SC: By merging its two publishing divisions, the

[AsadA969]

Ron dedicated to Stacey a song describing many of the times they had spent together as teachers in the Manhattan Prep.
Tim, If I use teachers here the sentence will not be correct; it looks wrong sentence.

this sentence is fine.

I dedicated to Ron a song describing many of the times when we had spent together in Stanford university.
So, what is the plural number of Stanford university? is it Stanford universities?
Thanks.

???

'stanford university' should be singular, because there is only one stanford university.

i don't think i understand what you are asking.

yes. that's the point...
child is converted to children to be plural.


teacher is also converted to teachers to be plural.
so I think Stanford university should be converted to Stanford universities to be plural as like above... should not it?
Thanks....

[RonPurewal]

it seems you're not considering the meaning here at all—you're just manipulating the words as though they were meaningless variables in a meaningless algebra equation.
if that's what you're doing... well, you need to stop doing it, because you can't manipulate SC sentences according to 'formulas'.
(in fact, this is the entire reason why there are two sections, 'quant' and 'verbal'. on the former section, 'rules' and 'formulas' work. on the latter they don't, and you'll have to use common sense. this is THE ONLY REASON WHY THERE ARE SEPARATE QUANT AND VERBAL SECTIONS.)

this whole issue has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL to do with grammar.
rather, it's one of the most elementary questions possible: 'How many _____ are there? Just one, or more than one?'
...really, that's it.

• stacey and i are two teachers. we are not just one teacher.
thus plural 'teachers'.

• there is only one stanford university.
thus singular.

[AsadA969]

it seems you're not considering the meaning here at all—you're just manipulating the words as though they were meaningless variables in a meaningless algebra equation.
if that's what you're doing... well, you need to stop doing it, because you can't manipulate SC sentences according to 'formulas'.

Ron, as far I know, every language has a relation with each other (whatever your language is English and my language is Bengali). I am trying to have the meaning of the following sentence.
If the following sentence is correct :
I dedicated to one of my school friends a song describing many of the times we had spent together as children.

According to my OWN language:
‘Child’ means shishu.
‘Children’ means shishuRA (here 'RA' is the sign of plural number).
If I translate the meaning of the above sentence in my own language, then it'll be ridiculous.
This definitely proves that '' every language has NO relation with each other"

Also in:
Ron dedicated to Stacey a song describing many of the times they had spent together as teachers in the Manhattan Prep.
According to my language:
‘Teacher’ means ‘shikkok'
‘Teachers’ mean ‘shikkokRA’ (here 'RA' is the sign of plural number).
If I translate the meaning of the above sentence in my own language, then it'll also be ridiculous.
This also definitely proves that '' every language has NO relation with each other"
Here, my thinking is that........
‘Ron and Stacey’ is (not are) teacher because ‘teacher’ is the common name of ‘teacher’ and/or all ‘teachers’

I intentionally wrote the following sentence with error by inserting the name 'Stanford university'
I dedicated to Ron a song describing many of the times when we had spent together in Stanford university.
I just make clear that there is NO relation between Stanford university and I & Ron.
Actually, the human being can't be 'Stanford University' but in above one Ron and Stacey can be teacher/teachers.

Also, you are trying to make clear that 'Stanford university' can NOT be plural because there is only one 'Stanford university" in this world. If there is another 'Stanford University" in this world, may we use 'Stanford Universities'?---Nope, Not at least here! Because, there is no relation between Ron & I with Stanford University-Actually, Ron and I can't be University!

Ron dedicated to Stacey a song describing many of the times they had spent together as teachers in the Manhattan Prep.
In addition, on the above sentence, There is only one Manhattan Prep in this world. If I think, there is another Manhattan Prep, which is made by me illegally in my own country, in this world so for that reason I've to plural it as like as "manhattan PrepS"-that will be wrong. We should not correlate 'Manhattan Prep' with Ron and Stacey, because Ron and Stacey can not be Manhattan prep-they can be the teacher or teachers in this organization. Here,If I say there are at least 99 teachers in Manhattan prep, this sentence works perfectly. But, if someone says that Ron and Stacey were the teachers of Manhattan Prep, this is also fine grammatically but if I convert it in my own language then it is wrong because Ron and Stacey may be the teacher (not teachers because teacher/teachers is the common name of teacher) for a specific time.
Thanks.

N.B. If you do not comprehend my logic then I am really sorry for bothering you !

[RonPurewal]

According to my OWN language:
‘Child’ means shishu.
‘Children’ means shishuRA (here 'RA' is the sign of plural number).
If I translate the meaning of the above sentence in my own language, then it'll be ridiculous.

if you translate this ridiculous meaning back into english (just the meaning), what does it say?

remember, the point of this sentence is '...when both of us were children'. there are two children.

[AsadA969]

According to my OWN language:
‘Child’ means shishu.
‘Children’ means shishuRA (here 'RA' is the sign of plural number).
If I translate the meaning of the above sentence in my own language, then it'll be ridiculous.

if you translate this ridiculous meaning back into english (just the meaning), what does it say?

remember, the point of this sentence is '...when both of us were children'. there are two children.

Ron,
I think, there is no one in this world who can translate language X to language X-he/she can just paraphrase it. Translation is considered only language X to language Y. So, how can I translate English to English? Suppose, I know two languages:
1. Bengali (my native language), 2. Spanish language.
If the first language does not make sense (when translating English to Bengali), then I'll try to translate it into Spanish. But, my question is: Is it necessary to learn Spanish for knowing English?
Thanks.

[tim]

This question has nothing to do with studying for the GMAT. Please make sure the discussion stays on topic.

[RonPurewal]

But, my question is: Is it necessary to learn Spanish for knowing English?
Thanks.

you lost me here; i don't understand what you're asking about spanish.

basically, i'm just surprised by what you wrote, because these distinctions are very clear, very binary, and not at all subtle. (stacey and i are 2 people. stanford university is 1 place. there's no 'gray area' in either of these.)

if we're talking about subtle distinctions, then, sure, translation becomes difficult. ('lost in translation' is a common phrase for a reason!)
...but, '1 vs. more than 1' is not a subtle distinction. unless the target language has no singular/plural distinction at all (like many east asian languages), it's hard for me to imagine how this decision could possibly go the opposite way.

in any case, tim has a point—this discussion is straying a bit far from the proverbial pasture. at the end of the day, the point is this: if you need to decide whether a noun should be singular or plural, just think VERY LITERALLY about 'How many ___ am i talking about?'
if the answer is 'one' (or 'one at a time'—each, every, etc.), then singular.
if the answer is 'two or more', then plural.

[AsadA969]

Ron,
Thanks. I got your last post and also I accept it. Afterall, I am sharing something to you about my own language.

But, my question is: Is it necessary to learn Spanish for knowing English?
Thanks.

you lost me here; i don't understand what you're asking about spanish.

Ron, I've used the word Spanish because you wrote in the post# 2 of this page:
it seems you're not considering the meaning here at all—you're just manipulating the words as though they were meaningless variables in a meaningless algebra equation.
if that's what you're doing... well, you need to stop doing it, because you can't manipulate SC sentences according to 'formulas'.
(in fact, this is the entire reason why there are two sections, 'quant' and 'verbal'. on the former section, 'rules' and 'formulas' work. on the latter they don't, and you'll have to use common sense. this is THE ONLY REASON WHY THERE ARE SEPARATE QUANT AND VERBAL SECTIONS.)

According to your suggestion, If I try to consider the meaning of the sentence, then it does not make sense in my own language! If it does not make sense in my own language, then I've to learn the another language (i.e., Spanish) to get the actual meaning of this sentence since we can't manipulate SC sentences according to 'formulas'. My question is IS IT NECESSARY TO LEARN SPANISH OR OTHER LANGUAGE TO KNOW GMAC?
What should I do if my own language doesn't provede the correct meaning when I try to have the meaning?

In addition, you've told that if my language (Bengali) doesn't work to tranlate the meaning then I should return to English. Is it possible to have the meaning by translating Eglish to English? I think, we can just parapharase English to English, whic can't reveal the actual meaning of the sentence.
Thanks.

[RonPurewal]

i'm still lost... since this thread is ultimately about a GMAT Prep problem, let's not pursue this digression further.

the most important thing to remember is that the things tested on the GMAT are
• simple,
• NOT 'tricky'.

if you keep this idea in mind, you'll be able to figure out this issue:
• hmm, this noun is singular in some choices, but plural in others.
• the difference is 'How many ____'s?'
• ok, if there is only one ____, it's singular. if there are two or more ____, it's plural. this would NOT be tested if it went the other way, because 'tricky' or 'gotcha' cases are not tested.

[AsadA969]

okay Ron,
i'll not ask you any question regarding the matter.
Thanks

[tim]

That's certainly one option. But if you happen to have questions relating directly to the GMAT, we would welcome them.

[ysyanshi]

What is wrong with A? I believe that both of the modifiers after the comma -- ",a market ranging" and ",which ranges" work in this case.

the modifier in (a) doesn't work. that modifier has to follow "book market" or "market for books".
"10 percent" is not a market.

Hi Ron, please correct me, I feel something wrong with my understanding.

I hesitated between C and E when I did this question.

My reason for C is: "market" is a CONCRETE noun, so this appositive can modify the whole idea of the preceding clause. Therefore, even if the noun preceding COMMA is "country", it doesn't matter.

[RonPurewal]

you're making the biggest mistake one can make in SC: you're considering subtle/smaller issues, BEFORE big, fundamental, black-and-white issues.

in choice C you have "their" trying to stand for "company".
oops.

[ysyanshi]

you're making the biggest mistake one can make in SC: you're considering subtle/smaller issues, BEFORE big, fundamental, black-and-white issues.

in choice C you have "their" trying to stand for "company".
oops.

Oops...

Thank you, Ron!

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.