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Biologists have encountered a new species of giant squid..

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by nanz236 » Sun Jul 21, 2013 5:41 pm
I got this question on Kaplan's test

Biologists have encountered a new species of giant squid, one that they believe is a type heretofore unknown to science.

a) that they believe is
b) that they believe it to be
c) they believe it is of
d) they believe that is
e) they believe to be of

I find one of the explanations slightly confusing, could any Kaplan instructors pls clarify

Choice A and B are incorrct because : Neither of these constructions is particularly bothersome to the ear, but remember the GMAT wants us to be efficient in our word choices - that is, we should use as few words as needed to get our point across. Thus, we eliminate choices (A) and (B).

Choice E is correct : although it has five words to convey the point ("they believe to be of") while the original only has four

I am confused. Could you pls explain a reason for eliminating A, is it really a wrong construction and what can I take away from that wrong answer.

thanks in advance!
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by [email protected] » Sun Jul 21, 2013 8:24 pm
Hi nanz236,

While the explanation that you read is trying to make the point that "shorter tends to be better", it doesn't sound as though the writer made the point correctly.

Answers A and B start off with the word "that", which isn't necessary in this sentence. The "extra word" should be removed.

From there, the last part of the sentence is built on the idiom "believe....to be", which makes E the correct answer (and gives you another reason to eliminate answer A).

The way to interpret the "shorter tends to be better" rule is this....."assuming the rules of grammar have been followed, the shorter answer tends to be the correct one."

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by hemant_rajput » Tue Jul 23, 2013 7:08 am
always try to understand the meaning of the sentence because this will only guide you about the usage of preposition, idiom,etc.

Now here biologist came across a new species and this species is a of unknown type. Try to understand this very gist of the sentence. species itself is not a type but of some type, so you need of to show the relation( preposition ).

now only c and e have preposition . All other options are saying that species itself is a type which is absurd logically.

now between c and e, in option c it doesn't has any referent. Correct answer is e.

I would suggest stop eliminating the choices because they are short or sound awkward to ear. Even the awkward sentences has the grammatical or logical error in them one should learn to identify.

Hope this helps.

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