GMAT SC 八宗罪

pigscanfly

在外国网站上找到的，SC八大常见错误的总结，有时间的可以看看，我觉得还不错。

 

1)     Pronoun error

There are 3 main types of pronoun errors encountered in GMAT.

a.     Plural and Singular

Once you start with one, you need to stay in the same quantity (singular or plural).

 

§  Singular Pronouns (Memorize these)

Hint: Do you see the categories I setup?  It’s SANE to memorize this

Some---

Any—

No—

Every—

 

Everyone Everybody Everything	Someone Somebody Something	Either Neither	One Each
Anyone Anybody Anything	No one Nothing Nobody	Whoever Whomever	His

                       

§  Be aware that group, jury, team, country, family are singular.  Society today uses them sometimes as plural.  This is because these act as a single unit when they do something.

           

§  Plural Pronouns (Memorize these)
                

Both	Their	Many	Several
Few	Others

 

§  Singular and Plural Pronouns – depends on whether the noun is singular or plural (Memorize these)     

 

Some

More

Most

All

 

§  The plural and singular clause error

When two nouns are in the sentence doing an action together but they are linked with

i)      Along with

ii)     Together with

iii)    With

iv)    As well as

v)     In addition to

vi)    Accompanied by

 

… this does not make the following action they do plural.  Only “and” can take the two singulars and make their action plural.

For example

Janie, with her poodle limping behind her, walks to the dog park.

Explanation: Janie is singular.  The poodle is singular.  They both do the action together, but the use of “with” means that we need to keep the verb singular.  “Walks” is singular and “Walk” is plural.

Remember, a verb that ends with an –s is singular. 

 

b.    Pronoun reference error- referring pronoun is not correctly placed.

For example:

In the sentence “Samantha and Jane went shopping, but she couldn’t find anything she liked.”, the pronoun “she” does not refer to a person unambiguously. It is difficult to understand that whether “she” is referring to Samantha or Jane.

The correct form would be “Samantha and Jane went shopping, but Samanatha couldn’t find anything she liked.”

 

c.     Relative pronouns are often used incorrectly today.

1)     Referring to things or animals – that, which

2)     Referring to people—who, whom

3)     They – be careful that you don’t use this unless you’re positive there is a referring noun.  Today we often use “they” to replace the use of a proper noun which it is not.  It’s a Pronoun.

 

2)     Misplaced Modifier (modifiers must stay close to home)

Sentences that begin with a verb, adjective+verb, and adjective phrases need to be followed by the noun or pronoun they are modifying.  Usually end with –ing.

 

Example: “Coming out of the department store, John’s wallet was stolen.”

“Coming” is the modifier.  Was john’s wallet coming out of the store? à
            Incorrect

Possible solution to look for:

i)      Correct the reference

ii)     Put a noun or pronoun into the 1^st part of the sentence turning the 1^st part into an adverbial clause.  Thus can stand apart without needing to watch the modifier.

 

3)     Parallel Construction

There are two kinds of ERS sentences that test the parallel construction. The first is a sentence that contains a list, or has a series of actions set off from one another by commas.

The second kind is a sentence that’s divided into two parts.

Both types must have parallel types of verbiage:

§  …..to ____, to ____

§  ate _____, slept ____, drank ____. 

 

Bad construction might look like:

§  …to ____, _____ 

§  …ate _____, sleep _____, drank ____.

 

There are a few more things to be observed in a parallel construction sentence.

 

a.     Comparisons must be logical and compatible

Find the two things being compared and see if the sentence is structured in balance.  Don’t be afraid to consider changing verbs or adjectives to get the balance.

 

The words "like," "unlike," "similar to," "as…so", “when” and "in contrast to" are the most common indicators of comparisons. In comparisons, compatibility is determined by subject matter.  For example:

 

“As domesticated animals, indoor cats typically lose their ability to hunt for their own food, so too do domesticated dogs come to rely exclusively on their owners for sustenance.”

 

Here, domesticated cats are compared to domesticated dogs, and the comparison works because they are both domesticated animals — they are like terms. Whenever you see a comparison being set up in a sentence, check to see that the terms of the comparison are compatible.

 

b.    Parallelism is not just about clauses, but verb usage

Example:  -ing and –ing, to…… to…… , either ….. or, neither ……. nor.

 

In a series of two or more elements, what you do on #2 determines what you do on 3+. In other words, everything after #2 must match #2:

·   I like to swim, to run, and to dance.

·   I like to swim, run, and dance.

are okay.

 

·   I like to swim, run, and to dance.

·   I like to swim, to run, and dance.

are NOT okay.

 

4)     Verb Tense

On the GMAT, tense problems are often just a matter of parallel construction. In general, if a sentence starts out in one tense, it should probably remain in the same tense.

 

Some major categories of tense: Don’t need to memorize types. Just be familiar

a.    Present tense                example: He walks three miles a day.

b.    Simple Past                  example: When he was younger, he walked three miles a day.

c.     Present Perfect
            example: He has walked.

d.    Past Perfect                   example: He had walked.

e.     Future                           example: He will work.

f.     Present Perfect – Describes action that began in the past but continues until the present. Key identifier – “has” “have”. Sidenote: Sometimes used when deadline exists.

g.    Past Perfect – Describes action that started and stopped in the past.      Key identifier – “had”

h.     Present Progressive – Used as emphasis by the speaker that the action is happening this very minute.    Key identifier – verb ‘to be’ + a verb with an –ing ending.

i.      Perfect Progressive – Occupies more than one moment in the past.  In other words, ongoing for a period of time.            Key identifier – “had been”

 

One exception to this rule is a sentence that contains the past perfect (in which one action in the past happened before another action in the past).

Examples:

§  He had ridden his motorcycle for two hours when it ran out of gas.

§  The dinosaurs are extinct now, but they were once present on the earth in large numbers.

 

Two events that have taken place, are taking place or will take place at the same time must have the same tense in the sentence.

 

Passive verbs begin with the form of “to be” (Example: to be, were, was) and end with a different verb in the past tense.

pigscanfly

5)     Subject-Verb agreement errors

A verb is supposed to agree with the subject.

a.     Singular + Plural agreement.  Do the two agree in plurality?  Can be made very complex when prepositional phrases separate verb from noun/subject by 5 or more words.  Easy to overlook cross referenced subject-verb relationship.

b.    To tell if a verb paradigm is plural or singular. 

§  Mentally put “They” in front of the verb ß plural

§  Mentally put “He” in front of the verb ß singular

c.     Verb plurality: (This comes up A LOT on the GMAT)

Adding an “s” to the end of an adjective makes it singular.

For example, dislike ß plural    dislikes ß singular

 

quote:

I chose A, but the correct answer is B.

The majority of the talk was devoted to an account of the experimental methods used by investigators in the field.

a. ...

b. The greater part of the talk was

c. The bulk of the talk has been

d. A large amount of the talk has been

e. A predominance of the talk was

Good one!!

"majority" should be used with count nouns only.

 

The majority of the water is dirty.

Is "unidiomatic," because "water" is a non-count noun.

Just in case, count nouns can be counted (bottle, idea, person, brush, etc.);

Noncount nouns cannot be counted (water, furniture, information, soap, luggage, etc.).

 

There is, however, a lot of overlap between the two--beer, coke, coffee, material, love, etc. can all be either count or non-count, depending on our meaning, context, or level of formality.

 

One of the most common questions is something like this:

Do I say:

"Most of the people is/are...?"

"Most of the water is/are...?"

 

Here's the rule:

quantifier + of + NOUN + verb

 

The NOUN determines whether the verb is singular or plural.

 

For example:

Most of the people is/are...

because the quantifier "most" refers to "people," (a plural noun) so "most" is plural in this sentence.

 

Most of the water is/are...

because the quantifier "most" refers to "water," (a non-count noun) so "most" is plural in this sentence.

 

So, from these examples, you should notice that we are looking mainly at whether the object of the preposition is count or non-count because the quantifier will take on this property from the object of the preposition.

 

In other words, in these sentences:

Most of the people are...

"Most" becomes a count noun because "people" is a count noun.

Most of the water is...

"Most" becomes a non-count noun because "water" is a non-count noun.

So, this rule tells us only whether the quantifier is count or non-count.

 

To figure out whether the quantifier is singular or plural, we need to check one more thing...

Sometimes, a quantifier refers only to one thing, not many things. For example,

each, every, and one always refer to one thing, but 10%, half, all, and most would refer to more than one thing if the object of the preposition is count (with one possible exception that I will show you in a second).

 

Of course, if the quantifier is always singular, then the verb must always be singular, too. (Let's not forget our common sense in grammar, okay??) For example, we say:

• One of the people is...

• Each of the students is...

 

Of course, when I first wrote out these rules, I imagined a situation like this:

• 1% of the 100 people is/are...

because, of course, 1% of 100 is one, and that's singular, right? And there's invariably some student in my class who will try to find an exception (that's what I do in class, too!! My teachers hated it!! )

Anyway, I think most people would say that this is simply a bad sentence and should be rewritten. This sentence I've shown you is more of a grammar puzzle than a real sentence.

But I know that somebody out there will want to know the "answer." Well, you can't go wrong if you write it in the singular, can you?

§  The teacher together with the student IS (or ARE) going to...?

§  The teacher and the student ARE (or IS)going to?

Generally speaking, we need a conjunction to create a plural subject from more than one singular noun. "together with" is NOT a conjunction, and therefore cannot create a plural subject. "and" on the other hand, IS a conjunction and CAN create a plural subject.

I'm concluding:

"a number of ..." always takes plural verbs.

"the number of ..." always takes singular verbs.

 

Eg: the number of people has increased

A number of people have gone

 

The important thing here is that the number in the first example (the number of women employed outside the home) is an actual number--35,000, for example. Even if you add more women to the original number, there will still be one number, right?

The second usage of "numbers" is also correct, and means that there are many people in that group. For example, it is correct to say:

People are leaving California in greater numbers.

People are spending more money on the Internet in greater numbers.

 

Second, "curfew" is a singular count noun and therefore requires a determiner (the).

I agree with you that skill can be both a count noun as well as a non-count noun. It all depends upon the context.

 

Have a look at the example below:

1. Harry knows quite a few driving skills.

Conversely, if were to ask Harry about his driving skills, I would ask.

 

2. How much skill do you have in driving a car, Harry?

So you see, the word "skill" remains the same but depending on the context, skill can be a non-count or a count noun?

 

With fractions, percentages and indefinite quantifiers, the verb agrees with the preceding noun or clause. With singular or non-count nouns or clauses, use a singular verb:

• One third of this article is taken up with statistical analysis.

• All of the book seems relevant to this study.

• Half of what he writes is undocumented.

• About fifty percent of the job is routine.

• All the information is current.

 

With plural nouns, use plural verbs:

 

• One third of the students have graduate degrees.

• Fifty percent of the computers have CD-ROM drives.

• Many researchers depend on grants from industry.

 

With collective nouns, use either singular or plural, depending on whether you want to emphasize the single group or its individual members:

 

• Half of my family lives/live in Canada.

• All of the class is/are here.

• Ten percent of the population is/are bilingual.

 

This is another reason, and this one's a bit harder to explain. In a nutshell, though, we can't use a that noun clause with the word directive, just as we cannot with order, as hellogmat has pointed out.

 

6)     Parallelism (Apples + Oranges)

This error is not a frequently encountered error, but it is worth knowing and practicing such errors. In such sentences, generally two things or items are compared.

a.     When the sentence compares two items.  Ask yourself, can they be really compared?

b.    When the sentence compares two actions as well.

 

Usually, the problem is with hidden comparison where two things or actions are compared, but another two items or actions are intertwined and you lose the comparison relationship.

 

Example: “Synthetic oils burn less efficiently than natural oils.”

 

The sentence is wrong because we are trying to compare how well each oil burns and not the oils themselves.  But do you see how the actual thing being compared is easily missed?

 

7)     Quantity Words

i.      The words measuring quantity may be used incorrectly.  For example, when comparing two items, it would be inappropriate to use “among” to compare them.  Here’s a chart:

 

2 items                                     if more than 2

Between                                    among

More                                         most

Better                                       best

Less                                         least

 

ii.     Items that can’t be counted should not use quantity words.  For example, you can’t say “fewer soup”.  Here’s a chart:

 

Non-countable words               Countable words

      Less                                         fewer

      Amount, quantity                       number

      Much                                        many

 

iii.    When two distinct words or phrases are joined by the correlatives either, or, neither, nor, not only, but also, the number (singular or plural) of the word or phrase nearest to the verb determines the number of the verb.

§  Example: Either his parents or he is bringing it (notice “is” is singular)  This can be a confusing sentence because parents is plural, but we pay attention to he which is the noun “he” tells us that we need to keep “is” singular.

§  Example: Either he or his parents are bringing it.  Notice “parents” is plural and is the closest to the verb so we use “are” which is plural.

 

pigscanfly

8)     Idioms

Such sentences incorporate incorrect usage of idiomatic expressions.  There are no rules.  Really need good English familiarity. 

Overall rule: If it’s not one of the previous 7, then it’s very likely an idiom expression test question. Watch for the prepositions (to, the, of, at, for, on, in, about, etc.,) changing among the answer choices. This usually implies an Idiomatic problem, if not a Parallel Construction problem

 

Major Idioms you should be pretty familiar with:

1)             a debate over

2)             a lot

3)             a responsibility to

4)             a result of

5)             a sequence of

6)             acclaimed as is the correct idiom (Acclaimed to be is wrong)

7)             accompanied by....

8)             adapted for

9)             Adverb twice cannot be an object of proposition ‘by’. ‘Increase by twice’ is incorrect; ‘doubled’ is correct

10)          affect to..

11)          agree with

12)          Aid in (Aid for is incorrect)

13)          Allergy to (Allergy of, allergy for are incorrect)

14)          Allocated to is the correct idiom

15)          alternative to....

16)          as a result of...

17)          as an instance of

18)          as good as...or better than

19)          as great as

20)          as much as

21)          Associate X with Y

22)          assume ...to be of...

23)          At least as strong as(At least as great as)

24)          Attempt to ‘do something’ (Attempt at doing is incorrect).

25)          attend to (someone)

26)          attribute X to Y/X is attributed to Y

27)          based on

28)          believe X to be Y

29)          Believed to have

30)          benefit from...

31)          better served by X than Y ..

32)          between X and Y

33)          Both X and Y (Both X as well as Y is incorrect) Both at X and at Y is correct. Both on X or on Y is correct.

34)          Business ethics - Is a singular word

35)          call...to consider...

36)          centers on

37)          Combined X with Y OR Combined X and Y (Both are correct)

38)          Compensate for

39)          Concerned for - worried; concerned with - related/affiliated

40)          conform to

41)          Consider X to be Y (a little controversial)

42)          contrary to...

43)          created with

44)          Credit X Rupees to Y’s account (When money is involved)

45)          Credit X with discovering Y (Credit with doing something)

46)          decline in....

47)          defined as

48)          depends on whether

49)          depicted as

50)          Descendent of (Descendent for is incorrect)

51)          Different from one another (Different one from the other is wrong)

52)          Distinguish between X and Y (2 very different items, distinguished, say red and green colors)

53)          Distinguish between X and Y (Distinguish X from Y is incorrect)

54)          Distinguish X from Y (Two pretty similar items, say original paintings from fake ones)

55)          doubt that

56)          either...or

57)          enable to

58)          entrusted with...

59)          Estimated to be (Estimated at is incorrect)

60)          expected that X would be Y ...

61)          expected X to be Y ...

62)          extent to ...

63)          fascinated by

64)          for jobs..

65)          for over...XXX years...

66)          forbid X to do Y identical with

67)          forcing ...to...

68)          From X to Y (Grow from 2 million to 3 billion) (From X up to Y is wrong)

69)          Given credit for being ones - who

70)          had better(do)

71)          In an attempt to (gain control)

72)          in contrast to

73)          independent from

74)          indifferent towards

75)          Intent on

76)          interaction of ...

77)          Just as - So too

78)          May be (This is a word) is idiomatic, maybe (This means perhaps) is not idiomatic

79)          Mistake X for Y

80)          modeled after

81)          more than ever

82)          more X than Y ...

83)          more...than / less...than

84)          more...than ever...

85)          must have (done)

86)          Native of (Native to is also used in some cases)

87)          Neither - Nor should have parallel forms associated to it.

88)          no less....than

89)          No sooner than

90)          Not in a flash but in a

91)          not only...but also

92)          Not so much to X as to Y

93)          not X ...but rather Y ..

94)          noted that ..

95)          one attributes X (an effect) to Y (a cause)

96)          One X for every ZZ( some numeric number) Y's ...

97)          Persuaded X to do Y

98)          Plead guilty for failing

99)          Potential for causing

100)        potential to

101)        prohibits X from doing Y

102)        range from X to Y

103)        range of ...

104)        reason….. that incorrectly seen as reason….. because

105)        “Regard as” is the correct idiom -- Regarded as having, Regarded as ones who have

106)        regardless

107)        regards X as Y ...

108)        replacing with...

109)        Require that X be Y (Not require that X is Y)

110)        research to

111)        responsible for

112)        restitution...for ...

113)        resulting in

114)        retroactive to

115)        Same as X..as to Y

116)        same to X as to Y

117)        seem...to...(seem is plural)

118)        so (adjective) that

119)        So X as to be Y (So unreal as to be true)

120)        So X that Y (So poor that they steal)

121)        subscribe to

122)        such...as

123)        targeted at

124)        that X ...that Y ...

125)        That X is called for is indicated both by Y and by Z.

126)        the same to X as to Y

127)        to .. used to (example to get used to or to become used to)

128)        to contrast X with Y

129)        To exchange X for Y (exchange X with Y or any other form is incorrect)

130)        to mistake X for Y

131)        to monitor ...

132)        to orbit...

133)        To ratify (At ratifying is incorrect) An attempt to ratify is the correct use

134)        to result in

135)        to sacrifice X for Y

136)        to survive

137)        To try to fix is the right idiom (to try and fix is incorrect)

138)        To worry about someone’s condition (To keep worrying over an action)

139)        used in the construction...

140)        used to (do)

141)        viewed marriage as

142)        way to provide (Way for providing is incorrect)

143)        When ‘rates’ means ‘prices charged’ it should be followed with ‘for’

144)        widely anticipated that....

145)        Worried about (When talking about someone’s condition)

146)        X [is] expected to Y

147)        X as Y ..

148)        X forbids Y to do Z ...

149)        X is attributed to Y

150)        X is different from Y (different than Y is incorrect)

151)        X is to what Y is to

152)        X is unknown, nor it is known - is a correct idiom (Neither is not required)

153)        X ordered that Y be Z'ed...

154)        X ordered Y to be Z'ed..

155)        X ordered Y to do Z

156)        X prohobits Y from doing Z ...

 

There are three types of idioms that you'll see on the GMAT:

1. word pairs that go together

2. prepositions and the verbs that use them

3. standard expressions.

 

Word Pairs

as…as	The movie was as long as it was boring.
more…than less…than greater….than	The workshop was more thrilling than anything I'd ever done.
not only…but (also)	She was not only exhausted but (also) famished as well.
so…that	The apartment was so expensive that no self-supporting student could afford it.
(just) as…so	(Just) as it is the duty of employees to contribute to the well-being of the company, so it is the duty of the company to contribute to the well-being of its employees.
neither…nor either…or	Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

yuching730

超经典..UP!!!!Thx for sharing……….

cdgmat

好好啊！尤其是IDIOM部分，我见过OG总结最全的。

atuforever

41)          Consider X to be Y (a little controversial)

consider X Y?

pigscanfly

同意楼上的，我也觉得41)有问题

consider后面常省略且不能加to be和as。

在非GMAT的语法中，是可以用to be 或者 as的，可是在GMAT中不行。

Gmat里只有consider sth. sth.; consider sth. +adj.或consider that引导宾语从句是正确的

atc

MM，太好啦，顶你到750，不要有恐高症呀！

smartflowers

感谢分享！

pigscanfly

自己顶一下，免得有人没看到~