from GMAT prep pack 1

[upasana2007]

Problem deleted by moderator.

[career.sumit]

D looks good to me.

[upasana2007]

ya D is the OA....but by saying 'calories than they' arent we wrongly comparing 'calories' with 'they' ????

[career.sumit]

here 'they' refers to rats and mice. If you read the sentence as a whole,
Laboratory mice and rats live up to 40 % longer than usual when fed a diet that has at least 30% fewer calories than they(rats and mice) would normally eat but that(the diet) otherwise contains all necessary vitamins and nutrients.

the two diets are compared - the one which has 30% fewer calories and the one which they (rats and mice) normally eat.

[upasana2007]

here 'they' refers to rats and mice. If you read the sentence as a whole,
Laboratory mice and rats live up to 40 % longer than usual when fed a diet that has at least 30% fewer calories than they(rats and mice) would normally eat but that(the diet) otherwise contains all necessary vitamins and nutrients.

the two diets are compared - the one which has 30% fewer calories and the one which they (rats and mice) normally eat.

following that line of reasoning....shouldnt it be ....'thanthat they would normaly eat'

[career.sumit]

i feel using a 'that' will make the sentence look unnecessary wordy and awkward...
imagine using 'than that they' together....

if what i am thinking is correct, then 'that' is not necessary

[RonPurewal]

imagine using 'than that they' together....

there are certainly correct sentences with these three words in a row.
for instance:
the athletes' problem was more that their equipment was poorly designed than that they lacked skills.
--> perfectly correct sentence; contains the parallel structure more x than y, in which both "x" and "y" are clauses starting with "that".

[vikram4689]

what are the 2 parallel elements in this sentence: Laboratory rats and mice live up to 40 percent longer than usual.

i think that parallelism is ellipse-ed and full sentence would be "Laboratory rats and mice live up to 40 percent longer than they live usually". However, only thing that i am worried about is that in my 2nd sentence "usual" is changed to "usually" and ellipsis do not incorporate any change of words.

[jlucero]

GMAT Prep Pack questions are a paid-resource, so we can't discuss them on the forums. Sorry folks.

[vikram4689]

but my question is related to something else. anyways, if it still is a problem, i think i better rephrase my sentence. Here is my modified query:

what are the 2 parallel elements in this sentence: Laboratory bacteria and flies live up to 40 percent longer than usual.

i think that parallelism is ellipse-ed and full sentence would be "Laboratory bacteria and flies live up to 40 percent longer than they live usually". However, only thing that i am worried about is that in my 2nd sentence "usual" is changed to "usually" BUT ellipsis do not incorporate any change of words.

[tim]

sorry, if you want to discuss this issue you'll need to show us that it is a real issue by quoting a problem from a free resource or referring us to a problem number in a source that we can verify (such as OG). without this we can not be sure that the GMAT even tests the issue you are talking about, so it may not be worth any of our time to discuss..

[RichaChampion]

This is a GMAT Prep Question Pack 1 Question.

[AnooshehK513]

Dear Tim,

This question is actually from the GMAT question bank that can be bought on mba.com.
I understand that we cannot post the question here, but there is a reference number provided to this question which is VSC003901.
I do have the same question as others above which is regarding how this sentence is correct without using "that" or "what" after "than". Could you kindly explain. I will write part of the sentence here; I think that the rest of the sentence will not affect the answer to this question.

Lab rats live 40% longer than usual when fed a diet that has at least 30 percent fewer calories than they would normally eat.
(the question is that I eliminated this choice because it was not written: fewer calories than WHAT/THAT they usually eat )

Furthermore, is it right to say: The diet they normally eat? I mean can diet be eaten?

sincerely,


Anoosheh

sorry, if you want to discuss this issue you'll need to show us that it is a real issue by quoting a problem from a free resource or referring us to a problem number in a source that we can verify (such as OG). without this we can not be sure that the GMAT even tests the issue you are talking about, so it may not be worth any of our time to discuss..

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Sorry, but we can only discuss free problems from mba.com, not ones that need to be purchased. This is due to copyright.