence structure is okay!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Let’s also see how we could have used the modifier stuff at the end. This time, I’m going to mentally strip out the comparison and focus just on the core plus the modifier.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(A) There are no legal limits</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, <span style="color: #999999;">as there are for cod and haddock,</span></span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> on the size of monkfish that can be caught, a circumstance that contributes to their depletion through overfishing.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(B) There are no legal limits on the size of monkfish that can be caught</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, <span style="color: #999999;">unlike cod or haddock,</span> a </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">circumstance that contributes to depleting them because they are being overfished.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(C) There are legal limits on the size of cod and haddock that can be caught</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, <span style="color: #999999;">but not for monkfish, </span></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">which contributes to its depletion through overfishing.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(D) </span><span style="font-weight: 400; color: #999999;">Unlike cod and haddock,</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> there are no legal size limits on catching monkfish, which contributes to its depletion by being overfished.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(E) </span><span style="font-weight: 400; color: #999999;">Unlike catching cod and haddock,</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> there are no legal size limits on catching monkfish, contributing to their depletion because they are overfished.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Glance down the start of each modifier. Spot anything?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Choices (A) and (B) both start with </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">a circumstance</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. That structure allows the modifier to refer to the entire circumstance or situation that was described in the prior clause. We already decided that was fine in answer (A). What about (B)?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Choice (B) might be okay for the same reasons (A) was, though I’m not super happy about two things. First, they now put </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">unlike cod or haddock</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in between, so I have to think about whether the sentence is referring to the monkfish’s circumstance or the cod / haddock’s circumstance. And that leads me to the second thing I don’t like: </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">them</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">they</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Who is being depleted / overfished? I shouldn’t have to think this hard to figure out that it’s probably the monkfish. Eliminate (B).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">(By the way: Now I’m getting an inkling as to why they structured choice (A) the way they did. They wanted to make sure that it was clear that we were talking about the monkfish being depleted, not the other fish. This actually makes sense, now!)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Answers (C) and (D) are similar: Both use a comma-which modifier structure. These modifiers are supposed to refer to the main noun before the comma.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What exactly </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">contributes to its depletion</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">? Not the monkfish itself! Rather, it’s the fact that there are no legal limits on the size that can be caught…that’s what </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">contributes to its depletion</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">! But that whole “fact” is not just a noun in the sentence. I can’t use comma-which to refer to that whole clause. Eliminate (C).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What about choice (D)? Same deal. From a meaning perspective, that modifier should logically refer to the whole situation or action, not just to a noun shortly before the comma, so I can’t use the comma-which setup here. Eliminate (D).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Finally, choice (E) changes to a comma -ing modifier. I know that comma –ing is supposed to refer to the whole clause. So maybe this is okay?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The sentence sounds funny to me, but I think that’s mainly because of two other things. First, we have the incorrect usage of the comparison at the beginning. It also sounds funny because of this:</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> there are no legal size limits on catching monkfish</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. It’s not totally clear to me that that’s talking about the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">size of the monkfish</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> themselves (that is, that the limit is on the size of the fish). Maybe it could refer to the size of the catch—i.e., the total number of fish caught?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And again, I’m now realizing why they wrote answer (A) the way that they did—sometimes, it’s necessary to use more words in order to make sure that your meaning is clear. Between choices (A) and (E), choice (A) is much more clear.</span></p>
<h4><b>Key Takeaways for Processing Hard GMAT Sentence Correction Problems</b></h4>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">(1) Sometimes, your first look at the start of the underline in the original sentence won’t tell you anything, but a glance down the start of each answer choice will reveal something useful. Keep an eye out for those opportunities!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">(2) When reading the original sentence, your first goal is to understand the meaning and to notice any potential issues. Don’t necessarily dive in the minute you see something that you think </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">might</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> be an issue. Give yourself a chance to see the sentence as a whole (especially on full underlines!) and then choose your solution path based on your own SC strengths. ?</span></p>
<h6><span style="font-weight: 400;">* GMATPrep® questions courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.</span></h6>
<hr />
<p><em><strong>Can’t get enough of Stacey’s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of <a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">her upcoming GMAT courses</a> absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.</strong></em></p>
<hr />
<p><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/stacey-koprince/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-9719 size-thumbnail" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/stacey-koprince-150x150.png" alt="stacey-koprince" width="150" height="150" /></a><em><strong><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/stacey-koprince/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Stacey Koprince</a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.</strong> Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests. <a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/#instructor/86" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here</a>.</em></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-7/">GMAT Sentence Correction: How to Find the Core Sentence (Part 7)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
					
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>GMAT Sentence Correction: How to Find the Core Sentence (Part 6)</title>
		<link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-6/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Stacey Koprince]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Apr 2018 19:42:49 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[For Current Studiers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GMAT Prep]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GMAT Strategies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GMAT Study Guide]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How to Study]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sentence Correction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Verbal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Core Sentence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How to Find the Core Sentence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Long Underline]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=15431</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>Guess what? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free—we’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. Harder GMAT Sentence Correction questions often have longer underlines and “jumble up” the answer choices. That is, the answers change so significantly that it’s difficult to figure out what’s different [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-6/">GMAT Sentence Correction: How to Find the Core Sentence (Part 6)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-15535" src="//cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2018/04/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-6-stacey-koprince.png" alt="Manhattan Prep GMAT Blog - GMAT Sentence Correction: How to Find the Core Sentence (Part 6) by Stacey Koprince" width="1200" height="628" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2018/04/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-6-stacey-koprince.png 1200w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2018/04/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-6-stacey-koprince-300x157.png 300w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2018/04/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-6-stacey-koprince-768x402.png 768w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2018/04/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-6-stacey-koprince-1024x536.png 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></p>
<p><strong><em>Guess what? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free—we’re not kidding! <a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Check out our upcoming courses here</a>.</em></strong></p>
<hr />
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Harder GMAT Sentence Correction questions often have longer underlines and “jumble up” the answer choices. That is, the answers change so significantly that it’s difficult to figure out what’s different about each one—and, therefore, it’s difficult to figure out where to start or how to eliminate wrong answers efficiently. When this happens, what do you do?</span><span id="more-15431"></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We’re going to talk about exactly that today, continuing our series on </span><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2015/01/02/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">finding the sentence core.</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (Start there if you haven’t seen anything in this series yet.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Then, try this GMAT Sentence Correction problem from the free GMATPrep</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">®</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> practice exams.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">* “</span><u>In contrast to ongoing trade imbalances with China and Japan, the United States trade deficit with Mexico declined by $500 million as a result of record exports to that country.</u></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(A) In contrast to ongoing trade imbalances with China and Japan, the United States trade deficit with Mexico declined by $500 million as a result of record exports to that country.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(B) In contrast to ongoing trade imbalances with China and Japan, the United States sold record exports to Mexico, reducing its trade deficit by $500 million. </span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(C) When compared with ongoing trade imbalances with China and Japan, the United States sold record exports to Mexico, reducing their trade deficit by $500 million.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(D) Compared with ongoing trade imbalances with China and Japan, the United States sold record exports to Mexico, reducing the trade deficit by $500 million.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(E) Compared to ongoing trade imbalances with China and Japan, the United States record exports to Mexico caused a $500 million decline in the trade deficit with that country.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Our standard </span><a href="http://tinyurl.com/scprocess" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">GMAT Sentence Correction Process</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> starts with a step to take a First Glance, allowing you the possibility of figuring out quickly one issue that the sentence might be testing.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The First Glance on this problem shows that the entire sentence is underlined—and that clue makes it much more likely that the answer choices will change quite a bit relative to each other. That tells you that the sentence is more likely to test one of the “global” issues that tend to cross large swathes of a sentence: Sentence Structure, Meaning, Modifiers, or Parallelism. (Though it could test other things, too!)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The first glance here also gives one other clue: The first few words of the original sentence are </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">in contrast to</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. That’s a comparison marker (comparisons are a subset of parallelism), so one potential starting point would be to check that comparison.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Next, you’re going to read the entire original sentence. Since the entire sentence is underlined, pay particular attention to the “core” of the sentence vs. the extra modifiers tacked on top of the core. (We’ll talk about how to do this below.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Also, as you go, jot down any notes to help you remember what’s there. For instance, the first thing I might jot down is “Comp” to remind me that the sentence begins with a comparison.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ready? Let’s do this!</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><u>In contrast to ongoing trade imbalances with China and Japan, the United States trade deficit with Mexico declined by $500 million as a result of record exports to that country.”</u></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What did you think?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The whole opening part (to the comma) is a modifier—it can’t stand alone as a sentence (i.e., it’s not the sentence core). It does contain that comparison language, though, so if I want to deal with the comparison first, that’s where I’ll focus my attention.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Where is the sentence core, then? It starts after that comma:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“…the United States trade deficit with Mexico declined by $500 million…”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">How far do we go? Go as far as you need to in order to have a complete sentence. I don’t need to go any farther than the above. The other part starting </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">as a result</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> does explain why the trade deficit declined, but I don&#8217;t need that information in order to have a complete sentence. It’s extra—more modifier.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So now I’m going to think of this sentence as three “chunks”:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">First chunk: Comparison marker plus part of the comparison itself</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Second chunk: The core sentence, explaining </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">what</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> happened with the US trade deficit with Mexico</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Third chunk: Another modifier, explaining </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">why</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the core sentence stuff happened</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">My scrap paper might look like this:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Comp    |    </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Core: what    |    </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mod: why</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In answers (B), (C), (D), and (E), some of those chunks might move around or change structure. In some cases, information that’s in the core sentence might move to a modifier or vice versa. Now, I’m prepared to notice how those changes occur.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Finally: Did you spot anything about the original sentence that you didn&#8217;t like? Is there anything we can tackle right now to eliminate the original sentence?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Part of me is wondering whether you’re supposed to say </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">in contrast to</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> or </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">in contrast with</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. I’m not entirely sure. Glancing down the answers, I see that (B) also says</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in contrast to</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, but the others change to different words: </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">when compared with</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">compared with</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, or </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">compared to</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. The word </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">with</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> has finally made an appearance…but I’m still not sure whether both forms are okay or what—so I’m going to ignore this and look for something else to use instead.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Let’s check the comparison itself. The marker is </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">in contrast to X, Y</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, where the X and Y portions have to be parallel and the same kind of thing. Are they?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the original sentence, yes. We’ve got:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"><u>“In contrast to</u></span></i> <b><i>ongoing trade imbalances</i></b><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> with China and Japan, </span></i><b><i>the</i></b><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> United States </span></i><b><i>trade deficit</i></b><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> with Mexico…”</span></i></p>
<p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Trade imbalances</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">trade deficit</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> are parallel (both nouns) and they’re the same “kind” of thing—they’re both talking about trade differences between countries.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check the comparison in the other answers:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(B) </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">In contrast to ongoing trade imbalances…, the United States sold…</span></i></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(C) </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">When compared with ongoing trade imbalances…, the United States sold…</span></i></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(D) </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Compared with ongoing trade imbalances…, the United States sold…</span></i></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“(E) </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Compared to ongoing trade imbalances…, the United States record exports to Mexico caused</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">…”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Answers (B), (C), and (D) all have the same problem: they compare</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> trade imbalances</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to the country of the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">United States</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Those aren’t the same kind of thing, so they can’t be compared to each other. All three of these can be eliminated for making a faulty comparison.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What about answer (E)? This one compares </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">trade imbalances</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">exports</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. This is certainly better than comparing trade imbalances to an entire country. It’s still not quite the same kind of thing, though. They’re related: A country can have record exports that result in a trade imbalance or record exports that result in balanced trade. But the record exports themselves are not the same idea as a trade imbalance—rather the trade deficit is the same kind of idea as a trade imbalance. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hey—where </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">is</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the trade deficit in answer (E)? Did they remove it?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">No, they didn’t—the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">trade deficit</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> does appear later in the sentence. So the best thing would be to put that after the comma so that you can directly compare the</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> trade imbalances </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">in 2 countries with the </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">trade deficit</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in a 3</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">rd</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> country.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Eliminate answers (B), (C), (D), and (E) for a faulty comparison. The correct answer is (A).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We were able to solve that without dealing with all those changing chunks, especially towards the end of the sentence! So why did I choose this as an example of dealing with answers that change a lot?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I chose it because the test writers are hoping to distract you with those changing answers—possibly to get you to fall into a trap and get this one wrong. (And, at the very least, they’re hoping to get you to spend way too much time trying to answer this one.)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The first glance gave us a clear issue: there’s a comparison going on. If you feel comfortable dealing with comparisons, go for it! Then you won’t have to worry about the more annoying changes occurring later in the sentence, most of which are actually fine.</span></p>
<h4><b>Key Takeaways for Full Underlines in GMAT Sentence Correction</b></h4>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">(1) Much of the time, full underlines test at least one of Sentence Structure, Meaning, Modifiers, and Parallelism—in this case, the problem tested Comparisons, a subset of Parallelism. Still use your First Glance to spot major markers that can tell you what’s going on.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">(2) If you do need to deal with significant changes in “chunks” of the answer choices, you will—but don’t get so distracted by those changes that you miss clues sitting right in front of you.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">(3) Comparisons require the X and Y portions to be parallel (that is, in the same form, such as noun to noun or prepositional phrase to prepositional phrase). They also require the X and Y elements to be the same kind of thing: a country to a country, for example, or (as in this case) a type of trade issue to a type of trade issue. ?</span></p>
<p><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2018/04/17/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-7/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Read on for Part 7 of How to Find the Core Sentence here!</strong></a></p>
<h6><span style="font-weight: 400;">* GMATPrep</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">®</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> questions courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.</span></h6>
<hr />
<p><em><strong>Can’t get enough of Stacey’s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of <a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">her upcoming GMAT courses</a> absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.</strong></em></p>
<hr />
<p><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/stacey-koprince/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft wp-image-9719 size-thumbnail" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/stacey-koprince-150x150.png" alt="stacey-koprince" width="150" height="150" /></a><em><strong><a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/instructors/stacey-koprince/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Stacey Koprince</a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.</strong> Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests. <a id="bloglink" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/classes/#instructor/86" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Check out Stacey’s upcoming GMAT courses here</a>.</em></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/gmat-sentence-correction-find-core-sentence-part-6/">GMAT Sentence Correction: How to Find the Core Sentence (Part 6)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
					
		
		
			</item>
	</channel>
</rss>