However much United States voters may agree that.....

[vinny4nyc]

Hi
Why is Option
c) Although United States voters agree

Wrong?.

[RonPurewal]

Hi
Why is Option
c) Although United States voters agree

Wrong?.

* you should have "that" after "agree" here.
* this choice creates an entirely new meaning, which doesn't make much sense.
the original sentence states that, however much people may agree that xxxxx (i.e., it's not actually certain how much they agree), it's hard to find support for yyyy.
with this choice, the sentence instead states that people definitely agree that xxxxx. if that's the situation, then the statement in the second half of the sentence -- that it's still difficult to find support for yyyyy -- isn't very logical.

[riderofthestorm]

Dictionary.com defines "However much" as "Even though", so I guess much does not refer to anything in sentence but it is simply used that way.

[tim]

Please avoid referring to outside sources for grammar information; the GMAT makes its own rules, and all the information in the world from other sources won't raise your score if you rely on their rules rather than the GMAT's rules to solve SC problems.

[riderofthestorm]

Please avoid referring to outside sources for grammar information; the GMAT makes its own rules, and all the information in the world from other sources won't raise your score if you rely on their rules rather than the GMAT's rules to solve SC problems.

Hi tim,

I will keep that in mind, should we even avoid the dictionary definitions?

thanks

[tim]

Yes; it's generally a waste of time (and often antiproductive) to use any outside resources for SC, unless you are consulting a dictionary because you honestly don't even know what a word means.

[yuanyue92]

Does despite or although or even though change the meaning of the original however much?
In the explanation by OG, it seems like that the meaning of the original sentence was distorted just because of the missing word may. Choice D has may, and OG explanation doesn't say D distorts the original meaning.

Thanks very much!

[yuanyue92]

Does despite or although or even though change the meaning of the original however much?
In the explanation by OG, it seems like that the meaning of the original sentence was distorted just because of the missing word may. Choice D has may, and OG explanation doesn't say D distorts the original meaning.

Thanks very much!

where are you, instructors? help, please :)

[RonPurewal]

"However much X happens" = "regardless of the degree to which X happens". There's no implication that X will happen to a great degree, or at all.

"Although / even though X happens" = X actually happens, but, despite X, something is true.

E.g.,
However much you may betray me, I will still love you
--> I'll still love you IF you betray me, even to a great degree. But you might not betray me at all.

Even though you betrayed me, I still love you
--> You betrayed me. I still love you.

Even though you may betray me, I will still love you
--> It's not unlikely that you will betray me. But, if you do, I will still love you.

[yuanyue92]

Thanks:)
I was impolite again in the post. Sorry for that. I didn't mean it.

[RonPurewal]

No worries.
Just remember that, if you post on the thread again, we'll take longer to get to it!

[RichaChampion]

Ron,

I still can't understand why E is wrong. E sounds much better than A. Thanks!

[tim]

Okay this is the surest sign that you will not be able to rely on your ear to answer these questions, so make sure to learn your grammar rules THOROUGHLY. To me E sounds terrible, because it contains a comma splice - two sentences joined with nothing more than a comma. This is not permitted and is what makes E wrong.

[RonPurewal]

...and E contains no indication whatsoever of the contrast between the two ideas.
that contrast is the entire point of the sentence, so there definitely must be a word that signals it.