Logical referent for pronouns and Parallel Structure.

[anusuthakaran]

I have a question on parallel structure and logical referent of a pronoun.
Some answer options are eliminated because there are no referents or antecedents for the pronouns that appear in the answer options.

Pronouns should refer to either a noun or a gerund preceding them.
I am not able to understand how to determine whether the pronoun has a logical referent or not.
Consider the following sentences:

(1) OG12 SC # 89

2) OG12 SC # 82


'Maintaining' , 'Owning' and 'living' are gerunds in these sentences.
I assume 'maintaining' is the subject of the clause 'maintaining......paved roads' and 'owning and living' is the subject of the first clause in sentence#2. Please correct me if my interpretation is wrong.

Why is the usage of 'it' wrong in sentence #1 and correct in sentence#2 ?
Why are the elements of the clause 'maintaining ......roads' not parallel ?

[JonathanSchneider]

Good question. The issue in #89 is that "maintaining" is part of a comparison. We cannot use "it" as the second part of the comparison, when "maintaining" is the first. The "it" would be a referent not just for the word "maintaining" but for the whole subject phrase "maintaining dirt roads." Plug that antecedent in for the "it" and you'll see you have a very awkward construction. Moreover, the rest of D is nonparallel also: we do not want "dirt roads" as the object of a verb and "paved roads" as the object of a preposition.

[kramacha1979]

Great Explanation.
Can we say Maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as maintaining paved roads ?

[kramacha1979]

Just as 'like', which can take nouns, pronouns or noun-phrases ONLY , does 'unlike' also fall in the same category ?

As an eg :
Unlike atomic reactors that split them apart.. is WRONG b/c of Unlike .<.clause>

[anusuthakaran]

Good question. The issue in #89 is that "maintaining" is part of a comparison. We cannot use "it" as the second part of the comparison, when "maintaining" is the first. The "it" would be a referent not just for the word "maintaining" but for the whole subject phrase "maintaining dirt roads." Plug that antecedent in for the "it" and you'll see you have a very awkward construction. Moreover, the rest of D is nonparallel also: we do not want "dirt roads" as the object of a verb and "paved roads" as the object of a preposition.

Thanks a lot !

[StaceyKoprince]

Can we say Maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as maintaining paved roads ?

yes!

Just as 'like', which can take nouns, pronouns or noun-phrases ONLY , does 'unlike' also fall in the same category ?

Yes, "unlike" functions in the same way as "like" (except that "unlike" obviously is used to contrast something rather than make a positive comparison).

[clamylo]

I have a question on parallel structure and logical referent of a pronoun.
Some answer options are eliminated because there are no referents or antecedents for the pronouns that appear in the answer options.

Pronouns should refer to either a noun or a gerund preceding them.
I am not able to understand how to determine whether the pronoun has a logical referent or not.
Consider the following sentences:

(1) OG12 SC # 89

2) OG12 SC # 82


'Maintaining' , 'Owning' and 'living' are gerunds in these sentences.
I assume 'maintaining' is the subject of the clause 'maintaining......paved roads' and 'owning and living' is the subject of the first clause in sentence#2. Please correct me if my interpretation is wrong.

Why is the usage of 'it' wrong in sentence #1 and correct in sentence#2 ?
Why are the elements of the clause 'maintaining ......roads' not parallel ?

the correct sentence in OG is
" dirt roads cost twice as much to maintain as paved roads do"

i am just wondering if we can omit the "do" since there's no ambiguity?
like this -> "dirt roads cost twice as much to maintain as paved roads"

Thank you!

[tim]

that should be okay as well. keep in mind the GMAT will probably not require to choose between those two alternatives, so it shouldn't matter ultimately..