SC | Please explain

[goMba]

Can somebody please explain how to solve this one?

Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people,it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

A. Pacific has a population of only a few million people,it is
B. Pacific has a population of only a few million people,they are
C. Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is
D.Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless
E. Pacific, is populated by only a few million people, yet they are

OA follows....

[Guest]

:) IS IT E

[alxndr]

This sentence starts with an "although" which signals a contrast.
Although X, Y

The pronoun after the comma modifies the singular "vast contellation".

A Keep, properly uses "it"
B they is wrong
C There is no need for the conjugate "and", since you are not joining 2 clauses but merely showing a contrast
D having a...seems to modify "South Pacific"
E "they are" is wrong

A

Do post the OA please.

[goMba]

The OA is B

Even i had guessed A.

[Guest]

The constellation is not home to people.... the islands are.....

Good one.

[H]

I believe that it refers to "the vast constellation of small islands".
I think that the OA is A not B.

[Guest]

because of "dot" the subject is "small islands" and hence "they" should be used. is saw this explanation somewhere and kind of agree with it.

just one doubt whether the word after comma modifies the subject in the preceding clause or it modifies based on singular plural if more than one noun is included in the clause.

[aragon_iit]

I guess there is some confusion going on over here. I have read the same question on other forums and found that this is a gmat prep question and OA is A.

Refer to:

http://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentenc ... tprep.html
http://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentenc ... ement.html

[goMba]

I also picked up this question from the below forum but since i was not convinced (and also OA isnt posted) so i thought of checking on this forum. Can someone from MGMAT staff pitch-in and reason between the two choices - A&B?

Thanks.

I guess there is some confusion going on over here. I have read the same question on other forums and found that this is a gmat prep question and OA is A.

Refer to:

http://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentenc ... tprep.html
http://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentenc ... ement.html

[Professor]

Answer is A.

[img]

[/img]

[RonPurewal]

Can someone from MGMAT staff pitch-in and reason between the two choices - A&B?

yeah.

the two parts, connected by 'although', are clearly supposed to be PARALLEL.
the 1st half of the sentence is unambiguously concerned with the singular subject constellation. you should be able to recognize this on sight, but, if you have trouble with that, you're helped further by the fact that all of the answer choices in which singular/plural can be determined have singular verbs (has, has, is, is).

PARALLELISM, then, dictates that the 2nd half of the sentence should, logically, still be about the constellation; it would be illogical, not to mention incoherent, to suddenly change the subject to the individual islands themselves for no good reason.
you should assume this sort of parallelism in the first place - it's the default, unless there's a good reason to violate it - but it's especially to be assumed in this problem, because the two ideas are completely LOGICALLY parallel as well: the constellation is home to X number of people, but also to Y number of languages. you don't get much more logically parallel than that.

[stock.mojo11]

Can someone from MGMAT staff pitch-in and reason between the two choices - A&B?

yeah.

the two parts, connected by 'although', are clearly supposed to be PARALLEL.
the 1st half of the sentence is unambiguously concerned with the singular subject constellation. you should be able to recognize this on sight, but, if you have trouble with that, you're helped further by the fact that all of the answer choices in which singular/plural can be determined have singular verbs (has, has, is, is).

PARALLELISM, then, dictates that the 2nd half of the sentence should, logically, still be about the constellation; it would be illogical, not to mention incoherent, to suddenly change the subject to the individual islands themselves for no good reason.
you should assume this sort of parallelism in the first place - it's the default, unless there's a good reason to violate it - but it's especially to be assumed in this problem, because the two ideas are completely LOGICALLY parallel as well: the constellation is home to X number of people, but also to Y number of languages. you don't get much more logically parallel than that.

K, I hate to say this but it seems to me that GMAT test writers have been in the process of making up SC questions as capricious as possible.

vast constellation of Small islands that has??

The modifier that is referring to a plural "islands"

I thought I would see have in the correct answer while reading the question. How ever, I did not. after ruling out C D E, I looked at A & B. I fell prey to this as others did. because has was not the decider any more and islands themselves rather the constellation of islands are home, I chose B. In hind sight it makes sense but hey its tough to get into the heads of these guys unless you are Ron/Stacey