SC: GMAT Paper 30

[Samy]

Elk now live almost solely in the Rocky Mountains, which would make it seem that elk are mountain dwellers, while they once ranged over virtually all of the continental United States except for a small strip in the extreme Southwest.
A. Elk now live almost solely in the Rocky Mountains, which would make it seem that elk are mountain dwellers, while
B. The fact that elk now live almost solely in the Rocky Mountains would make it seem that they are mountain dwellers, but
C. It would seem that elk would be mountain dwellers because of their living now solely almost in the Rocky Mountains, but still
D. Now living almost solely in the Rocky Mountains, it would seem that elk were mountain dwellers, although
E. It seems that elk would be mountain dwellers from the fact that they now live solely almost in the Rocky Mountains, since

Is it possible for the Ans to be A here as stated ???
I feel B is right even though the usage of "the fact that" is incorrect because it is not historical or permanent, it is a situation.
:roll:

[dbernst]

Samy, not certain where these paper tests originated, but they certainly contain poor questions. Personally, I would go with B rather than A. In A, "which" incorrectly refers to Rocky Mountains. Additionally, "but" in choice B is better than "while" in choice A since the second part of the sentence negates the main idea from the first part.

-dan

[Mandy]

Dan,

Is it possible that the pronoun "they" in choice B could refer to either the elk or the Rocky Mountains? My thought is that "they" may not have a clear antecedent?

Could you please clarify? Thanks again for the excellent work you do!!

-Mandy

[StaceyKoprince]

Probably not a pronoun issue - it wouldn't make logical sense to say that the Rocky Mountains are mountain dwellers, so we can discard that as a possibility.

I'm guessing the "paper based test" is one of the old official tests (if so, Samy, please be sure to specify that when you post). These are now all over the web in the public domain and, a lot of times, the wrong answers get posted / associated with the questions.

Also, in general, I don't recommend studying from paper-based tests. The questions are all at least 10 years old, were not written specifically for the CAT, and were written by a company that no longer writes the GMAT. You may have done all of the OG questions once or twice - but if you haven't hit your target score, then you are not done studying those OG questions yet. Remember that your study is not just about doing lots of questions. It's about analyzing and picking apart every single aspect of the questions until you feel like you could teach that question to someone else. (Or, if you're really ambitious, until you feel like you could write questions yourself!)

[Samy]

These are Old Paper Based Test Questions.
I got them from the net. People largely practice from here.

I agree, OG is critical, but after some time, OG q's get by hearted and then the fun is gone.
So I am looking for some more challenging stuff.
Dont like other Books.
So had no option.
Have done your Online CAT's though.
They are really good. Only thing the RC questions I have been getting are all in the 600-700 range, but the RC and SC are in 700-800 range. I find the Maths is really good and helps a lot.

Thanks and I will try to avoid the above tests.

[StaceyKoprince]

If you know all of the OG questions and you still need to study, then you haven't been studying the questions the right way. If you really study the right way, you shouldn't need to do even all of the OG questions.

Make sure you are really analyzing the structure of the passages, arguments, questions and answer choices, especially the wrong answers for verbal. You should be analyzing these as though someone is going to be make you start writing them yourself! (Or, at least, as though you're going to have to teach these to someone else.) The best study is not just doing lots of questions - it's spending a TON of time analyzing how they're put together and how to work through them. Quality, not quantity, of study is the key.

[Samy]

Thanks and will take care of that note.
:D

[d_taneja]

My concern about subject verb agreement

Elk now live almost solely in the Rocky Mountains, which would make it seem that elk are mountain dwellers, while they once ranged over virtually all of the continental United States except for a small strip in the extreme Southwest.
A. Elk now live almost solely in the Rocky Mountains, which would make it seem that elk are mountain dwellers, while
Subject --> Elk Verb --> Live Disagreement

B. The fact that elk now live almost solely in the Rocky Mountains would make it seem that they are mountain dwellers, but
Awkward , rocky mountains should followed by that clause, they refer to mountains , which is illogical

C. It would seem that elk would be mountain dwellers because of their living now solely almost in the Rocky Mountains, but still

D. Now living almost solely in the Rocky Mountains, it would seem that elk were mountain dwellers, although
E. It seems that elk would be mountain dwellers from the fact that they now live solely almost in the Rocky Mountains, since

In short i can say this is abosolutely unauthentic question.

Dan what do u suggest ..?

Samy, not certain where these paper tests originated, but they certainly contain poor questions. Personally, I would go with B rather than A. In A, "which" incorrectly refers to Rocky Mountains. Additionally, "but" in choice B is better than "while" in choice A since the second part of the sentence negates the main idea from the first part.

-dan

[RonPurewal]

My concern about subject verb agreement

nope. while i can understand your discomfort here, "elk" is actually an acceptable plural of the singular "elk".

in english language, the names of many animals are unchanged (i.e., you don't put an "s" on the end) when you make them plural. the most frustrating part is that there's not a lot of logic to which animal names do this and which don't; it's pretty random.

here is a list that contains more animal plurals than you could ever possibly want (the first column after the name indicates whether you put an "s" on the plural):
http://www.anapsid.org/beastly.html
among other things, notice that all of the following deer-like animals are unchanged in the plural: deer, antelope, elk, moose.

--

still, the gmat generally avoids taking deliberate potshots at non-native speakers, so i doubt that you would really have to memorize very many of these (other then extremely common ones, such as "deer" or "fish").
note, for instance, that this problem doesn't require you to have any knowledge of the plural of the word "elk": "elk" is plural in all five of the answer choices.

[violetwind]

Hi instructor,

could you please clarify the antecedent of "it" in choice B --- "make it seems that"?

Thank you!

[jnelson0612]

In this case "it" has no antecedent because it is not functioning as a pure pronoun, but as a "dummy subject" of the clause. Here is an example:

It is cloudy today.

This sentence is grammatically correct, and "it" is not a pronoun standing in for another noun; instead, it is functioning as the subject.

[jp.jprasanna]

Hi - Could you please let me know what's wrong with D here?

Now living almost solely in the Rocky Mountains, it would seem that elk were mountain dwellers, although

1 .I think the although is OK here as it shows the contrast?
2. Is there a problem here with "Now living" and "elk were"
3. Can the initial modifier modify the place holder "it"

Pls help

Cheers

[jp.jprasanna]

If the above question cant be discussed then my general question is that can the initial modifier modify the "dummy - subject" - it

For example.

Inventing the telephone in 1977, it would seem that Graham bell is an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator.

Is the above wrong?

[tim]

yes, it's wrong

[rakov.a3]

If you know all of the OG questions and you still need to study, then you haven't been studying the questions the right way. If you really study the right way, you shouldn't need to do even all of the OG questions.

Make sure you are really analyzing the structure of the passages, arguments, questions and answer choices, especially the wrong answers for verbal. You should be analyzing these as though someone is going to be make you start writing them yourself! (Or, at least, as though you're going to have to teach these to someone else.) The best study is not just doing lots of questions - it's spending a TON of time analyzing how they're put together and how to work through them. Quality, not quantity, of study is the key.

Dear Stacey,
you would be surpized, but I just got this question in my GMAT prep software; though this is "Extention pack #1" :((

Looks like GMAC is selling archaic question in EP # 1 :((((