SC Question I've written for an interactive GMAT site

[Clele75]

Hi, beatthegmat community. I'm an independent GMAT tutor who is currently writing verbal questions for an interactive GMAT site that is going live in the next couple of weeks. My goal is to mirror the GMAC questions in terms of content, structure, difficulty etc. The question I've posted below is one of the more difficult SC questions I've written and based on my student feedback is at the 700+ level. Any community feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Ultimately, I hope that anyone taking the GMAT will benefit from the extra practice. Let me know if you guys are as well.

Thanks!


Had the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator, not suffered a series of malfunctions during its second day in operation, perhaps many of the claims it had made regarding the nature of the universe would have been tested and not left to linger about unresolved within the scientific community.

(A) during its second day in operation, perhaps many of the claims it had made regarding the nature of the universe would have been tested and not left to linger about unresolved within
(B) within its second day of operation, perhaps it would have been able to test many claims scientists had made regarding the nature of the universe and it would not have had to linger about unresolved amongst
(C) during its second day of operation, it would perhaps have been able to test scientist’s claims regarding the nature of the universe, instead of having these unresolved claims linger about
(D) within its second day of operation, perhaps it would test many claims regarding the nature of the universe and not have them left to linger about unresolved amongst
(E) during its second day of operation, it would perhaps have been able to test scientists’ claims regarding the nature of the universe, instead of having these claims linger about unresolved within

[yeloaw]

IMO E. Tough question!

[gmatshot]

It is certainly 700+ question I agree .

I took me 4 min to choose B.

The sentence is talking about 2 unreal situations. Had and would have construction.

Please Correct me if I am wrong.

[commit.gmat]

Thanks for sharing your work with this. Question does look difficult.

IMO E.

[dendude]

Yes this was a toughie.
I'm going to choose E.

Close call between A and E but then I realized that the LHC could not make a claim.

[phelps]

good question

I would eliminate C and E on the basis of " it would perhaps"...perhaps it would ..will be a better choice

D can be easily elimated..would test..we need would have been able to test

So the choice is between A and B

Option A says " claims it had made regarding the nature of the universe would have been tested "..the collider never made any claims...the scientists did..so A can be elimated

[Kunal_gmat]

I go with E too. Very long question. I think the correct idiom is "DURING it's second day OF". That eliminates A,B,D. C ends improperly...linger about....I think linger within applies better.

[yeloaw]

I go with E too. Very long question. I think the correct idiom is "DURING it's second day OF". That eliminates A,B,D. C ends improperly...linger about....I think linger within applies better.

"within its second day of operation" should be okay

[commit.gmat]

I go with E too. Very long question. I think the correct idiom is "DURING it's second day OF". That eliminates A,B,D. C ends improperly...linger about....I think linger within applies better.

"within its second day of operation" should be okay

I think that it would be okay to say

"within two days of its operation" or "within first week of its operation"

BUT to say

"within its second day of operation" would be wrong, IMO.

[rs2010]

Hi, beatthegmat community. I'm an independent GMAT tutor who is currently writing verbal questions for an interactive GMAT site that is going live in the next couple of weeks. My goal is to mirror the GMAC questions in terms of content, structure, difficulty etc. The question I've posted below is one of the more difficult SC questions I've written and based on my student feedback is at the 700+ level. Any community feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Ultimately, I hope that anyone taking the GMAT will benefit from the extra practice. Let me know if you guys are as well.

Thanks!


Had the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator, not suffered a series of malfunctions during its second day in operation, perhaps many of the claims it had made regarding the nature of the universe would have been tested and not left to linger about unresolved within the scientific community.

(A) during its second day in operation, perhaps many of the claims it had made regarding the nature of the universe would have been tested and not left to linger about unresolved within
(B) within its second day of operation, perhaps it would have been able to test many claims scientists had made regarding the nature of the universe and it would not have had to linger about unresolved amongst
(C) during its second day of operation, it would perhaps have been able to test scientist’s claims regarding the nature of the universe, instead of having these unresolved claims linger about
(D) within its second day of operation, perhaps it would test many claims regarding the nature of the universe and not have them left to linger about unresolved amongst
(E) during its second day of operation, it would perhaps have been able to test scientists’ claims regarding the nature of the universe, instead of having these claims linger about unresolved within

2-3 spilit

ACE...second had is wrong in A.
about scientific community gives wrong meaning...

E wins

[ajay_deepak]

I will go with E. What is the OA?

@gmatshot
Also, what is the antecedent of 'it' in B?

[shilpi84]

Hi, beatthegmat community. I'm an independent GMAT tutor who is currently writing verbal questions for an interactive GMAT site that is going live in the next couple of weeks. My goal is to mirror the GMAC questions in terms of content, structure, difficulty etc. The question I've posted below is one of the more difficult SC questions I've written and based on my student feedback is at the 700+ level. Any community feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Ultimately, I hope that anyone taking the GMAT will benefit from the extra practice. Let me know if you guys are as well.

Thanks!


Had the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator, not suffered a series of malfunctions during its second day in operation, perhaps many of the claims it had made regarding the nature of the universe would have been tested and not left to linger about unresolved within the scientific community.

(A) during its second day in operation, perhaps many of the claims it had made regarding the nature of the universe would have been tested and not left to linger about unresolved within
(B) within its second day of operation, perhaps it would have been able to test many claims scientists had made regarding the nature of the universe and it would not have had to linger about unresolved amongst
(C) during its second day of operation, it would perhaps have been able to test scientist’s claims regarding the nature of the universe, instead of having these unresolved claims linger about
(D) within its second day of operation, perhaps it would test many claims regarding the nature of the universe and not have them left to linger about unresolved amongst
(E) during its second day of operation, it would perhaps have been able to test scientists’ claims regarding the nature of the universe, instead of having these claims linger about unresolved within

IMO:E
A->Large Hadron Collider cannot make claims
B-> it would not have had to linger about unresolved amongst
referrent of IT is unclear.The claims are unresolved.
C->'about' at the end of sentence is wrong

[thetrystero]

Had the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator, not suffered a series of malfunctions during its second day in operation, perhaps many of the claims it had made regarding the nature of the universe would have been tested and not left to linger about unresolved within the scientific community.

(A) during its second day in operation, perhaps many of the claims it had made regarding the nature of the universe would have been tested and not left to linger about unresolved within
(B) within its second day of operation, perhaps it would have been able to test many claims scientists had made regarding the nature of the universe and it would not have had to linger about unresolved amongst
(C) during its second day of operation, it would perhaps have been able to test scientist’s claims regarding the nature of the universe, instead of having these unresolved claims linger about
(D) within its second day of operation, perhaps it would test many claims regarding the nature of the universe and not have them left to linger about unresolved amongst
(E) during its second day of operation, it would perhaps have been able to test scientists’ claims regarding the nature of the universe, instead of having these claims linger about unresolved within

A: "claims it had made". 'it' has no precedent (the LHC can't make claims since it's inanimate)
B. same as A. LHC can't do the testing
C. which scientist?
D. see B

IMO, E.

[thetrystero]

@clele75: Personally, I did not feel that this was a 700+ question. Sure, it was long, but the incorrect answer choices each had at least one very obvious flaw about it that made the answering by elimination relatively easy.


BTW, what's the url of your site?

[Clele75]

The correct answer is E.

Most of those who were correct explained their reasoning well.

One issue: regarding during vs. within, both idiomatically correct. It's in their meaning where they differ. If something happens within the second day, it doesn’t necessarily happen on the second day. For example, if you have to pay a bill within ten days, you don’t have to pay the bill on the tenth day. As long as you pay it before the end of the tenth day, you are fine.

If I'm going to keep this as a 700+ question, I may tweak a couple of answer choices so the error is not as glaring.

Thanks again!