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Comment on Maltanian Healthcare
The correct answer choice is
In this instance "much" is
In this instance "much" is modifying the verb "agree." It is not indicating the number of senators.
Hello,
How do you identify that "much" is modifying the verb "agree". For a non native english speaker like me, i eliminated this choice solely on the fact that "much" refers to "senators" , which is in correct.
Please help. :)
"Much" cannot refer to
"Much" cannot refer to "senators," because senators are countable (1 senator, 2 senators, etc). So, we'd have to write "However MANY senators..."
For more, see this video: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat-sentence-correction/video/1184
Hi Brent. This question is
"Is it possible that the word
"Is it possible that the word "much" in this passage is a kind of a adverb to denote the intensity of how they agreed to the issue?"
That is exactly the case!
MUCH can also be an adverb. Here are some examples:
Joe loves cookies very MUCH.
Joe has not changed MUCH since high school.
Cheers,
Brent
Hi, Brent. But still there is
In this case, MUCH is a verb
In this case, MUCH is a verb modifier, and verb modifiers aren't necessarily required to touch the verb they modify.
Here's an official GMAT question with the same construction: https://gmatclub.com/forum/however-much-united-states-voters-may-agree-t...
Cheers,
Brent
I think those in this
I think it should be that of most other industrial countries
Please explain .
Thanks
Neha
We are comparing the health
We are comparing the health care system in Maltania with the health care systems in other countries.
So, we could have written "...the Maltanian health care system is lagging behind THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS of most industrialized countries."
Or we can replace HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS with THOSE to get "...the Maltanian health care system is lagging behind THOSE of most industrialized countries."
Hello! My question is For E,
Thanks!
That's a great question. I
That's a great question. I don't believe that there's such a rule. However, we can quickly see that, if we were to reverse the order of the modifiers, there would be ambiguity.
hello
what level question is this?
I'd say it's around the 650
I'd say it's around the 650 level.
hey brent, one thing here
However, one of the 'that' words, is in a sentence which is wrong. The underlined sentence is only option A. Hence, we are saying we need to keep the parallelism of a word that is in an incorrect sentence...
So tough to explain what i mean, hopefully you get me? Alternatively, the way i approach the question is to analyse if theres anything wrong with the underlined, and if so choose an option that is better. I don't necessarily want to keep certain things from the underlined in my head to dictate my choice because that very underlined sentence was wrong in the first place.
If I'm approaching this wrong please let me know.
thanks,
Yianni
I think I know what you're
I think I know what you're asking.
The main issue here is that the non-underlined portion cannot be altered.
The non-underlined part (and that the government needs...) starts with "that".
Since we can't change the non-underlined part, we need to change the underlined part to be parallel.
Does that help?
Cheers,
Brent
I just thought of an example.
I just thought of an example.
I can express the same idea in two grammatically correct ways. Consider this:
1. Joe like traveling by bus, train and plane.
2. Joe like traveling by bus, by train and by plane.
Both of these are perfectly fine sentences.
Now let's say we have the following Sentence Correction question: Joe like traveling by bus, TRAIN and by plane (I've capitalized the word that would normally be underlined).
If we just examine the first part of the sentence (Joe like traveling by bus, TRAIN...), we might see that this is identical to sentence #1 above. So, it might seem okay to go with TRAIN.
HOWEVER, we need to look at the entire sentence. When we do so, we see "...and by plane." Since we can't change these words, we need to recognize that, to maintain parallelism, we need BY TRAIN.
Cheers,
Brent
Hi Brent can you state the
There are two main problems:
There are two main problems:
1) IDIOM
"in agreement TO...." is not idiomatic. In this case, it should be "in agreement WITH"
2) WORDY/AWKWARD
"[the] senators are in agreement to the fact that..." can be written much more concisely: "[the] senators agree that..."
Does that help?
Cheers,
Brent
Quick question - The first
That's correct. Sometimes we
That's correct. Sometimes we use ", and" for simply listing things. Here's an example: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-end-of-the-eighteenth-century-saw-the-eme...
Cheers,
Brent
I studied in college that a
Thanks
Hi Lynda83,
Hi Lynda83,
Great point. The interesting thing about grammar is that the experts sometimes disagree on various issues. So, in those cases, we need to understand what the GMAT test-makers feel is correct (and they're okay with beginning a sentence with HOWEVER).
Here's an official GMAT question where the correct answer begins with HOWEVER: https://gmatclub.com/forum/qotd-however-much-united-states-voters-243683...
Cheers,
Brent
Hi Brent
I'm still confused with option "much"
how should I understand that "much" here connected with the verb
It touches Subject, not verb
What is the rule here should be applied?
Great question!
Great question!
In general, we use MANY when we're modifying countable nouns (e.g., There were MANY dogs at the park), and we use MUCH to modify non-countable nouns (e.g., Joe doesn't have MUCH money).
However, in this case, HOWEVER MUCH isn't modifying a noun at all; it's modifying the verb AGREE. So, the countable vs. non-countable issue doesn't apply here.
If HOWEVER MUCH modifies a verb, then the phrase is intended to express EXTENT.
In fact, we can think of the phrase as meaning "DESPITE THE EXTENT TO WHICH"
So, answer choice D could be read as "DESPITE THE EXTENT TO WHICH Maltania's senators agree that the Maltanian healthcare system is lagging behind...."
Does that help?
Cheers,
Brent
Hi Brent,
Would "and that the government needs to reform its healthcare" be considered fluff?
Yes, that could be considered
Yes, that could be considered fluff.
In fact, "THAT the Maltanian healthcare system is lagging behind those of most industrial countries and THAT the government needs to reform its healthcare" consists of two relative clauses that tell us more about AGREE.
When we ignore the fluff we get "However much Maltania's senators agree, it is difficult to predict when they will reach a compromise on the healthcare overhaul bill.
I hope that helps.
Cheers,
Brent
In the non underlined part we
In this sentence what does plural pronoun "those" refer to? Shouldn't it refer to health care system? But isn't this noun singular??
Thanks for this question though. It made me realize that "However much" is a correct Idiom
THOSE(plural) = the
THOSE(plural) = the healthcare systems(plural) of other countries.
In other words, "The Maltanian healthcare system is lagging behind the healthcare systems of most industrial countries.