For years the beautiful Renaissance buildings in Palitito

[Chelsey Cooley]

You're completely correct to identify a pattern there. In my classes, I call that type of wrong answer a 'false comparison', and you should always look out for it when you see an answer choice on CR that compares two things to each other. Here's a simple illustration of the problem:

A: I don't believe that chocolate ice cream is healthy. Prove it!
B: Well, chocolate ice cream must be healthy, because it has less saturated fat than pizza.

B's proof is wrong: just because chocolate ice cream is more healthy than some other food (if it even is), that doesn't mean that chocolate ice cream is healthy. In this problem, just because more tourists use buses than any other form of transit, that doesn't mean that we can say anything about whether the absolute number of buses is large or small, increasing or decreasing.

[RonPurewal]

Thanks a lot for the reply. Below is my understanding .. Just to make sure. Because this a kind of pattern GMAC uses to construct wrong answers. And i spend more time on these answers before eliminating.

When I meant by " More buses have to be used ....." is more than existing buses. My perception was many tourists using ONLY buses means more buses required to transport them, so more exhaust from them.

After reading your reply, I realized that , there are already a X number of buses, which the problem focuses on, and because of less parking space buses have to idle, and the exhaust released is damaging the buildings. If there will more buses or less in future because of XYZ reason is irrelevant to this question.

Let me know if my understanding is proper, this will help for other questions too..

yes, this is a proper understanding, but it's always dangerous to 'generalize'. it's much easier—and much more accurate—to gather a precise understanding of what matters in the problem at hand, and then combine that precise understanding with everyday common sense to determine whether something 'matters'.

e.g.,
to expand on chelsey's example:
if you look at the packages on low-fat potato chips, you'll see things like "%30 less fat than normal potato chips!"

...does this mean that these chips are, in an absolute sense, low in fat?
well, no.
normal chips are fatty.
these are not quite as fatty... but they're still fatty.

...if these are the only two feasible options (e.g., if i need to bring some kind of potato chips to a potluck), then are the reduced-fat chips the lower-/lowest-fat option?
yes.

[RonPurewal]

in other words:
• sometimes—as in the problem here in this thread—comparisons will be irrelevant.
• in other contexts, a comparison might be the whole point of the entire problem!
• you should be able to tell the difference with good old-fashioned common sense.

[liangl431]

for me, the hardest part of this question is the grammer in C. i barely understand the meaning, whether it's speng most of the time on transport or not.
if there is an "on" before trasporting, it will be so much easier.
i doubt the word"some" in E, there is a glimse in my mind like "what is that?", some means pretty blured or full of intention to trick...

[RonPurewal]

GMAC's text is consistently well written.
it's also as compact as possible, given the requirements for precision and formality on a test like this.

in other words, GMAC's answer choices will NEVER be more "wordy" than necessary, and they will NEVER use obscure and/or difficult wordings to express ideas that could easily have been expressed in simpler words.

--

also, you're thinking in literally the worst possible way about 2 different things here:

i doubt the word"some" in E, there is a glimse in my mind like "what is that?", some means pretty blured or full of intention to trick...

1/
NOTHING on this exam will EVER have the "intention to trick" you.
NOTHING.
Ever.

the integrity of this exam is a HUGE deal.
remember, this is an exam on which no one will ever see the questions that appeared on her/his administration -- and, still, it's accepted by every élite business school in the world.
the biggest reason WHY this test is so widely accepted ... is that there are NO TRICK QUESTIONS, EVER.
if this exam ever contained a single trick question... lots of business schools would immediately[ turn their backs on it.

2/
you will NEVER have to think in a mathematically precise way about the meanings of words like "some" or "most".
remember -- the verbal section is not the quant section!
this is why there are 2 different sections on the test, after all... with 2 different scores.

do not over-think words like "some". if you're thinking like that, then you're acting as though this is the quant section.
this isn't the quant section, so, that approach won't work.

[liangl431]

GMAC's text is consistently well written.
it's also as compact as possible, given the requirements for precision and formality on a test like this.

in other words, GMAC's answer choices will NEVER be more "wordy" than necessary, and they will NEVER use obscure and/or difficult wordings to express ideas that could easily have been expressed in simpler words.

--

also, you're thinking in literally the worst possible way about 2 different things here:

i doubt the word"some" in E, there is a glimse in my mind like "what is that?", some means pretty blured or full of intention to trick...

1/
NOTHING on this exam will EVER have the "intention to trick" you.
NOTHING.
Ever.

the integrity of this exam is a HUGE deal.
remember, this is an exam on which no one will ever see the questions that appeared on her/his administration -- and, still, it's accepted by every élite business school in the world.
the biggest reason WHY this test is so widely accepted ... is that there are NO TRICK QUESTIONS, EVER.
if this exam ever contained a single trick question... lots of business schools would immediately[ turn their backs on it.

2/
you will NEVER have to think in a mathematically precise way about the meanings of words like "some" or "most".
remember -- the verbal section is not the quant section!
this is why there are 2 different sections on the test, after all... with 2 different scores.

do not over-think words like "some". if you're thinking like that, then you're acting as though this is the quant section.
this isn't the quant section, so, that approach won't work.

dear Ron, thanks so much for the advice, for me. i am a victim of overthinkin actually, i always can imaging a lot behind the topic. that is why i am not good at this exam. anyway, i agree with your interperation now, i have proof it myself with many quesitons. this really helpful, like a hammer. thanks mate.
lei

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.