Minivans carry as many as seven passengers

[lawrence]

new PREP SC:

Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,
get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.

A. Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,
B. Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, they cost less,
C. Minivans carry as many as seven passengers, in comparison with most sport utility vehicles, and have a lower cost, they
D. Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,
E. Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles the cost is lower, and they

the OA is A,
why not D?

Thanks a lot.

[Guest]

I met the same SC in new version PREP 1 and confused in D and A too...

[Misha]

Why not D?

D. Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,

The way I looked at this was to remove the phrase from D. "carrying as many as seven passengers," as the sentence should be able to stand on its own without this phrase, and then read the sentence. That is, "Minivans ... compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less," should clearly sound wrong as it doesn't make sense.

[Guest]

Dear Misha,

why the D ""Minivans ... compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less," doesn't make sense. "?

I am still not understand why D does not make sense?

"Minivans, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less...."

D seems no mistake....

Anyone can explain in detail?

Thanks a lot.

[RonPurewal]

my first complaint about (d) is that it's noticeably awkward, but you'd have to be a native speaker of english to pick up on that.

however, there's a problem of semantics (meaning) with (d). the modifier "...carrying..." seems to signify that the latter traits are only true of minivans when those minivans are actually carrying the requisite number of passengers. if they aren't, then all of a sudden those things aren't true anymore.

choice (a) correctly uses the conjunction "and", which implies that both things are true but don't necessarily have to do with each other (i.e., the # of passengers is independent of the other claims).

[lawrence]

Dear Ron,
Thanks a lot for your help.
I wonder,
1, D has another mistake, because in D:
Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,
The " compared with most sport utility vehicles" modify the nearer "passengers" , but the original intention is to modify the "Minivans"，So D is wrong?

2, in A:
Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.

Does" compared with most sport utility vehicles" modify Minivans? Because "and," ahead of "compared ...", so "compared ..." can only modify the "Minivans" rather than modify the "passengers"?

3, can I change A into:
Compared with most sport utility vehicles ,Minivans carry as many as seven passengers ,and cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.
(I delete the "and" before" cost".
Thus: " carry..., cost..., get..., allow..., and have..." become parallel )

Once again, thanks for your help so many times.

[lawrencewwh]

Could someone answer my question in last post? Thanks.

[JonathanSchneider]

Good questions, Lawrence.

1) Yes, D is awkward because of this. The modifier sounds as though it could be describing "passengers."

2) Yes, the "and" helps to clarify. While the general "rule" is that noun modifiers have to touch the nouns they modify, this is more of an art than a science. There are a few exceptions, and this is one. The other main exception is when you have multiple modifiers for the same noun: you cannot put them all next to the same noun, so you just line them up instead. For example, we can say: "a way of painting that became popular in the 1950's." It's not the "painting" that became popular, but rather the "way." The word "way" doesn't make much sense on its own, however, so we have to say "of painting" first before we modify it.

3) You can't place the comparison at the front, because the "carry as many as seven passengers" is NOT part of the comparison. This is just a fact about minivans. In fact, this is why we've broken up the noun modifier from the noun in the correct version, so as to preserve the meaning. Remember, modifier placements issues are issues of meaning, and again, this is more of an art than a science - albeit a very tricky art!

[lawrencewwh]

Hi,JonathanSchneider ,

many thanks!

I understand clearly now. Logical Meaning First when we solve the SC in GMAT.

the SC intended to compare only 4 features:
cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.

beween Minivans and sport utility vehicles,
excluding the feature of
as many as seven passengers.

IF I place the comparison at the front, 5 features will be compared.
Could a sport utility vehicles carry 7 passengers as minivans do?
It's surprising to hear that？！
O(∩_∩)O

Once again,thanks for your geart help.

[Jimmyyeh1982]

hi there,

I still have a question of the parallelism in (A).

Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.

if we drop "compared with most sport utility vehicles" ...so reduce to

Minivans V1 as many as seven passengers and V2 ,V3 ,V4, and V5.

Is there anything wrong in this kind of parallelism? Is the first "and" necessary here?
Isn't it a run-on sentence? (between V3, V4)

I used to think that S + V1, V2, V3, V4 ,and V5 is correct.

plz help me clarify~

[hmgmat]

I have a feeling that because "compared with most sport utility vehicles" modifies "cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride" BUT NOT "carry as many as seven passengers".
Hence, the sentence virtually split into 2 groups:
- carry as many as seven passengers
- cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride
Therefore, you can a "separate" "and" in each group.

For example,
John has a black and white horse and a brown and white rabbit.

Not sure whether there is a better generalization to cover this usage...

[RonPurewal]

hi there,

I still have a question of the parallelism in (A).

Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.

if we drop "compared with most sport utility vehicles" ...so reduce to

Minivans V1 as many as seven passengers and V2 ,V3 ,V4, and V5.

Is there anything wrong in this kind of parallelism? Is the first "and" necessary here?
Isn't it a run-on sentence? (between V3, V4)

I used to think that S + V1, V2, V3, V4 ,and V5 is correct.

plz help me clarify~

well, remember that parallelism is really of 2 types: GRAMMATICAL and LOGICAL.

in your case, v1 though v5 all happen to be in the same tense - present tense, because we're talking about unchanging features of minivans - but ONLY v2 through v5 are LOGICALLY parallel.
v1 describes the van's passenger seating capacity, which is NOT presented as a point of superiority over sport utility vehicles, while v2 through v5 specifically describe advantages of minivans over sport utility vehicles.
therefore, the sentence is written with v2 through v5 in list form, but, because v1 isn't in the same category as those others, it's (rightfully) excluded from that list.

[goelmohit2002]

i guess D can be kicked out because it is a comma + ing setup....

and comma + ing setup are supposed to modify entire clause....

which is not the case here.....

Can someone please confirm....

[cesar.rodriguez.blanco]

Is possible to have 2 "and" in a list???
"Minivans carry ....AND....cost less, get better..., allow....AND have....
I discarded A for this reason, but it is wrong!

[RonPurewal]

i guess D can be kicked out because it is a comma + ing setup....

and comma + ing setup are supposed to modify entire clause....

which is not the case here.....

Can someone please confirm....

correct.