Modifier Madness: Breaking Down a GMATPrep SC Problem
This week, were going to analyze a particularly tough GMATPrep Sentence Correction question.
First, set your timer for 1 minute and 15 seconds and try the problem!
Research has shown that when speaking, individuals who have been blind from birth and have thus never seen anyone gesture nonetheless make hand motions just as frequently and in the same way as sighted people do, and that they will gesture even when conversing with another blind person.
A) have thus never seen anyone gesture nonetheless make hand motions just as frequently and in the same way as sighted people do, and thatB) have thus never seen anyone gesture but nonetheless make hand motions just as frequently and in the same way that sighted people do, and
C) have thus never seen anyone gesture, that they nonetheless make hand motions just as frequently and in the same way as sighted people do, and
D) thus they have never seen anyone gesture, but nonetheless they make hand motions just as frequently and in the same way that sighted people do, and that
E) thus they have never seen anyone gesture nonetheless make hand motions just as frequently and in the same way that sighted people do, and
Okay, have you got your answer? Now, lets dive into this thing! What did you think when you read the original sentence?
This is a very tough problem; when I read the sentence the first time, I actually had to stop and try to strip the sentence down to its basic core, then figure out how the modifiers fit. Until I did that, I couldnt go any further.
First, we have research has shown, a subject-verb pair. Thats the start of the core. The research has shown some things. What are those things (in simple form)? In the following sentence, the words in <brackets> are my simplification of the sentence; these words do not represent the original sentence.
Research has shown THAT when speaking, <certain> individuals nonetheless make hand motions <in a certain way>, and THAT <when speaking> they will gesture <in another way>."
<certain> takes the place of who have been blind from birth and have thus never seen anyone gesture.
<in a certain way> takes the place of just as frequently and in the same way as sighted people do.
<when speaking> is implied by parallelism; this second thing is something that occurs when speaking, just as the first thing is something that occurs when speaking. This parallelism is indicated by the second instance of the word that and is reinforced by the pronoun they, which refers to the subject (individuals) of the first that clause.
<in another way> takes the place of even when conversing with another blind person.
So what weve really got is:
Research has shown THAT when speaking, <certain> individuals nonetheless make <certain> hand motions, and THAT they will gesture <in a certain way>.
Simplify that even more:
Research has shown THAT X, and THAT Y. (X and Y are parallel and are both things that the research has shown.)
In the original sentence, the main word in X is individuals and the main word in Y is they, so we already have proper parallelism.
Are the other four choices also correct just at the core level of the sentence? Part of the core is not underlined: Research has shown THAT X. We know, then, that the Y part should be introduced with another THAT (in order to indicate that these two parts, X and Y, should be parallel). Choices B, C, and E all omit the THAT in front of Y, so they are not correct.
D also uses the core structure and THAT Y, so D is okay as far as that issue is concerned. How do the rest of A and D compare? A begins have thus never seen while D begins thus they have never seen. Whats the major difference? D includes the subject they while A omits a subject. Do we want a subject here? Now we need to dive into one of the modifiers.
individuals who have been blind from birth and have thus never seen anyone gesture nonetheless make
As we discussed earlier, individuals is a subject; the matching verb is make: individuals nonetheless make <certain> hand motions. The words in between individuals and nonetheless are modifiers and because we have two separate modifiers connected by the word and, we need to make those two modifiers parallel.
Individuals who J and K nonetheless make
A: Individuals who [have been blind from birth] and [have thus never seen anyone gesture] nonetheless make
D: Individuals who [have been blind from birth] and [thus they have never seen anyone gesture], but nonetheless they make
So, are they both properly parallel? The J modifier is not part of the underline, so we know that the structure of K has to match the existing structure of J. Js main construction is a verb in the present-perfect tense, so K should have the same structure. In choice A, K does begin with a present-perfect verb, but in choice D, K beings with a noun (they). Thats not parallel. Eliminate D.
Now, were down to one answer choice. The correct answer is A.
There are other ways we could have eliminated answers. For example, choices B and D both use the phrase but nonetheless to indicate a contrast. Each word indicates a contrast by itself, so using both words together is redundant.
Theres another split between just as frequently and in the same way as and just as frequently and in the same way that. Which one is right? The word and once again indicates parallelism, so theres something parallel about the part before and the part after the and. Try each part individually.
She runs just as frequently as he skis. Thats fine. Can we say She runs just as frequently he skis? No we need that second as after the word frequently. The full phrase is just as frequently as. So thats why we have parallelism in this sentence! In the structure just as frequently and in the same way as, the second as applies to both parts (just as frequently as and in the same way as). We cant use just as frequently and in the same way than because that would leave us with either just as frequently (with no second as) or just as frequently than neither of which is correct.
The major take-aways here:
- When doing SC, first attack the errors that you know how to do and reuse your prior analysis as much as you can; you may not have to use all of the errors / differences in order to find the right answer!
- Scan SC answer choices vertically to find differences; dont read horizontally
- Know how to recognize and properly construct noun modifiers and adverbial modifiers
- Watch out for parallelism markers the markers are often little words but they can make a big difference!
* GMATPrep question courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.
Read my other SC Problem breakdown article here.