Skip to Main Content

Source: Official Guide for the GMAT 13th Ed. Sentence Correction; #74 Official Guide for the GMAT 2015 14th Ed. Sentence Correction; #74

2

Despite its covering the entire planet, Earth

Despite its covering the entire planet, Earth has a crust that is not seamless or stationary, rather it is fragmented into mobile semirigid plates.

2 Explanations

1

Richa Chandra

Amazing Explanation, but in the end mike says "is Not X or Y" is double negative. I couldn't grasp that point. Please explain.

Jun 2, 2016 • Comment

Cydney Seigerman, Magoosh Tutor

Hi Richa :)

We're glad to hear that you liked Mike's explanation :) Regarding your question, in order for the sentence to be grammatically correct, we need to maintain the negative when referring to both alternatives (i.e. X and Y). We want to say that it is not X and it is not Y. To correctly say this, we need two negative conjunctions, neither and nor. When neither alternative is possible, something is neither X nor Y. On the other hand, "or" is used when referring to positive alternatives: something is either X or Y.

I hope this clears up your doubts :)

Jun 3, 2016 • Reply

1

Gravatar Mike McGarry, Magoosh Tutor

May 22, 2013 • Comment

Add Your Explanation

You must have a Magoosh account in order to leave an explanation.

Learn More About Magoosh

Official GMAT Material

Official Guide for GMAT Review 2016

Official Guide for the GMAT 13th Ed.

Official Guide for the GMAT 2015 14th Ed.

Nova's GRE Prep

Official Guide for the GMAT 12th Ed.

Revised GRE PDF 2nd Ed.


Section 9.6 Sentence Correction

Section 9.6 Sentence Correction

Improve Your Score

Magoosh GMAT is an affordable online course for studying the GMAT.

Learn More About Magoosh

Share Post

Email

Facebook