SC:Only Interpretation.

[rahul_devas]

Hi,

"The college admits as students only women who score above
80%."

Interpretation1:
The cut off for women is 80% and may be different(70% or 85%) for men.

Interpretation2:
The college does not admit men. It is only for women who score above 80%.


Can experts pls clarify which one of the above two interpretations is correct?

Thanks
Rahul

[rte.sushil]

"The college admits as students only women who score above
80%."

The college admits as students only women who score above
80%.
only women who score above 80%.--modifying students. nothing is mentioned about men.
This tends us to think about men but actually we can't say with surety about men. so we can go with interpretation #2 to start.

But this is not enough. If we have a complete problem things can be more clear.
But if you ask me to chose between 1 & 2, i will mark 2.

Adding,
To understand interpretations you can take a pause in different places in a sentence
e.g.The college admits as students........ only women who score above 80%.
women above 80% ,,,,,and men???- No information
e.g.The college admits as ...students only women (who score above 80%.)
women above 80% ,,,,,no men???

[tim]

the placement of "only" in this sentence makes me interpret it as saying that the college does not admit men. i'm not sure everyone would agree with me or whether there even is a definite interpretation. the key here is to remember that the question as you've asked it is not relevant without a broader context. if we had other answer choices to compare against, as we would on the actual GMAT, it would probably be very easy to determine which answer had the best meaning..