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134. Canadian scientists have calculated

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134. Canadian scientists have calculated

by rajibgmat » Sat Nov 29, 2008 6:35 pm
134. Canadian scientists have calculated that one human being should be struck every nine years by a meteorite,
while each year sixteen buildings can be expected to sustain damage from such objects.
(A) one human being should be struck every nine years by a meteorite
(B) a human being should be struck by a meteorite once in every nine years
(C) a meteorite will strike one human being once in every nine years
(D) every nine years a human being will be struck by a meteorite
(E) every nine years a human being should be struck by a meteorite

OA is D, but is'nt it Passive. I choose C. Please show me where I am wrong.
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by vittalgmat » Sun Nov 30, 2008 2:03 am
Let me try. Others pls feel free to critique as necessary.

C) a meteorite will strike one human being once in every nine years


"strike ONE human being ONCE IN EVERY nine years" is very ackward.

"ONCE IN EVERY" is not correct usage. "ONCE EVERY" is better.

Also the ONE can be replaced with 'a'.


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by karmayogi » Sun Nov 30, 2008 2:45 am
When we talk about future, willis used when the event is definitely going to happen. Now, how we can certainly say that "every nine years a human being will be struck by a meteorite"? In addition, can be expected in second part is not definite.

On parallelism front, ya, I agree with D.
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Should vs Will

by Baldini » Thu Apr 09, 2009 1:37 am
I just came across this question and the OA has left me slightly perturbed. When I conceive a “calculation” I can not always associate an absolute certainty that it will happen (as yogikarma correctly says). In this example the word “will” would imply an absolute certainty about the calculation's prediction for the first part of the sentence, yet this is put into doubt by the second part of the phrase where it says that “…16 buildings can be expected to sustain damage…”.

Thus for this reason, I immediately excluded C and D, and eventually chose E.

However the book’s explanation for the OA is “…should suggests that a person ought to be struck, rather than that a person will be.” Really?

Could someone please tell me if my logic and understanding of the word “should” is incorrect, or if there is another reason for which OA E is incorrect as a choice?

Many thanks in advance
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by gmat740 » Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:14 am
Canadian scientists have calculated that one human being should be struck every nine years by a meteorite,
while each year sixteen buildings can be expected to sustain damage from such objects.
The Bold Parts have to Parallel

X while Y

Canadian scientists have calculated that (D) every nine years a human being will be struck by a meteorite
while each year sixteen buildings can be expected to sustain damage from such objects


Look out for the parallelism

Also we use "will"instead of "should" because we don't know whether this event will definitely happen or not

Hope this clears all your doubts
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by aj5105 » Thu Jun 04, 2009 4:43 am
'Every nine years is an approximation

+

will be struck is free of the unintended connotations of should be struck'


[D]
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by hemanth28 » Tue Aug 18, 2009 11:19 am
even i fail to understand what is the subtle ( may be crystal clear) difference between "will" and "should" Would someone please explain with a suitable examples.

Parallelism makes sense b/w X and Y for the idiom X while Y.

but i see that D is passive... does this mean that Parallelism takes precedence over Passive ?
Last edited by hemanth28 on Tue Aug 18, 2009 11:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 134. Canadian scientists have calculated

by shahdevine » Tue Aug 18, 2009 11:29 am
rajibgmat wrote:134. Canadian scientists have calculated that one human being should be struck every nine years by a meteorite,
while each year sixteen buildings can be expected to sustain damage from such objects.
(A) one human being should be struck every nine years by a meteorite
(B) a human being should be struck by a meteorite once in every nine years
(C) a meteorite will strike one human being once in every nine years
(D) every nine years a human being will be struck by a meteorite
(E) every nine years a human being should be struck by a meteorite

OA is D, but is'nt it Passive. I choose C. Please show me where I am wrong.
passivity(which is a 'form' concern) is secondary to parelellism(which is a grammatical concern). human being and buildings are the objects being acted upon.
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by varundaga05 » Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:47 pm
Still not clear

Can someone explain the difference between

Should vs Will
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by sumanr84 » Wed Jun 23, 2010 12:11 am
rajibgmat wrote:134. Canadian scientists have calculated that one human being should be struck every nine years by a meteorite,
while each year sixteen buildings can be expected to sustain damage from such objects.
(A) one human being should be struck every nine years by a meteorite
(B) a human being should be struck by a meteorite once in every nine years
(C) a meteorite will strike one human being once in every nine years
(D) every nine years a human being will be struck by a meteorite
(E) every nine years a human being should be struck by a meteorite

OA is D, but is'nt it Passive. I choose C. Please show me where I am wrong.
This is how I go about this one.
"Should" usage is absurd. Is it mandatory that a human being has to be strike--NO..so eliminate A,B and E
C changes the meaning. Original sentence says " every nine years" but C says "once in every nine years" meaning any time during that 9 year period. D conveys correct meaning that every nine year that cycle will repeat ( not in between).
Also, "one human being" is little awkward with respect to " a human being".
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by Verbal Guru » Wed Jun 23, 2010 3:51 am
varundaga05 wrote:Still not clear

Can someone explain the difference between

Should vs Will

Should is similar to suggest. For eg: I suggest you come to class on time or I think you should come to class on time. Hence 'should' is used when you want something to happen (you obviously don't want a human to be struck every nine years)

Will is basically the future tense used to represent something that is going to happen in the future (doesn't matter whether it eventually happens or not). For eg: I predict Argentina will win the World Cup and NOT I predict Argentina should win the World Cup .

It's possible that Argentina does not win the world cup but my prediction will always use 'will' since I am not suggesting that Argentina win the world cup.

In a nutshell use 'should' to imply 'suggest' and use 'will' when implying the 'future' tense

Hope this makes things a little more clear.

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by YellowSapphire » Thu Jul 29, 2010 5:06 am
Yes

D is fine but Do you think will or would is OK.

I would say that would is better that will.
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by Pdgmat2010 » Sun Aug 22, 2010 5:55 am
would is not correct as the main verb of the sentence is in present perfect tense ' have calculated'

to indicate future from the past's perspective <had collected > would can be used to indicate a future possibility.
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