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Teratomas cancer

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by kobel51 » Sat Mar 08, 2014 1:47 pm
Teratomas are unusual forms of cancer because they are composed of tissues such as tooth and bone not normally found in the organ in which the tumor appears.

(A) because they are composed of tissues such as tooth and bone

(B) because they are composed of tissues like tooth and bone that are

(C) because they are composed of tissues, like tooth and bone, tissues

(D) in that their composition, tissues such as tooth and bone, is

(E) in that they are composed of tissues such as tooth and bone, tissues
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

by Patrick_GMATFix » Sat Mar 08, 2014 2:02 pm
The answer is E. I go through the question in detail in the full solution below (taken from the GMATFix App).

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by theCodeToGMAT » Sun Mar 09, 2014 12:00 am
{A} INCORRECT; meaning issue - Teratomas are not the forms of cancer because of their composition
{B} INCORRECT; meaning issue - Teratomas are not the forms of cancer because of their composition; usage of "like" is incorrect
{C} INCORRECT; meaning issue - Teratomas are not the forms of cancer because of their composition; usage of "like" is incorrect
{D} INCORRECT; meaning issue the subject of "is" should have been tissues & not composition
{E} CORRECT;
R A H U L
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by GMATGuruNY » Sun Mar 09, 2014 12:56 pm
Teratomas are unusual forms of cancer because they are composed of tissues such as tooth and bone not normally found in the organ in which the tumor appears.

(A) because they are composed of tissues such as tooth and bone
(B) because they are composed of tissues like tooth and bone that are
(C) because they are composed of tissues, like tooth and bone, tissues
(D) in that their composition, tissues such as tooth and bone, is
(E) in that they are composed of tissues such as tooth and bone, tissues
In B and C, like cannot serve to introduce examples (in this case, tooth and bone).
To introduce examples, we typically use such as.
Eliminate B and C.

In A, not normally found in the organ seems to be modifying tooth and bone.
The intended meaning is that the TISSUES are not normally found in the organ; tooth and bone are merely EXAMPLES of these tissues.
Eliminate A.

In D, tissues is in apposition to composition.
Nouns in apposition must refer to the EXACT SAME THING, but tissues is not the same thing as composition.
Eliminate D.

The correct answer is E.

Note the following:
The purpose of in that is to introduce the particular WAY in which something is true.
In the SC above, teratomas are unusual IN ONE PARTICULAR WAY: IN THAT they are composed of tissues such as tooth and bone.

The distinction between because and in that is another reason to eliminate answer choices here.
The relationship expressed by the SC above is not causal.
The composition of teratomas is not CAUSING them to be unusual; the tooth and bone that compose teratomas are simply the WAY in which these forms of cancer are unusual.
Hence, in A, B and C, because does not convey the intended meaning.
Eliminate A, B and C.
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by feedrom » Mon Mar 10, 2014 7:18 am
GMATGuruNY wrote:
Note the following:
The purpose of in that is to introduce the particular WAY in which something is true.
In the SC above, teratomas are unusual IN ONE PARTICULAR WAY: IN THAT they are composed of tissues such as tooth and bone.

The distinction between because and in that is another reason to eliminate answer choices here.
The relationship expressed by the SC above is not causal.
The composition of teratomas is not CAUSING them to be unusual; the tooth and bone that compose teratomas are simply the WAY in which these forms of cancer are unusual.
Awesome explanation! Thanks Guru!
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by [email protected] » Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:46 pm
Hey!
In option "E" there is COMMA SPLICE ERROR.
Am I wrong?
Do reply!

Regards,
Mukherjee
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by GMATGuruNY » Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:33 am
[email protected] wrote:Hey!
In option "E" there is COMMA SPLICE ERROR.
Am I wrong?
Do reply!

Regards,
Mukherjee
A COMMA SPLICE occurs when two complete sentences are connected solely by a comma.
E does not exhibit this error.
E: Teratomas are unusual forms of cancer in that they are composed of tissues such as tooth and bone, tissues not normally found in the organ in which the tumor appears.
The red portion that follows the comma lacks a verb and thus does not constitute a complete sentence.
Note that not normally found serves not as a verb but as an ADJECTIVE describing tissues.
What KIND of tissues?
Tissues NOT NORMALLY FOUND in the organ.
The phrase in red is called a RESUMPTIVE MODIFIER.
A resumptive modifier:

-- repeats a key word in the sentence
-- is composed of REPEATED WORD + ADJECTIVE
-- serves to provide additional information about the repeated word
-- usually appears at the end of a sentence.

For another example of a resumptive modifier. check here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/wasps-t38234.html
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by aflaam » Thu Jan 28, 2016 6:38 am
Hi Mitch,
Is that true GMAC prefer in that to because whenever there is a split?
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by GMATGuruNY » Fri Jan 29, 2016 2:04 am
aflaam wrote:Hi Mitch,
Is that true GMAC prefer in that to because whenever there is a split?
I cannot provide sufficient evidence to support this claim.
Moreover, the OE for SC60 in the OG15 states the following:
"In that" is stilted and overly formal.
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by ngk4mba3236 » Sat Jan 28, 2017 4:29 am
gmatguru,
is this an Official SC ? if yes, then I think, with reference to your last post above, doesn't it seem to be contradicting in terms of GMAT's stand in using "in that" in an OA of GMAT SC ?

as for the meaning in A, if we consider it as follows: tooth and bone are merely examples of the types of tissues that the Teratomas are composed of. hence, the modifier "not normally found in the organ in which the tumor appears" being close to "tooth and bone" actually refers to the "tissues" because "tooth and bone" is simply a subset of such tissues.

why will this interpretation be incorrect ?
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by GMATGuruNY » Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:03 am
ngk4mba3236 wrote:gmatguru,
is this an Official SC ?
Yes:
SC208 in the OG10.
if yes, then I think, with reference to your last post above, doesn't it seem to be contradicting in terms of GMAT's stand in using "in that" in an OA of GMAT SC ?
The OE to SC60 in the OG15 does state that in that has no valid usage.
Since the OA to SC208 in the OG10 includes the usage of in that, do not eliminate an answer choice simply because it includes this phrase.
as for the meaning in A, if we consider it as follows: tooth and bone are merely examples of the types of tissues that the Teratomas are composed of. hence, the modifier "not normally found in the organ in which the tumor appears" being close to "tooth and bone" actually refers to the "tissues" because "tooth and bone" is simply a subset of such tissues.

why will this interpretation be incorrect ?
An answer choice that allows for more than one logical interpretation is incorrect.
In A, not found could logically serve to modify bone or tissues.
Since A allows for more than one logical interpretation -- whereas E makes the intended meaning crystal clear -- eliminate A and choose E.
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by ngk4mba3236 » Sun Feb 05, 2017 10:40 am
GMATGuruNY wrote:
as for the meaning in A, if we consider it as follows: tooth and bone are merely examples of the types of tissues that the Teratomas are composed of. hence, the modifier "not normally found in the organ in which the tumor appears" being close to "tooth and bone" actually refers back to the "tissues" because "tooth and bone" is simply a subset of such tissues.

why will this interpretation be incorrect ?
An answer choice that allows for more than one logical interpretation is incorrect.
In A, not found could logically serve to modify bone or tissues.
Since A allows for more than one logical interpretation -- whereas E makes the intended meaning crystal clear -- eliminate A and choose E.
gmatguru,
get your point as mentioned above. but can you please clarify whether my above reasoning is correct ? if not, why so ?
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by ngk4mba3236 » Thu Apr 27, 2017 9:58 am
gmatguru,
any update on my above post ?

thank you!
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by GMATGuruNY » Thu Apr 27, 2017 2:09 pm
ngk4mba3236 wrote:
GMATGuruNY wrote:
as for the meaning in A, if we consider it as follows: tooth and bone are merely examples of the types of tissues that the Teratomas are composed of. hence, the modifier "not normally found in the organ in which the tumor appears" being close to "tooth and bone" actually refers back to the "tissues" because "tooth and bone" is simply a subset of such tissues.

why will this interpretation be incorrect ?
Generally, a modifier should be AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE to what it modifies.
A: They are composed of tissues such as tooth and bone not normally found in the organ in which the tumor appears.
Since a modifier should be as close as possible to what it modifies, the adjective in blue should refer to the NEAREST PRECEDING NOUN OR NOUN PHRASE that yields a logical meaning.
The noun phrase that most closely precedes the adjective in blue is tooth and bone.
It is certainly logical to refer to tooth and bone not normally found in the organ.
Thus, the DEFAULT interpretation should be that the modifier in blue serves to modify tooth and bone -- the nearest preceding noun phrase that yields a logical meaning.

But in referring to tooth and bone not normally found in the organ, option A distorts the intended meaning.
The intended meaning is that TISSUES are not normally found in the organ and that tooth and bone are merely EXAMPLES of these tissues.

OA: They are composed of tissues such as tooth and bone, tissues not normally found in the organ in which the tumor appears.
Here, it is crystal clear that the adjective in blue serves to modify not tooth and bone but tissues.
Since E makes the intended meaning crystal clear and is free of errors, eliminate A and choose E.
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by ngk4mba3236 » Thu Apr 27, 2017 10:53 pm
so, basically it boils down to what you said earlier (TWO LOGICAL INTERPRETATIONS of an answer choice lead to ambiguity) -
GMATGuruNY wrote:An answer choice that allows for more than one logical interpretation is incorrect.
In A, not found could logically serve to modify bone or tissues.
Since A allows for more than one logical interpretation -- whereas E makes the intended meaning crystal clear -- eliminate A and choose E.
right ?

p.s: however, the second interpretation, which is deemed correct over the other, seems to be by some brute force as GMAT has deemed it correct!
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