Sentence Correction

179. Biologists believe that they have found one of the substances that tell individual genes both when to become active and when to remain quiescent in the earliest phases of an embryo’s development.

(A) tell individual genes both when to become active and when to remain
(B) tell individual genes both at which time they should become active or should remain
(C) tells individual genes both when to become active or remain
(D) tells individual genes both when to become active or when to remain
(E) will tell an individual gene both about when it should become active and remain

Can you specify the answer pls.

my thoughts -
A) 'one of the substances' is singular - so 'that tell' is wrong
B) same as A
C) corrects 'that tells' But ignores parallelism - both X and Y
D) corrects 'that tells' and parallelism..my bet
E) changes tense

thoughts?? corrections?

Hey ranji...

I'm a bit confused. I am looking at the answer choices and none of them look right to me. Is there a typo in one of the answer choices you posted? In D, perhaps. D would be right (and I would be agreeing with you) if it didn't change 'when to become active and' to 'when to become activeor'.

Of course... the source is 1000 SC, and there are a lot of bad questions in that one (I think), so it may just be a dud.

My pick is D.
we need "tells" coz its only "one of the substances"

My short list of answers would be A and E.

Because Both X and Y makes sense, not Both X or Y.
E is a wordy statement and also will tell a gene changes the meaning.

So A is the answer.

" one of nounS that" requires plural verb in "that clause", A is correct, E is not parallel

179. Biologists believe that they have found one of the substances that tell individual genes both when to become active and when to remain quiescent in the earliest phases of an embryo’s development.

(A) tell individual genes both when to become active and when to remain
(B) tell individual genes both at which time they should become active or should remain
(C) tells individual genes both when to become active or remain
(D) tells individual genes both when to become active or when to remain
(E) will tell an individual gene both about when it should become active and remain

one of the substance that V (plural V->tell)
both A and B must be parallel
answer A[/b]

rahulakacyrus wrote:My short list of answers would be A and E.

Because Both X and Y makes sense, not Both X or Y.
E is a wordy statement and also will tell a gene changes the meaning.

So A is the answer.

Yes A has to be the answer.
Both X and Y makes more sense that Both X or Y.
Also E is wordy!!

ranji wrote: A) 'one of the substances' is singular - so 'that tell' is wrong
B) same as A
C) corrects 'that tells' But ignores parallelism - both X and Y
D) corrects 'that tells' and parallelism..my bet
E) changes tense

thoughts?? corrections?

Ranji, One of the substances is plural. The sentence talks about one of the substances that tell the genes.