divdaisyhill1 wrote:
This question taken from MGMAT Sentence Correction book.
a)She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every day watering the more than 50
plants in her yard.
b)She is the most dedicated gardener on the block,every day watering more than the 50 plants in her yard
In the above sentence (a), why is "the" used after watering . Wont the sentence be correct even without using the, say
?
She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every dav watering more than 50 plants in her yard" ?
a)She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every day watering the more than 50
plants in her yard.
b)She is the most dedicated gardener on the block,every day watering more than the 50 plants in her yard
In the above sentence (a), why is "the" used after watering . Wont the sentence be correct even without using the, say
?
She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every dav watering more than 50 plants in her yard" ?
This is not a matter of correct or incorrect, it's an issue of meaning. When you say "watering the more than 50 plants" you are stating that she watered her plants and there happens to be more than 50 (agreeing with koolpraps modifier comment above). When you remove "the" and say "watering more than 50 plants" the meaning is changed significantly. Now you don't have a real sense of how many plants she has (perhaps thousands?) and so you don't know if she watered them all - you just know she watered more than 50.
With the GMAT getting more focused on meaning questions, make yourself aware of how the inclusion/placement of little words ('the' in this case) can impact the meaning of a sentence.
KW