The investigations of many psychologist

[AliciaZhou]

Thank you for your advise! I will notice that in the furture practice.

[tim]

:)

[jp.jprasanna]

Source:GMATPrep

The investigations of many psychologist and anthropologists support the generalization of there being little that is a significant difference in underlying mental processes manifested by people from different culture.
A of there being little that is a significant difference
B of there being little that is significantly different
C of little that is significantly different
D that there is little that is significantly different
E that there is little of significant differences

How to pick between D and E

Dear Instructors - Could you please let me know why "THAT" is required after generalization?

[rachelhong2012]

D that there is little that is significantly different
E that there is little of significant differences

How to pick between D and E



***

Isn't there a meaning issue too?

Iin D, "Little that is XXX", makes "little" the subject and "significant differences" a modifier

when in reality we want to talk about the "significant differences" and the fact that it is little.

that's why E is right, because "little of significant differences" makes "significant differences" the subject and "little of" the modifier

[RonPurewal]

Dear Instructors - Could you please let me know why "THAT" is required after generalization?

this is just idiomatic. fortunately, it's pretty much consistent across the board for words that refer to things that people say or think. for example, you would use the same construction with the idea that..., the saying that..., etc..
some of these constructions can also work with "of" + noun, if that kind of thing makes sense in context. for instance, idea + of + noun can be used: e.g., my grandmother doesn't like the idea of combat sports.
in the case of generalization, though, you can't follow it with "of" + noun, because generalizations aren't represented by nouns -- they are represented by statements (clauses). you can introduce a clause with "that", but not with "of".

[RonPurewal]

Isn't there a meaning issue too?

Iin D, "Little that is XXX", makes "little" the subject and "significant differences" a modifier

when in reality we want to talk about the "significant differences" and the fact that it is little.

that's why E is right, because "little of significant differences" makes "significant differences" the subject and "little of" the modifier

no. the answer is (d), not (e). please check the answers before you post what you think is an explanation!

you are right that "little" is a noun and "that is significantly different" modifies it -- but you are wrong if you think that something is incorrect about that. the meaning is still there; it's an essential modifier.
as an analogy, i have no item on this list and i have none of the items on this list are identical in meaning, even though "item" appears in the direct object of the first and in a modifier in the second.

the most objective error in choice (e) is its use of "little" for a quantity of differences.
differences (like virtually all plural nouns) are countable, so you can't use "little" to describe them. if this choice said few significant differences, it would be legitimate.

[FanPurewal]

Source:GMATPrep

The investigations of many psychologist and anthropologists support the generalization of there being little that is a significant difference in underlying mental processes manifested by people from different culture.
A of there being little that is a significant difference
B of there being little that is significantly different
C of little that is significantly different
D that there is little that is significantly different
E that there is little of significant differences

How to pick between D and E

hi instructors
i am wandering whether *significantly* in D and *significant* in E have the same meaning in sentence.

please clarify, thank you.

[tim]

We will be glad to answer your question if you can tell us how knowing the answer will help you with this sentence.

[JaneJ740]

Hi, why is C wrong?

[RonPurewal]

Hi, why is C wrong?

"the generalization of ____" would only make sense if "____" were some sort of specific thing that we were trying to generalize.

analogy:
the destruction of ____ ––> "____" is being destroyed.
the generalization of ____ ––> "____" is being generalized.

e.g.,
the generalization of specific observations is often straightforward in math, but is impossible in critical reasoning.

--

this is not the meaning that's intended here.

here, we have the generalization that ____, in exactly the same way we'd have the fact that ____, the belief that ____, etc.

[MoriofMay]

Idiomatic usage. In the phrase 'little of X', the X has to be a singular quantity. If it's plural (like 'differences'), then you have to use few.
There was very little food left over at the end of the party.
There were very few crab cakes left over at the end of the party.

Hope that helps.

Hi Ron,
I cannot really get it. Is 'X' necessarily uncountable? Or do you mean that no matter it is countable or uncountble, only if 'X' is singular, the constructure'little of X' is correct?
Look forward to your reply. Thanks.

[RonPurewal]

'little of x' just means 'a small fraction of x'.
if 'x' is singular, and 'a small fraction of x' makes sense, then 'little of x' should also be fine. this issue is altogether unrelated to the idea of 'countable'/'uncountable', because it has nothing to do with counting.

e.g.,
I have read very little of this book.
I would not do well on the MCAT, because I have very little of the required knowledge.

these sentences are both ok; hopefully, both are self-explanatory.
sure, books are countable, whereas knowledge is not—but it should be clear that this distinction doesn't matter here. (we are talking about a fraction of a single book; the notion of 'counting books' is not in play.)

[MoriofMay]

'little of x' just means 'a small fraction of x'.
if 'x' is singular, and 'a small fraction of x' makes sense, then 'little of x' should also be fine. this issue is altogether unrelated to the idea of 'countable'/'uncountable', because it has nothing to do with counting.

e.g.,
I have read very little of this book.
I would not do well on the MCAT, because I have very little of the required knowledge.

these sentences are both ok; hopefully, both are self-explanatory.
sure, books are countable, whereas knowledge is not—but it should be clear that this distinction doesn't matter here. (we are talking about a fraction of a single book; the notion of 'counting books' is not in play.)

Sorry to reply late. Nice explanation! Thank you for help!

[tim]

[RonPurewal]

Sorry to reply late. Nice explanation! Thank you for help!

you're welcome.