BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

Subjunctive Modd - Your response to this question appreciate

This topic has expert replies
Post new topic Locked
Previous Topic Next Topic
Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2008 5:52 am
Thanked: 1 times

Subjunctive Modd - Your response to this question appreciate

by psriniva » Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:07 am
Scientists have recently received permission to research embryonic stem cells, derived from blastocytes or early-stage embryos, that they believe to be capable of generating new cell growth and curing previously incurable ailments.
1. that they believe to be capable
2. that they believe are capable
3. that they believe will be capable
4. believed as capable
5. believed to be capable.

The correct answer according to Kaplan 800 is 1.
I thought that with Subjunctive Mood questions, the verb should be "Infinitive form" of the verb minus the "to". Here the verb is "to be". So just "be would be sufficient. Right???
But, here even though "that they believe requires subjunctive, "to be" is used in the correct response.
Or may be, I should interpret the sentence as follows.
"that they believe to" + "inifinitive without the to" of the verb "to be".

Your responses are much appreciated.

Question 2. Why wouldn't choice 5 be the right answer?
Paddy Srinivas
Top
Source: — Sentence Correction |
Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2008 5:52 am
Thanked: 1 times

Subjunctive Mood - Your response much appreciated

by psriniva » Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:13 am
Scientists have recently received permission to research embryonic stem cells, derived from blastocytes or early-stage embryos, that they believe to be capable of generating new cell growth and curing previously incurable ailments.
1. that they believe to be capable
2. that they believe are capable
3. that they believe will be capable
4. believed as capable
5. believed to be capable.

The correct answer according to Kaplan 800 is 1.
I thought that with Subjunctive Mood questions, the verb should be "Infinitive form" of the verb minus the "to". Here the verb is "to be". So just "be" would be sufficient. Right???
But, here, even though "that they believe requires subjunctive, "to be" is used in the correct response.
Or may be, I should interpret the sentence as follows.
"that they believe to" + "inifinitive without the to" of the verb "to be".

Your responses are much appreciated.

Question 2. Why wouldn't choice 5 be the right answer?
Paddy Srinivas
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2007 1:28 pm

by lalitgmat » Mon Apr 28, 2008 1:33 pm
Well, only clue I feel is main verb is "have" and context is Present-tense.
Let me know.
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 51
Joined: Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:08 am
Thanked: 2 times

by abhaypratapsingh » Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:54 am
i dont see any problem with 5 either.... beilieved goes with recieved and derived ..
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2007 1:28 pm

by lalitgmat » Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:35 pm
Below is what I meant.

I have joined beatthegmat forum, this I believed to be the best for my preparation.

I have joined beatthegmat forum, this I believe to be the best for my preparation.
Top
Legendary Member
Posts: 631
Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:57 pm
Thanked: 29 times
Followed by:3 members

by netigen » Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:13 pm
Lets get the middle modifying phrase out of the picture as it's not required to understand the sentence

Scientists have recently received permission to research embryonic stem cells, that they believe to be capable of generating new cell growth and curing previously incurable ailments.

Not if we use the option 5 this will read

Scientists have recently received permission to research embryonic stem cells, believed to be capable of generating new cell growth and curing previously incurable ailments.

This sounds like cells are believing .... rather than scientists
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 68
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 4:11 pm
Thanked: 7 times

by zacharyz » Thu May 01, 2008 11:25 am
"that they believe" - Doesn't this sound like the stem cells are believing.

whereas option 5) does sound better to me. A common phrase is

"it is believed xyz by mno..." That is what option 5 is saying. It is not assumed that "it" is doing the believing but 'something' is believed to be good.

If this is from Kaplan, what do they say about 5? I think it is the best answer also.
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 94
Joined: Tue Oct 14, 2008 1:05 pm

TO BE

by simba12123 » Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:05 am
We can all agree that the gmat hates the word BEING. In regards to this, the word TO BEING is the sibling of the word BEING. Hence shouldnt this choice a be out of the picture?

In og, you can easily see that TO BE is almost always ruled out.
Advancing to be reckoned with!
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 84
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 3:53 pm
Location: Boston, MA
Thanked: 50 times
Followed by:9 members
GMAT Score:760

by canada_sms » Fri Nov 07, 2008 10:43 am
"believe to be" is idiomatic so that eliminates 2,3,4

IMO 'believe' in simple present tense is preferable to 'believed' which is passive.

Scientists once believed
vs.
Scientists believe

The sentence is trying to convey a current on-going belief so I think present tense is better.
Top
Legendary Member
Posts: 541
Joined: Thu May 31, 2007 6:44 pm
Location: UK
Thanked: 21 times
Followed by:3 members
GMAT Score:680

by rohangupta83 » Fri Nov 07, 2008 11:22 am
I believe choice 5 alters the meaning and that is why its incorrect.

The scientists believe that embryonic stem cells are capable of generating new cell growth..... so by using the pronoun ''they'' it is clear that its the scientists who believe.

If the pronoun ''they'' is not used then it is not clear who believes. Maybe its commonly believed (by everyone). This alters the original meaning of the sentence.
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3380
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 am
Thanked: 2256 times
Followed by:1535 members
GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:22 pm
rohangupta83 wrote:I believe choice 5 alters the meaning and that is why its incorrect.

The scientists believe that embryonic stem cells are capable of generating new cell growth..... so by using the pronoun ''they'' it is clear that its the scientists who believe.

If the pronoun ''they'' is not used then it is not clear who believes. Maybe its commonly believed (by everyone). This alters the original meaning of the sentence.
absolutely correct. the problem with choice (e) is that it alters the meaning of the sentence; the original sentence only declares that the scientists in question believe that the embryos are capable of X, while choice (e) changes the meaning to say that this notion is generally believed.

--
netigen wrote:This sounds like cells are believing .... rather than scientists
nope.

"believed" is a past participle; this is a passive voice construction. this makes it clear that someone else believes that they can do X, although, as noted above, this choice leaves open the issue of exactly who who believes this.

analogy:
scattered over the road surface were beer bottles, tossed out of cars during the previous night's festivities.
this sentence means, of course, that someone (not specified) tossed the beer bottles out of the cars. it clearly doesn't mean that the bottles tossed themselves out of the cars.
for the same reason, choice (e), while not the correct choice, clearly doesn't mean that the embryos believed anything.

--

finally, no subjunctive is required here. first of all, "believe" isn't even followed by a clause, so the issue is moot in the first place; second, even if "believe" is followed by a clause (which it isn't in this particular sentence), it doesn't take the subjunctive anyway: i believe that you will succeed on the test.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

--

Pueden hacerle preguntas a Ron en castellano
Potete chiedere domande a Ron in italiano
On peut poser des questions à Ron en français
Voit esittää kysymyksiä Ron:lle myös suomeksi

--

Quand on se sent bien dans un vêtement, tout peut arriver. Un bon vêtement, c'est un passeport pour le bonheur.

Yves Saint-Laurent

--

Learn more about ron
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 87
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 7:01 pm

by pink_08 » Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:41 pm
Why not B) present tense
that they believe are capable of ???

pink
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3380
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 am
Thanked: 2256 times
Followed by:1535 members
GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Mon Nov 16, 2009 1:52 am
pink_08 wrote:Why not B) present tense
that they believe are capable of ???

pink
i actually think that should be fine. there are OG problems in which the correct answers fit this sort of scheme - i can't find the problem numbers right now (i don't have my OG in front of me), but i could go look them up if necessary.

it would probably be a little better if commas were inserted, so that the comment were parenthetical - "...that, they believe, are capable of..." - but it's not wrong as is.
this is not a good problem.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

--

Pueden hacerle preguntas a Ron en castellano
Potete chiedere domande a Ron in italiano
On peut poser des questions à Ron en français
Voit esittää kysymyksiä Ron:lle myös suomeksi

--

Quand on se sent bien dans un vêtement, tout peut arriver. Un bon vêtement, c'est un passeport pour le bonheur.

Yves Saint-Laurent

--

Learn more about ron
Top
Post new topic Locked
• Page 1 of 1