Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most spo

For those of you who picked A you are the winners (also picked A and was upset when saw that people were claiming that OA is D )

nicely explained by Ron Purewal (im big fan of him )

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/min ... t6094.html

How is the comparison maintained in this sentence? Totally stumped by this question I picked D. Detailed analysis anyone? Thanks!

Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.
A. Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,
B. Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, they cost less,
C. Minivans carry as many as seven passengers, in comparison with most sport utility vehicles, and have a lower cost, they
D. Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,
E. Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles the cost is lower, and they

I will give it a try....Option B,C and E are ruled out
I Chose D while solving it under timed condition but I think A is the Answer.
So now Lets look at Sentence Structure of A

Clearly Subject is : Minivans
Verb: Consider Sentence Structure
" Compared with most sport utility vehicles,Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.
In this structure verbs are Carry and List of others verbs having structure V2,V3,v4 and v5

Here Compared with most sport utilitiy vehicles is a Verb-ed modifier and it is the placement of this modifier which creates a confusion.

Now let's look at Sentence Structure D
"Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,

Carry is converted to Carrying (Verb-ing modifier). Verbing modifier after comma does one of the 2 things
1. present result of the preceding clause or
2. Present additional information about the clause.

In this sentence structure, we only have a Subject which is Minivans and not a complete clause and hence the placement of this modifier does not look appropriate.
Moreover this construction also changes the meaning of the sentence.
Note that Noun modifier should be close to the noun entity being modified. In this Sentence Structure, we have Noun, Modifier 1(verb-ing), Modifier 2(Verb-ed).
Modifier 2 could have been better placed

Clearly A looks better

Comments welcome!!

The parallelism is - "cost", "get", "allow" and “have" (all verbs). So, the only answer is D. "Carry" and "compared" are not the parallel items here. You got confused in the parallelism part.

One must be clear about the comparison aspect in this question between MVs and SUVs. That the minivans carry seven passengers is just a description of the minivans’ feature and not part of the comparison with SUVs. Therefore, the comparison part should be delinked from the carriage capacity by a conjunction ‘and’, which is why A is correct. All the other four choice jumble up the comparison with the carrying capacity and end up wrong.

A. Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, --- Comparison is limited to cost, mileage, comfort and ride ; correct.
B. Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, they cost less, --- carriage is part of the comparison; wrong
C. Minivans carry as many as seven passengers, in comparison with most sport utility vehicles, and have a lower cost, they -- comparison includes carriage

D. Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, ---- comparison jumbled up with other four factors.

E. Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles the cost is lower, and they – same as in B, C and D.

Of course, if we go deeper, we do have many other modification errors. But the comparison is most revealing as an error marker.

This question is based on Sentence Structure and Parallelism.

Parallelism applies to the end of the sentence, which gives a list of the qualities of the minivans, in comparison with most sport utility vehicles.

The qualities listed in comparison are – “cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride”
If we look at the highlighted words, we see that each quality is mentioned in the form of verb + comparative adjective. The list is thus parallel.

If we examine the other options, we see that Option D is the only other option that maintains parallelism.
In Option B, there is a redundant pronoun ‘they’. The sentence already has a subject minivans and since the qualities of minivans are listed, there is no need to use a pronoun to refer to it. So, Option B can be eliminated.

In Option C, the pronoun ‘they’ is used with the second item in the list, but the mistake is the same as in Option B. The pronoun is redundant. So, Option C can also be eliminated.

Option E also contains the same error of a redundant pronoun. The difference is that the structure of the sentence has also been changed. The cost is part of the qualities listed in comparison with sport utility vehicles, but Option E conveys the idea that the cost is the only quality being compared. So, Option E can also be eliminated.

Between Options A and D, there is difference in sentence structure. The sentence gives a list of qualities of minivans. There is a list of qualities at the end of the sentence in comparison with sport utility vehicles. But the sentence also begins by mentioning one quality of minivans – “Minivans carry…”.

Option D contains two modifiers placed one after the other, both of which refer to minivans. The first quality of minivans is converted into a modifier describing minivans in this option. Generally, when there are two modifiers modifying one subject, the subject is placed in between the two modifiers. Since the structure of Option D is not stylistically graceful either, Option D can be eliminated.

Therefore, A is the best option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

Hi AndrewN sir CrackVerbalGMAT GMATNinja


I am trying to take out learning from this question:-


1. Modifier, Subject, Modifier- preferred . if no other better option, then this could be an answer. Please confirm
2. as many as doesn't show maximum capacity? Some students have pointed out it changes the meaning . Carrying as many as seven passengers doesn't its maximum capacity? Why it is wrong in meaning?
3. What if the carrying is replaced with "which carry " (as in E). In this case, it would imply wrong meaning also ?Why not?


carry and cost , get , allow and have
There is no subject after so does not it seems like the list is still continuous and 2nd "and" should not be there?
4. How to avoid such kind errors during exam mode?
We need to make sure the list is parallel by understanding the meaning : Carry and cost –are not parallel list, hence wrong. Is my understanding correct?

Hello, imSKR. Speaking to your questions, in (D) above, yes, a subject-modifier-modifier-verb construct is definitely not preferred, since the double modifiers can lead to problems interpreting the sentence. This point brings me directly to your second and third questions. It is not that as many as cannot indicate maximum capacity, but that the back-to-back modifiers make it unclear whether the comparison has already begun—i.e. that the seven-passenger maximum capacity of minivans differs from the maximum capacity of SUVs—or whether the comparison is meant to begin after the second modifier—i.e. with cost less. This issue allows us to safely eliminate (D).

As for (A), the comparison must again enter the picture at the correct time, and we understand this through the parallel and marker:



In short, we are first presented an isolated fact about the riding capacity of minivans and then presented four additional pieces of information by way of a comparison. If the parallel verb structure is one of A and B, then element B can be thought of as having four smaller branches: A and B (w, x, y, and z).

I hope that helps. Thank you for thinking to ask me about this one.

- Andrew

Thanks AndrewN sir for prompt reply.

Can you please confirm whether I and II constructions are right/acceptable in Gmat?

I. Minivans , which carry as many as seven passengers , compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.

II. Compared with most sport utility vehicles, Minivans , which carry as many as seven passengers , cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.

Hello again, imSKR. The which clause is still problematic in sentence I. Yes, it contains non-essential information that clearly relates to minivans, but the modifier that follows might still be commenting on rider capacity in a vehicle-to-vehicle comparison. Sentence II clears this issue up nicely. It may not be the best way to express the sentence, but the ambiguity is no longer present. There is now a detached bit of information that goes with minivans only. Whether I would choose sentence II or something else would all depend on the other answer choices in the lineup.

- Andrew

Sorry for asking again .

What's wrong with "rider capacity in a vehicle-to-vehicle comparison." ?
Minivans carry more passengers than sports vehicles. it could also be a valuable point as capacity besides cost, mileage etc. , is n't it?

Ask away, imSKR. That is why I contribute to the forum, to assist curious GMAT™ students. There is nothing inherently wrong with comparing rider capacity, but sticking the compared modifier right after your which clause creates a moment of pause when the reader hits cost less. It is never a good idea to make a reader backtrack to qualify what a sentence is aiming to convey, and this sentence, the original sentence, seems to provide a detached fact about minivans before launching into a comparison with SUVs. It is just sloppy to create a split comparison for no apparent reason. If the sentence were, in fact, aiming to list five attributes in a comparative sense, then why not place them all together, one after another? It would be much easier to follow a sentence that said, Minivans, compared to SUVs, verb 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

I hope that helps. If you are still wondering about the issue, keep asking about it. I am happy to offer my thoughts.

- Andrew

Hi expert GMATNinja,

I try to understand the sentence structure here but I don't understand why we need ", and" before "compared with..."



I think this sentence can be rewritten to be "Compared with SUV, Minivans carry..., cost less, get better... blah blah blah". So why we need ", and" here? Also, it is not parallel to any others.

Notice the word most in the non-underlined portion...

"Minivans carry as many as seven passengers, and compared with sport utility vehicles, most cost less, get better gas mileage, and allow..."

We actually have two independent clauses here: 1) "Minivans carry..." and 2) "most cost, get, and allow" (where "cost, get, and allow" is a parallel list of verbs for the subject "most"). So the ", and" is needed to join the two independent clauses.

I hope that helps!

Hi people,

Can choice A also be read as :

Compared with most sport utility vehicles, minivans carry as many as seven passengers, cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.


Thanks,

Hello Ahmed9955,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, yes; the sentence formed by Option A can be rewritten to place the modifying phrase at the beginning of the sentence.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Hi PUNEETSCHDV , the logic you have used i.e pronoun after ',' refers to subject before it, but neither in option B i.e vehicles nor in option C i.e lower cost are subjects. Please can you elaborate on this.