Prep SC-Grassy Fields and Sandpiper

[jp.jprasanna]

Dear Instructors - On a completely different note could you please let me know how much time should one take to answer this question. I marked the correct answer but took 2.28 mins? Is that OK?

[RonPurewal]

Dear Instructors - On a completely different note could you please let me know how much time should one take to answer this question. I marked the correct answer but took 2.28 mins? Is that OK?

it's impossible to answer this question in general. however, that time (i can't tell if that's a decimal number of minutes or if it's 2 min 28 sec) seems a bit on the long side.
this problem is of average length -- perhaps a bit longer than average -- for a sentence correction problem, so you should be taking an average amount of time for it. "average amount of time" can vary, depending on how fast you get through things like CR and RC, but it shouldn't be two-and-a-half minutes.

[liqianli0923]

Dear instuctor,


Just a follow up question. For " as a result of residential and Industrial development and of changes in farming practices"

Does the "of" before changes have to be there to keep parallelism ? or we can omiss it in some probelms?

Thank you so much!

[jlucero]

Dear instuctor,


Just a follow up question. For " as a result of residential and Industrial development and of changes in farming practices"

Does the "of" before changes have to be there to keep parallelism ? or we can omiss it in some probelms?

Thank you so much!

Great question. In some cases an extra preposition (or other part of speech) is optional:

I am thinking of pizza and (of) ice cream.

But in other cases, you need to include a preposition to give a clear understanding of what needs to be parallel for proper meaning. That's what we have here:

"as a result of residential and Industrial development and (of) changes in farming practices"

Without the "of" in this sentence, we have a sentence that looks like this:

as a result of (a and b)(y and z): As a result of residential/industrial development and changes
vs
as a result of (x and y) and of z: As a result of residential/industrial development AND a result of changes

The second one is the correct meaning.

[davidfrank]

No, this wouldn't work. "Like the grassy fields, etc. . . . ," creates a modifier. This modifier must be followed by the thing that is like the grassy fields.

So I could say this:

Like the grassy fields of the United States, the swamps of Florida are slowly disappearing.

If I wanted to squeeze the bit about the US into the opening modifier, it would get pretty long, but it would look like this:

Like the grassy fields and old pastures of the northeastern United States that the upland sandpiper needs for feeding and nesting when it returns in May after wintering in the Argentine Pampas, the bird itself is vanishing . . .

I think that's a bit much to pack in there, but at least the modifier beginning with "like" attaches itself to the appropriate noun.

So, quick recognition tip:

*If you have a noun modifier ("Like the grassy fields,"), it must immediately be followed by a noun.

If you see "Like X, in Y," it's wrong. Even the word "in" creates a mismatch. We need "Like X, Y . . ."

Hi Ron,

I am sorry but I couldn't follow your explanation. OG says that the comparison is incorrect, which means that the construction like X,in the,Y is allowed? Please clarify this.

Regards,
Frank

[vietmoi937]

Like the grassy fields and old pastures that the upland sandpiper needs for feeding and nesting when it returns in May after wintering in the Argentine Pampas, the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in farming practices.

A. the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in
B. the bird itself is vanishing in the northeastern United States as a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in
C. that the birds themselves are vanishing in the northeastern United States is due to residential and industrial development and changes to
D. in the northeastern United States, sandpipers’ vanishing is due to residential and industrial development and to changes in
E. in the northeastern United States, the sandpipers’ vanishing, a result of residential and industrial development and changing

The correct answer is B.
I crossed out E since it is not a complete sentence, but I do not know the rest.
Can somebody tell me why A, C, D are wrong?

Thank you!!!

(a)
if you write "the sandpipers vanishing", then "sandpipers" is the subject ("vanishing" is a modifier describing that subject). the subject "sandpipers" doesn't agree with the singular verb "is".

GENERAL NOTE:
this sentence starts out with "like the grassy fields and old pastures...". the COMPARISON here is between those fields and pastures (which are disappearing) and the bird (which is also disappearing); therefore, to make this comparison valid, the next sentence MUST start with "the bird" or "the sandpiper". it can't start with anything else.

(c)
invalid comparison; this clause starts with "that the birds are vanishing...", rather than with the bird itself.
this choice is also hopelessly awkward, although it may take a native speaker's eye to see that.

(d)
invalid comparison; the subject of this clause is the sandpipers' vanishing, rather than the sandpiper itself.
the prepositional phrase "in the NE united states" is also inserted in a bad place; you generally don't want to create such occlusions in a comparison.

pls, help.
we can not compare apple and orange. why here can we compare "field " and "bird" ? pls help

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron,

I am sorry but I couldn't follow your explanation.

look at the quote again"”that's someone else's explanation, not mine.

OG says that the comparison is incorrect, which means that the construction like X,in the,Y is allowed? Please clarify this.

"Like X, ... in the Y" is an example of an incorrect comparison.

If you see "Like X" and then the next part starts with anything other than "Y", then that's ... an incorrect comparison.

[RonPurewal]

pls, help.
we can not compare apple and orange. why here can we compare "field " and "bird" ? pls help

The fields are vanishing. The bird is also vanishing. So, that's the comparison.

[rustom.hakimiyan]

Hi, I know that this question was asked earlier in the thread but i'm still having a hard time understand this -- When I first read this, I thought about comparing the "grassy field/old pastures"(area) to another area which was D/E(Northeastern United States). Why is that incorrect?

According to the explanation on the first page, it's because none of them are in parallel? That led me to think - "i have to chose from the answer choices and even though D/E seem crappy, they are much better than A/B/C because it fixes the comparison issue."

[RonPurewal]

Remember that step #1 of any SC problem is "Understand the precise meaning."

The meaning of this sentence is:
* The fields and pastures are disappearing.
* The bird is also disappearing.

So, the comparison/parallel is ...
fields & pastures || bird.

The sentence draws no parallel between the fields/pastures and the northeastern U.S. If you're trying to put those in parallel, then you're guilty of jumping to the choices before you've figured out the message of the sentence.
That's an impossible approach; grammar doesn't exist until there's an intended meaning to determine it. You must figure out the precise meaning of the sentence first.

[thanghnvn]

we use "like" to say that the two nouns do the same thing. we use as to say thay tow actions is done in the same way

because we use "like " to say thay two nouns do the same thing, any two nouns can be comparable if they do the same thing. at first we see that "bird" and "pasture" are "orange and apple" but then we see that the comparison is good.

like the table, I stand still

is correct comparision because both "table" and "I" do the same thing.

am I correct ?

[RonPurewal]

Yes.

[XINYUC869]

HI, RON

I still have a question about the single/plural about the word"sandpiper‘

If i change the choice B into" Birds themselves are vanishing" , whether the choice is still correct ?

I mean that i cannot figure out if i need to parallel the two word between " the upland sandpiper" and " the bird itself"

[RonPurewal]

.

[RonPurewal]

HI, RON

I still have a question about the single/plural about the word"sandpiper‘

If i change the choice B into" Birds themselves are vanishing" , whether the choice is still correct ?

I mean that i cannot figure out if i need to parallel the two word between " the upland sandpiper" and " the bird itself"

There's no point in considering this issue in isolation, since the GMAT will never hand you a single sentence and ask you whether it is correct.

The GMAT is a multiple-choice test. So, there are only two possibilities:
1/ You have to choose between "the bird" and "the birds";
2/ No such issue is in play.

If you have to make this decision, then, for presumably obvious reasons, "the bird" (singular) is better than "the birds" (plural).

Here, you don't need to make this decision, so it's a non-issue.