Tough SC questions (Japan's success)

[Silent Bob]

Hello guys,

 

I have more tough questions I ran into during my practice. Your responses and feedbacks have been great. Let's keep it up!!!

 

1. The key to Japan's worldwide commericial success is not so much government policy, although that too is a factor, but fierce domestic competition; after outpacing local rivals, firms often find that foreign competitors are simply no match for them.

 

A)

B) but domestically fierce competition

C)but rather it is fierce domestic competiton

D)as it is fierce domestic competiton

E) as competition that is fierce domestically.

 

Once again guys I am not interested in the answers. We need to understand how and why the answer is right.

 

2. Published in 1922, Claude McKay became familiar to poetry readers through Harlem Shadows, a book that helped to spur a literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.

 

A)

B) Published in 1922, Harlem Shadows was the book by which Claude Mckay became familiar to readers of poetry, helping

C)Published in 1922, Harlem Shadows was the book by which Claude Mckay became familiar to poetry readers and helped

D) Claude Mckay became familiar to the readers of poetry through the publication in 1922 of Harlem Shadows, a book that helped

E) Harlem Shadows was published in 1922 and was the book by which Claude Mckay became familiar to poetry readers, helping

 

Q #2 is a great modifier question!!

 

 

[hellogmat]

Are answers A & C? Following is my explanation: -

1) The idiom being tested here is "not... but". The original sentence has a noun phrase, "so much government policy" after "not". So, the parallel construction demands a noun phrase after "but". A correctly provides the parallel construction with "but fierce competition".

 

An anology would be the following sentence: -

"I am not an idiot but a genious."

 

Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

2) The modifier "published in 1922" has to modify Harlem Shadows. B & C both do this. However, B incorrectly implies that Harlem Shadows helped to spur the literary movement. C correctly points out that Claude Mckay helped to spur the literary movement.

 

Again, please let me know if I am wrong.

 

[evensflow]

Originally posted by Silent Bob

 

Hello guys,

 

1. The key to Japan's worldwide commericial success is not so much government policy, although that too is a factor, but fierce domestic competition; after outpacing local rivals, firms often find that foreign competitors are simply no match for them.

 

A)

B) but domestically fierce competition

C)but rather it is fierce domestic competiton

D)as it is fierce domestic competiton

E) as competition that is fierce domestically.

 

 

The answer to this question lies in the idiom

 

"not so much............. as"

 

So, going by that the answer is clearly D. NOw, you may ask what does "it" stand for. So again, it's an "empty it".

 

For 2 questions the answer is C. As hellogmat pointed out.

 

HTH :)

 

[alixjung]

Originally posted by Silent Bob

 

Hello guys,

 

I have more tough questions I ran into during my practice. Your responses and feedbacks have been great. Let's keep it up!!!

 

1. The key to Japan's worldwide commericial success is not so much government policy, although that too is a factor, but fierce domestic competition; after outpacing local rivals, firms often find that foreign competitors are simply no match for them.

 

A)

B) but domestically fierce competition

C)but rather it is fierce domestic competiton

D)as it is fierce domestic competiton

E) as competition that is fierce domestically.

 

Once again guys I am not interested in the answers. We need to understand how and why the answer is right.

 

My vote is also A.

 

2. Published in 1922, Claude McKay became familiar to poetry readers through Harlem Shadows, a book that helped to spur a literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.

 

A)

B) Published in 1922, Harlem Shadows was the book by which Claude Mckay became familiar to readers of poetry, helping

C)Published in 1922, Harlem Shadows was the book by which Claude Mckay became familiar to poetry readers and helped

D) Claude Mckay became familiar to the readers of poetry through the publication in 1922 of Harlem Shadows, a book that helped

E) Harlem Shadows was published in 1922 and was the book by which Claude Mckay became familiar to poetry readers, helping

 

Q #2 is a great modifier question!!

 

My vote is D. It's the book HARLEM Shoadows that helped to spur the HARLEM Renaissance movement... not Claude. Plus, in C, "was the book by which..." is wordy.

[Silent Bob]

Okay guys lets talk about the question I posted up.

 

The first question is for you Evenflow.

 

Not so much A as B.

 

Yes this is the proper idiomatic expression. Let's take an additional step by further analysing this structure.

 

A and B should be in same part of speech; hence "Not so much government policy as fierce domestic competition"

 

Yes the Answer is D but lets examine why. Using the idiom we can narrow it down to D and E. However one can choose E based on my previois logic. "NOt so much governement policy as competition that is fierce domestically"

 

Governement policy is being paralleled against competition.

 

Although D sounds better I didn't understand what the purpose of "It is" and as you mentioned if that "It" is an empty it then it does not follow the parallelism logic I have mentioned above. Please further explain for further analysis. If necessary can you dissect the clauses and phrases to get the point across. I think this is a great question.

 

The answer to the Harlem shadow question is D

 

Lets examine why.

 

At first glance B and C look good. However from my prosepctive B and C possesses these faults.

 

I think both choices can create ambiguity as to who is doing the action.

 

Many of you guys said in choice B Harlem shadow is doing the helping but from this sentence one can also argue that Claude Mckay is helping . Furthermore, I don't think it is all that awkward to say that the book "harlem shadow" helped to spur the movement. Hence I think with this choice there is a prblem with ambiguous subject.

 

I think this example shares similar mistake as choice B.

 

However lets look at choice D.

 

To eliminate the ambiguity of the main subject a book is mntioned after comma to ensure that the book is the one that is doing the action of helping. This question is similar to that corporation question.

 

I think this is called apposition. Correct me if I am wrong.

 

Erin can you please further comment on our explanations when you get a chance and thank you sooo much for providing this fourm for us...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kuriang]

Hi Guys

I think Quest 2 is a real cracker...Here is my take on the explanations.

 

I read somewhere that modifiers are like teenagers....fall in love with whatever/whoever next to them.

In choice B,'helping' falls in love with 'readers of poetry',and so end up modifying ' readers of poetry'.So the meaning of the sentence changes to 'readers of poetry helping to spur a literary movement' !

 

In choice C,the usage of 'and' creates havoc with identifying the subject

So tell me WHO HELPED.....is it 'Claude McKay' or 'Harlem Shadows'.

So C is out !

 

In E the error in choice B repeats....

 

So the correct ans is Choice D because the modifier

falls in love with the correct person this time

ie 'a book that helped to spur...' modifies 'Harlem Shadows'

 

[booster]

I think D is the answer for first question for two reasons:

 

1.It correctly states the parallel form..government policy.....fierce domestic competition..In e competition that is fierce domestically becomes a verb form. D correctly preserves the noun form.

 

2.Answer e is more wordy than D which ETS hates

 

Hope it makes sense. Erin can comment further..

 

 

 

 

 

Originally posted by Silent Bob

 

Okay guys lets talk about the question I posted up.

 

The first question is for you Evenflow.

 

Not so much A as B.

 

Yes this is the proper idiomatic expression. Let's take an additional step by further analysing this structure.

 

A and B should be in same part of speech; hence "Not so much government policy as fierce domestic competition"

 

Yes the Answer is D but lets examine why. Using the idiom we can narrow it down to D and E. However one can choose E based on my previois logic. "NOt so much governement policy as competition that is fierce domestically"

 

Governement policy is being paralleled against competition.

 

Although D sounds better I didn't understand what the purpose of "It is" and as you mentioned if that "It" is an empty it then it does not follow the parallelism logic I have mentioned above. Please further explain for further analysis. If necessary can you dissect the clauses and phrases to get the point across. I think this is a great question.

 

The answer to the Harlem shadow question is D

 

Lets examine why.

 

At first glance B and C look good. However from my prosepctive B and C possesses these faults.

 

I think both choices can create ambiguity as to who is doing the action.

 

Many of you guys said in choice B Harlem shadow is doing the helping but from this sentence one can also argue that Claude Mckay is helping . Furthermore, I don't think it is all that awkward to say that the book "harlem shadow" helped to spur the movement. Hence I think with this choice there is a prblem with ambiguous subject.

 

I think this example shares similar mistake as choice B.

 

However lets look at choice D.

 

To eliminate the ambiguity of the main subject a book is mntioned after comma to ensure that the book is the one that is doing the action of helping. This question is similar to that corporation question.

 

I think this is called apposition. Correct me if I am wrong.

 

Erin can you please further comment on our explanations when you get a chance and thank you sooo much for providing this fourm for us...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Silent Bob]

Booster,

 

As ar as your explanation to Q 1 is concerned I have to disagree with you in your reasoning. Although D is the right answer I can't agree with ur explanation for eliminationg choice E.

 

You said and I quote "In choice E competition that is fierce domestically becomes a verb form. D correctly preserves the noun form"

 

I think choice E still retains the noun form "as competition that is fierce domestically" but it is wordy. Competition is the noun and that is fierce domestically is the adjective clasue modifying competition. Furthermore can you explain to me what purpose "it is" is serving in choice D.

 

Thanks..

[Silent Bob]

Erin,

 

Can you please address this question??? I have been dying to know...

[Erin]

Hope this helps:

 

The pattern not so much X as Y is essentially the same thing as the as... as... pattern, except that it's the negative form.

 

And we should remember that the as... as... pattern doesn't follow strict parallel structure--sometimes we need to add extra words to avoid the "apples and oranges" comparison problem. Here's an example of a mistake:

 

:yuck: Joseph likes chocolate as much as Chris. :yuck:

 

In this sentence, we don't know whether Christ is parallel with Joseph or chocolate. In other words, does Joseph like chocolate and Chris equally, or do Joseph and Chris like chocolate equally?

 

So the "it is" in D is grammatically acceptable.

 

The big problem with E is the "fierce domestically," which has an illogical meaning--fierce in a "domestic way?" Weird... :yuck:

[Erin]

Originally posted by hellogmat

 

2) The modifier "published in 1922" has to modify Harlem Shadows. B & C both do this. However, B incorrectly implies that Harlem Shadows helped to spur the literary movement. C correctly points out that Claude Mckay helped to spur the literary movement.

 

Again, please let me know if I am wrong.

 

But what is helped parallel with? It's ambiguous:

 

C)Published in 1922, Harlem Shadows was the book by which Claude Mckay became familiar to poetry readers and helped to spur a literary movement

So C is out because of this ambiguity. ;)

[hellogmat]

Thanks for the explanation, Erin. I see the ambiguity now.