SC: Even Though Sub-saharn africa

[dewanak]

Today i faced this question with GMATPREP1(2007 edition)

Even though sub-saharn Africa often evokes images of drought and famine, researchers say that the area is the home of more than 2000 grains, vegetables, roots, fruits and other foods that have the possibility for feeding the continent, even other parts of the world

(a) same

(b) have the possibility of feeding the continent, even of

(c) could feed the continent, so even with

(d) could feed the continent and even

(e) could possibly feed the continent and, in addition, for even

I marked B.... OA is D

please help with this one..it just went over my head :(

[sm.proclivity]

Today i faced this question with GMATPREP1(2007 edition)

Even though sub-saharn Africa often evokes images of drought and famine, researchers say that the area is the home of more than 2000 grains, vegetables, roots, fruits and other foods that have the possibility for feeding the continent, even other parts of the world

(a) same

(b) have the possibility of feeding the continent, even of

(c) could feed the continent, so even with

(d) could feed the continent and even

(e) could possibly feed the continent and, in addition, for even

I marked B.... OA is D

please help with this one..it just went over my head :(

I choose D. D is simple and conveys a full meaning.
The use of "and" between continent and other parts of the world is a must here. Without it, the sentence conveys that even other parts of the world is acting as an appositive for continent. Hence options A, B and C eliminated. They look more like a run-on sentence and sound awkard.

i also feel possibility of feeding is not the correct idiom. The correct idiom should be possibility to feed.
[editor: nope, incorrect -- "possibility of feeding" is perfectly idiomatic. the idiom issue is with "have the possibility", not with the words following "possibility". see below.
also, "possibility to feed" would be incorrect.
--ron]

Choice E- The use of in addition unnecessarily makes the sentence sound clumsy.Also choice E violates parallelism by using for in the last part of the sentence.

Choice D sounds correct from all aspects. Hence it should be the OA.

[RonPurewal]

Today i faced this question with GMATPREP1(2007 edition)

Even though sub-saharn Africa often evokes images of drought and famine, researchers say that the area is the home of more than 2000 grains, vegetables, roots, fruits and other foods that have the possibility for feeding the continent, even other parts of the world

(a) same

(b) have the possibility of feeding the continent, even of

(c) could feed the continent, so even with

(d) could feed the continent and even

(e) could possibly feed the continent and, in addition, for even

I marked B.... OA is D

please help with this one..it just went over my head :(

"have the possibility of..." is an unidiomatic construction -- i'm pretty sure that this could never be correct, in any context, since it could always be replaced with can/could. ("it would always have the possibility of being replaced..." heh.) so a/b are down the drain.

eliminating c/e is a matter of basic parallelism.
in (c), "with" isn't parallel to anything in the other part of the sentence.
in (e), "for" isn't parallel to anything in the other part of the sentence.

(e) also has two instances of redundancy:
could + possibly
and + in addition

finally, (c) is not grammatically a sentence; if you use "so" as a conjunction, it should be followed by an independent clause (i.e., another complete sentence).

[momo32]

Hi Ron，

I do not choose CDE, because i think could is not right. we may use can. please correct me!

thx

[thanghnvn]

Today i faced this question with GMATPREP1(2007 edition)

Even though sub-saharn Africa often evokes images of drought and famine, researchers say that the area is the home of more than 2000 grains, vegetables, roots, fruits and other foods that have the possibility for feeding the continent, even other parts of the world

(a) same

(b) have the possibility of feeding the continent, even of

(c) could feed the continent, so even with

(d) could feed the continent and even

(e) could possibly feed the continent and, in addition, for even

I marked B.... OA is D

please help with this one..it just went over my head :(

the non underlined part of this question is wrong

even though is used to show a contrast between " evokes"and "say". this is not logic. there is no contrast here to use even though.

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron，

I do not choose CDE, because i think could is not right. we may use can. please correct me!

thx

The official correct answers are not wrong.
Ever.

"Can" means that these foods can actually feed the continent and/or other parts of the world right now. I.e., there's not just a potential; the foods are actually present in sufficient quantity to feed the entire continent NOW.

"Could" refers to a potential that may not yet have been realized.

[RonPurewal]

the non underlined part of this question is wrong

No, it's not. The researchers' statement flies directly in the face of the image described.

The official correct answers are not wrong.

[ShriramC110]

Hi Ron,

U have quoted this.
in (c), "with" isn't parallel to anything in the other part of the sentence.
in (e), "for" isn't parallel to anything in the other part of the sentence.

Why is it necessary to have with to be parallel to something in c and for to be parallel to soething in e.
There is no and , still why do we require it to be parallel??

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

if you understand what the sentence is saying—we're talking about feeding 2 different regions—it should be clear that the sentence SHOULD contain 'and'.
(...or some other construction that does a similar job, e.g., 'as well as'. but no such alternative options are present.)

There is no and , still why do we require it to be parallel?

there is no 'and' in choice A... but that means nothing, because choice A, like every other choice, is wrong 80 per cent of the time.

when you first read the sentence, you need to figure out the INTENDED meaning.
choice A may convey the correct meaning; it may not. if it doesn't, then it's wrong.

[RonPurewal]

the real point is that, even if choice A is incorrect, it should not pose an obstacle to understanding the intended meaning.

a nice illustration from real life is here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... ml#p118216

[qianruS779]

Today i faced this question with GMATPREP1(2007 edition)

Even though sub-saharn Africa often evokes images of drought and famine, researchers say that the area is the home of more than 2000 grains, vegetables, roots, fruits and other foods that have the possibility for feeding the continent, even other parts of the world

(a) same

(b) have the possibility of feeding the continent, even of

(c) could feed the continent, so even with

(d) could feed the continent and even

(e) could possibly feed the continent and, in addition, for even

I marked B.... OA is D

please help with this one..it just went over my head

"have the possibility of..." is an unidiomatic construction -- i'm pretty sure that this could never be correct, in any context, since it could always be replaced with can/could. ("it would always have the possibility of being replaced..." heh.) so a/b are down the drain.

eliminating c/e is a matter of basic parallelism.
in (c), "with" isn't parallel to anything in the other part of the sentence.
in (e), "for" isn't parallel to anything in the other part of the sentence.

(e) also has two instances of redundancy:
could + possibly
and + in addition

finally, (c) is not grammatically a sentence; if you use "so" as a conjunction, it should be followed by an independent clause (i.e., another complete sentence).

Hi Ron,

As you said that "have the possibility of..." is an unidiomatic construction , I want to know how to use possibility and some common idioms containing it (in the GMAT).

Thank you very much

Best, Song

[RonPurewal]

I want to know how to use possibility and some common idioms containing it (in the GMAT).

this kind of question can only be answered on a case-by-case basis. i.e., if you encounter official problems containing such idioms, then ask about them.

it seems you're asking for some sort of list.
if that's what you're asking for... well, i can see why you might ask something like this, but, think about it for a second.
that's an impossible request for a human instructor to fulfill, since the human brain doesn't store information like a database.

in fact, the human brain is notoriously TERRIBLE at database-type recall.
if you ask the average english speaker, e.g., "Name all the words you can think of that start with ... L", (s)he probably won't be able to come up with more than 20 or 30 words, even though (s)he almost certainly knows hundreds or even thousands of such words.
...because that just isn't how the brain stores information.

the only thing we can do, here, is answer questions about individual examples, if and when you encounter such examples in the official problems.

[RonPurewal]

ALSO, MORE IMPORTANTLY,

if you DO encounter something like this in an official problem, it's very unlikely to be important.

most "idiom" issues are inserted simply as distractions, to try to draw your attention away from things that are more fundamental, straightforward, and/or black-and-white.

if you pay too much attention to these kinds of things when you study, you'll lose focus on the fundamentals, and your score will most likely go down as a result.

[qianruS779]

Thank you for your suggestion!

Best, Song

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.