SC meaning

[TamerA271]

Hi,
On SC when you say that the meaning of the sentence must not change. What do you use as the base? Option A so what is written in the actual sentence? Or are you supposed to understand the meaning on your own even if Answer A gives the sentence a wrong meaning?

Thanks,

[StaceyKoprince]

While some OG materials do talk about an "intended meaning" for the sentence, the OG doesn't specifically say that you have to follow or can't change the original meaning. Sometimes you have to, actually! There are a few standards we can use when thinking about meaning.

- Illogic: the meaning of the sentence is outright illogical / impossible in some way. There's an OG question that talks about an earthquake: some answers (including the original sentence / answer A) say that it destroyed and heavily damaged some buildings and other answers say destroyed or heavily damaged.

Logically, you can't heavily damage something after it's been destroyed; it's one or the other. So this meaning is illogical and the sentence needs to be changed to destroyed or damaged.

The wrong verb tense can also be considered an issue with logic / meaning: Yesterday, I will buy milk. You know it's wrong because it's illogical.

- Ambiguity: the sentence construction allows 2 different meanings. There's another OG question about the Inuit that has a faulty comparison. It essentially says something like:
The mouse is more afraid of the dog than the cat.
Meaning 1: The mouse is more afraid of the dog than the mouse is afraid of the cat.
Meaning 2: The mouse is more afraid of the dog than the cat is afraid of the dog.

You'd have to say something like "The mouse is more afraid of the dog than the cat is." (Meaning 2)

- Redundancy: the sentence says the same thing twice. An OG question has a split between "X is potentially devastating for Y" and "X can potentially devastate Y." The second option is redundant: can and potentially are saying the same thing in the sentence. A correct option using can might be "X can devastate Y."

If the original sentence has one of these errors, then it may be harder to understand the intended meaning when you read the sentence. If you're able to articulate the issue using one of the above principles, then you might be able to figure out what the intended meaning (logical, unambiguous) should be or might be. If the sentence is too hard to understand, try reading the sentence with answer choice (E) instead. That answer choice is often the most different from (A), so that might help you figure out what the sentence is trying to say.