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Neanderthals

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by snehasish » Wed Nov 02, 2011 9:42 am
(A)
Neanderthals didn't live in Africa, which is why sub-Saharan African populations have no trace of Neanderthal DNA, but other populations share DNA with Neanderthals, as discovered by a paleogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany that sequenced the Neanderthal genome.
-> WHICH must be preceded by a noun, not by a clause = Modifier issue
-> a paleogeneticist.....Germany that sequenced... = Weird


(B)
Having sequenced the Neanderthal genome, a paleogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany has concluded that any human whose ancestral group developed outside Africa has inherited DNA from Neanderthals; since Neanderthals didn't live in Africa, sub-Saharan African populations have no trace of Neanderthal DNA.
-> Maintains perfect S-V agreement and retains the authors meaning. (CORRECT)

(C)
Neanderthals didn't live in Africa, which is why sub-Saharan African populations have no trace of Neanderthal DNA, but a paleogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany who sequenced the Neanderthal genome has concluded that other humans share DNA with Neanderthals.
-> WHICH must be preceded by a noun, not by a clause = Modifier issue
-> a paleogeneticist....in Germany who... = Modifier problem(Looks like a misplaced modifier)

(D)
After sequencing the Neanderthal genome, the Max Planck Institute in Germany where a paleogeneticist researched the Neanderthal-human link, has concluded that any human whose ancestral group developed outside Africa has inherited DNA from Neanderthals; since Neanderthals didn't live in Africa, sub-Saharan African populations have no trace of Neanderthal DNA.

-> Meaning issue (It is the paleogeneticist who has concluded, not the Max Planck Institute(Subject))

(E)
The sequencing of the Neanderthal genome by a paleogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany has led to the conclusion that humans whose ancestral group developed outside Africa has inherited DNA from Neanderthals and sub-Saharan Africans have no trace of Neanderthal DNA due to Neanderthals not living in Africa.
-> Meaning issue ("Sequencing" is used as a noun replacement, so it seems to be "the sequencing...has led to the conclusion..." which is illogical. It is the paleogeneticist who has concluded)
-> S-V agreement issue (humans ... has inherited)

Overall i took 1.34 min. I'm getting close slowly.
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by immaculatesahai » Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:08 am
Please see the attachment
Attachments
SC BTG.JPG
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by surmilsehgal » Fri Aug 10, 2012 8:00 am
answer is B
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by thevenus » Tue Aug 28, 2012 2:02 am
interesting question, i chose (b) because i found it simpler and crisp.Having is correctly used, since is intended to mean/clarify a reason
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by rajeshsinghgmat » Wed Feb 20, 2013 7:18 pm
C in answer.
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by jjk3431 » Tue May 07, 2013 2:50 am
I picked B too.

Quick question, after a relativel clause, you would expect an independent clause to follow up. Right?

"After......, indepndent clause."
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by vietmoi999 » Wed May 08, 2013 7:36 am
IN D, "institute" can still sequence and D is correct also.

the focus of SC is meaning/logic and the things which are not logic on SC should be very clear. I do not like this question.
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by ndqv » Wed Oct 02, 2013 4:34 pm
A) "that sequenced ..." modifies "a palaegenetiscist", not the Institute
B) "any human whose ancestral group" is out of scope
C) Correct
D) A paleogeneticist, not "the Max Planck Institute" s not the one who discovered the fact".
E) Same with B

Choose C
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by theCodeToGMAT » Wed Oct 02, 2013 9:35 pm
ndqv wrote:A) "that sequenced ..." modifies "a palaegenetiscist", not the Institute
B) "any human whose ancestral group" is out of scope
C) Correct
D) A paleogeneticist, not "the Max Planck Institute" s not the one who discovered the fact".
E) Same with B

Choose C
It cannot be {C}.... there's a modifier mistake

Neanderthals didn't live in Africa, which is why sub-Saharan African populations have no trace of Neanderthal DNA
R A H U L
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by ndqv » Fri Nov 01, 2013 11:01 pm
now I understand why we should choose B. However, is "having sequence the Neanderthal genome" correct? Do we need a perfect tense here?
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by theCodeToGMAT » Fri Nov 01, 2013 11:12 pm
ndqv wrote:now I understand why we should choose B. However, is "having sequence the Neanderthal genome" correct? Do we need a perfect tense here?
Having sequenced the Neanderthal genome, a paleogeneticist....

Here, "Having sequenced the Neanderthal genome, a paleogeneticist" is acting as an Adjectival Modifier modifying the paleogeneticist.
R A H U L
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by nbruno » Thu Feb 26, 2015 1:12 am
IMO B
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by toby001 » Sat Oct 15, 2016 6:58 am
David@VeritasPrep wrote:Since this a Veritas Prep question I wanted to post the official explanation below.

Correct answer: (B)

Official Explanation: The original sentence contains a Modifier error. The relative clause beginning with "which" needs to describe Africa. The clause may not be used to describe the entire idea that "Neanderthals didn't live in Africa." The placement of "as discovered" allows for the inaccurate interpretation that Neanderthals were discovered by the scientist. There is another Modifier error where "That sequenced the Neanderthal genome" incorrectly modifies "the Max Planck Institute." Answer (B) is correct because it consists of two independent clauses separated by a semicolon, and "Having sequenced..." correctly modifies "a paleogeneticist." Answer (C) is incorrect because it still contains a Modifier error. The relative clause beginning with "which" needs to describe Africa. The clause may not be used to described the entire idea that "Neanderthals didn't live in Africa." Answer (D) is incorrect because it also still contains a Modifier error. "After sequencing the Neanderthal genome" should modify "a paleogeneticist" but is instead modifying "the Max Planck Institute." Answer (E) has an Agreement error and an Equivalent Elements error. The subject humans does not agree with the verb has [inherited DNA]. Elements in a series (two things were concluded) require parallel structure. The correct construction would be "the conclusion that humans......and that sub-Saharan Africans....."

Thanks David. My only reason for not choosing B, is that I thought it was too extreme by using "all", so I thought that changed the meaning of the sentence slightly. I guess this is my CR brain churning a little. I know B is still the best answer grammatically, but is this not something to worry about in SC?

Thanks!
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by Rahul428 » Sat Aug 05, 2017 2:05 am
My answer -C
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by [email protected] » Fri Sep 01, 2017 1:26 pm
Hi,

Can someone explain if the meaning in Option B is same as the intended meaning expressed in the question?

I have eliminate choice B since it states 'Any human' whereas the scope in the question statement was referring to other population.

Please clarify how we can determine the scope element in the given choice compared to the question statement.

Thanks,
Sandy
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