In Hungary, as in much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women work, many of which are in middle management and light industry.
A. as in much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women work, many of which are in
B. as with much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women works, many in
C. as in much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women work, many of them in.
D. like much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women works, and many are.
E. like much of Eastern Europe, an overwhelming proportion of women work, many are in.

Do you have a specific question in regard to the problem you've posted here? I won't just give a full explanation of everything involved. But I will try to answer any specifics you may want to discuss...

an overwhelming proportion of women works

here of is the middle men but the verb is works

OA is : C

Why is answer choice B incorrect and answer choice C correct?


Thanks ~

I'm not sure why A is wrong.

Isn't it more idiomatic to say, "many of which are in middle management and light industry". (Actually, I'd rather say "many of WHOM, but this wasn't an option)

Instead, the answer is C, which says "many of them in middle management and light industry". To me, the placement of "them" sounds awkward.

A is wrong because which cannot be used to refer to people .It (which ) can be used to refer to things

I am no grammar expert . However I will give it a try

proportion can be singular or plural

When proportion is attached to a prepositional phrase such as of women and men , the phrase should be followed by plural verb

A large proportion gmat takers are working really hard .

choice (a) should be an easy elimination. you can never use "which" to refer to human beings. this principle has zero exceptions.

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"an overwhelming proportion of ..." is a quantity expression. most such expressions, although the words themselves are singular, take grammatically plural forms because they represent quantities that are clearly plural in number.
for instance, percentages, proportions, fractions, and the like fall into this category.
one-third of all the students are chinese --> correct. it'd be ridiculous to write "one-third of all the students is chinese".
on the other hand.
one out of three students is chinese --> also correct. in this case, you're literally saying one student (out of three), so, there you go, singular.

there are also other miscellaneous quantity words that are ostensibly singular but are used in the plural, such as "a dozen", "a trio", and so on. same deal.

in fact, "a lot" is probably the single most common quantity word in (somewhat less formal) writing, and that follows the same prescription: a lot of people were there. you would not, by any stretch of the imagination, write a lot of people was there.

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hmmn.... could someone please help me understand why "as in much..." is the correct way to start this part of the sentence...

i felt that "like much of..." would be the right way to go... but i'm clearly missing something

Here in the Q Between choice C and E , since this is a comparison we need as followed by a clause ..which is not the case

Why is E wrong ?

I think that I have seen somewhere in OG that "the proportion of [plural noun]" is considered singular.

I am a little confused when "the proportion of [plural noun]" is considered singular, and when is not.

can someone please explain how to find whether as is used for clause or not.

In this question, I thought as is not followed by clause, so eliminated a,b and c

confused.. please help

if you open a sentence with "like X, ..." then the following two things must be true:
1 * X is a noun (or something else that can function as a noun, such as a gerund, noun-type phrase, etc). in other words, X should not be a clause
2 * you INTEND a COMPARISON between X and the SUBJECT of the following sentence.

if these 2 things are not true, you can't use "like".

in choice (e), the second of these is not true, because the SUBJECT is not "hungary". the subject is "an overwhelming proportion of women". that's not a sensible comparison.


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in particular, you can't use "like" with prepositional phrases. in that case, you have to use "as", as in the correct answer.
(hey, i did it in that sentence, too. and not even on purpose. sweeeeeeet)

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also note that (e) is a run-on sentence, since the part starting with "many are in..." is a sentence in its own right. you can't have two complete sentences (independent clauses) linked together with only a comma.

_________________
Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes

you can also use "as" with prepositional phrases. see the post above this one.

_________________
Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes

it depends on MEANING.
all you have to do is THINK VERY LITERALLY.

if the PROPORTION ITSELF did something, then "proportion" itself is the subject, and you use a singular verb:

the proportion of filipinos living in milpitas has increased --> it's the actual proportion that has increased (filipinos can't "increase")

a large proportion of the filipinos in milpitas work in san jose --> the filipinos themselves work (a proportion can't work)

that's really all there is to it.

_________________
Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes

Got it.
Thanks =)