heymayank08 wrote:41. According to a study published by Dr. Myrna Weissman, only one percent of Americans born before 1905 had suffered major depression by the age of seventy-five; of those born since 1955, six percent had become depressed by age twenty-four.
(A) only one percent of Americans born before 1905 had suffered major depression by the age of seventy-five; of those born since 1955, six percent had become depressed by age twenty-four
(B) only one percent of Americans born before 1905 suffer major depression by the age of seventy-five; if they are born since 1955, six percent become depressed by age twenty-four
(C) of Americans born before 1905, only one percent of them have suffered major depression by age seventy-five, but six percent of those born since 1955 do by the age of twenty-four
(D) major depression is suffered by the age of seventy-five by only one percent of Americans born before 1905, and by age twenty-four by the six percent born since 1955
(E) Americans born before 1905 suffer major depression by the age of seventy-five only one percent of the time, but six percent of those born since 1955 did so by age twenty-four
plzzz help

A - do not find any issue; HAD SUFFERED & HAD BECOME shows action that happened before the study is published; there is no indication in the sentence about any other time fram/tense; THOSE refer to AMERICANS; the prep modifiers "by the age of seventy-five" correctly placed near depression and is placed in the same place as " by age twenty-four"

B - usage of IF makes it a conditional; THEY refers to AMERICANS who are born before 1905 - can the same people be born again in 1955?; usage of SUFFER is not correct tense - implies as a general practice 1% of Americans suffer from depression by 75? Is that correct? Author never says that with certainity; he/she just intends to show a fact that had happened - not '1% of americans will always suffer'; the same for BECOME

C - DO ? we do not find what DO refers to!

D - part after AND is awkward; its not independent; its not clear what the series of prep ph refers to

E - SUFFER and DID SO (SUFFER) are in different tense; this is more problematic as people born since 1955 comes after people born before 1905

Interesting question.

IMO A

A is error free among the options. B,D,E changes the meaning, C is awkward.

IMO:A

thnx patanjali

but in option D
why is it awkard isn't it following parallelism

by the age of seventy-five by only one percent of Americans born before 1905, and by age twenty-four by the six percent born since 1955

still confused!

heymayank08 wrote:thnx patanjali

but in option D
why is it awkard isn't it following parallelism

by the age of seventy-five by only one percent of Americans born before 1905, and by age twenty-four by the six percent born since 1955

still confused!

According to a study published by Dr. Myrna Weissman,major depression is suffered by the age of seventy-five by only one percent of Americans born before 1905, and by age twenty-four by the six percent born since 1955.

Lets look at: "major depression is suffered by the age of seventy-five by only one percent of Americans born before 1905" - what does 'by the age of seventy-five' refers to? Ideally it should modify "one percent of Americans" - can we can say that 'by the age of seventy-five' is modifying "one percent of Americans"?. Secondly the clause also means 'major depression is caused by one percent of Americans' when the original sentence intends to convey that 'one percent of Americans suffers from depression'.

2nd part of sentence - comma before AND suggests its an independent clause but we do not find an independent clause (what is the main subject and verb of this clause!). What is by age twenty-four by the six percent born since 1955 - do we get an answer? Is Major depression subject of this prep phrase - if that were the case we would not have COMMA before AND. Moreover, if major depression is suffered.. is the main clause of "by age twenty-four by the six percent born since 1955" then we land in the same problem as 1st part of the sentence ie 'major depression is caused by six percent...' when the original sentence intends to convey something different.

Parallelism is important but if the parallelism does not convey the intended meaning, then it is of limited use. This is the problem in D.

Hope it helps

do u mean to say that

if there were no comma before and then the sentence would be correct?

heymayank08 wrote:do u mean to say that

if there were no comma before and then the sentence would be correct?

D.
According to a study published by Dr. Myrna Weissman,major depression is suffered by the age of seventy-five by only one percent of Americans born before 1905, and by age twenty-four by the six percent born since 1955.

This implies that major depression is suffered by the age of seventy-five. But, in reality it is one percent of Americans who suffered from major depression.

Parallelism is not the criteria here.


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