Monday, November 17, 2008

SC's Question no - 667 , 668

667). Spanning more than fifty years, Friedrich Muller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as a Sanskrit scholar and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned societies could bestow.

(A) Muller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as

(B) Muller’s career began in an unpromising apprenticeship as

(C) Muller’s career began with the unpromising apprenticeship of being

(D) Muller had begun his career with the unpromising apprenticeship of being

(E) the career of Muller has begun with an unpromising apprenticeship of

668). South Korea has witnessed the world’s most dramatic growth of Christian congregations; church membership is expanding by 6.6 percent a year, fully two-thirds of the growth coming from conversions rather than the population increasing.

(A) coming from conversions rather than the population increasing

(B) coming from conversions rather than increases in the population

(C) coming from conversions instead of the population’s increasing

(D) is from conversions instead of population increases

(E) is from conversions rather than increasing the population


Answers:

667). (OG 10th Ques no - 235) - OA - B - idiomatic - apprenticeship as

OE: The best answer, B, uses the logical and grammatically correct construction. Spanning more than fifty years, Friedrich Muller's career began . . . and culminated. Note that the noun phrase appearing after the comma is modified by Spanning and serves as the subject of began and culminated. Choice A produces an illogical statement by placing Friedrich Muller in this subject position. Choice C corrects this error but produces an unidiomatic construction by using apprenticeship of being instead of apprenticeship as. Choice D repeats both this error and the subject error of A. D and E needlessly change the simple past tense began to the past perfect had begun and the present perfect has begun, respectively, and E uses apprenticeship of, which is unidiomatic in this context.

A, D - incorrect - modifier error - Spanning more than fifty years should modify Friedrich Muller's career and not Friedrich Muller

C - incorrect - unidiomatic: apprenticeship of being

E - incorrect - awkward, unidiomatic: apprenticeship of; wrong tense: has begun

668). OA - B - parallel - coming from conversions rather than increases in the population

A, C - incorrect - violating parallelism

D - incorrect - use of instead of is wrong: Instead of is a preposition and can introduce only a phrase i.e no verb
http://gmat-grammar.blogspot.com/2006/06/rather-than-vs-instead-of.html

E - incorrect - comma splice run on error
http://gmat-grammar.blogspot.com/2007/01/editing-comma-splices.html

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

SC's Question number - 669 , 670

669). Stable interest rates on long-term bonds are the financial market’s vote of confidence in the Federal Reserve keeping in control of inflation.

(A) in the Federal Reserve keeping in control of inflation

(B) that the Federal Reserve will keep inflation under control

(C) for the Federal Reserve, that it would keep control of inflation

(D) that inflation will be kept control of by the Federal

(E) that inflation would be kept control of by the Federal Reserve

670). St. John’s, , lies on the same latitude as Paris, France, but in spring St. John’s residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes than to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or seeking shelter from a raging northeast storm.

(A) residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes than to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or seeking

(B) residents are less likely to sit at outdoor cafes, and more to brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or be seeking

(C) residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes, and more likely to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or to be seeking

(D) residents, instead of their sitting at outdoor cafes, they are more likely to brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or seek

(E) residents, instead of sitting at outdoor cafes, are more likely to brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or to be seeking


Answers:

669). OA - B - ..confidence that..is the right usage here.

A, C - incorrect - changes the meaning

D, E - incorrect - passive; wordy

670). OA - A - parallel
St. John’s, lies on the same latitude as Paris, France, but in spring St. John’s residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes than to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or seeking shelter from a raging northeast storm and idiomatic less likely to be doing A than to be doing B

B, E - incorrect - violating parallelism

C - incorrect - unidiomatic -.... to be seeking...

D - incorrect - awkward - ...
instead of their sitting at outdoor cafes..


Sunday, November 02, 2008

SC's Question number - 671 , 672

671). State officials report that soaring rates of liability insurance have risen to force cutbacks in the operations of everything from local governments and school districts to day-care centers and recreational facilities.

(A) rates of liability insurance have risen to force

(B) rates of liability insurance are a force for

(C) rates for liability insurance are forcing

(D) rises in liability insurance rates are forcing

(E) liability insurance rates have risen to force

672). Stars like the sun can continue to shine steadily for billions of years because its light and heat are produced by nuclear fusion, in which titanic releases of energy result in the loss of only tiny amounts of mass.

(A) its light and heat are produced by nuclear fusion, in which

(B) nuclear fusion produces its light and heat, in which

(C) nuclear fusion produces their light and heat, where

(D) its light and heat are produced by nuclear fusion, where

(E) their light and heat are produced by nuclear fusion, in which


Answers:


671). OA - C - idiomatic - rates for

A, D, E - incorrect - redundancy error - ...soaring....have risen/ rises...

B - incorrect - unidiomatic - .... soaring rates of liability insurance...

672). OA - E

A, B, D - incorrect - pronoun error - Stars(plural)....its(singular)...

C - incorrect - antecedent of where is not clear/ absent