SC: High school basketball

by GK Tue Nov 13, 2007 3:59 am

At Shiprock, New Mexico, a perennially powerful girls’ high school basketball team has become a path to college for some and a source of pride for a community where the household incomes of 49 percent of them are below the poverty level.
(A) where the household incomes of 49 percent of them are
(B) where they have 49 percent of the household incomes
(C) where 49 percent of the household incomes are
(D) which has 49 percent of the household incomes
(E) in which 49 percent of them have household incomes

The correct answer is C. I chose D. Can you please explain why D is incorrect? 'Community' is singular so 'has' is required (as in C). Further, can't 'where' only refer to a physical place on the GMAT? If so how can 'where' refer to 'community'? Isn't 'which' a preferable referent for 'community'? Thanks.

Source: SC 1000 Practice Questions

by **RonPurewal** Wed Nov 14, 2007 4:36 am

The difference is one of meaning, not of grammar (choice D is perfectly grammatical). What choice D actually means is that this one little community in N.M. has 49 percent of ALL the household incomes below the poverty level (i.e., in the entire country, or whatever is the whole universe of reference). That's unlikely, to say the least, and, more importantly, it distorts the clear meaning of the original sentence (you're never allowed to do so unless the original is nonsense).

The other thing that doesn't make sense in choice D is '49 percent of the incomes'. It's not 49 percent of a bunch of figures on an Excel spreadsheet; it's supposed to be 49 percent of the households (or of the households' incomes).

by GK Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:02 am

Great! Thanks a lot for the clarification Ron.

Can you also shed some light on the usage of 'where' to refer to 'a community'. Isn't where supposed to refer to a physical place on the GMAT? Thanks.

by **RonPurewal** Tue Nov 20, 2007 5:31 am

Well, yeah, the GMAT might not use 'community' like that, because you're right: 'community' isn't really a substitute for something like 'location' or 'place'. A better construction might be 'in which'.

At all times, remember that imitator questions - especially the 1000sc questions, most of which are decent, but some of which are pretty shoddy - aren't real GMAT questions. If you see something that you think is questionable on a real GMAT problem, jsut swallow it and consider it to be part of 'GMAT usage'.