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Yuxi
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Manhattan GMAT SC Odd&Ends Problem 9

by Yuxi Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:17 am

Despite advancing in an absolute sense, the productivity of Zel-Tech's workforce has fallen significantly behind that of competitor workforces"”by up to thousands of dollars per worker.

My question is why use that in this sentence.

that and those agreee in number with the previous version.
workforce is a singular noun,but workforces is a plural noun.
I don't why use that .why not repet the 'productivity'.

Thanks.
RonPurewal
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Re: Manhattan GMAT SC Odd&Ends Problem 9

by RonPurewal Mon Jul 15, 2013 9:47 am

Yuxi Wrote:Despite advancing in an absolute sense, the productivity of Zel-Tech's workforce has fallen significantly behind that of competitor workforces"”by up to thousands of dollars per worker.

My question is why use that in this sentence.

that and those agreee in number with the previous version.
workforce is a singular noun,but workforces is a plural noun.
I don't why use that .why not repet the 'productivity'.

Thanks.


i'm a little bit lost here -- you don't seem to be making any sort of claim against "that".
do you actually think the existing version is incorrect? if not, then, i'm sorry, but i don't see the motivation behind the question.

you could repeat "the productivity", but the resulting sentence would just be ugly.
that's the whole point of this kind of pronoun "that" -- to avoid repeating the noun, largely for stylistic reasons.

you will not have to choose between these options, since both would be technically correct.
Yuxi
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Re: Manhattan GMAT SC Odd&Ends Problem 9

by Yuxi Mon Jul 15, 2013 10:55 pm

RonPurewal Wrote:
Yuxi Wrote:Despite advancing in an absolute sense, the productivity of Zel-Tech's workforce has fallen significantly behind that of competitor workforces"”by up to thousands of dollars per worker.

My question is why use that in this sentence.

that and those agreee in number with the previous version.
workforce is a singular noun,but workforces is a plural noun.
I don't why use that .why not repet the 'productivity'.

Thanks.


i'm a little bit lost here -- you don't seem to be making any sort of claim against "that".
do you actually think the existing version is incorrect? if not, then, i'm sorry, but i don't see the motivation behind the question.

you could repeat "the productivity", but the resulting sentence would just be ugly.
that's the whole point of this kind of pronoun "that" -- to avoid repeating the noun, largely for stylistic reasons.

you will not have to choose between these options, since both would be technically correct.


Thanks Ron!

In Manhattan SC Pg 70,it has three sentences.
Rihgt: Her company is outperforming THAT OF her competitor.
Wrong: Her company is outperforming THOSE OF her competitors.
Right: Her company is outperforming THE COMOANIES OF her competitors.

Despite advancing in an absolute sense, the productivity of Zel-Tech's workforce has fallen significantly behind that of competitor workforces"”by up to thousands of dollars per worker.

I think that of comprtitor workforces means the produvtivities of comprtitor workforces. it change number.So I don't know why the writer use that to indicate the New Copy.
jnelson0612
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Re: Manhattan GMAT SC Odd&Ends Problem 9

by jnelson0612 Sat Aug 03, 2013 4:55 pm

Yuxi Wrote:
RonPurewal Wrote:
Yuxi Wrote:Despite advancing in an absolute sense, the productivity of Zel-Tech's workforce has fallen significantly behind that of competitor workforces"”by up to thousands of dollars per worker.

My question is why use that in this sentence.

that and those agreee in number with the previous version.
workforce is a singular noun,but workforces is a plural noun.
I don't why use that .why not repet the 'productivity'.

Thanks.


i'm a little bit lost here -- you don't seem to be making any sort of claim against "that".
do you actually think the existing version is incorrect? if not, then, i'm sorry, but i don't see the motivation behind the question.

you could repeat "the productivity", but the resulting sentence would just be ugly.
that's the whole point of this kind of pronoun "that" -- to avoid repeating the noun, largely for stylistic reasons.

you will not have to choose between these options, since both would be technically correct.


Thanks Ron!

In Manhattan SC Pg 70,it has three sentences.
Rihgt: Her company is outperforming THAT OF her competitor.
Wrong: Her company is outperforming THOSE OF her competitors.
Right: Her company is outperforming THE COMOANIES OF her competitors.

Despite advancing in an absolute sense, the productivity of Zel-Tech's workforce has fallen significantly behind that of competitor workforces"”by up to thousands of dollars per worker.

I think that of competitor workforces means the productivities of competitor workforces. it change number.So I don't know why the writer use that to indicate the New Copy.


That's a very good point and I had to think about that. I suspect that if we could talk to the person who wrote this sentence, the person would say that Zel-Tech's productivity has fallen behind the group productivity of the other companies, and that group productivity can be expressed as an individual productivity. We aren't really comparing Zel Tech's productivity to the individual productivity of every competitor; instead, we are comparing Zel-Tech's productivity to the productivity of the industry in general (I realize that I added that last bit in, but it's to help explain).
Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor