Sentence Correction

Hi faraz_jeddah,

You could bypass the issue altogether by figuring out that the first verb should be "declared" and the style phrase "such as" is preferable to "like". These two rules are enough to get you to answer E.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

I received a private message about this thread.

You could bypass the issue altogether by figuring out that ...

Hm?

You don't even need to "bypass the issue". There's no issue in the first place.
"Control(ling) for..." is in every choice.

In any case, for readers who might be wondering about this distinction out of pure curiosity, here's a brief explanation.

"¢Â If you control a variable, then you actually exert influence on that variable.
E.g.,
Smith's data are questionable because he did not adequately control the ambient temperature during his experiments.
-> Smith needed to DO something TO the temperature (= probably keep it constant). He didn't do an adequate job in this regard.

"¢Â If you control for a variable, then you're NOT exerting an influence on it, because you're unable, or else unwilling, to do so. Instead, you strategically choose data points to normalize or eliminate the effect of that variable.
E.g.,
People addicted to narcotics or opiates do not typically lead lives similar to those of non-addicts; as a result, it is often extremely difficult to control for such factors as diet, sleep, exercise, and risk aversion in studying the consequences of drug addiction.
-> To make a valid study of the consequences of drug addiction, we need to find drug addicts whose lives are (drug use notwithstanding) fundamentally similar to those of non-addicts. (E.g., if we compare drug addicts who eat a poor diet to non-addicts who eat a better diet, it's impossible to tell whether any observed differences are due to the drugs, the dietary differences, or both.) Finding such people is difficult, making it hard to perform valid studies.
The point here is that we DON'T "control" diet, sleep, exercise, and so on, most likely for ethical reasons. Instead, we try to control FOR these things--basically the next-best option.