CAT Exam: Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza - Comparison

[sg2010]

Hello -

I received this problem on a CAT exam (below). However, I was not able to eliminate all the wrong answers nor was I able to understand why the right was was right.

Three questions:

1. How is the correct answer D? I thought that the last part of the sentence, ", must be baked alone before toppings are added", was a misplaced modifier / made this a run-on sentence? I thought that needed to be a parallelism marker or some conjunction, like "and must be baked alone...". Can you explain why you do not need the conjunction? Or, is the key takeaway that adding the "like a flatbread" provide much better clarity on the comparison?

2. Why is B incorrect? Is it because it is comparing "a pizza" to "a "pie crust" and "a flatbread"? i.e. is should only compare "crusts"?

3. I read the "because of" explanation, but do not understand why because of modified a clause here. it says "because of a crust,". Doesn't the comma indicate and end, and therefore because of only modifies a noun, as it should? (I assume due to should modify a clause).


"Chicago-style" deep-dish pizza must have its crust, which resembles a pie crust more than a traditional pizza-style flatbread, baked alone before toppings are added, and so takes longer to prepare it than most other types of pizza.

a) "Chicago-style" deep-dish pizza must have its crust, which resembles a pie crust more than a traditional pizza-style flatbread, baked alone before toppings are added, and so takes longer to prepare it than most other types of pizza.

b) The crust of "Chicago-style" deep-dish pizza is more similar to a pie crust than to a traditional pizza-style flatbread and must be baked alone before adding toppings, thus taking longer to prepare than most other types of pizzas.

c) "Chicago-style" deep-dish pizza takes longer to prepare than most other types of pizza because of its crust, resembling a pie crust more than a traditional pizza-style flatbread, must be baked alone before adding toppings.

d) "Chicago-style" deep-dish pizza takes longer to prepare than most other types of pizza because its crust, which is more like a pie crust than like a traditional pizza-style flatbread, must be baked alone before toppings are added.

e) Because its crust is more like a pie crust than a traditional pizza-style flatbread, "Chicago-style" deep-dish pizza must have its crust baked alone before toppings are added, and so takes longer than most other types of pizzas to prepare it.

OA: D

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

It sounds like you're getting lots of different ideas mixed up here. First of all, look for simple errors in the answer choices so that you can eliminate at least a couple of them without too much trouble.

Some marker words that, with experience, will jump out at you, are "it", "similar to", "longer...than". Learning how to act on these signs is part of your detective work-like study; I won't go into all the explanations here.

In answer to your questions:
1) "must be..." isn't a modifier. (Why did you think it was one?) It's a regular verb. Sure, we have a conjunction here - 'because'. The basic structure of the sentence is "Chicago-style" deep-dish pizza takes longer to prepare ... because its crust ... must be baked alone before toppings are added." I.e. we have two clauses connected by the word 'because'. It's totally fine.

2) The faulty comparison in B is "The crust of "Chicago-style" deep-dish pizza.... thus taking longer to prepare than most other types of pizzas." I.e. it's comparing the 'crust' to 'other types of pizza'. There's also the issue with 'adding...' mentioned in the explanation to the problem.

3) I assume you're referring to answer C here. The structure of the sentence is ""Chicago-style" deep-dish pizza takes longer to prepare ... because of its crust ... must be baked alone before adding toppings." Again, it seems that you've missed that 'must be' is a verb, thus making the part after 'because of' a clause.

The fact that you say "because of only modifies a noun, as it should? (I assume due to should modify a clause)" suggests that you don't quite understand the role of modifiers. Words or phrases such as 'because' and 'due to' aren't modifiers. Check out the SC strategy guide chapter here.