Its a 3 : 2 split

"admits" as members only women who can prove lineal descent

admit as members only women who can prove lineal descent
"admits" as members women who can prove lineal descent

only admit as members women who can prove lineal descent
"admits "as members women who can prove lineal descent only -- only is misplaced so eliminate

Left with A and C . IMO A , because only is required in this sentence so as to convey the proper meaning .


Thanks & Regards,
AIM GMAT

I agree with AIMGMAT on the correct answer, A. One important thing to point out here:

"Daughters of the American Revolution" is a tricky subject - "Daughters" is clearly a plural noun, but the organization is just one group, and logically it's not each individual daughter who does the admitting. The name of this group - expressed as a proper noun with all Capitalized Names - should at least tip you off to the fact that this could be a confusing subject; furthermore, the 3/2 split between singular/plural verbs "admits" and "admit" should let you know that singular/plural is your decision point.

The GMAT is written pretty fairly, so there's typically some extra context around a tricky subject like this one, and here the modifier "A volunteer service ORGANIZATION" is that context clue. We're stuck with the non-underlined "A" indefinite article and singular noun "organization" meaning that it is ONE organization and a singular noun. Therefore, you're required to use the singular verb "admits".

From there, the choices depend on the placement (or lack thereof) of "only". E is likely the most logical to elminate, as it doesn't logically make sense. Who could prove lineal descent "only from a patriot of the Revolution"? That would require no grandparents or parents who WERE NOT part of the Revolution, and that's impossible given that the Revolution was nearly 250 years ago. So E is illogical and therefore incorrect.

Between A and C, as AIM GMAT mentioned, the word "only" seems to be necessary to have a truly logical meaning here. The group name is "Daughters of the American Revolution", which would indicate that the group is specifically for descendants of patriots, and without the word "only" the sentence doesn't really say much...sure, it may accept such descendants as members but if there aren't any restrictions (only those people; only American citizens; only somebody) then we really haven't learned much about this group. Between A and C, A has the more logical meaning.

Sorry for late reply.

OA is A.

thanks fnds