SC Revisit List Flashcards
(119 cards)
Confidence in X vs Confidence that X
Confidence THAT . Ex: According to some analystis, the gains in the stock market reflect the growing confidence that the economy will avoid a recession. Confidence IN .Ex: She has confidence in your ability.
What is “fashioned”? The empire? or the deities? Many of the earliest known images of the Hindu deities in India date from the time of the Kushan Empire, fashioned from spotted sandstone.
This sentence is saying the empire was fashioned. the “, -ed” structure modifies the main noun before the comma. In this case, that noun is “empire”. That is illogical.
What two things are wrong with this sentence?: His studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range ofpresent-day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1837 to propose the concept of an age when great ice sheets had existed in current temperate areas.
1: “current temperate” should be “currently temperate”; this is because “currently” modifies the adjetive “temperate”, therefore “currently”needs to be in adverb form. 2: “had existed” is past perfect, which is used to denote the longer-ago of rtwo past actions. There aren’t two past actions in this sentence… don’t use a more complex trense whena simple tense is acceptable. Should be “existed”
As a means ____ ?
“As a means OF” and “As a means to” are correct. “As a means FOR” is incorrect
Attribute X as Y?
No! Attribute X to Y.
A report by the american academy for the advancement of science has concluded that (MUCH / MANY) of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed to come from the incineration of wastes.
MANY. MANY = Countable; MUCH = Uncountable; Memorize: Many bottles of water. Much water.
what parallelism marker for the following sentence: Ulcers are caused not by stress but by a bacterium in the stomach.
Not X but Y
How does “, with” structure work?
”, with” refers to the subject +verb + object of a preceeding clause. For example: “The dog barked happily at the moon, with joy exuding from every fiber of his being.” The joy isn’t exuding from the moon, the joy is exuding from the happily barking dog. Watch out for a trap where GMAT tries to use “, with” in the same context as “, which”…
In an effort to reduce their inventories, Italian vinters have cut prices; their wines are priced to sell, and they (do / have).
do The do sell. Not: they have sell…. makes no sense
What’s wrong with this sentence?: Expectations are for heating-oil prices to be higher this year than last year’s because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel for crude oil more than they did last year.
“$5 a barrel for crude oil MORE” is incorrect. The barrel is MORE expensive, not the crude oil itself. Thus, “more” is incorrectly placed. should be “$5 a barrel MORE…”
What is a comma splice?
A comma splice incorrectly connects two independent clauses. If the clauses are independent, SPLIT THEM UP into two seperate sentences or put a conjunction after the comma. It is that simple: Comma Splice: My family bakes together nearly every night, we then get to enjoy everything we make together. Correction 1: My family bakes together nearly every night. We then get to enjoy everything we make together. The comma splice has been corrected by breaking the sentence into two separate sentences. Correction 2: My family bakes together nearly every night, and we then get to enjoy everything we make together. The comma splice has been corrected by adding a coordinating conjunction and a comma. Correction 3: After my family bakes together nearly every night, we get to enjoy everything we make together.
What does the “em dash” mean?
“em dash” indicates a rephrasing of something written earlier in the sentence; the em dash means “in other words”. this means it must comply with parallelism construct. that X – that Y …
What is wrong with this sentence?: (if anything): Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
The first “it” refers to the *course of action*. The second it, though, is a dummy pronoun; it doesn’t refer to any particular noun in the sentence. While a dummy pronoun is acceptable in general, the two instances of it don’t refer to the same thing. This is considered ambiguious.
What does “whose” refer to in the following sentence: “As a result, presidential elections have become referendum on the business cycle, whose fortuitous turnings are erroneously attributed to the President.” ?
Business cycle “whose” refers to the previous referable noun. “Whose” is a possessive pronoun that can only refer to a person (or people). Here are some examples of proper use: The person whose car I’m driving is away on vacation. I’m house sitting for my cousin Vinny, whose television is broken. Last month I saw a movie about 8 coal miners from Virginia, whose lives are very interesting.
What (if anything) is wrong wit this sentence: As rainfall began to decrease in the Southwest about the middle of the twelfth century, most of the Monument Valley Anasazi abandoned their homes to join other clans with less limitations on water access.
LESS should be FEWER because “limitations” are countable: (one limitation, two limitations,etc.”)
What (if anything) is wrong wit this sentence: Marconi conceived of the radio to be a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, other than what it is, precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.
Conceive of the radio TO BE a substitute is incorrect. Should be Conceive of the radio AS a substitute. Conceive X as Y is the correct idiom.
What is wrong with this sentence?: (if anything): A mutual fund having billions of dollars in assets will typically invest that money in hundreds of companies and rarely do they hold more than one percent.
Meaning: is there a causal relationship between investing and owning less than 1% of shares? If so, shouldn’t have “and”. Should be something like: “A mutual fund having billions of dollars in assets will typically invest that money in hundreds of companies, rarely holding more than one percent of the shares of any particular corporation.” Another example: “Xiao visited the shoe store and she bought some milk.” Is there a cause and effect relationship betwen visiting the shoe store and buying milk? NO! therefore, keep “and” as they are INDEPENDENT.
What is wrong with this sentence, if anything?: Starfish, with anywhere from five to eight arms, have a strong regenerative ability, and if they lose one arm it is quickly replaced, sometimes with the animal overcompensating, growing an extra one or two.
if X (then) Y requires parallelism. This sentence says: if they lose one arm … (then) it is quickly replaced. If X (then) Y requires that the subject pronoun in the second clause should refer to the subject of the first clause. Can’t have If THEY… (then) IT …
As X as Y

REMEMBER: -ing word that is behind a noun is a modifier:

Diabetes ranks as the nation’s third leading cause of death, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer.
In this sentence, it will not make sense for verb-ed modifier to modify the preceding noun “death”. Death cannot be surpassed by anything. Hence, the verb-ed modifier is modifying noun phrase “the nation’s third leading cause of death”. Now the reference makes sense and the modifier establishes the fact this particular cause of death is “surpassed only by heart disease and cancer”.
Structurally, the verb-ed modifier is modifying the preceding noun phrase “the nation’s third leading cause of death”.
Singing a beautiful song, Mary mesmerized everyone present in the room.
So how did Mary mesmerize everyone? By singing a beautiful song. Here the verb-ing modifier is modifying the entire clause.
When placed in the beginning of the sentence followed by a comma, it always modifies the subject of the clause.
Steps to solve absolute value problems?

Method 1: Number Line for inputs:
Draw 2 number lines:
1 for negative inputs of x and y
2 for positive inputs of x and y
calculate YES/NO answer to inequality question for each number line input.
Method 2:
Step 1: Draw each function graph for (1) and (2)
Step 2: Apply absolute value to each function graph in (1) and (2)
Step 3: answer Yes/No for inequality question.
Translate this to an equation:
Martha paid 10% more for the Armchair than the Coffee Table.
(1.1) * C = A

































































































