Laos has a land area

[StaceyKoprince]

Sorry to bump this up but in choice D and E, why is there no ambiguity about who's population it is. I understand that its obvious that it is Laos and not GB but I still thought it was unclear.

Hmm. You could possibly argue for or against such an ambiguity in D. That's a little fuzzier because there are other things wrong with D in the same "area" of the sentence. Let's look at E first.

For E, the structure of the sentence (parallelism) tells us that we're talking about Laos' population.

Laos has X (a land area...) but [Laos has] Y (a population of...)

The "but" indicates parallelism. X and Y are the parallel items. The stuff before X has to apply to both X and Y. Voila! "Laos has" applies to both.

Apply that to D. We've got "but" there too, and an attempt at the X Y structure (though not correctly done):
Laos has X (a land area...) but [Laos has] Y (only 4 million in population...)

[ioric28]

Hi Ron, Jonathan, Stacey

Thank you for the great explanations. Hope I'm not causing some fuss here after a few months silence with this question. Can you please evaluate on answer E with its usage of "comparable to". Since the question is comparing land area of Laos with (to?) land area of GB, so "compare with" should be the better one? Based on my understanding of the 2, "compare to" is used to compare similarity of two non-similar items while "compare with" is to compare 2 similar items?

Hi Ron,
Searching over the past forums, I found this thread about your explanation that GMAT won't have us distinguish between "compare to" and "compare with". So since there's only "comparable to" available in this question, my justification that "compare to" is wrong is inappropriate?

when-to-use-compared-with-and-compared-to-t2071.html

Looking forward to hearing great advice from GMAT experts!
Chan

[shimbal80]

The OG suggested that in C "the reference of them is unclear" would you please explain how?

What is "them" referring to? It can't be referring to either country; a country would take a singular pronoun. Logically, it should be referring to Laotians, or Laotian people... but those words are not in the sentence.

Dear Stacey,

I am confused. Is not correct that "them" is referring to "people"?
Why is not correct?

Thanks in advance

[RonPurewal]

@ loric28

Hi Ron, Jonathan, Stacey

Thank you for the great explanations. Hope I'm not causing some fuss here after a few months silence with this question. Can you please evaluate on answer E with its usage of "comparable to". Since the question is comparing land area of Laos with (to?) land area of GB, so "compare with" should be the better one? Based on my understanding of the 2, "compare to" is used to compare similarity of two non-similar items while "compare with" is to compare 2 similar items?

Hi Ron,
Searching over the past forums, I found this thread about your explanation that GMAT won't have us distinguish between "compare to" and "compare with". So since there's only "comparable to" available in this question, my justification that "compare to" is wrong is inappropriate?

when-to-use-compared-with-and-compared-to-t2071.html

Looking forward to hearing great advice from GMAT experts!
Chan

you must be working with one of our very old strategy guides -- 2007 edition or earlier. it's actually been a few years now since we realized that was a mistake, and removed it completely from our materials (and from the questions in our CAT pool).

on this test, there will be no meaningful distinction between "compare to" and "compare with". both are fine; if one of them is ok in any given situation, the other will also be ok in that situation.

[RonPurewal]

@ shimbal80

I am confused. Is not correct that "them" is referring to "people"?
Why is not correct?

Thanks in advance

go read that choice (c) again; the word "people" does not exist anywhere in that choice (or in the non-underlined part). a pronoun cannot refer to a word that is not actually there!
the closest you get in that sentence is "population", but that's singular.

[bhupi_bits]

@ROn : The choice C has people in it "a population of only 4 million people" . AnD OG says the reference of them is unclear. i am completely lost, why it will not be the case because " them " has only one reference "people" ?

[tim]

@ROn : The choice C has people in it "a population of only 4 million people" . AnD OG says the reference of them is unclear. i am completely lost, why it will not be the case because " them " has only one reference "people" ?

One thing i've found is that the GMAT does not often allow antecedents that are buried deep in the sentence. "people" is buried under three layers of prepositions and is therefore not going to be your antecedent here. Keep in mind though that the GMAT's explanations for SC problems are often unsatisfying, and although their ANSWERS are always correct by definition, their EXPLANATIONS often leave a lot to be desired. The important thing to note here is that C is wrong for other reasons..

[VWJETTY]

can someone explain why is it "many of whom" and what's wrong with "and may" (in D & B).

[RonPurewal]

can someone explain why is it "many of whom" and what's wrong with "and may" (in D & B).

"and" is an illogical transition; it suggests that the sentence is presenting two separate, unrelated facts. (note that this is a "spoken language trap" -- native speakers are much more likely to think this is correct, since the word "and" is often used this way in spoken language.)

example:
today there was a great deal of traffic, and i was late for work.
--> this sentence implies that the traffic was NOT the reason i was late for work! (by contrast, if this sentence were spoken out loud, it would almost certainly be intended to blame the traffic for my tardiness.)

there are lots of sentence elements that are used differently in spoken and written language; these connectors are one of those elements.

[rx_11]

Hi, Ron

I don't understand the use of "that" in E.

In another post you answered,(this one: can-somebody-help-me-out-with-this-question-t4278.html), you said that "you can't use parallel constructions with "those"/"that"/etc unless they are EXACTLY PARALLEL to whatever shows up in the other part".

So why the "that" in E is correct? I think in E the first part does not contain a "of sth" structure, but the second part uses a "that of" structure. Why is it correct?

[RonPurewal]

Hi, Ron

I don't understand the use of "that" in E.

In another post you answered,(this one: can-somebody-help-me-out-with-this-question-t4278.html), you said that "you can't use parallel constructions with "those"/"that"/etc unless they are EXACTLY PARALLEL to whatever shows up in the other part".

So why the "that" in E is correct? I think in E the first part does not contain a "of sth" structure, but the second part uses a "that of" structure. Why is it correct?

good eyes.

i'll amend that post -- after seeing this example, i think that the more exact rule is that the parallel structures should match exactly, if they occur in different clauses. if they're right next to each other in the same clause (as in your example), then there's more leeway for not-so-exactly-parallel constructions.

[gmatwork]

Hi,

Referring to Jonathan's post -

He mentioned about "Concision Pattern #6". Which concision patterns was he referring to?

[pranabiitkgp]

I think "Concision Pattern #6" - Referring to the "Manhattan verbal sc strategy guide 4th edition "


Dear Instructor,
My qs .
In ans choice E)"comparable to that of Great Britain but a population of only 4 million people, many of whom " - Isn’t Population and People are meaning same and hence should be considered redundant word . Although I can understand there has no other better option but given an option like the bellow, would this be better choice?
My option)
comparable to that of Great Britain but with only 4 million people, many of whom .....

Thanks,
PM.

[gmatwork]

which chapter is it (concision pattern)?

[jp.jprasanna]

Hi I knocked out option C because the thing that come after " , but " must be a clause with Sub and Verb isn't it?

C. that is about the same size as Great Britain’s land area, but in Laos with a population of only 4 million people, many of them

Cheers
Prasanna J