Sentence Correction

Paleontologists believe that fragments of a primate jawbone unearthed in Burma and estimated at 40 to 44 million years old provide evidence of a crucial step along the evolutionary path that led to human beings.

(A) at 40 to 44 million years old provide evidence of

(B) as being 40 to 44 million years old provides evidence of

(C) that it is 40 to 44 million years old provides evidence of what was

(D) to be 40 to 44 million years old provide evidence of

(E) as 40 to 44 million years old provides evidence of what was

OA D

correct idiom- estimated to be
subject- fragments- plural
verb- provide - plural verb is required.

(A) at 40 to 44 million years old provide evidence of [wrong idiom]

(B) as being 40 to 44 million years old provides evidence of [multiple errors. wrong idiom. subject verb agreement error]

(C) that it is 40 to 44 million years old provides evidence of what was [multiple errors. wrong idiom. subject verb agreement error]

(D) to be 40 to 44 million years old provide evidence of [correct!]

(E) as 40 to 44 million years old provides evidence of what was [multiple errors. wrong idiom. subject verb agreement error]

hope this helps!

10 seconds

Estimated to be = correct idiom

Fragments ( plural ) ...provide ...correct S-V-Agreement form

evidence of required because the sentence after the underlined part talks about tht evidence...

Hope this helps

komal wrote:Paleontologists believe that fragments of a primate jawbone unearthed in Burma and estimated at 40 to 44 million years old provide evidence of a crucial step along the evolutionary path that led to human beings.

(A) at 40 to 44 million years old provide evidence of

(B) as being 40 to 44 million years old provides evidence of

(C) that it is 40 to 44 million years old provides evidence of what was

(D) to be 40 to 44 million years old provide evidence of

(E) as 40 to 44 million years old provides evidence of what was

OA D

IMO (D)


esstimated to be is the correct idiom here.

Guys

I want to revisit this. Can someone help me how does one determine the subject to be fragments and not jawbone

Thank you

raj22 wrote:Guys

I want to revisit this. Can someone help me how does one determine the subject to be fragments and not jawbone

Thank you

Objects of preposition can never be the subject of a sentence. Prepositional phrases are modifiers. They modify or tell something more about the subject of the sentence. Hence the object noun of a preposition can never be the subject itself.

fragments of a primate jawbone unearthed in Burma and estimated at 40 to 44 million years old provide evidence of a crucial step along the evolutionary path that led to human beings.

Here, the core of the sentence is - Fragments provide evidence. Rest all are modifiers.

of a primate jawbone is a prepositional phrase modifying the subject fragment and jawbone is the object of the preposition.

After teaching a few foreign language students, I am convinced that this is a question where it makes sense to point out that the official guide has very little to do with actual American English. And can be very inconsistent.

Looking at the sentence, we need an answer choice that is parallel around the conjunction and.

So unearthed in needs to be parallel to estimated __ followed by the correct answer choice. Ideally the correct answer choice would have a preposition after estimated.

GMAC's answer estimated to be uses an infinitive verb instead of a preposition preventing this structure from being perfectly parallel.

In the official explanation the author of the answer explains that estimated at could only be used if something was estimated at a location. For example in the sentence, John estimated the impact of the earthquake at the epicenter.

While I agree with GMAC that estimated at could be used in this form. I disagree with the point of view that this is the only correct use of it.

Estimated at is an idiom in use in professional capacity throughout the United States. Someone pointed out that an actual GMAT question uses estimated at in the portion of the sentence that is not underlined: https://www.beatthegmat.com/sc-with-surf ... 43734.html

Further HBR articles frequently contain the idiom estimated at. One example, a top result in google, can be found here: https://books.google.com/books?id=2QOlPM ... at&f=false

Given the lack of parallelism in this answer and the fact that the idiom estimated at is in common usage, I think it is important to keep in mind that GMAC is not always correct outside of GMAT world.

The test works by comparing students answer to those of people who have advanced degrees (typically master's degrees) in the subject that is being tested, who work as item writers in the same industry. If those people choose "estimated to be" over "estimated at" then that become the "correct" answer.

The problem is that what is perceived as an American idiom "estimated to be" may be an idiom that only in colloquial use within the test construction industry. Just as other professions have their own jargon, so to does the test construction industry.

What it boils down to is this, sometimes GMAC is wrong. For a learner of English as a foreign language, they really have to accept that it may not be possible to even understand all GMAT questions after reading the explanations because the explanations are not necessarily written by someone who would have the same expertise as a writer of a dictionary.

In these cases, it is best to just accept that this is an approximate exam, not a perfect exam, and to move on.

Michael, that's exactly what I was thinking. Great post. Thanks for providing the links.

as 40 to 44 million years old provide evidence
of what was

If E was what is displayed above, would it have been correct?
Cause OG says provides is incorrect , it says nothing about 'estimated as' . The above mentioned sentence seems correct to me.

The last question of the SC section of OG13 is very similar to this one and states that "have been dated at 3.47 billion years old". Why is estimated "to be" and not "at"?

estimated to be =correct idiom so D.