Sentence Correction

73. Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is emotion, not logic or analytical reasoning.



(A) the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is


(B) the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas and found the basis to make tough moral decisions to be


(C) the brain scans of volunteers pondering ethical dilemmas and found that the basis for making tough moral decisions is


(D) volunteers' brain scans while pondering ethical dilemmas have found the basis to make tough moral judgments to be


(E) volunteers' brain scans while they pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for


I get the OA A but I would like to get a brief note on the meaning part especially understanding the split between the brain scans of volunteers vs volunteers' brain scans. I have seen many times GMAT hates the usage of Possessives especially for 'humans'. Am I missing any kind of rule here?

Who refers to researchers or Volunteers ?

Note:
Answer choices with plural possessives such as volunteers' tend to be incorrect.
Here, the brain scans of volunteers is preferable to volunteers' brain scans.

Hi GMATGuru ,

Just a quick question here.

Puller possessive is always wrong in gmat? If not then can you please advise when should we use this?

Please advise sir.

Thanks

anant03 wrote:

Note:
Answer choices with plural possessives such as volunteers' tend to be incorrect.
Here, the brain scans of volunteers is preferable to volunteers' brain scans.

Hi GMATGuru ,

Just a quick question here.

Puller possessive is always wrong in gmat? If not then can you please advise when should we use this?

Please advise sir.

Thanks

Plural possessives TEND to be in incorrect answer choices, but they are not ALWAYS wrong.

Examples of plural possessives contained in OAs from GMAC:
the local artisans' creative energy.
the mollusks' growth

Examples of plural possessives contained in incorrect answer choices from GMAC:
business journals' and general consumer magazines' advertising income
executives' being heavily committed to a course of action

If you see an answer choice with a plural possessive, do not immediately eliminate the answer choice.
Instead:
Check the answer choice for other errors.
Look for an alternate answer choice that avoids the plural possessive and is free of errors.
If you are stuck between an answer choice that contains a plural possessive and one that avoids this usage, choose the answer choice without the plural possessive.

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one problem at a time, and narrow it down to the correct choice! Before we get started, here is the original question with any major differences between the options highlighted in orange:

Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is emotion, not logic or analytical reasoning.

(A) the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is
(B) the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas and found the basis to make tough moral decisions to be
(C) the brain scans of volunteers pondering ethical dilemmas and found that the basis for making tough moral decisions is
(D) volunteers' brain scans while pondering ethical dilemmas have found the basis to make tough moral judgments to be
(E) volunteers' brain scans while they pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is

After a quick scan over the options, there are a few things we can focus on to narrow down our choices:
1. the brain scans of volunteers / volunteers' brain scans
2. have found / and found
3. for making / to make
4. is / to be

Let's start with #1 on our list: the brain scans of volunteers vs. volunteers' brain scans. While it seems like these two phrases could be interchangeable, they are not! Let's take a look at each option with the beginning of the sentence plugged in to see the difference:

(A) Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is --> OKAY
(It's clear that the researchers are studying brain scans from volunteers who were pondering ethical dilemmas.)

(B) Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas and found the basis to make tough moral decisions to be --> OKAY
(It's clear that the researchers are studying brain scans from volunteers who were pondering ethical dilemmas.)

(C) Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers pondering ethical dilemmas and found that the basis for making tough moral decisions is --> OKAY
(It's clear that the researchers are studying brain scans from volunteers who were pondering ethical dilemmas.)

(D) Researchers studying volunteers' brain scans while pondering ethical dilemmas have found the basis to make tough moral judgments to be --> INCORRECT
(The meaning of this sentence is unclear! Who was pondering ethical dilemmas? You could make a case that the researchers are pondering ethical dilemmas, or maybe the volunteers are? If it's not 100% clear, let's eliminate it due to vagueness!)

(E) Researchers studying volunteers' brain scans while they pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is --> INCORRECT
(This is also unclear, thanks to the vague pronoun "they." WHO pondered ethical dilemmas? It's not clear at all if the pronoun "they" is referring to researchers or volunteers, so let's rule this one out too!)

We can eliminate options D & E because they include vague phrases or pronouns, which is a big no-no on the GMAT!

Now that we're left with 3 options, let's move on to #2 on the list: and found vs. have found. This is a verb issue, so let's take a look at each option with the rest of the sentence plugged in to spot the problem. To make it easier, I've also highlighted the subject of the sentence. It should be clear to you what the subject and verb are, and they should agree:

(A) Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is emotion, not logic or analytical reasoning.

This is CORRECT! It's clear that the researchers were the ones who found that the basis for making judgements is emotion, not the volunteers!

(B) Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas and found the basis to make tough moral decisions to be emotion, not logic or analytical reasoning.

This is INCORRECT because it changes the intended meaning. This sentence states that the volunteers pondered ethical dilemmas AND found the basis of making tough decision to be emotions. This isn't true - the researchers are the ones who found it!

(C) Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers pondering ethical dilemmas and found that the basis for making tough moral decisions is emotion, not logic or analytical reasoning.

This is also INCORRECT because it changes meaning. It also gives the volunteers credit for finding the basis of making tough decisions, not the researchers!

There you have it - option A was correct all along! If we focus on one problem at a time, we can narrow down the options quickly and arrive at the right answer!


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