This is an idiom that demonstrates some of the quirkiest aspects of the English language, aspects that often frustrate non-native speakers in the process of learning English. This idiom concerns the situation of talking about how two thing changes with respect to one another. Because this situation lends itself well to quantitative relationships, I will demonstrate with two practice questions giving qualitative statements of the Second & Third Laws of Planetary Motion of Johannes Kepler. (If you are at all curious, the First Law says that planetary orbits are ellipses with the Sun at one focus.) The focus of both these practice GMAT Sentence Correction question is this particular idiom.
Practice question
1) According to Kepler’s Second Law of Planetary Motion, as a planet moves through its elliptical orbit, it changes its orbital speed as its distance from the Sun changes: in particular, the closer the planet is to the Sun, then it is moving its orbit that much faster.
- (A) the closer the planet is to the Sun, then it is moving in its orbit that much faster
(B) the closer the planet is to the Sun, the faster it moves in its orbit
(C) when the planet is closer to the Sun, the faster it moves in its orbit
(D) when the planet is closer to the Sun, moving fasting in its orbit as well
(E) by being closer to the Sun, also moving fasting in its orbit
2) Kepler’s Third Law says expresses the relationship between the semi-major axis of a planet’s orbit and its orbital period: the further a planet’s orbit is from the Sun, the longer the planet’s period of revolution around the Sun.
- (A) the further a planet’s orbit is from the Sun, the longer the planet’s period of revolution around the Sun
(B) when a planet’s orbit is further from the Sun, the longer the planet’s period of revolution around the Sun
(C) the further a planet’s orbit is from the Sun, thereby the planet’s period of revolution around the Sun is that much longer
(D) when a planet’s orbit is further from the Sun, the planet’s period of revolution around the Sun being that much longer
(E) by having an orbit further from the Sun, a planet also having a period of revolution around the Sun being that much longer
The idiom
Suppose A and B are two items or qualities or quantities, and we want to express how one of them changes as a result of the other one changing; that is, we want to express the interrelated nature of their changes. This is the formal structure of the idiom:
“the” (comparative adjective or adverb) (independent clause about A), “the” (comparative adjective or adverb) (independent clause about B)
The words “the” beginning each part are crucial, as is the comma separating the two parts. This idiom stands alone as an independent clause, and therefore can be a complete sentence by itself, or can play a role in a larger sentence. Here are some examples.
3) The higher they fly, the harder they fall.
4) The straight an arrow, the truer it flies.
5) The hotter the surface temperature of a star, the more light per square meter it radiates.
6) “The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”
If you understand the layout of this idiom, see whether that changes your answers to the questions above. You may want to give them a second look before reading the solutions below. May the Force be with you.
Practice questions solutions
Like a question in the OG13 (SC #2), this question is designed specifically to test this pattern. Only one of the answers in each follows this particular idiom perfectly, and the other four answer choices in each are both idiomatically and grammatically incorrect. The correct choices are (B) in the first and (A) in the second.
