Mideast Immigrants' rates of entrepreneurship exceed

[jlucero]

Same question- if E said "Exceed" instead of "Exceeds" then is E a better answer than C?
C says "exceeding", I am trying to understand how does "exceeding" chnaging the meaning of sentence compared to "exceed"

Thanks.

no, (c) is still better.

here are a couple of reasons / observations.

* in general, "X's rate of Y" is preferred to "the rate of X's Y". i would probably just chalk this one up to idiomatic usage, although (as usual) there are subtle differences that are far beyond the scope of the gmat.
for instance, salesman X's rate of success is better than the rate of salesman X's success.

* "Mideast immigrants" is wrong; "immigrants from the Mideast" is better. ("Mideast" can't be used as an adjective of nationality, for the same reason you can't say "Asia people" in place of "people from Asia".)

Ron,

I preferred C over E because of the following reason and please tell if that is good enough a reason to answer such questions:

If E was to be correct, it should have been: The rates of Mideast immigrant's entrepreneurship exceeds those of (=rates of) any other immigrants' entrepreneurship otherwise the comparison would be between rates (of mideast immigrant's enterp.) and other immigrants

and C rightly compares "rates of enterp." exceeding "those" (rates of enterp.) of other immigrants.

Please tell me if my logic of picking up C and rejecting E is good/correct? thank you.

Correct.

[jlucero]

Will the following be correct?
The characters in Restrepo's novel are more realistic than in Yepes's

no. since the comparison is meant to be between two sets of characters, you need characters... vs. those...

if you just do that, then you're implying that the same characters are in both books.

i.e.,
americans in paris are happier than those in berlin.
--> there are 2 different sets of american expatriates -- one set in paris, the other in berlin. the former are happier than the latter.

americans are happier in paris than in berlin.
--> this sentence implies that the same people would be happier in paris than in berlin.

I read your post regarding comparison in case of NOUN1+prep phrase+Noun2
and I thought I correctly comapared the "prep phrase + Noun2" with another prep phrase.

You may have, but you aren't making the right comparison.

X are more realistic than Y
X (in A's novel) are more realistic than (in B's novel).

You have no "Y" in this sentence to set up the proper comparison. Even if the "prepositional phrase + possessive + assumed noun" matches up, you don't have a full comparison. This is the same as saying:

The people in New York are nicer than in Los Angeles.

You are comparing a group of people with a prepositional phrase.

[jlucero]

Hi Ron - I have a question regarding perp + noun + verbing

The construction Perp + noun + verbing is always unless the noun is the main focus the preposition.

Below is sentences a sentence from Manhattan CAT.

Policy makers remain concerned about the prospect of inflation, although there are few signs of increasing energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far.

Which is wrong because of the perp + noun + verbing rule.

Immigrants from the Mideast exhibit rates of entrepreneurship exceeding those of virtually every other immigrant group in the increasingly diverse United States economy.

This is correct as given above.

But I'm having a hard time seeing the difference between the two. Can you please advise how to eliminate these?

Cheers

The difference is how far the prepositional phrase extends. In the wrong answer choice, the prepositional phrase includes a clause that includes a verb. Wrong. In the second, the prepositional phrase only includes a noun. Fine.

Wrong: Policy makers remain concerned about the prospect of inflation, although there are few signs (of increasing energy prices driving up the cost of other goods) so far.

Fine: Immigrants from the Mideast exhibit rates (of entrepreneurship) exceeding those of virtually every other immigrant group in the increasingly diverse United States economy.

[t.dong0603]

Could an instructor let me know why C is wrong? What is preventing us from interpreting the ellipsis in C as:

The rates of entrepreneurship in immigrants from the Mideast exceed (rates of entrepreneurship in) virtually every other immigrant group in the increasingly diverse United States economy.

you can't separate out the noun from a prepositional phrase. if you're writing a comparison involving "NOUN1 + prep + NOUN2", then the other side should be either
* another noun that is compared to NOUN1, not to NOUN2
or
* another prepositional phrase that is compared to prep + NOUN2.

for instance:
These people are better writers of fiction than nonfiction. --> incorrect
These people are better writers of fiction than of nonfiction. --> correct

The characters in Restrepo's novel are more realistic than Yepes's. --> incorrect
The characters in Restrepo's novel are more realistic than those in Yepes's. --> correct
Restrepo's characters are more realistic than Yepes's. --> correct

Sorry it's an old thread, but please could any instructor tell me:

In this sentence, what are the omitted words?:

Although Napoleon’s army entered Russia with far more supplies than for any previous campaign, it had provisions for only twenty-four days.

Does any rule quoted above apply in this sentence? what are being compared here?

Thank you very much!

[jlucero]

Sorry it's an old thread, but please could any instructor tell me:

In this sentence, what are the omitted words?:

Although Napoleon’s army entered Russia with far more supplies than for any previous campaign, it had provisions for only twenty-four days.

Does any rule quoted above apply in this sentence? what are being compared here?

Thank you very much!

Although X entered Russia, X had provisions.

We are comparing two facts about Napoleon's army. There aren't omitted words here, because you are comparing two full clauses (with clear verbs) about the same subject, making the sentence logical and unambiguous.

That said, this isn't a great example of proper comparisons. The word "although" isn't a word that makes comparisons like other words:

Like X, Y.
X is more than Y.

These (and many others) require a strict comparison between two like things. The word "although" doesn't fit this description:

Although I was tired, I kept driving.
Although I was tired, the movie still kept me entertained.
Although Napoleon's Army entered Russia, Russia was able to fight back.

All of these sentences are correct b/c we aren't trying to compare two things but rather give a condition to keep in mind for the second (and main) clause of the sentence.

[t.dong0603]

Hi Joe, thank you very much for the reply, but I think I didn't make my question clear. What i'm confused here is about this bit :"far more supplies than for any previous campaign". what is being compared here?

Actually the question is this:


Although Napoleon’s army entered Russia with far
more supplies than they had in their previous
campaigns, it had provisions for only twenty-four days.
(A) they had in their previous campaigns,
(B) their previous campaigns had had,
(C) they had for any previous campaign,
(D) in their previous campaigns,
(E) for any previous campaign,

OA is E. why is C not OK? How can I decide to omit "they had" or not? Actually I feel all the answer choices are not bad :( I don't know what are they comparing ~~~

[RonPurewal]

OA is E. why is C not OK? How can I decide to omit "they had" or not? Actually I feel all the answer choices are not bad :( I don't know what are they comparing ~~~

the actual problem with choice (c) -- which, in fact, you can use to eliminate all of the incorrect answer choices -- is a pronoun error.
see, the plural pronoun "they" is trying to stand for "army", a noun that is actually singular. (that noun is singular by default anyway, but, just to dispel any doubts, the non-underlined pronoun "it" proves that "army" is singular.)

[t.dong0603]

Smart! Thanks Ron!

[jlucero]

Whoops. Hopefully the long explanation made sense anyway.

[NicoleT643]

Hi Ron, sorry to reopen this thread, I have one question
Would you please advice how exceeding works in choice C? For me exceeding seems to modify rates or rates of entrepreneurship, please advice, thank you.

[RonPurewal]

For me exceeding seems to modify rates or rates of entrepreneurship

this ^^ is correct. clearly, the sentence is saying that some rates "exceed" other rates.

i'm not sure where you are seeing an issue.

[YIJUNGL428]

---PLEASE IGNORE MY POST---
hi instructors,
I have a question about (D) The rates of entrepreneurship in immigrants from the Mideast exceed

Why can't we see (D) as below:
The rates of entrepreneurship in immigrants from the Mideast exceed (the rates of entrepreneurship in) virtually every other immigrant group in the increasingly diverse United States economy.

In many questions, same parts can be omitted. I'm confusing about this.

Thanks!
---

I found the explanation of (c) can also answer my question.

you can't separate out the noun from a prepositional phrase. if you're writing a comparison involving "NOUN1 + prep + NOUN2", then the other side should be either
* another noun that is compared to NOUN1, not to NOUN2
or
* another prepositional phrase that is compared to prep + NOUN2.

for instance:
These people are better writers of fiction than nonfiction. --> incorrect
These people are better writers of fiction than of nonfiction. --> correct

The characters in Restrepo's novel are more realistic than Yepes's. --> incorrect
The characters in Restrepo's novel are more realistic than those in Yepes's. --> correct
Restrepo's characters are more realistic than Yepes's. --> correct

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Indeed, Ron's explanation applies very well to your question. In answer D the comparison is unclear: it looks like we're comparing "rates" with "every other immigrant group", hence we'd say "those of every other immigrant group" to clear up the ambiguity.