THAT vs WHICH

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Dean Jones: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 239; Joined: Thu Oct 28, 2010 8:40 amFollowed by: 2 members; Location: India; Thanked: 5 times; GMAT Score:690

by Dean Jones » Sun Dec 18, 2011 6:48 am

Dear Friends,

I was having problems in answering the following question.

As a result of a supernova explosion, every human being on Earth was bombarded on February 23, 1987, by about 100 billion neutrinos; fortunately, neutrinos are harmless elementary particles that are produced in nuclear reactions and that interact very weakly with matter.

(A) neutrinos are harmless elementary particles that are produced in nuclear reactions and that
(B) neutrinos, which are harmless, are elementary particles produced in nuclear reactions and which
(C) neutrinos are harmless elementary particles produced in nuclear reactions and which
(D) these harmless elementary particles are produced in nuclear reactions, and neutrinos
(E) these elementary particles, harmless products of nuclear reactions, are neutrinos that

Please help.

OA after some discussions.

My choice was option B

Regards
Deano.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun Dec 18, 2011 6:48 am

GmatVerbal: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 138; Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2009 10:07 amFollowed by: 3 members; Thanked: 19 times

by GmatVerbal » Sun Dec 18, 2011 8:33 am

IMO - E; links the particles in the previous sentence to neutrinos properly.

A,B,C,D-- the link between the particles and the neutrinos is not established properly.

B, C - not sure which is modifying which noun? probably neutrinos? A parallel structure for 'and' is required to understand;
which are produced ... and which interact..;

------------
On the second look (E) doesn't make sense;

As a result of a supernova explosion, every human being on Earth was bombarded on February 23, 1987, by about 100 billion neutrinos; fortunately, these elementary particles, harmless products of nuclear reactions, are neutrinos that interact very weakly with matter.

In the first sentence neutrinos are already introduced and it is awkward to say these particles are neutrinos;
For some reason I read the first sentence as 100 billion particles; I must have been smoking pot.

A - makes more sense;

Last edited by GmatVerbal on Thu Dec 22, 2011 9:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

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LeoBen: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 32; Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:41 am; Thanked: 2 times

by LeoBen » Thu Dec 22, 2011 7:53 am

IMHO - A

that makes correct ref to ele...cles and they are key for the sentence meaning about those elements being harmless and other info.

"Which" is used when the modifying phrase can be done without.

"That" is used when the modifying phrase canNOT be done without.

Pls correct me - if I am wrong.

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user123321: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 385; Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:02 pmFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 62 times

by user123321 » Thu Dec 22, 2011 8:46 am

IMO A
we should n't use ",which are harmless" as this makes this modifier optional
based on first statement(people are bombarded with hell lot of neutrinos), the second statement should convey something like...fortunately, neutrinos are harmless and so on as main point.

user123321

Just started my preparation

Want to do it right the first time.

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aspirant2011: Legendary Member; Posts: 1574; Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:52 amFollowed by: 13 members; Thanked: 88 times

by aspirant2011 » Thu Dec 22, 2011 9:25 am

It should be none other than A because A keeps the sentence simple and maintains parallelism.......

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Dean Jones: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 239; Joined: Thu Oct 28, 2010 8:40 amFollowed by: 2 members; Location: India; Thanked: 5 times; GMAT Score:690

by Dean Jones » Fri Dec 23, 2011 4:02 am

OA is option A. I was wondering whether those would be the right word to use instead of that as we are dealing with plurals here.[/spoiler]

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neophytehemant: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 4; Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 3:38 pm

by neophytehemant » Sat Dec 24, 2011 10:26 am

I will go with A....

Just to comment on the above post, we cannot use 'those' because those will make statement specific to subset of neutrons but the statement is applicable for all the neutrons.

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scorebeater: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 11; Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 11:47 am; Thanked: 2 times

by scorebeater » Sat Dec 24, 2011 11:41 am

Dean Jones wrote:Dear Friends,

I was having problems in answering the following question.

As a result of a supernova explosion, every human being on Earth was bombarded on February 23, 1987, by about 100 billion neutrinos; fortunately, neutrinos are harmless elementary particles that are produced in nuclear reactions and that interact very weakly with matter.

(A) neutrinos are harmless elementary particles that are produced in nuclear reactions and that
(B) neutrinos, which are harmless, are elementary particles produced in nuclear reactions and which
(C) neutrinos are harmless elementary particles produced in nuclear reactions and which
(D) these harmless elementary particles are produced in nuclear reactions, and neutrinos
(E) these elementary particles, harmless products of nuclear reactions, are neutrinos that

Please help.

OA after some discussions.

My choice was option B

Regards
Deano.

XX and which is not correct.

Learn the use of which clearly.

--> b]COMMA + Which[/b]is correct in GMAT land specially.
Example:
I have bought a pen, which is costly.
In case of "preposition + Which",GMAT does not use COMMA before Which.
Example:
I know the river in which different types of fish are available.

==> Eliminate the options B and C since they have used "and which".

Usually, we use NOUN first, then we use Pronoun to refer back to the NOUN that we have used first.

Example:
Karim is my best friend, and he likes me very much.
-> NOUN=Karim Pronoun=he.

Look at the options D and E; they have both used pronoun first and NOUN at last.

These particles--------Neutrinos.

Answer is A.

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maisatomai: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 25; Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2011 5:35 am

by maisatomai » Sat Dec 24, 2011 5:32 pm

If there is a common before the stem, we will have to use which rather than that

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