While recognizing that lying often facilities

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While recognizing that lying often facilities social interactions, psychiatrists are seeing to determine when they become destructive and which kinds of mental problems they can signal.

A) they become destructive and which kinds of mental problems they can signal

B) they become destructive and the mental problems that are signaled by them

C) it becomes destructive and what are the kinds of mental problems they signal

D) it becomes destructive and the mental problems that are signaled by it

E) it becomes destructive and which kinds of mental problems it can signal

OAE

Please explain.

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by MartyMurray » Fri Feb 24, 2017 12:39 pm
rsarashi wrote:Please explain.
.

This question is largely based on pronoun agreement flaws.

(A) In the original version, "they" has no logical antecedent. The sentence is about "lying", but "lying" is singular, and so "they" cannot refer to it. You might mistakenly choose this choice if you were to assume that "they" must refer to the lies one tells when lying, but "lies" does not actually appear in the sentence. So "they" has nothing logical to refer to, as common sense tells us that "social actions" not what become destructive and are not what signal mental problems.

(B) This choice uses "they" and "them" without a logical antecedent for either pronoun.

(C) In this choice, "it" could logically refer to "lying", but "they", which appears later in the choice, has no logical antecedent.

(D) This choice is closer to correct. The two "it"s can both refer to "lying". At the same time, the second part of the choice does not really work with the non-underlined portion of the sentence, as you can see by putting the parts together.

psychiatrists are seeking to determine ... the mental problems that are signaled by it.

It does not make sense to say that the psychiatrists are seeking to determine the problems. What we really need is something along the lines of

psychiatrists are seeking to determine which problems

or

psychiatrists are seeking to determine what kinds of problems


(E) This choice works. The two "it"s clearly refer to "lying", and all parts of the choice work with the non-underlined portion of the sentence.

The correct answer is E.
Last edited by MartyMurray on Sat Feb 25, 2017 12:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by rsarashi » Sat Feb 25, 2017 9:44 am
psychiatrists are seeking to determine which problems

or

psychiatrists are seeking to determine what kinds of problems

Hi Marty ,

Thank you so much for your explanation.

Can you please explain that what is the actual difference between WHICH PROBLEMS and WHAT KINDS OF PROBLEMS?

Thanks.

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by MartyMurray » Sat Feb 25, 2017 12:16 pm
rsarashi wrote:
psychiatrists are seeking to determine which problems

or

psychiatrists are seeking to determine what kinds of problems

Hi Marty ,

Thank you so much for your explanation.

Can you please explain that what is the actual difference between WHICH PROBLEMS and WHAT KINDS OF PROBLEMS?

Thanks.
Psychiatrists are seeking to determine which problems it can signal. - This means that the psychiatrists are seeking to determine out of an already known group or set of problems which problems lying is associated with.

If there were are a hundred different known mental problems, the psychiatrists would be seeking to determine which of out of the hundred are associated with lying.

Psychiatrists are seeking to determine what kinds of problems it can signal - This means that the psychiatrists are seeking to determine what types of problems lying can signal.

These types could be types already known to the psychiatrists, or they could be types the psychiatrists had not before been aware of.
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