Few basic doubts!!

[sonu_gmat]

Here are my few doubts. These have not yet been major deciding factors but I think it would be good if I can get these cleared.

Thanks in advance.

1. Is 'that' and 'it' in the following interchangable?
The bird had long wingspan, and it is believed to have been.....
The bird had long wingspan, and that is believed to have been.....

2. What difference does 'a' make in the following?
X could have even greater significance.....
X could have even a greater significance....

3.In the following use of 'being' I guess is not wrong. Which one should we pick.
Being a year ahead in introducing X can give a company huge advantage.
To introduce X by a year earlier can give a company huge advantage

4. OG says 'among' introduces comparison. I did not get it. Is there any difference in meaning in the following two.
signs of earth quake include variation in electrical properties.
signs of earth quake include variation among electrical properties.

similarly,
One of X ...... and one among X

6. '....than him' and '....than he (is)'. Are both of these correct?
e.g. X is taller than him / X is taller than he

7.What is the error in the following sentence?'for....' is inside a dependent clause. is it correct usage. I'm not going into meaning only looking for grammatical error.
Until recently national leaders lived in world in which public and privare realms of life are largely separate, for press cooperated in maintaining the distinction, and people judged their leaders without receiving any intimate information about them.

8. I found the following pattern in atleast 4 to 5 Qs. Everytime I found first one is the best choice. Can you please explain?
....what he lacked was made up by....
....what he was lacking was made up by....

9. Please explain what is wrong with the first one. Is 'probably would' considered redundant.
She has not been and probably never would be allowed to go there.
She has not been allowed to go and probaly never will be allowed to go there.

[StaceyKoprince]

Please make sure to read (and follow!) the guidelines when posting. Different questions are supposed to be asked in different posts - one major question per post. I'll answer some of your questions in this post. For the rest, please repost according to the guidelines. Thanks!

1. Is 'that' and 'it' in the following interchangable?
The bird had long wingspan, and it is believed to have been.....
The bird had long wingspan, and that is believed to have been.....

Nope. "It" refers to the bird; "it" can be either a subject or an object pronoun. Because it is used as a subject in the above sentence, "it" is functioning as a subject pronoun in that sentence. "That" refers to the long wingspan or to the entire clause (the fact that the bird had a long wingspan. "That" is a demonstrative pronoun and, in this case, is used as an unmodified demonstrative pronoun (that is, "that is functioning as a subject in its own clause"). Although unmodified demonstrative pronouns exist in the language, the GMAT prefers to use a subject pronoun in these circumstances, so if you want "... is believed to have been" to refer to the bird, you have to use "it," not "that."

2. What difference does 'a' make in the following?
X could have even greater significance.....
X could have even a greater significance....

The second sentence is not grammatically correct. You could say "X could have a greater significance" but not with the word "even."

Being a year ahead in introducing X can give a company huge advantage.
To introduce X by a year earlier can give a company huge advantage

The second sentence is absolutely incorrect because of the word "by," so you'd have no choice but to pick the awkward first sentence. Generally speaking, though, it's rare to have a correct GMAT sentence begin with the word "being." I don't think we'd see this option on a real test question as the right answer.

4. OG says 'among' introduces comparison. I did not get it. Is there any difference in meaning in the following two.
signs of earth quake include variation in electrical properties.
signs of earth quake include variation among electrical properties.

"Among" is used to compare (or contrast) three or more things. Among Amy, Betty, and Charlie, Amy is the best tennis player. I've explicitly listed the three things I'm comapring. I wouldn't say "Amy is the best tennis player among the team" because I've only mentioned a team, not the other players on the team. I could say "Amy is the best tennis player among the members of the team" because now I'm actually mentioning the people to whom I'm comparing Amy.

Please post your other questions as separate posts. Thanks!

[sonu_gmat]

Thanks for your reply.....I know the guidelines here...Since these are very small Qs and not very specific to any SC, I thought it would be easier to track if I could keep these Qs together. Anyway I'll post in different threads.

Quote:2. What difference does 'a' make in the following?
X could have even greater significance.....
X could have even a greater significance....

The second sentence is not grammatically correct. You could say "X could have a greater significance" but not with the word "even."

Can you please elaborate the rule here? I know the rule that when 'a' is used with non count words it implies sufficiency. I'm not clear here why 'even a' is ungrammatical.

One more related to this......which one of the following should be correct or both are correct? or in other words should we look for 'does' to eliminare choices.
X could have even greater significance than Y
X could have even greater significance than does Y

Quote:Being a year ahead in introducing X can give a company huge advantage.
To introduce X by a year earlier can give a company huge advantage

The second sentence is absolutely incorrect because of the word "by," so you'd have no choice but to pick the awkward first sentence. Generally speaking, though, it's rare to have a correct GMAT sentence begin with the word "being." I don't think we'd see this option on a real test question as the right answer.

The use of 'being' here is not wrong for sure. Please refer this post.
http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/heavy-commitment-by-an-executive-to-a-course-of-action-t3173.html
And the use of 'to....' also implies a hypothetical situation. If the use of 'by' makes the second one wrong can you please elaborate the rule here. Before I saw the above post I was eliminating the first one because of the use of 'being'

[RonPurewal]

Can you please elaborate the rule here? I know the rule that when 'a' is used with non count words it implies sufficiency. I'm not clear here why 'even a' is ungrammatical.

you could say "an even greater significance". you just can't sandwich the "a" between "even" and "greater".

all of these options, of course, are inferior to "X could be even more significant", which is more concise.

One more related to this......which one of the following should be correct or both are correct? or in other words should we look for 'does' to eliminare choices.
X could have even greater significance than Y
X could have even greater significance than does Y

the first is correct.

the second is incorrect, because it's nonparallel: there is no present-tense verb for which the present-tense "does" can stand.

the second would be correct if you changed "does" to "could":
X could have even greater significance than could Y

Quote:Being a year ahead in introducing X can give a company huge advantage.
To introduce X by a year earlier can give a company huge advantage

The second sentence is absolutely incorrect because of the word "by," so you'd have no choice but to pick the awkward first sentence. Generally speaking, though, it's rare to have a correct GMAT sentence begin with the word "being." I don't think we'd see this option on a real test question as the right answer.

The use of 'being' here is not wrong for sure. Please refer this post.
http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/heavy-commitment-by-an-executive-to-a-course-of-action-t3173.html
And the use of 'to....' also implies a hypothetical situation. If the use of 'by' makes the second one wrong can you please elaborate the rule here. Before I saw the above post I was eliminating the first one because of the use of 'being'[/quote]

the "by" thing is just an idiom.
you don't do something by a year ahead; you just do it a year ahead.

both of these versions are HORRIBLY wordy, by the way.
if you saw "being a year ahead in introducing X", then there would almost certainly be a much better, more concise wording, such as simply "introducing X a year ahead", in one of the other choices.

--

finally, you can't say "give X huge advantage". you have to say "give X a huge advantage".

[goelmohit2002]

1. Is 'that' and 'it' in the following interchangable?
The bird had long wingspan, and it is believed to have been.....
The bird had long wingspan, and that is believed to have been.....

Nope. "It" refers to the bird; "it" can be either a subject or an object pronoun. Because it is used as a subject in the above sentence, "it" is functioning as a subject pronoun in that sentence. "That" refers to the long wingspan or to the entire clause (the fact that the bird had a long wingspan. "That" is a demonstrative pronoun and, in this case, is used as an unmodified demonstrative pronoun (that is, "that is functioning as a subject in its own clause"). Although unmodified demonstrative pronouns exist in the language, the GMAT prefers to use a subject pronoun in these circumstances, so if you want "... is believed to have been" to refer to the bird, you have to use "it," not "that."

Hi Stacey,

Thanks for the wonderful reply. Can you please tell why "that" cannot refer to "bird"...why it can refer to only long wingspan or entire clause ?

Thanks
Mohit

[RonPurewal]

Thanks for the wonderful reply. Can you please tell why "that" cannot refer to "bird"...why it can refer to only long wingspan or entire clause ?

that's not what stacey was saying. she was saying, in effect, that it's essentially never ok to use "demonstrative pronouns" (also called "pointing words").

in other words, you should not use "this" or "that" as standalone pronouns.
* you should never use "this" as a pronoun; you should only use it as an adjective (this idea, this notion, etc.)
* you should only use "that" as a pronoun when it's part of a comparison. e.g., the jokes in tonight's show are funnier than those in previous editions.