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A Question from 1000 Gmat SC questions

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by [email protected] » Tue Aug 17, 2010 5:25 am
Could some one please comment on the below SC question. what is the correct ans and why?

As a result of the ground-breaking work of Barbara McClintock, many scientists now believe that all of the information encoded in 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in a human cell are contained in merely three percent of the cell's DNA.
(A) 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in a human cell are contained in merely
(B) 50,000 to 100,000 of the human cell's different genes are contained in a mere
(C) the 50,000 to 100,000 different genes found in human cells are contained in merely
(D) 50,000 to 100,000 of human cell's different genes is contained in merely
(E) the 50,000 to 100,000 different genes found in a human cell is contained in a mere
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by ashish2104 » Tue Aug 17, 2010 6:10 am
I wil go with E.

Information is singular hence vern should be 'is' and not 'are'.
Eliminate A,B,C

In D, human cell's genes, somehow feels odd.
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by Tani » Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:05 am
It's E.
D would need "a" in front of "human cell's" to indicate that we are talking about a single cell.
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by madhukumar_v » Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:13 am
1. Modifier : merely (Adverb) cannot modify noun (three percent of the cell's DNA)
mere (Adjective) can modify a noun (DNA)
also "in a mere" is kind of Idiom

2. Subject: All of the information (ALL- SANAM - anything that comes after all is the subject), here information is the subject, its singular, so need singular verb "is" not "are"

3. I dont remember but there is a distinction between "the 50,000 to 100,000" and "50,000 to 100,000" the "the" changes the meaning- Can some expert comment on that difference please.

Based on 1 and 2, I have E.
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by Tani » Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:20 am
"The 50,000 to 100,000" implies that that is the total number of genes in the cell.
""50,000 to 100,000" refers to a specific subset of all the cells. The total could be much larger.
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by mundasingh123 » Tue Aug 17, 2010 11:28 pm
Tani Wolff - Kaplan wrote:"The 50,000 to 100,000" implies that that is the total number of genes in the cell.
""50,000 to 100,000" refers to a specific subset of all the cells. The total could be much larger.
By choosing option E, arent we distorting the meaning of the original sentence.
Hi Tani can you please clarify why have you rejected B.
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by Tani » Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:00 am
The original meaning is unclear because of the grammar. The reference to 3% suggests to me that we are talking about 3% of the cell total, not 3% of some subsection. What is the OA?
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by ankurmit » Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:29 am
I will go with E.

information is singular.

'Is" is required so eliminate A,B,C

D seems clumsy
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by mundasingh123 » Thu Aug 19, 2010 3:58 am
Tani Wolff - Kaplan wrote:The original meaning is unclear because of the grammar. The reference to 3% suggests to me that we are talking about 3% of the cell total, not 3% of some subsection. What is the OA?
Hi Tani,
as you said

"The 50,000 to 100,000" implies that that is the total number of genes in the cell.
""50,000 to 100,000" refers to a specific subset of all the cells. The total could be much larger.
_________________

How can we assume that the original sentence wanted to speak about the "the 50000" and not "50000" only.
What i want to say is on the basis of what are we assuming that the original sentence meant to tal about the information contained in the total gene population and not 50000 of the total gene population.
Please clarify .
Thanks a lot
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by Tani » Thu Aug 19, 2010 6:46 am
as stated earlier "50,000 to 100,000 of human cell's" is incorrect. It would have to be "50,000 to 100,000 of a human cell's".
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