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The five hundred largest manufacturing firms

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devinderpsingh
 Post subject: The five hundred largest manufacturing firms
 Post Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 7:56 pm 
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Posts: 10
The five hundred largest manufacturing firms in the United States produce goods that are worth almost as much as that of the four hundred thousand firms that remain.

(A) that are worth almost as much as that of the four hundred thousand firms that remain
(B) of a worth that is almost as much as that of the four hundred thousand firms that remain
(C) almost as much in worth as those of the remaining four hundred thousand firms
(D) almost as much in worth as that of the remaining four hundred thousand firms
(E) worth almost as much as those of the remaining four hundred thousand firms

can someone please explain difference between 'that of' and 'those of'
why 'those of' here?
OA: E
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stock.mojo11
 Post subject: Re: The five hundred largest manufacturing firms
 Post Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:39 pm 
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Posts: 42
devinderpsingh wrote:
The five hundred largest manufacturing firms in the United States produce goods that are worth almost as much as that of the four hundred thousand firms that remain.

(A) that are worth almost as much as that of the four hundred thousand firms that remain
(B) of a worth that is almost as much as that of the four hundred thousand firms that remain
(C) almost as much in worth as those of the remaining four hundred thousand firms
(D) almost as much in worth as that of the remaining four hundred thousand firms
(E) worth almost as much as those of the remaining four hundred thousand firms

can someone please explain difference between 'that of' and 'those of'
why 'those of' here?
OA: E


Because goods (plural) are compared.

Hence only C & E remain. as much in worth is a awkward construction.

E wins
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devinderpsingh
 Post subject: Re: The five hundred largest manufacturing firms
 Post Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:21 pm 
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Posts: 10
Actually even 'that' can be used for plural. I don't have any examples but I came across few question in which 'that' was used for plural
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RonPurewal
 Post subject: Re: The five hundred largest manufacturing firms
 Post Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 4:28 am 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 7146
devinderpsingh wrote:
Actually even 'that' can be used for plural.


not in the way in which it's used here, it can't.

if you have "that" as a relative pronoun, in a parallel construction such as the one here (in which it's attached to a preposition, etc.), then it MUST be singular.
zero exceptions.

in other words, if you see that of..., or that in..., or anything else along those lines, then that MUST be singular.

--

you're probably confusing this with a completely different kind of usage. i don't actually have any idea what this type of usage is called, but i'll give an example of it:
the keys that were on the table are gone.

in this sort of example, that can be used either as singular or as plural, since you cannot use those here.

don't confuse this sort of construction with the above, which is a completely different animal.
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RonPurewal
 Post subject: Re: The five hundred largest manufacturing firms
 Post Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 4:28 am 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 7146
devinderpsingh wrote:
Actually even 'that' can be used for plural.


not in the way in which it's used here, it can't.

if you have "that" as a relative pronoun, in a parallel construction such as the one here (in which it's attached to a preposition, etc.), then it MUST be singular.
zero exceptions.

in other words, if you see that of..., or that in..., or anything else along those lines, then that MUST be singular.

--

you're probably confusing this with a completely different kind of usage. i don't actually have any idea what this type of usage is called, but i'll give an example of it:
the keys that were on the table are gone.

in this sort of example, that can be used either as singular or as plural, since you cannot use those here.

don't confuse this sort of construction with the above, which is a completely different animal.
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devinderpsingh
 Post subject: Re: The five hundred largest manufacturing firms
 Post Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:56 am 
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Posts: 10
Ron, thanks a lot!
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RonPurewal
 Post subject: Re: The five hundred largest manufacturing firms
 Post Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 6:19 am 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 7146
by the way, are you sure that this is an official problem?

technically, "those of" (or "that of", for that matter) isn't actually parallel to anything at all, since there are no possessives in this sentence.
i.e., nothing is "of" anything else in the first part, so "those of" / "that of" is technically an orphan.

instead of "those of", it should be "those produced by", an option that is not available in any of the choices.
still, of the choices that are there, the indicated "oa" is the best (or, should i say, the least bad).
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