GMAT备考日记－AT

AnnTeng

Sentence Correction （学习内容来自Manhattan SC）
SV agreement
阅读：http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index.php/2011/09/12/layering-in-sentence-correction-questions/
训练迅速解构句子结构，indentify句子中每个组成部分所扮演的角色，有助于提高发现问题的速度
重点：

1.Prepositional Phrase
A noun in a prepositional phrase cannot be the subject of the sentence.
2.Subordinate Clauses
These clauses,which begin with connecting words such as who or which , cannot stand alone as sentences. They are always attached to a main clause.
3. Other Modifiers
4. Additive Phrases do not form compound subjects.Rather, additive phrases function as modifiers and therefore cannot change the number of the subject. Singular subjects followed by additive phrases remain singular subjects.

when the words either or neither are in sentence alone (withoutor or nor), they are considered singular andtake only singular verbs.)   

Insome rare circumstances, collective nouns can be considered plural(e.g., when you

emphasize the individual actors, nottheir unity or when there is a tip in non-underlined

construction ). However, on theGMAT, collective nouns are almost always considered singular andtherefore require singular verb forms.

Look at the Of-phrasewhich usually follows the pronoun. You may recall that you are generally supposedto ignore Of-prepostional phrases (since they are misleading middleman).The SANAM pronouns are exceptionsto this rule. The noun object of theOf-phrase can help

Treatquantity phrases in the same way asSANAM pronouns: the noun in the Of-prepositional phrase willindicate whether the verb is singular or plural.

Anysubject preceded by the word each or every is singular.

Subject Phrases and Clauses: Always singular

Youmay have noticed that confusing subjects are more often singular than plural.

When in Doubt, Think Singular

AnnTeng

专注力太差，学习没计划,  同自己的弱点斗争真心不易。
这是看babybearmm纪录的难点，我也给自己做个记录。

Ambiguous Pronouns

so, a takeaway for you:
the rules on ambiguous pronouns are NOT absolute.

there are only two ABSOLUTE RULES for pronouns:
(1) the pronoun must stand for a noun that is actually PRESENT in the sentence;
(2) the pronoun and the noun must MATCH IN TERMS OF SINGULAR/PLURAL.

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THAN后面的倒装结构（这就是我昨天纠结的，现在明白了）

* if you have just a noun - WITHOUT modifiers - in the second half of your parallel structure, then you can place the helping verb ("do", in this case) EITHER before OR after that noun.
ex:
i know more about shakespeare than my brother does. --> correct
i know more about shakespeare than does my brother. --> correct
in this case, the first one (helping verb AFTER the noun) is usually preferred, because it flows more naturally, but either is correct.

* if you have a noun followed by modifier(s) in the second half of your parallel structure, then you MUST place the helping verb BEFORE the noun.
ex:
i know more about shakespeare than my brother, who has never studied literature, does. --> WRONG
i know more about shakespeare than does my brother, who has never studied literature,. --> correct

in this problem, "branches" is followed by a modifier ("from trees"), so you MUST place "do" before it.

...than do branches from trees --> correct
...than branches from trees do --> WRONG

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PUNCTUATION

the words "however" and "therefore" are not used in american english as they're used in british english.
in british english, these words are used as coordinating conjunctions, in the same way as are and, or, yet, and the like. in american english, on the other hand, you CANNOT use them as coordinating conjunctions; you have to use them in the same way as words/constructions such as nevertheless, despite all of these things, etc.

for instance:
i left home twenty minutes early, however i was still late. --> i think this is correct british usage, but it is WRONG WRONG WRONG in american english.
i left home twenty minutes early; however, i was still late. --> correct american usage. note the semicolon (which could also be a period, if these were longer sentences) and the comma, BOTH of which are essential.

AnnTeng

困境还真是不好走出啊。

AnnTeng

Key Takeaways for Meaning, Long Underlines, and Modifiers
(1) Long underlines are an indication that the problem is more likely to be testing meaning and / or modifiers, because both of those issues are easier to test when we can move around or change significant portions of the sentence.

(2) While we have gotten used to using the don’t change the original meaning unless something is wrong with it standard, I’d be a bit wary about that going forward. Instead, focus on two things related to meaning: ambiguity and illogic. Anything illogical is definitely wrong. Ambiguity can be more of a judgment call; when I see something ambiguous, I will often mark it but leave it in until I’ve looked at the rest of the answers, just to make sure.

(3) Modifiers often end up being about meaning in the end, as the incorrect placement of a modifier can make a sentence ambiguous or illogical. In this problem, bad modifier placement in A gave us an ambiguous meaning and bad modifier placement in B gave us an illogical meaning.

AnnTeng

做了 SC Q #97 to # 113 Verbal Review 2nd Edition 错了两道题。结果虽然还不错，可我完全是凭借语感选择，心里非常不踏实

AnnTeng

这道题我不明白为什么C 和D不是Run on？
Sound can travel through water for enormous distances, prevented from dissipating its acoustic energy as a result of boundaries in the ocean created by water layers of different temperatures and densities.
A) prevented from dissipating its acoustic energy as a result of
B) prevented from having its acoustic energy dissipated by
C) its acoustic energy prevented from dissipating by
D) its acoustic energy prevented from being dissipated as a result of
E) preventing its acoustic energy from dissipating by

查找了半天，说什么的都有。今天打开Manhattan又非常慢，折腾了半个小时候我终于学会了一个新的term “absolute modifiers” 这就解释了为什么C和D不是Run on
For me and anyone who might as well reading my page:Absolute phrases modify the entire sentence, giving the reader additional information.
Ron 的解释
http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/forums/sc-sound-t7263-15.html

AnnTeng

For tomorrow:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/gmat-verbal/sentence-correction-gmat-verbal

AnnTeng

http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/the-new-image-of-stone-age-people-as-systematic-hunters-of-t2421.html

*participial modifiers with -ing, even when they serve as adjectives, have more freedom than do relative pronouns such as 'which'.

*note that "rather than" is a one-part signal - i.e., unlike two-part constructions such as "both ... and" and "not only ... but also", it lacks a left-hand part indicating the beginning of the first parallel element. therefore, you can choose to start the first parallel element wherever you want - meaning that you can choose to include or exclude "as" at your convenience:

(c)
The new image of Stone Age people as systematic hunters of large animals, rather than as mere meat scavengers, has...
this parallelism is acceptable, but there are two undesirable things:
* "hunters OF large animals" isn't truly parallel to "meat scavengers"
* "meat scavengers" is awkward / unclear (you probably won't know this unless you're a native speaker of english and/or a writer)

(d)(e)
The new image of Stone Age people as systematic hunters of large animals, rather than mere scavengers of meat, has...
this is better parallelism (notice that "as" is excluded from the first part this time).
* note the EXACT parallelism between "hunters OF large animals" and "scavengers OF meat".

if you say "tools that include X", then X is A COMPONENT of the tools. so, for instance, "tools that include a bottle opener" means that a bottle opener is one of many attachments.
on the other hand, "tools(,) including X" implies that X is ONE OF the tools. so, for instance, "tools(,) including a bottle opener" means that the bottle opener itself is one of the tools in question.

AnnTeng

Patterns in Arguments:
PATTERNS: Two things happened at roughly the same time. Therefore,one of them caused the other one.
Correlation does not guarantee causation.

AnnTeng

A good article to read on why MBA helps some people
http://pandodaily.com/2013/08/29/warby-parker-the-result-of-a-perfectly-calcuated-mba-machine/

http://forum.chasedream.com/thread-880521-1-1.html