MGMAT Flash Card SC # 32/54

[dishen.patel]

Joe, who hasn't showered in days, smells bad -- however, John, who is suffering from nasal congestion, smells so badly that Joe's odor doesn't bother him at all. (there are 0-2 errors)

This is suppose to be a perfect sentence and no corrections are necessary. Still, I don't get how you modify Joe in the first phrase (modifier being "bad") and in the second phrase, you modify "smells" with badLY. The structure of both phrases are the same:

Joe smells bad

&

John smells so badly that...

shouldn't both "bad"s' be modifying the noun Joe and John and just be an adj. "bad"?

Thanks.

[jlucero]

Because one is describing Joe and one is describing how John smells. This is a weird (and confusing) distinction- Joe smells bad, but John is not able to smell Joe. If you smell bad, people won't want to be around you, but if you smell badly, you can't smell well.