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GMAT Prep: Brutal SC Practice Question

Posted on June 2, 2010 by

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Joanna Bersin, a Content Developer at Knewton, takes special pride in crafting mind-numbingly  hard GMAT Sentence Correction questions.

Prepping for the GMAT? Check out this super-challenging Sentence Correction question. If you can get this one right, you’ve got nothing to worry about on test day!  For the answer, check out the discussion here.

The policy of applying indirect taxes, like value added tax and excise duties, that were enforced in Lithuania was less strict when compared to the European Union’s members in 2000, which imposed tax rules and tariffs that, for the most part, needed to be tightened in order to harmonize with the EU’s requirements and not to loosen it for the purpose of remaining competitive with trading partners outside of the EU.

(A) The policy of applying indirect taxes, like value added tax and excise duties, that were enforced in Lithuania was less strict when compared to the European Union’s members in 2000, which imposed tax rules and tariffs that, for the most part, needed to be tightened in order to harmonize with the EU’s requirements and not to loosen it

(B) The policy of applying indirect taxes, including value added tax and excise duties, enforced in Lithuania was less strict when compared with the policy applied by the European Union’s members in 2000, imposing tax rules and tariffs that, for the most part, needed to be tightened so that the country would harmonize with the EU’s requirements rather than loosening them

(C) When it was compared with that enforced by members of the European Union in 2000, the policy of applying indirect taxes, like value added tax and excise duties, that were enforced in Lithuania and that were less strict, were imposing tax rules and tariffs that, for the most part, needed to be tightened in order to harmonize with the EU’s requirements rather than loosening them

(D) Compared with that enforced by members of the European Union in 2000, the policy of applying indirect taxes, like value added tax and excise duties, that was enforced in Lithuania was less strict, imposing tax rules and tariffs that, for the most part, needed to be tightened so that the country would harmonize with the EU’s requirements rather than loosened

(E) In 2000, Lithuania, compared with the members of the European Union, had a policy of applying indirect taxes, including value added tax and excise duties, that were enforced less strictly, since it imposed tax rules and tariffs that, for the most part, needed tightening in order that they would harmonize with the EU’s requirements and not to loosen

Posted in GMAT, Verbal Guide | 7 comments



  • stupidcupid

    B. Whats the OA?

    • Deepak

      OA is (D)

  • stupidcupid

    B. Whats the OA?

  • http://www.knewton.com Knewton Team

    Hi cupid,

    Here’s an explanation of the official answer from Joanna. Hope you find it helpful!

    “There’s a lot underlined here, and a great strategy when there’s so much going on is to focus on what’s tested. We know that there is some sort of subject/verb agreement issue to watch out for and that there is a comparison at the end of the underlined portion. It seems as though many of you picked right up on the S-V agreement error and eliminated choices C and E. The pronoun errors and awkward constructions in these options should jump out of you.

    So the battle is between B and D. The other thing to notice about this sentence, as stated before, is this “rather than.” As SOON as you see “than,” look for a correctly formed, parallel, logical comparison.

    Let’s check out the different things compared in B and D:

    “tax rules and tarrifs that…”
    B) needed to be TIGHTENED…rather than LOOSENING THEM
    D) needed to be TIGHTENED…rather than LOOSENED

    Choice D is wordy, but correct.Choice D makes the parallel comparison here between the two actions applied to the “tax rules and tariffs.” Additionally, the pronoun “them” is totally unnecessary and creates an awkward, redundant construction. Though some pronoun use on the GMAT may be flexible, if your really stuck between two options and one contains an unnecessary pronoun, choose the other option. We KNOW that the adjective clause describes the tax rules and tariffs. The comparison is already unparallel, but using the unnecessary “them” also makes it redundant.

    For example:

    “The dog that I am petting and walking it belongs to my brother.”

    Look how awkward that “it” is!

    The “when compared with” in B is much less preferable to “compared with” alone. Why use “when” if you don’t need it? “When” specifically refers to time, and this sentence is not about a specific time at which the two policies were compared; in 2000, compared with another policy, the policy in Lithuania was less strict. Try to reserve “when” to describe a time period.

    Students might be thrown off by the use of “that” in choice D. But remember; as long as “that” replaces the other singular item in a comparison, it’s totally fine. Here, “Compared with THE POLICY enforced by…THE POLICY enforced in Lithuania…”

    The comparison is parallel and logical.

    You might also be stuck on the use of “like” here. “Like” can be used to compare two nouns, and it can also mean “such as.” Though “like” is more casual than “such as,” “like” is a preposition that can be used to introduce noun examples. When the GMAT wants to test the misuse of “like,” it will use “like” to compare two things that are not nouns. Whereas a parallelism error is enough to eliminate an option, a casual, but not incorrect, use of “like” is not an error.

    The answer is D. Remember to focus on what’s important, including comparison terms and S-V agreement. As soon as you see a “than” or “as…as” construction, eliminate comparisons that are not parallel or logical. Watch out for unnecessary and awkward pronouns.

    Remember: “that” can be used to replace a singular item in a comparison.
    Use the differences between options to help, and if a construction seems awkward but you can’t quite figure out why, hold onto it and use the differences between this option and other options you’re left with to eliminate ERRORS.”

  • http://www.knewton.com Knewton Team

    Hi cupid,

    Here’s an explanation of the official answer from Joanna. Hope you find it helpful!

    “There’s a lot underlined here, and a great strategy when there’s so much going on is to focus on what’s tested. We know that there is some sort of subject/verb agreement issue to watch out for and that there is a comparison at the end of the underlined portion. It seems as though many of you picked right up on the S-V agreement error and eliminated choices C and E. The pronoun errors and awkward constructions in these options should jump out of you.

    So the battle is between B and D. The other thing to notice about this sentence, as stated before, is this “rather than.” As SOON as you see “than,” look for a correctly formed, parallel, logical comparison.

    Let’s check out the different things compared in B and D:

    “tax rules and tarrifs that…”
    B) needed to be TIGHTENED…rather than LOOSENING THEM
    D) needed to be TIGHTENED…rather than LOOSENED

    Choice D is wordy, but correct.Choice D makes the parallel comparison here between the two actions applied to the “tax rules and tariffs.” Additionally, the pronoun “them” is totally unnecessary and creates an awkward, redundant construction. Though some pronoun use on the GMAT may be flexible, if your really stuck between two options and one contains an unnecessary pronoun, choose the other option. We KNOW that the adjective clause describes the tax rules and tariffs. The comparison is already unparallel, but using the unnecessary “them” also makes it redundant.

    For example:

    “The dog that I am petting and walking it belongs to my brother.”

    Look how awkward that “it” is!

    The “when compared with” in B is much less preferable to “compared with” alone. Why use “when” if you don’t need it? “When” specifically refers to time, and this sentence is not about a specific time at which the two policies were compared; in 2000, compared with another policy, the policy in Lithuania was less strict. Try to reserve “when” to describe a time period.

    Students might be thrown off by the use of “that” in choice D. But remember; as long as “that” replaces the other singular item in a comparison, it’s totally fine. Here, “Compared with THE POLICY enforced by…THE POLICY enforced in Lithuania…”

    The comparison is parallel and logical.

    You might also be stuck on the use of “like” here. “Like” can be used to compare two nouns, and it can also mean “such as.” Though “like” is more casual than “such as,” “like” is a preposition that can be used to introduce noun examples. When the GMAT wants to test the misuse of “like,” it will use “like” to compare two things that are not nouns. Whereas a parallelism error is enough to eliminate an option, a casual, but not incorrect, use of “like” is not an error.

    The answer is D. Remember to focus on what’s important, including comparison terms and S-V agreement. As soon as you see a “than” or “as…as” construction, eliminate comparisons that are not parallel or logical. Watch out for unnecessary and awkward pronouns.

    Remember: “that” can be used to replace a singular item in a comparison.
    Use the differences between options to help, and if a construction seems awkward but you can’t quite figure out why, hold onto it and use the differences between this option and other options you’re left with to eliminate ERRORS.”

  • Gunjan Sharma

    I chose D because of two things:–>
    1- to be tightened ….rather than loosened
    2- …that enforeced by…….policy…..that was enforeced (Parallelism)

    However, I was cought on because I wanted to use such as….But then I did get the answer since such as is not present in any of the sentence and after all, its about the best and right choice not the ideal one.

    Thanks for this questions.

  • Hema

    Hi,

    The parts of the sentence which made me suspicious were- “compared with/to”, including vs like and the subject-verb agreement between “the policy” and its verb(was or were). There were also faulty parallelism errors in the sentence. Eliminating all these D was the only choice left.