In 1981 children in the United states

[RonPurewal]

in this instance, "that" is an adjective attached to "figure".

My grandmother has never been to Paris, even though she has read more than twenty books about that city.
^^ same kind of "that" used here

[NehaM981]

hi

I have read entire thread but I really don't understand why a and c are wrong ?

please help

thanks

[RonPurewal]

what do you understand about those choices?

[Meerak869]

Whenever i encounter questions like these, I get confused by its construction.
I agree to have fallen for the trap of past perfect tense even when I remember to have gone through the corresponding chapter in MGMAT SC guide.

What bothers me is when or in what cases can we use word figure in these kind of comparisons.

[RonPurewal]

"figure" is a word that's normally used when other, more compact modifiers WON'T work.

if you see "figure" in some of the choices, you should really pay attention to the OTHER choices. if the corresponding constructions in the OTHER choices DON'T work, then the use of "figure" is occasioned.

[JingziL752]

Hi Ron - Isn't A wrong because of "they".. "they here seems to imply that the Children in 1981 who spent 2 1/2 weeks doing
household chores are the same children who have spent 6hr/wk by 1997?

no, that's fine. it stands for "children in the united states" -- a generality. (note that the sentence doesn't say the children who lived in the u.s. in 1981.)

you could also write the following:
in 1930, american companies employed an average of X number of people; in 1990, by contrast, they employed an average of Y number of people.
(in this situation you could also write "the figure had grown/shrunk to Y number by 1990".)

Hi, Experts.
Sorry for bumping up the old thread.
I was wondering whether the "they" here is correct.
I have gone through another thread:https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/forums/post58397.html
Apparently, Ron gave total different answers about the correctness of "they" in two threads. It really confuses me!

Thanks in advance!

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Well spotted! That is, indeed, a contradiction. I agree with Ron's later post: the pronoun is fine because it's just referring to 'children in the U.S.', not the specific children of that year. However, this is a slightly hypothetical discussion as the glaring error in answer A is the verb 'had spent', as discussed above.

[thanghnvn]

choice a is wrong because it is unclear what they spent 6 hour doing
in english , doing so is used to say that someone doing the same thing mentioned before. . here we need doing so. we can not cut off doing so.

[RuqinH375]

Can anyone explain to me about the usage of ";" in this SC question? Maybe I am quite confused about in what occasions ";" is used correctly..

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

The semicolon ( ; ) is used to connect two independent clauses that are related in meaning. Importantly, each clause must be able to stand as a complete sentence (i.e. have a subject and verb). For example:
I don't like skiing. Tennis is my favorite sport. This is fine - I've just got two sentences.
I could also do this:
I don't like skiing; tennis is my favorite sport. This emphasizes the connection in meaning and is the kind of construction you're likely to see on GMAT.
This, however, is not okay:
I don't like skiing, tennis is my favorite sport. Connecting two potentially complete sentences with just a comma is an error to watch out for on GMAT.
For more on this, check out chapter 3 of the Sentence Correction Strategy Guide.

[Gurprit SinghK572]

In 1981 children in the United States spent an average of slightly less than two and a half hours a week doing household chores; by 1997 they had spent nearly six hours a week.


Can I say "they" in answer choice A is referring to same set of children in 1981 and by 1997, and therefore meaning does not make sense?
Children in 1981 would turn adult by 1997.

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

I don't think that's a problem. The pronoun 'they' is simply referring to 'children in the United States', not specifically to the class of 1981. Although there's perhaps a little vagueness here, I'd say that it's simply an inevitable (and acceptable) part of language. That said, the correct answer avoids using a pronoun, so perhaps GMAT views the usage of 'they' as undesirable, but I certainly wouldn't eliminate an answer for such a nuanced issue.

[HuazeS358]

1. In 1981 children in the United States spent an average of slightly less than two and a half hours a week doing household chores; by 1997 they spent nearly six hours a week.

removed "had", the sentence is correct?

No. Still wrong. The past tense is incompatible with "by (date)".
I don't know whether GMAC has ever tested this issue, so I'll hold off on explaining it unless someone can mention an example from an official problem.

More generally, allow me to give the usual admonition"”"”
Don't edit GMAC's sentences.
Don't.
Do not edit them.

When random forum posters try to edit GMAC's sentences, they almost always create something that is...
... incorrect, but
... not actually tested on this exam.

If you have a question about a particular construction, try to make your own SIMPLE sentence(s) involving that construction.

From OG 21, i see one past tense is used with by date; eg. partly as a result of proposition 13, which limits property tax increases, california has come to more and more rely on income taxes; income taxes increased from 18% of general fund in 1962 to 48% by 2002.

[esledge]

Hi Huaze, I'm not sure whether you have a question or are just pointing out that Ron's statement that "The past tense is incompatible with 'by (date)'" is too strict. If the latter, I agree, and that's a good example.