The computer company has announced that it will purchase the

[RonPurewal]

"a part of a deal" is CONCRETE, so it stands for the preceding noun.

Can someone tell me how a part of a deal can be a concrete noun? "part" is noun and "of a deal" is a preposition phrase so "a part of a deal" is noun phrase?? I'm confused because part itself should be abstract. can someone clarify?

if this confuses you, you should probably just memorize it. it's probably not worth the trouble of going through an extensive etymology.
"a part of" is consistently used in ways consistent with concrete nouns. i can see your possible objection -- but, as with so many other usage issues, this basically boils down to "it's not done that way".

[yuanfeng.ma]

Hi Ron,

I would like to know more about the usage of "itself",
There is another question from this Forum, Source GMAT PREP
I think in D, " it " should be "itself", does "Confuciusornis sanctus" perform the action "help"?



One of the earliest known birds with a beak and contour feathers, Confuciusornis sanctus, with large clawlike "thumbs" on its wings, which probably helped them to climb up to a launching position for flight.
A. with large clawlike "thumbs" on its wings, which probably helped them to
B. with large clawlike "thumbs" on their wings, which probably helped it to
C. had large clawlike "thumbs" on its wings, which probably helped them
D. had large clawlike "thumbs" on its wings, probably to help it
E. had large clawlike "thumbs" on their wings, probably to help it




if you use the infinitive "to make", then the computer company is still the subject of the sentence. therefore, in this case you have to use the reflexive pronoun: itself. as an analogy, i can't look at me in the mirror, but i can look at myself in the mirror. same deal.

in choice (e), "...that will make..." shifts the role of subject to deal, so a reflexive pronoun is no longer needed. in fact, the reflexive pronoun would be absurd in this case, since a deal obviously can't make itself the largest manufacturer in the market.

[allfta]

Thanks for the concept of Absolute and Concrete appositive.

I wonder whether following sentence is correct.

"Floating in the waters of the equatorial Pacific, an array of buoys collects and transmits data on long-term interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere, interactions that affect global climate. "

In my opinion, and your concept of concrete appositive, it seems wrong because the appositive word, "interaction, is misplaced.

Am I right?

[RonPurewal]

In my opinion, and your concept of concrete appositive, it seems wrong because the appositive word, "interaction, is misplaced.

Am I right?

"interactions" are an abstract concept. (can you hold interactions in your hand? can you smell them? etc.)

in any case, you don't have to differentiate between concrete and abstract in order to use these modifiers, if that difference confuses you. instead, just recognize that this type of modifier can modify either the noun in front of it or the entire clause/action in front of it.

[saintjingjing]

[/quote]
if you use the infinitive "to make", then the computer company is still the subject of the sentence. therefore, in this case you have to use the reflexive pronoun: itself. as an analogy, i can't look at me in the mirror, but i can look at myself in the mirror. same deal.

in choice (e), "...that will make..." shifts the role of subject to deal, so a reflexive pronoun is no longer needed. in fact, the reflexive pronoun would be absurd in this case, since a deal obviously can't make itself the largest manufacturer in the market.[/quote]

Ron, you mean-->
compared with that will make inE.
"in D to make" impress the non-computer company make it ...rather than computer company.
But in fact, we need computer company as the subject so we need itself. right?

[RonPurewal]

"in D to make" impress the non-computer company make it ...rather than computer company.
But in fact, we need computer company as the subject so we need itself. right?

i'm sorry, but i don't understand what you are saying. please try to phrase it another way.

[chughbrajesh]

The computer company has announced that it will purchase the color-printing division of a rival company for $950 million, which is part of a deal that will make it the largest manufacturer in the office color-printing market,

[jnelson0612]

The computer company has announced that it will purchase the color-printing division of a rival company for $950 million, which is part of a deal that will make it the largest manufacturer in the office color-printing market,

Hi, I'm not sure if you have a question. Please let us know if you do!

[danli311]

Ron, could you explain why B,C is wrong? Why can't we think them as "final clause"?

when you have noun modifiers like these - called appositives, if you happen to care about terminology - they must tag the immediately preceding noun (in the same manner as would a modifier with a comma followed by "which", for example).
see here.

according to this rule, then, choices (b) and (c) both declare that the actual amount of $950 million is "(a) part of a deal..."
that's incorrect; it's the purchase / acquisition of the rival company's color printing division that's part of the deal. therefore, this is a misplaced modifier.

Hello Ron,

I have read through all the posts for this question and still have a question on choice C and E.

1. For C, as mentioned, a part of is rather concrete and hence modifies 950 million dollars. How come part of a deal also refers to 950 million dollars? I thought that part of refers to rather abstract nouns, in this case, part of a deal refers to the purchase rather than 950 million dollars alone?
2.For E, does as convey the same meaning as function as? Can I simply memorize that as modifies the whole clause(for this question in particular) and a part of refers to the preceding noun?

This question really fraustrates me....subtle and hard.

Thank you for your time and attention!

[RonPurewal]

Remember that no GMAT question has ever depended on the use of "a"/"an"/"the".
It's extremely unlikely that GMAC will ever write a question that turns on the use of a/an/the, because doing so would discriminate heavily in favor of speakers of certain languages and heavily against those of others. (E.g., French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, etc. have words that correspond almost exactly to these, while Russian, Japanese, Korean, etc. have no such words at all.)

So, my recommendation here is not to worry about "part of" vs. "a part of". If you see a split on "a"/"an"/"the", it is almost certainly there to distract you from other, more fundamental issues.

Here, you can eliminate C on the basis of "making", which implies an action in the same timeframe as the rest of the sentence. The sentence is in the present ("has announced"), so that doesn't make sense.

For E, does as convey the same meaning as function as?

I don't understand.

[thanghnvn]

What does "as part of" modify? The entire preceding clause?

yes.

if you wanted to modify just the preceding noun, you'd use the following type of structure:

three days ago he received a payment for $1000, part of the long-overdue pension that had been delayed for various bureaucratic reasons.

I miss this question because I do not know that "as part of st" can modify the preceding clause. this pattern is idiom ? is not it. I do not know this pattern which is not mentioned in grammat books.

we should remember this pattern ? is that right? sc gmat tests meaning relations between the 2 entities. But this sc problem tell us that gmat also test the new, strange pattern of sentence.

to me, it seems that gmat is straying from its main course when presenting this problem. the person presenting this problem want to find a grammarian not a logic writer. that is reason why I think that this sc problem is for 40 percentile person

do you agree with me?

[RonPurewal]

Pattern recognition is a big thing on the test, including recognition of patterns commonly seen over the course of a decently long exposure to the English language.

Also, more importantly, you don't need this distinction to solve the problem.

The timeframes of B and C don't make sense.
"It" in D doesn't work -- the company is still the subject, so "itself" would be required there. (I can't sew me a suit, although I can sew myself a suit.)

If you make these eliminations, you're left with two choices containing "part of", and nothing containing "a part of".

In general, no gmat problem will depend on subtle / slight distinctions. If you see a very slight difference, look for something else!

[manhhiep2509]

Here, you can eliminate C on the basis of "making", which implies an action in the same timeframe as the rest of the sentence. The sentence is in the present ("has announced"), so that doesn't make sense.

Hello Ron.

How do we know "making" happens at the same timeframe with "has announced", but not at the same timeframe with "will purchase"?
--

You said that "a part of X" is used as a concrete noun.
Is "part of X" used as abstract noun, thereby being able to used as abstract appositive?

---
As I interpret the sentence in OG, "as part of a deal" refers to entire clause "it will purchase the color-printing division of a rival company for $950 million".

Is my interpretation correct?

The interpretation is the reason I eliminated the choice. Before encountering the question I only saw the use of "as" to express "function" as in the below example.

"As a doctor, John has worked in the hospital 20 years"

"as a doctor" only refers to John, not the entire clause.

I also assumed that if a modifier modifies a clause, a comma will separate it and the clause.

Is the use of "as" in the sentence is an exception or does my interpretation incorrect?

Thank you.

[RonPurewal]

How do we know "making" happens at the same timeframe with "has announced", but not at the same timeframe with "will purchase"?

You're right that the modifier could also refer to that timeframe, but that doesn't work either. Even with that interpretation, "making xxxx" is a consequence of the action. If you write "a deal making xxxx", you're implying that the deal is making xxxx at the time of the action described.

E.g., if you write My teenage daughter wears skirts over leggings, exemplifying a trend sweeping the nation, you're implying that the trend is already "sweeping the nation" right now. If my daughter's actions start the trend, this sentence isn't accurate.

[RonPurewal]

The interpretation is the reason I eliminated the choice. Before encountering the question I only saw the use of "as" to express "function" as in the below example.

"As a doctor, John has worked in the hospital 20 years"

"as a doctor" only refers to John, not the entire clause.

"As + noun", when used as you're describing here, should describe a subject + action.
E.g., As a teacher, Jane is very patient, even though she otherwise has a short temper. --> "As a teacher" describes "Jane is very patient". So, we know that Jane is very patient when she's teaching, but not otherwise.

The sentence about John is weird; it doesn't really make sense, unless John has worked some other job in the same hospital.
E.g., As a doctor, John has worked in the hospital for twenty years; he also worked six years there as a volunteer during high school and college.

For the kind of description you're shooting for in this sentence, you'd just use a noun ("A doctor, John has worked in this hospital..." or, less weirdly, "John, a doctor, has worked in this hospital...")