GMAT Sentence Correction Discussions

indian_stallion · September 21, 2009, 7:18am

Whats wrong with the below sentence...

Galileo's theory that Earth and other plantes revolve around the sun in our solar system reinforces that of Copernicus.

nipunbans · September 21, 2009, 7:19am

@ grtembey..
I have not used this link till now.. But it seems it has OA's and explainations to all SC 1000..
1000SC: Qn: 1

Thanks Ankit. I agree, the modifier here should be "that" and not "which".

@all
Does anyone have OA's for 1000SC? Without OA's it becomes kinda difficult to verify your answers.

nipunbans · September 21, 2009, 7:26am

@ xpect@ton hurts..

Gimme ur e-mail id.. i'll send it thru e-mail... its 1.5 mb .doc file....

xpect@ton hurts Says
hi...where can i get 1000 SC from??ne link or ne book??

tikna_atpug · September 21, 2009, 7:27am

xpect@ton hurts Says
hii...could u explore a bit more the difference between which and that??nd esp the bold lines..

What I meant was:
If we try to remove the fragment after 'which' in the sentence, the main information/description related to the noun (Animal shield) - that it protects the warriors - will be removed, leaving the other half of the statement kind of misleading.

So, by definition (as Manhattan SC states), "A modifier introduced by 'which' can be removed from the sentence without the sentence losing any essential meaning. Whereas, a modifier introduced by 'that' is essential to the meaning of the sentence."

Cheers.
Ankit.

indian_stallion · September 21, 2009, 8:19am

Whats wrong with the below sentence...

Galileo's theory that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun in our solar system reinforces that of Copernicus.

Waiting for comments on the above....

Is the above sentence gramatically flawed ?

aplha123 · September 21, 2009, 9:58am

A majority of railway commuters reads or listening to music while traveling.

reads or listening
read or listening
read or listens
read or listen
reads or listens

The Manhattan GMAT SC says : The majority of students in the class are hard workers.
What is the answer and why ?

grtembey · September 21, 2009, 10:44am

Waiting for comments on the above....

Is the above sentence gramatically flawed ?

I think a more appropriate sentencec construction would be:

Gallileo's theory, that earth and other planets in our solar system revolve around the sun, reinforces Copernicus's theory.

Comments welcome...

grtembey · September 21, 2009, 11:32am

A majority of railway commuters reads or listening to music while traveling.
reads or listening
read or listening
read or listens
read or listen
reads or listens

The Manhattan GMAT SC says : The majority of students in the class are hard workers.
What is the answer and why ?

Hi alpha123,

The general rule is "The majority of" is always a plural whereas "A majority of" is always singular.

Also, the above sentence obviously has a parallelism issue between "reads" and "listening".

IMO: "E"

What is the OA?

aplha123 · September 21, 2009, 11:52am

OA is E.
Thanks for your reply

indian_stallion · September 21, 2009, 2:36pm

A majority of railway commuters reads or listening to music while traveling.
reads or listening
read or listening
read or listens
read or listen
reads or listens
The Manhattan GMAT SC says : The majority of students in the class are hard workers.
What is the answer and why ?

IMO D...The subject is plural here

ikruz · September 21, 2009, 2:57pm

i think the OA is wrong.Answer should be D.

grtembey · September 21, 2009, 3:13pm

Hi alpha123,

The general rule is "The majority of" is always a plural whereas "A majority of" is always singular.

Also, the above sentence obviously has a parallelism issue between "reads" and "listening".

IMO: "E"

What is the OA?

Folks, I would like to correct myself here...

The rule that I mentioned above is not applicable to number and not to majority. And there too the rule is reverse:

"The number of" is always singular and "A number of" is always plural.

For majority, there is no specific rule of usage as per the freedictionary.com and it is more subjective. Here the answer should be "D".

aplha123 · September 21, 2009, 6:03pm

But the OA answer is E.

tikna_atpug · September 22, 2009, 2:39am

Puys, A Question:

I am dismayed to learn that he is uninterested _____ new friends.
a. in making
b. to make

Which is correct...a or b?

I came across this while studying Manhattan SC and am not able to back-up my response with valid reasoning. Appreciate if someone could help me understand when to use 'in verbing' and when to use 'to verb'.

Thanks.
Ankit.

Any thoughts on this one....

aplha123 · September 22, 2009, 5:58am

I guess " To make " is appropriate answer. Reason: parallelism to learn // to make.

athoyakat · September 22, 2009, 12:15pm

Hi All,
Need your help and guidance in SC.
I have gone through Manhattan Sc and basic grammar rules , but when it comes to the SC questions , I get it all wrong :(

- Is there any general approach you all follow : e.g mark out the subject , verb , pronoun etc?
- Will greater practice help me?
- Apart from manhattan SC ,is there any other book I need to go thru which better explains SC strategy?

Thanks.

tikna_atpug · September 22, 2009, 3:19pm

Puys,

Though I was clear about when to use 'If I were', I still used to get confused between the usage of 'If I were' and 'If I was', until I came across this online link. Its a good one and elaborates the difference in simple words with 'to the point' reasoning.
Thought of sharing with all my Pagal buds. :)

I Came, I Saw, I Learned...: Grammar Workshop: If I Were a Rich Man...

Another related link might be useful:-
I Came, I Saw, I Learned...: Writing & Grammar

Cheers.
Ankit.

yserious · September 22, 2009, 5:21pm

Puys,

Though I was clear about when to use 'If I were', I still used to get confused between the usage of 'If I were' and 'If I was', until I came across this online link. Its a good one and elaborates the difference in simple words with 'to the point' reasoning.
Thought of sharing with all my Pagal buds. :)

I Came, I Saw, I Learned...: Grammar Workshop: If I Were a Rich Man...

Another related link might be useful:-
I Came, I Saw, I Learned...: Writing & Grammar

Cheers.
Ankit.

Thanks Ankit for the great link
But i think there is a general rule in Manhattan SC, that states we have to use 'If I were' all the time..
more so because..its a conditional 'if'..

yserious · September 22, 2009, 5:23pm

Puys,

I have a very basic question..
Which is the correct usage??
Realize we use it day in/day out..but not sure which is correct.

Looking forward to hearing from you guys
Looking forward to hear from you guys

kammy · September 22, 2009, 6:34pm

Hey Guys,

I have been racking up my brain to understand this..kindly help out.

Written in Austria in 1762, the composer of Symphony No. 5 was a brilliant musician, Franz Joseph Haydn, who many later called the "Father of the Symphony" for his contribution to classical music while court musician for the Esterhazy family.

A)the composer of Symphony No. 5 was a brilliant musician, Franz Joseph Haydn, who many later called the "Father of the Symphony" for his
B)Franz Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 5, who many later called the "Father of the Symphony" for his
C)Symphony No. 5 was composed by a brilliant musician, Franz Joseph Haydn, who many later called the "Father of the Symphony" for his
D)Symphony No. 5's composer was a brilliant musician, Franz Joseph Haydn, whom many later called the "Father of the Symphony" for his
E)Symphony No. 5 was composed by a brilliant musician, Franz Joseph Haydn, whom many later called the "Father of the Symphony" for his

Kammy