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hmgmat
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A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by hmgmat Mon Apr 13, 2009 11:51 pm

A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has been called one of the three best novels ever written by Black Americans"”the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man.
A. Black Americans"”the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
B. Black Americans"”including Native Son by Richard Wright and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
C. a Black American"”including Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
D. a Black American"”the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
E. a Black American"”the others being Richard Wright's Native Son and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

OA is E.
This question is a 3-to-2 split question. I wonder why it is "a Black American".
My understanding is that "ever written by Black Americans/a Black American" modifies "the three best novels".
Should those 3 books be written by 3 different blacks (or mixed of them)?
Thanks in advance.
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Re: A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by RonPurewal Thu Apr 16, 2009 4:11 am

hmgmat Wrote:A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has been called one of the three best novels ever written by Black Americans"”the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man.
A. Black Americans"”the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
B. Black Americans"”including Native Son by Richard Wright and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
C. a Black American"”including Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
D. a Black American"”the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
E. a Black American"”the others being Richard Wright's Native Son and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

OA is E.
This question is a 3-to-2 split question. I wonder why it is "a Black American".
My understanding is that "ever written by Black Americans/a Black American" modifies "the three best novels".
Should those 3 books be written by 3 different blacks (or mixed of them)?
Thanks in advance.


don't split on word choice first. that's not a smart way to split.

go with grammar first.
in this case, parallel structure is pretty easy. the sentence makes it clear that you're comparing novels, not their authors, so (a), (c), and (d) are instantly out because their second halves mistakenly mention the people themselves as part of the comparison.
(b) is not as parallel as (e), either. since the original says "jean toomer's cane", the others should also have the form "X's Y", not "Y by X".

--

word choice is a sticky thing. for instance, it's actually better to say "birds have a four-chambered heart" than to say "birds have four-chambered hearts", because the former makes it clear that each bird has exactly 1 heart. both, however, are acceptable.
in a similar vein, the construction of (d) and (e) makes it more clear that each book has exactly 1 author.

remember - don't question correct answers; learn from them.

--

NEVER split on word choice before parallelism (which is possibly the single most important topic in SC). that's a recipe for disaster.

--

i'm curious as to why you actually took the time to write
"This question is a 3-to-2 split question."

do you think this is important?
...because it isn't. there have even been "4-1" or "2-2-1" splits in which the "1" is correct.

or, worse yet, do you automatically prefer the "3" over the "2"? i certainly hope not.
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Re: A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by hmgmat Thu Apr 16, 2009 1:19 pm

Hi Ron,

Thanks for your reply.

I was confused because I don't know when using a singular noun associated with a plural noun (e.g. "a Black African" associated with "3 novels") will create a confusion such as the one in
for-the-last-five-years-the-dutch-economy-has-grown-faster-t6655.html
(economy vs. economies)

When I see a split in the choices, I don't lean toward any side. But I thought that it would help in saving time because if I knew that "3 Black Africans" was wrong, then I would cross out A&B quickly without looking at the rest of A and B.
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Re: A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by RonPurewal Mon Apr 20, 2009 6:47 am

as i said above, you should NOT use word choice as a #1 method of elimination. although you may think that you're "saving time", you're doing so at the peril of what essentially boils down to taking guesses.

grammar is king. DO NOT split on anything else until you have absolutely exhausted the supply of grammatical splits that you know how to resolve.

I was confused because I don't know when using a singular noun associated with a plural noun (e.g. "a Black African" associated with "3 novels") will create a confusion

i was a bit startled by that difference, too.

in matters of word choice, the only option is simply to look at what gmac does, and try your best to ape whatever that may be.
remember to split on grammar first. especially parallelism (as seen in this problem), which is the single most common grammatical issue on the entire exam.
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Re: A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by hmgmat Wed Apr 22, 2009 3:55 am

yea, but sometimes, I just have a hard time to figure what degree of parallelism is needed.

thanks for all your help =)
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Re: A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by JonathanSchneider Fri May 08, 2009 1:04 am

: )
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Re: A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by lawrencewwh Thu May 21, 2009 5:41 am

great explanation, many thanks.!
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Re: A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by JonathanSchneider Fri May 22, 2009 1:39 am

: )
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Re: A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by nanu.nantaki Fri Aug 21, 2009 2:53 am

Isn't generally "being" is considered wrong or wordy in GMAT ? I saw copuple of GMATPrep problems that have "being" in the correct answer. That puzzles me. I used to ignore the answer choice just by spotting "being" in it. Is this a bad strategy ? Has anything changed ? Ron, Stacey, Emily, Jonathan, please help !!
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Re: A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by RonPurewal Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:49 am

nanu.nantaki Wrote:Isn't generally "being" is considered wrong or wordy in GMAT ? I saw copuple of GMATPrep problems that have "being" in the correct answer. That puzzles me. I used to ignore the answer choice just by spotting "being" in it. Is this a bad strategy ? Has anything changed ? Ron, Stacey, Emily, Jonathan, please help !!


this is not an absolute rule, nor should it ever have been put forward as such by our instructors.

IN GENERAL, though, MOST choices we see with "being" are incorrect. hence the observation.

--

in many cases with "being", you can simply omit "being". for instance:
jimmy, being an accountant, knows the tax code well.
you can revise this to just...
jimmy, an accountant, knows the tax code well.

in this case, you can't just kill the "being", so you should consider it as a legitimate option (which, as it turns out, it actually is in this case).
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Re: A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by nanu.nantaki Sat Aug 29, 2009 7:39 pm

Thank you very much Ron !!
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Re: A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by RonPurewal Sun Sep 20, 2009 3:14 am

nanu.nantaki Wrote:Thank you very much Ron !!


you got it
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Re: A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by SC312 Sat Jul 27, 2013 5:08 pm

Ron,

What is the part following the dash modify in the sentence

In other examples of dashes, we have seen that the description set-off by the dash modifies the noun that occurs just before the dash. For instance :

Most of the purported health benefits of tea come from antioxidants"”compounds that are also found in beta carotene, vitamin
E, and vitamin C and that
....

Thanks
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Re: A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by RonPurewal Sat Aug 03, 2013 7:42 am

SC312 Wrote:Ron,

What is the part following the dash modify in the sentence


it describes "the three best novels ever written by Black Americans".
even if you've never seen this type of construction before, you should be able to deduce this from context -- it's quite clear which "others" are being described.

the dash is an interesting animal; it can do lots and lots of different things.
in fact, uniquely among all punctuation marks, it can actually set off an entire sentence as a modifier/description, as it does in og13 #132.
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Re: A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has

by lzw77_2009 Mon Aug 12, 2013 1:16 am

RonPurewal Wrote:
nanu.nantaki Wrote:Isn't generally "being" is considered wrong or wordy in GMAT ? I saw copuple of GMATPrep problems that have "being" in the correct answer. That puzzles me. I used to ignore the answer choice just by spotting "being" in it. Is this a bad strategy ? Has anything changed ? Ron, Stacey, Emily, Jonathan, please help !!


this is not an absolute rule, nor should it ever have been put forward as such by our instructors.

IN GENERAL, though, MOST choices we see with "being" are incorrect. hence the observation.

--

in many cases with "being", you can simply omit "being". for instance:
jimmy, being an accountant, knows the tax code well.
you can revise this to just...
jimmy, an accountant, knows the tax code well.

in this case, you can't just kill the "being", so you should consider it as a legitimate option (which, as it turns out, it actually is in this case).


Dear Ron,
I still don't quite understand the usage of BEING in (E). I think the BEING phrase here is used to modify the others. Am I correct?
And I also find BEING can be "used in explanations to give the most important facts about something" in dictionary. Here is an exampe:
I wasn't surprised about the accident, kids being what they are. Is the BEING here the same as the BEING in (E)?