Can you please confirm whether my understanding is correct?
OG-11 # 57:
- "they assumed": "they" refers to "the French"
- Ans choice B:
"without it" - "it" refers to Morocco
"their grip" - "their" refers to "the French"
yes.
RonPurewal Wrote:ah yes, a tricky one.
choice d is wrong because it is extremely, incredibly wordy. 'out of' is also a problem (because the gmat would only use 'out of' if it meant literally out of something, or in standard idioms like '3 out of 4'), but the wordiness of this choice should smack you in the face the second you look at it.
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RonPurewal Wrote:Guest Wrote:Ron, dont you think choice C lacks a comma after "the oneida"?
Thanks
no, you can't put commas around "alone of the five-nation iroquois league". that's an essential modifier; it's indispensable to the meaning of the sentence, and is NOT a separate description of the oneida. in other words, you're not saying that the oneida were actually alone per se; you're just saying that they were alone in siding with the colonists. those are two very different things indeed.
if you wrote the version with commas - the oneida, alone among the five-nation Iroquois League, sided... - you'd have the following 2 undesirable changes in meaning:
(1) you have a separate description of the oneida as "alone among the five-nation iroquois league" - i.e., they're just "alone", in some sense that we don't even know.
(2) because the modifier is now nonessential (it's basically treated as just an extra random fact about the oneida), you now have a sentence that only tells you that the oneida sided with the colonists. the sentence no longer addresses the issue of whether the other 4 nations sided with the colonists.
divineacclivity Wrote:RonPurewal Wrote:ah yes, a tricky one.
choice d is wrong because it is extremely, incredibly wordy. 'out of' is also a problem (because the gmat would only use 'out of' if it meant literally out of something, or in standard idioms like '3 out of 4'), but the wordiness of this choice should smack you in the face the second you look at it.
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Great explanation though leaves me with one doubt:
you mentioned that GMAT would use "out of" only in literal meanings or in idioms like 3 out of 4 but here choice d also uses 'out of' in the same fashion: a group, oneida, out of 5-nations. So, could you please explain a little more about what you meant to convey about "out of ..". It also says "a group out of 5 nations", no?
Thanks
shankar245 Wrote:RonPurewal Wrote:Guest Wrote:Ron, dont you think choice C lacks a comma after "the oneida"?
Thanks
no, you can't put commas around "alone of the five-nation iroquois league". that's an essential modifier; it's indispensable to the meaning of the sentence, and is NOT a separate description of the oneida. in other words, you're not saying that the oneida were actually alone per se; you're just saying that they were alone in siding with the colonists. those are two very different things indeed.
if you wrote the version with commas - the oneida, alone among the five-nation Iroquois League, sided... - you'd have the following 2 undesirable changes in meaning:
(1) you have a separate description of the oneida as "alone among the five-nation iroquois league" - i.e., they're just "alone", in some sense that we don't even know.
(2) because the modifier is now nonessential (it's basically treated as just an extra random fact about the oneida), you now have a sentence that only tells you that the oneida sided with the colonists. the sentence no longer addresses the issue of whether the other 4 nations sided with the colonists.
Hi Ron,
I just came across a question in gmat prep question pack 1 . I'm just posting a modified sentence so that it does violate copyright issues.
Many students,willing to admit that they lack verbal skills on the the gmat, are disinclined to accept that their Quantitative skills are weak.
The part in the italicised format is part of the core structure and is required for the meaning, but it is placed between two commas.
how does it work here?
BTW( This is the correct version of the question)
If some one would like to see the question ,here is the code
[deleted by moderator]
My gmat is in another 3 days. Your help would be highly appreciated.!!!!
tim Wrote:"depending..." is an adverbial modifier modifying "is able"
RonPurewal Wrote:ah yes, a tricky one.
'The Oneida' is plural, in much the same way as 'the English' or 'the French' would be plural (the French eat foods that are rather bizarre by the standards of most other countries). that observation knocks off choices a and b.
harishmullapudi Wrote:RonPurewal Wrote:ah yes, a tricky one.
'The Oneida' is plural, in much the same way as 'the English' or 'the French' would be plural (the French eat foods that are rather bizarre by the standards of most other countries). that observation knocks off choices a and b.
Ron, I have a question here...
In choice A, the word "who" refers to Onieda or five nations Iroquois league?
If it refers to five nations Iroquois then isn't the sentence run-on too? Because after removing modifiers, adjectives etc.. the sentence looks like "Influenced by Samuel Kirkland, the Oneida was the only one of the five nations Iroquois league". (forget about the was error here, can we eliminate this sentence because of run on issue?)
Please help me as soon as you can, I have an exam next Saturday(30th).
RonPurewal Wrote:chugh.gurpreet Wrote:Hi Ron
I have a query regarding your explanation (french, english) of oneida being plural. What if it is considered as nation as it is clearly indicated in the question that it is one of five nation. In that case it is singular as a country/nation is singular. Or I am missing something.
"the oneida" is unambiguously plural. see my explanation above -- that's really all i've got here; it works just like "the americans" or "the french". it refers to a group of people.
perhaps it would help to explain a little bit: the oneida are a "nation" in the sense that they are a native american tribe; they don't have their own country. if they had their own country, then the geographical name of that country would be singular, although any reference to the people of that country would still be plural. (e.g., france is singular, but the french is plural.)
there is no contradiction here -- as another example, "the cherokee tribe" is also singular, although "the cherokee" (another group of people) is plural.