Sentence Correction

Besides adding complementary flavors to many foods, hot sauces stimulate the release of endorphins in the brain, just as exercise does, and these have a pain-relieving effect like morphine's.
(A) hot sauces stimulate the release of endorphins in the brain, just as exercise does, and these have a painrelieving effect like morphine's
(B) hot sauces stimulate the release of endorphins in the brain, like exercise, and they have a pain-relieving effect that is like morphine
(C) hot sauces and exercise both stimulate the release of endorphins in the brain, and they have a pain-relieving effect like morphine
(D) the release of endorphins in the brain is stimulated both by hot sauces and exercise, and they have a painrelieving effect like morphine's
(E) the release of endorphins in the brain is stimulated by hot sauces, just as with exercise, and these have a painrelieving effect like that of morphine

Hi,
'hot sauces' should be subject. So, C,D,E are out.
C - The subject is 'hot sauces and exercise'.
B - effect is compared with morphine (faulty comparison)

Hence, A

IMO B
Besides adding... many foods is modifier which modifies hot sauce
Thus hot sauce should follow this and D,E are rejected.
c) hot sauces and exercise is incorrect.

It is A for me, "like" exercise in B seems not okay

IMO A

(A) hot sauces stimulate the release of endorphins in the brain, just as exercise does, and these have a painrelieving effect like morphine's
(B) hot sauces stimulate the release of endorphins in the brain,like exercise, and they have a pain-relieving effect that is like morphine (effect cannot be compared with a drug)
(C) hot sauces and exercise both stimulate the release of endorphins in the brain, and they have a pain-relieving effect like morphine (exercise cannot add complementary flavors-awkward )
(D) the release of endorphins in the brain is stimulated both by hot sauces and exercise, and they have a painrelieving effect like morphine's
(E) the release of endorphins in the brain is stimulated by hot sauces, just as with exercise, and these have a painrelieving effect like that of morphine

Whats the source?

Option A has 2 major problems. Consider this:

PROBLEM 1:

a) hot sauces stimulate the release of endorphins (plural verb)
b) just as exercise does (singular verb)

As in statement (a) the verb stimulate should be plural because of the plural subject hot sauces. However, in statement(b) the subject, exercise, is singular and hence the verb must be singular as well i.e. "stimulates". So can we use the helping verb "does" which does not agree in number with its subject?

PROBLEM 2:

Also, there is an ambiguous pronoun "these" in option (A). "These" is the subject of the clause "these have a pain relieving effect like morphine's" and hence it must refer to the subject of the primary clause "hot sauces stimulate the release of endorphins in the brain". i.e. the pronoun "these" refers to "hot sauces". It is not appropriate to use "these" to refer to a noun, instead we can use the pronoun "they".


Now, coming back to option B. This option fixes problem 1 and problem 2. However, there seems to be an improper comparison as mentioned by several users. Maybe the author intends to compare the effect and morphine in abstract terms?

So I recon grammatically both A and B are incorrect. Can we have the source of this question please?

OA is A guys

siddus wrote:Option A has 2 major problems. Consider this:

PROBLEM 1:

a) hot sauces stimulate the release of endorphins (plural verb)
b) just as exercise does (singular verb)

As in statement (a) the verb stimulate should be plural because of the plural subject hot sauces. However, in statement(b) the subject, exercise, is singular and hence the verb must be singular as well i.e. "stimulates". So can we use the helping verb "does" which does not agree in number with its subject?

PROBLEM 2:

Also, there is an ambiguous pronoun "these" in option (A). "These" is the subject of the clause "these have a pain relieving effect like morphine's" and hence it must refer to the subject of the primary clause "hot sauces stimulate the release of endorphins in the brain". i.e. the pronoun "these" refers to "hot sauces". It is not appropriate to use "these" to refer to a noun, instead we can use the pronoun "they".


Now, coming back to option B. This option fixes problem 1 and problem 2. However, there seems to be an improper comparison as mentioned by several users. Maybe the author intends to compare the effect and morphine in abstract terms?

So I recon grammatically both A and B are incorrect. Can we have the source of this question please?

Hi,
Agree with you about problem2 in A. But, I don't see any mistake in problem 1. 'does' agrees with the singular subject 'exercise'.
Every option has a mistake but pronoun ambiguity is probably the last one to check.But B has a blatant comparison error. So, A is just better of the five.

Frankenstein wrote: Hi,
Agree with you about problem2 in A. But, I don't see any mistake in problem 1. 'does' agrees with the singular subject 'exercise'.
Every option has a mistake but pronoun ambiguity is probably the last one to check.But B has a blatant comparison error. So, A is just better of the five.

Frankie agree with you on this one. I got it confused with the rule that the helping verb should agree in tense
Giving it to A

What's the source?

OA has an error.

A has a big issue with the use of the word "these". The option itself is just written poorly.

B should have "as exercise does" not "like exercise". It's comparing the effects of hot sauces and effects of exercise, not effects of hot sauce to exercise itself.

C should have "pain relieving effect like morphine's".

D has a modifier error in which "Besides adding complementary flavors to many foods" modifies "release" and that's just dumb

E has the same issue as D.


I personally don't see a correct option anywhere.

IMO A.

I dont see any issue with these in this option.

hot sauces stimulate the release of endorphins in the brain, just as exercise does, and these have a painrelieving effect like morphine's

these could refer to either endorphins or sauces, IMO these refers to endorphins for two reasons,

1. Pronouns refer to the nearest antecedent.
2. Since we are comparing, morphine's we have to pick up between the possible antecedents something similar to morphine's which is clearly endorphine as morphine is not a food item.

chendawg,

Could you please specify what error you suspect in option A?

Please feel free to correct me if I have overlooked anything in option A.

bubbliiiiiiii wrote:IMO A.

I dont see any issue with these in this option.

hot sauces stimulate the release of endorphins in the brain, just as exercise does, and these have a painrelieving effect like morphine's

these could refer to either endorphins or sauces, IMO these refers to endorphins for two reasons,

1. Pronouns refer to the nearest antecedent.
2. Since we are comparing, morphine's we have to pick up between the possible antecedents something similar to morphine's which is clearly endorphine as morphine is not a food item.

chendawg,

Could you please specify what error you suspect in option A?

Please feel free to correct me if I have overlooked anything in option A.

Hi,
The usage of 'these' in A is incorrect for two reasons:
1)These can refer to any of the two nouns. It is not that pronoun refers to the nearest.
Consider : Jack took John to the terrace and he fell down. What does 'he' refer to? John? No.
It is ambiguous
2)Pronouns like 'this', 'these', 'that' .. are not used as standalone pronouns. They are used as adjectives along with nouns, say 'these endorphins'.

bubbliiiiiiii wrote:IMO A.

I dont see any issue with these in this option.

hot sauces stimulate the release of endorphins in the brain, just as exercise does, and these have a painrelieving effect like morphine's

these could refer to either endorphins or sauces, IMO these refers to endorphins for two reasons,

1. Pronouns refer to the nearest antecedent.
2. Since we are comparing, morphine's we have to pick up between the possible antecedents something similar to morphine's which is clearly endorphine as morphine is not a food item.

chendawg,

Could you please specify what error you suspect in option A?

What I was referring to wasn't an antecedent issue, it's the fact that this and these aren't used as standalone pronouns in formal writing, as Siddus had mentioned above. I learned this from Ron, aka Lunarpower.

What's also suspect about this sentence is the use of "hot sauces". The way most people would use this term to just use "hot sauce", in the singular form, to signify hot sauce in general. It's just weird because no native speaker that I know would ever use the plural of hot sauce to signify hot sauce in general; they would just use the singular form, and I'd know exactly what they mean. Using hot sauce in the plural almost means many different TYPES of hot sauce. This is just me though.

"These" is perfectly correct in this sentences. As a native speaker and former Director of marketing in the Mexican food industry I can tell you from consumer research that many native speakers use the term "hot sauces" (plural) because of the wide range of options available.