Does the conclusion escape you? Has understanding the tone of the passage gotten you down? Get help here.
jonathanc
Students
 
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 6:34 pm
 

Sentence Correction Guide - Idiom - p165

by jonathanc Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:42 pm

Hello,

I am trying to work on the idioms with the MGMAT guide (4th edition).

P165 : Resemble

"A certain coffee mug resembles my father".

I checked my dictionary and resemble apparently means "Looks like" so there is something I dont understand .

After few weeks trying to improve SC I reached the conclusion that we are supposed to compare logical things. When we use this kind of verb (Looks like, Seems etc...) is this not a kind of comparison ?

Here an object - mug to a person. Shouldnt we say something like

The shape of the coffe mug resembles the shape of my father's head. Or something like this. Does that mean that resemble can be use in any situation , and is it the case of other same kind of verbs ?

Thank to anybody who can to clear up this confusion...

John
StaceyKoprince
ManhattanGMAT Staff
 
Posts: 9359
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
Location: Montreal
 

Re: Sentence Correction Guide - Idiom - p165

by StaceyKoprince Fri Sep 11, 2009 4:53 pm

Huh. I find that wording kind of odd, too. I agree that, from a comparison perspective, it doesn't make much sense to say a coffee mug resembles a particular person (unless it's a very oddly shaped coffee mug, I suppose!).

The bigger lesson here, though, is how to use resemble correctly and incorrectly (the "suspect" line right below that line in the book).
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep