Question: University of Maltania Professors

Comment on University of Maltania Professors

Any reason we can't use "do" instead of "does" in option B, is this because university is singular?
gmat-admin's picture

Yes, we use DOES because university is singular.

Example:

The university DOES have a high number of tenured male professors.

The universities DO have a high number of tenured male professors.

If choice A had "other" when referring to university, would it still be correct? Does the use of "any university" mean we need to use singular, or can the verb be plural as well?
gmat-admin's picture

If we add OTHER to option A, we get:
The University of Maltania has a higher number of tenured male professors than any OTHER university.

This sentence still fails to compare two verbs. So it is still incorrect.

Finally, for choice B, we can say "than any other university does" or "than does any other university", both are correct right?
I'm always a bit uneasy with putting "does" in front
gmat-admin's picture

Yes both are correct.

Funny, I seldom think to throw DOES in front like that, but whenever I see it, I think it looks super classy!

We are using place holder for tenured male professors,which is plural then why aren't we using plural form of verb do?can you give more example for verb place holders to make it more clear?
gmat-admin's picture

Hi Neha,

I have some examples in the post above yours.

Notice that, in answer choice C, the plural "DO" correctly matches the plural noun "universities."

In answer choice B, the singular "DOES" correctly matches the plural noun "university."

So, in answer choice B, we could also write "The University of Maltania has a higher number of tenured male professors than any other UNIVERSITY (singular) HAS (singular).

Hi Brent

I do not understand why B choice can use an inverted sentence ("does any other university" instead of "any other university does")? Shouldn't it need to be parallel to the first part?

Thank you so much!
gmat-admin's picture

Great question, yxlucy321!

The kind of parallelism you're referring to is not tested on the GMAT.

Example: "Joe owns more pets than Kaye owns" is just as acceptable as "Joe owns more pets than does Kaye"

Out of curiosity, I noticed a difference in the way you pronounced "universities" in 1.07 and 1.14.

Are they really different?
gmat-admin's picture

Hi Mohammad,

At 1:07 I emphasized the "S" to show that I was referring to universitieS. So, for that sentence, we need to use the superlative "HIGHEST"

Cheers,
Brent

A number of IS PLURAL right .?

so why option B is right one because does is singular ...

or the case is that when we use a number of with uncountable noun than only it is plural otherwise not .?/ please correct me where i am wrong here ...

Thanks
gmat-admin's picture

A NUMBER OF is plural. So, for example, we might write "A number of people HAVE visited."

IMPORTANT: In the above example, NUMBER is the subject. So, the plural subject NUMBER matches the plural verb HAVE.

However, in the practice question, the subject is UNIVERSITY. University is singular, which is why we need the singular verb HAS.

Cheers,
Brent

In the option B, shouldn't the word "does" be replaced with "has"? I mean, any other university is not "doing" anything, right?
gmat-admin's picture

You're correct; we can use HAS instead of DOES.

To maintain parallelism, we could write "The University of Maltania has a higher number of tenured male professors than any other university HAS."

However, it's important to note that DOES can be used as a placeholder for other verbs.

For example, the following 3 sentences are fine:
"Joe owns more pets than Kaye OWNS."
"Joe owns more pets than Kaye DOES."
"Joe owns more pets than DOES Kaye."

Does that help?

Cheers,
Brent

Hi Brent,

I have a hard time understanding the difference between B and C in terms of the "higher", why have you eliminated C on this issue and accepted B as correct. Can you elaborate on the difference by providing examples?

Thank you in advance,
gmat-admin's picture

This concept is covered here: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat-sentence-correction/video/1182

If we're comparing TWO things, then we cannot use superlatives (biggEST, tallEST, fastEST).
Incorrect: Of the two Smith brothers, Joe is TALLEST.
Correct: Of the two Smith brothers, Joe is TALLER.

If we're comparing MORE THAN TWO things, then we use superlatives.
Incorrect: Of the three Smith brothers, Joe is TALLER.
Correct: Of the three Smith brothers, Joe is TALLEST.

In answer choice C, we're comparing the University of Maltania with all other universities. As such we need to use the superlative HIGHEST.

In answer choice B, we're comparing the University of Maltania with ANY OTHER university.
In other words, we're comparing the University of Maltania with EACH university (one pair of universities at a time)
As such we use the HIGHER.

Cheers,
Brent

Thank you Brent,

I understand,

What about these sentences:

Nik can beat all other classmates.
Nik can beat any other classmate.
Nik can beat each of his classmates.

Nik is taller than all other classmates.
Nik is taller than any other classmate.
Nik is taller than each of his classmates.

Which are correct and what are the differences in meanings?
gmat-admin's picture

All of the above are fine, except we don't need the word OTHER, since "classmate" already refers to people other than Nik.

I would write: Nik can beat all of his classmates.

Cheers,
Brent

uh I excluded option B because I think that "does" doesn't make sense with "has"

Can I understand it as "has" is similar to does?
gmat-admin's picture

The verb DOES performs a role that's similar to the role of a pronoun.

For example, we can take the sentence "Joe SKATES faster than Lyle SKATES" and substitute DOES to get "Joe SKATES faster than Lyle DOES"
Here, DOES is standing in for the verb SKATES.

Likewise we can take "Joe HAS more courage than Lyle HAS" and substitute DOES to get "Joe HAS more courage than Lyle DOES"
Here, DOES is standing in for the verb HAS.

Could you please explain why do we use "as" instead of "like" for this example? We learnt that like is used for nouns and as is used for verbs. Could please elaborate it? Thanks! You're the best GMAT instructor I've ever seen tho!!! :)

22. Teachers in this country have generally been trained either to approach mathematics like a creative activity or that they should force students to memorize rules and principles without truly understanding how to apply them.

A) to approach mathematics like a creative activity or that they should force students to memorize rules and principles
B) to approach mathematics like a creative activity or to force students to memorize rules and principles
C) to approach mathematics as a creative activity or to force students to memorize rules and principles
D) that they should approach mathematics as a creative activity or to force students to memorize rules and principles
E) that they should approach mathematics like a creative activity or that they should force students to memorize rules and principles

gmat-admin's picture

Sorry, but I prefer not to answer unofficial Verbal questions since they often don’t represent what you’ll encounter on test day (please see comment policy).

I suggest you stick with Official Verbal questions (GMAT Club has every official question ever asked)

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