Many teenagers undergo stress, but results of a recent study

[ShriramC110]

Hi Ron,

Is it true that in comparison, than should'nt be followed by a complete sentece.In answer choice A, than is followed by a complete sentece.
Whats wrong with my understanding??

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

"...are those that boys experience"
Those that boys experience are.

this is not a complete sentence.

[TooLong150]

Stacey,

I would expect something like

more likely to result in depression than those that boys experience.

or

that the patterns of stress that girls experience are more likely to result in depression than the patterns of stress that boys experience

nope, you need the helping verb 'are'.
without 'are', you have the following AMBIGUITY:
(meaning 1) more likely to result in depression than are stress patterns typical of boys (the intended meaning)
(meaning 2) more likely to result in depression than in stress patterns typical of boys

including 'are' kills the ambiguity by specifying meaning number 1.

in general, if you notice answer choices that differ in their inclusion/exclusion of some little helping word - especially a helping verb - check for ambiguity if you remove the helping word. remember only to check for semantic ambiguity (i.e., the presence of 2 possible meanings, regardless of which is more expected or reasonable). DO NOT use 'common sense' to resolve ambiguities; if a sentence is ambiguous, it's ambiguous.

When I expand the sentence, I get:
Patterns of stress that girls experience are more likely to result in depression than the patterns of stress that boys experience are more likely to result in depression.

I am not questioning the OA, but reading the expanded sentence (especially the part after "depression than") sounds wrong to me, and I can't say that I completely understand why this choice is correct. Did I expand this sentence correctly? If not, what specifically is the second half of the comparison (after "depression than") parallel to?

[RonPurewal]

When I expand the sentence, I get:

you cannot do this, because this is not a thing.

[RonPurewal]

read here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... ml#p113659

[RichaChampion]

Are their no ways to delete our posts.

[RichaChampion]

Tough one. I like A best.

The sentence is making a comparison, so we have to make sure the comparison makes logical sense and is parallel.

Part of the comparison is girls' stress patterns, so I need to mention stress patterns of boys. B and C are out. (A uses the pronoun "those" to refer to stress patterns, so it stays in.)

Also, I'm specifically comparing how likely the two different patterns are to result in depression- it's not just a straight comparison between different patterns, but the effects of the different patterns - so the comparison needs to indicate this too. This is likely going to be accomplished via a verb, so E is out.

That leaves me with A and D. A uses the same verb in the same tense ("are") while D introduces a new verb ("do"). A also follows a similar format for the rest: "patterns of stress that girls experience" and "those that boys experience." D doesn't. A is more parallel, so that's what I would choose.

i eliminated D because I figured "Do" would be weird to stand for a linking verb.

i am tired as they do
i run like they do

is that even a rule?

Ron sir I am facing issue sin understanding linking verb concepts. Should I study in details over the Internet or should I leave this Linking verb concept as such things wont be directly needed nor their knowledge is necessary?

[RonPurewal]

Ron sir I am facing issue sin understanding linking verb concepts. Should I study in details over the Internet or should I leave this Linking verb concept as such things wont be directly needed nor their knowledge is necessary?

i have no idea what "linking verb concept" is even supposed to mean. so, i can pretty confidently say that you'd be wasting your time (or worse) by doing that.

[aflaamM589]

Hello Ron,
Could not get why C is wrong.
Is usage of would here inappropriate?
Thanks in anticipation

[RonPurewal]

you should IMMEDIATELY be able to see that C is wrong, just by considering parallelism in the most basic sense.

in the correct answer, we have
the patterns of stress that girls experience are...
...are those that boys experience
there are EXACTLY parallel.

in choice C, there are TWO blatantly non-parallel pairs of constructions:
are ... would
the patterns of stress that girls experience ... boys' experience

it should be straightforward to see that A is perfectly parallel, while C isn't parallel at all.
really, you shouldn't have any trouble with this. if you do, then, you are either misunderstanding or overcomplicating something about the basic concept of parallel structures.

[NehaM981]

hi

1. In the answer choice why those is not referring to the entire noun plus the modifier "stress patterns that ........"attached to it ??

2. In which cases the pronoun like that , those , it etc refer to entire noun + modifier and in which cases they modify only the noun ??

3. Is it the case only with "it " that it refers to entire noun + modifier like

There are hopeful signs that we are shifting away from our heavy reliance on fossil fuels: more than ten times as much energy is generated through wind power now than it was in 1990.
Here "it " is wrong because it is referring to entire noun + modifier " more than ten times as much energy "

and

In the 1980’s the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States was nearly twice what it was in 1970’s.
Here it is correct because it is referring to noun+ modifier "rate of increase of the minority population of the United States" and not "In the 1980’s the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States"

Please explain

Thanks
Neha

[RonPurewal]

hi

1. In the answer choice why those is not referring to the entire noun plus the modifier "stress patterns that ........"attached to it ??

the pronouns "that" and "those" EXIST SPECIFICALLY to stand for a NOUN... WITHOUT all the accompanying modifiers/context.

literally, this is the entire reason why we even have these pronouns in written english—as opposed to "it"/"they"/"them"/etc., which DO appropriate all of the modifiers/context attached to a noun.

[RonPurewal]

2. In which cases the pronoun like that , those , it etc refer to entire noun + modifier and in which cases they modify only the noun ??

3. Is it the case only with "it " that it refers to entire noun + modifier like

keep it simple:

• to refer to a noun WITH ALL ATTACHED CONTEXT/MODIFIERS... use "it"/"they".

• to refer to a noun WITHOUT the attached context/modifiers... use "that"/"those".

[LOW486]

sorry to bump this old thread

I am a little confused about “those”

RON, you once gave the following examples：
(1)The air quality of Las Vegas in 2007 was higher than it was in 1997. Wrong
“it” refers to “air quality of Las Vegas in 2007”
(2)The air quality of Las Vegas is higher than that of Houston. CORRECT
“that” refers to “air quality”

here is a application:
"Since 1990 the growth of the global economy has been more than that during 10,000 years, from when agriculture began to 1990."
you said this sentence is wrong, because "that" refers to "the growth" instead of "the growth of the global economy".

analogy:
"... the patterns of stress that girls experience are more likely to result in depression than are those that boys experience."
"those" should refer to "patterns" instead of " patterns of stress", so why choice A is correct and the example above is incorrect? And please point out and correct if anything I write down is incorrect！

RON pls help! THANKS IN ADVANCE!

[RonPurewal]

here's how you should think about this:

• "it"/"they"/"them" MUST refer to a noun with ALL modifiers attached.
this is why your example no. 1 is incorrect -- because, in that example, "it" would have to mean "the air quality of Las Vegas in 2007".

• if you CAN use "it"/"they"/"them", then it's WRONG to use "that"/"those".
...because this is the whole point of "that"/"those" as pronouns -- they're used in situations when the usual pronouns CAN'T be used.

__

in the "global economy" example, "the growth of the global economy" would be "IT" (since "of the global economy" is the only modifier attached to "growth"). since "it" works here, "that" DOESN'T work here.

by contrast, in the other example, "IT" would have to be "(the) patterns of stress that girls experience".
so, if you want to refer to EITHER "(the) patterns of stress" OR just "(the) patterns", you need "that" rather than "it".