Maya and Aztec

[aditya8062]

Hi Ron
i have question regarding option A
A says: During the same period in which the Maya were developing a hieroglyphic system of writing, the Aztec people also developed a written language, but it was not as highly sophisticated as that of the Maya and was more pictographic in nature

you have always said that "that of" construction can be correctly used only if we have a corresponding construction somewhere in the previous clause in the form of X's noun OR "noun of X"
now in option A none of them exist .
how do i reconcile this?

the problem is in quite a good number of question from the prep you have used this "rule" to straight eliminate the options .is it that GMAT not consistent with this "rule"?

thanks

[RonPurewal]

If there's no relevant context outside of the comparison, then you'll need that sort of thing.

If there's a serviceable noun somewhere else in the context, though, "that" can stand for that noun.

(I'd guess that the post in which I wrote this is quite old. Can you point me to it, please? Thanks.)

[aditya8062]

(I'd guess that the post in which I wrote this is quite old. Can you point me to it, please? Thanks.)

sure Ron

a post by you on march 3 2008 at the link: http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/since-1990-the-global-economy-has-grown-more-than-it-did-t552.html

in the post April 16,2009 at the following link : http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/can-somebody-help-me-out-with-this-question-t4278.html ---->RON WROTE:

n the choice with "those killed by bee stings" -- note that we don't have "people killed by the great white shark" in the other part.

another post on may 25 2008 at the link : http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/unlike-other-mayan-cities-t2560.html------>RON wrote following:

first, the purely pragmatic answer: this construction would probably be considered undesirable on the real test, because it's not parallel. when the gmat uses these sorts of constructions in correct answers, the parallelism is usually very exact - i.e., if one part says 'those in mayan cities', then the other part will say something in some other place. the idea here is clear enough, but the sentence fails this test of exact parallelism, making it unsuitable for (what we've seen of) the gmat.

[aditya8062]

Ron said: If there's no relevant context outside of the comparison, then you'll need that sort of thing.

If there's a serviceable noun somewhere else in the context, though, "that" can stand for that noun.

Ron can you please elaborate on this with examples. i am not able to understand this --->"If there's no relevant context outside of the comparison, then you'll need that sort of thing"

[RonPurewal]

In the example above, "written language" is located outside the actual comparison structure, but it's an obvious and unambiguous reference for "that". So, "that" is fine.

If there is no such noun outside the comparison structure, then there should be one inside the comparison structure (e.g., The government of country X is less stable than that of country Y).
That's all I was saying there. Basically, because "that" is a pronoun here, it needs a noun somewhere.

[JaiD778]

Hi Ron,

I know B sounds bad here. Could you point out the mistake we are looking at?

can 'being' serve as a modifier in the way shown here?

Thanks in Advance!

Regards,
Jai

[JaiD778]

I realize now that B actually changes the meaning of the sentence...

[RonPurewal]

ok. do you have any other questions?

[Navneet]

Hi Ron
I have one question ( which is not related to underline part)

Do initial modifier ( During the same period in which the Maya were developing xxxx, Aztec people also developed yyy ) modifying action of Aztec people ?

or both are one sentence ( During the time in which A was doing xxxx, B was doing yyyy)

[RonPurewal]

"During the time in which A was doing xxxx, B was doing yyyy" is a complete sentence.

the overall structure of the entire sentence in this problem is "(complete sentence), but (other complete sentence)".

[aflaamM589]

can you tell me why D is wrong?

incorrect use of COMMA + -ING modifier.

see here:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/pos ... tml#p30766

the use of COMMA + -ING in that choice seems to indicate (illogically) that the aztec language was less sophisticated AS A DIRECT RESULT OF being more pictographic.

these are just two separate observations, with no apparent relationship, so "and" is the better choice.

Isn't being applied to people here?
D. not as highly sophisticated as that of the Maya, however, being
i.e
During the same period in which the Maya were developing a hieroglyphic system of writing, the Aztec people also developed a written language, not as highly sophisticated as that of the Maya, however, being more pictographic in nature.
I am asking this because if being is applied to aztec people, then it is much easier to eliminate this answer choice.
thanks in anticipation

[RonPurewal]

read the link in the part you quoted.

you can never treat a "comma __ing" modifier as though it ONLY applies to a NOUN.
this is actually the whole point of comma __ing modifiers—they have to relate to the entire action to which they are attached.
(again, this is explained in the link that's actually IN THE PART YOU QUOTED... just click on that and read it.)

so, here, this would mean there would have to be a relationship between "being more pictographic in nature" and the notion that the aztec language was "not as highly sophisticated as that of the Maya".
that's nonsense, of course. (the chinese alphabet is more pictographic than the english alphabet, but that doesn't mean that the chinese language is less "sophisticated" than the english language.)