At one time, the majestic American chestnut was {so prevalent that it was said a squirrel could } jump from tree to tree without once touching the ground between New York State and Georgia.

(A) so prevalent that it was said a squirrel could
(B) so prevalent that a squirrel was said that it could
(C) so prevalent for a squirrel to be said to be able to
(D) prevalent enough that it was said a squirrel could
(E) prevalent enough for a squirrel to be said to be able to

OA:A

Could anyone help on this, please? thanks.
I understand why BCDE are wrong. But I cannot figure out if we can say "it was said" without following "that" in GMAT or there is any other idioms.

And for me. BCED are wrong with:
(B) a squirrel was said that it could - awkward
(C) so prevalent for a squirrel to be said to be able to - so...that...
(D) prevalent enough that it was said a squirrel could - so...that...
(E) prevalent enough for a squirrel to be said to be able to - so...that...

i also expected ".... it was said that..."

but it would make double recurrence of "that" quite close making the sentence awkward. Mark another "that" in "...so prevalent that..."

Thanks. helloriteshranjan.

But I really confuse this one with the following question also found in Prep.
-----
The investigations of many psychologists and anthropologists support the generalization {of there being little that is a significant difference} in the underlying mental processes manifested by people from different cultures.

(A) of there being little that is a significant difference
(B) of there being little that is significantly different
(C) of little that is significantly different
(D) that there is little that is significantly different
(E) that there is little of significant differences

OA:D

I fully agree with you as you have left no choice before me by citing this example.

looks like instructors should clarify what it is that we are missing.

for the time being stick to best possible answer choice available.

auroral1982 wrote:

Thanks. helloriteshranjan.

But I really confuse this one with the following question also found in Prep.
-----
The investigations of many psychologists and anthropologists support the generalization {of there being little that is a significant difference} in the underlying mental processes manifested by people from different cultures.

(A) of there being little that is a significant difference
(B) of there being little that is significantly different
(C) of little that is significantly different
(D) that there is little that is significantly different
(E) that there is little of significant differences

OA:D

according to GMAT, all reporting verbs except "say" requires "that".

Thanks so much for telling me that.^_^ helloriteshranjan

auroral1982,
you are welcome. 8D
for your ref, I found it in manhattan sc guide. its there in advanced gmc chapter.
ritesh

do you have trouble between D and E? E is wrong because S-V differences - is and because differences is countable, so you have to use few.

error is located in "differences" vs "different" and "little of"

if you're looking at this problem, you can definitely figure it out.

in the CORRECT ANSWER, they have "it was said", WITHOUT "that". so, the issue is settled.

--

see here:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=3110&view=previous

--

also, they really go out of their way to avoid repeated-word constructions such as X THAT Y THAT Z or X OF Y OF Z.
in fact, if you see one of these constructions, you can pretty much trust that it's wrong. they'll switch to lesser idioms, which they wouldn't normally use, in order to avoid these constructions.

here are a couple of examples (taken from official problems, so they are authentic):

* normally, you'd say "evidence that suggests...".
however, in order to avoid "evidence THAT suggests THAT...", one official problem contains the idiom "evidence TO suggest THAT..."

* normally, you'd say "it was said that..."
however, in this problem, you don't want "...so prevalent THAT it was said THAT..."
so you can get around this by killing the second "that".

* if you see something like "extent OF the shift OF light...", you can be 99.9% sure that it's incorrect.

also... be sure NOT to confuse the undesirable constructions i mentioned above with parallel constructions, in which it's often essential to include repeated words.

for instance, you wouldn't want "X in Y in Z".
however, "either IN x or IN y" would be a perfect parallel structure.

So why is D a better choice than E? D repeats "that" without creating parallelism.

(D) that there is little that is significantly different
(E) that there is little of significant differences

differences - NOUN, different - ADJ
significant - ADJ, significantly - ADV

As explained above about "little of significant differences" is incorrect because differences is plural. we cannot use little.

E has the problem of "differences" that akhp pointed out, but it also fails to tell you what there is "little of". Parallelism is not an issue in this one at all; we neither need nor have parallelism. Don't assume that parallelism is an issue just because you see the same word twice in a sentence. You need to look instead for parallel markers..

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

I am not very convinced...what is wrong with C? Why are the two 'that' 's in D ok here.



And how is the 'it' ok here?