Sentence Correction

Researchers agreed that the study of new treatments for heart attack patients was extremely important but more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than the balloon procedure by itself.

A. more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than
B. more research was needed for determining whether or not balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than is
C. that more research was needed to determine whether balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than
D. that more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was any better for heart attack patients than
E. that more research was needed for determining that balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is or is not any better for heart attack patients than is

abhi I think correct answer is C

Idiom should be preceded by
A/d gets eliminated.


Researchers agreed that ....... but ...that .....
so that should eb there..

Eliminates B

Determining is not correct so E is eliminated

Answer is C

what is OA ?

Yes the OA is C. The problem is from SC document from testmagic fourums.
Thanks.
-A

lunarpower wrote:

gmatinjuly wrote:abhi I think correct answer is C

Idiom should be preceded by
A/d gets eliminated.


Researchers agreed that ....... but ...that .....
so that should eb there..

Eliminates B

Determining is not correct so E is eliminated

Answer is C

what is OA ?

ick, i don't like this problem. what is the source?

i agree that (c) is the only one that gets both 'to determine' and 'preceded by' correct.
however,
you DO need the second 'that' if both parts are things agreed upon by the researchers.
here's why:
in choices (a), (b), and (c) - the ones WITHOUT the second 'that' - there's an ambiguity. viz., there are 2 possible interpretations:
(1) researchers agreed that the study ... , and they also agreed that more research...
(2) researchers agreed that the study ... , and it is a fact that more research ...
we need the second 'that' to resolve this ambiguity.
not sure what source this question is from, but apparently it's not the world's greatest source.

If I see correctly , there is a second "that" in Option C....
Keeping in mind the second "that" in option C, its fine to choose C, but the tense after ultrasound> is/was/would be> which should be preferred..... m just asking for my knowledge bank

Also, Let me know If I'm missing something here...

"more research is needed to determine x is better or not" sounds logical
whereas

"more research is needed to determine x was better or not" is wrong.
"more research is needed to determine x would be better or not" is wrong here. Had it been related to invention of some new machine etc than "would be" would have been a better choice.

Also Remember,
In gmat land, you use would mainly in conditional clauses.


One more query inline with rdxb's
Won't it be better to say

"that more research is needed to determine" [Please leave the rule of parallelism for the time being ]

lunarpower wrote:
not sure what source this question is from, but apparently it's not the world's greatest source.

Actually, I just got this question in the GMATPrep test.

lunarpower wrote:

gmatinjuly wrote:abhi I think correct answer is C

Idiom should be preceded by
A/d gets eliminated.


Researchers agreed that ....... but ...that .....
so that should eb there..

Eliminates B

Determining is not correct so E is eliminated

Answer is C

what is OA ?

ick, i don't like this problem. what is the source?

i agree that (c) is the only one that gets both 'to determine' and 'preceded by' correct.
however,
you DO need the second 'that' if both parts are things agreed upon by the researchers.
here's why:
in choices (a), (b), and (c) - the ones WITHOUT the second 'that' - there's an ambiguity. viz., there are 2 possible interpretations:
(1) researchers agreed that the study ... , and they also agreed that more research...
(2) researchers agreed that the study ... , and it is a fact that more research ...
we need the second 'that' to resolve this ambiguity.
not sure what source this question is from, but apparently it's not the world's greatest source.

Ron, this question is from GPREP
anyways... some thoughts.

dont u think we must use THAN "IS" ( I know.. whether or not is not correct on GMAT..)


1. In case of comparison, we should bear in mind that two nouns or clauses are compared. If two clauses are compared, every clause must have subject and verb.
Example:

He is longer than Rana (is).
=> He is longer than is Rana.

Now, we can easily eliminate the options A, C, and D as they have not used verb, IS. Now, we are between B and E. In E, but that is not correct and "is or is not" is awkward. Whether or not is correct idiom.

Answer: B

Secondly,

Lets say we also have choice F

F. that more research was needed to determine whether balloon angioplasty preceded
by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than IS


basically

X is any better than Y

or

X is any better than is Y

or

X is any better than Y is


which one is correct...

Please help...

Hey Ron and Stacey ,

However one more Split Between WAS/IS in all the options is present and not addressed as such like other splits.

The complete sentence and first element is in the past tense but the second element of correct option takes a Present tense verb.

Kindly put forward a reasoning figuring out why the split is irrelevant..

abhi75 wrote:Researchers agreed that the study of new treatments for heart attack patients was extremely important but more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than the balloon procedure by itself.

A. more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than
B. more research was needed for determining whether or not balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than is
C. that more research was needed to determine whether balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than
D. that more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was any better for heart attack patients than
E. that more research was needed for determining that balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is or is not any better for heart attack patients than is

In A, D and E, determine that does not convey the intended meaning of the sentence. Since the purpose of the research is to answer a question -- which procedure is better? -- the sentence needs to say determine whether. Eliminate A, D and E.

In B, whether or not is an error of redundancy. Eliminate B.

The correct answer is C.

lunarpower wrote:

mayank.hwr wrote:Hey Ron and Stacey ,

However one more Split Between WAS/IS in all the options is present and not addressed as such like other splits.

The complete sentence and first element is in the past tense but the second element of correct option takes a Present tense verb.

Kindly put forward a reasoning figuring out why the split is irrelevant..

if you're talking about GENERAL TRUTHS, then you use the present tense (regardless of the tense(s) in the surrounding context).
the only exception is for things that WERE general truths, but are no longer. in that case, of course, you'd use the past tense. (or, for things that WILL BE general truths but aren't yet, you should use the future tense.)
e.g.
in 1628, william harvey discovered that human blood circulates through the arteries and veins.
CORRECT
"discovered" --> past tense (since this happened in 1628)
"circulates" --> present tense (since this is a GENERAL TRUTH)

in 1628, william harvey discovered that human blood circulated through the arteries and veins.
INCORRECT
this implies that blood doesn't circulate anymore in today's humans.

--

in this case, the principle in question (whether X is better than Y) is a general truth that isn't subject to a timeframe. therefore, it should be in the present tense.

Thank you so much Ron for this post, your examples clear my confusion.

lunarpower wrote:

mayank.hwr wrote:Hey Ron and Stacey ,

However one more Split Between WAS/IS in all the options is present and not addressed as such like other splits.

The complete sentence and first element is in the past tense but the second element of correct option takes a Present tense verb.

Kindly put forward a reasoning figuring out why the split is irrelevant..

if you're talking about GENERAL TRUTHS, then you use the present tense (regardless of the tense(s) in the surrounding context).
the only exception is for things that WERE general truths, but are no longer. in that case, of course, you'd use the past tense. (or, for things that WILL BE general truths but aren't yet, you should use the future tense.)
e.g.
in 1628, william harvey discovered that human blood circulates through the arteries and veins.
CORRECT
"discovered" --> past tense (since this happened in 1628)
"circulates" --> present tense (since this is a GENERAL TRUTH)

in 1628, william harvey discovered that human blood circulated through the arteries and veins.
INCORRECT
this implies that blood doesn't circulate anymore in today's humans.

--

in this case, the principle in question (whether X is better than Y) is a general truth that isn't subject to a timeframe. therefore, it should be in the present tense.

hello

i am stuck between past and present tense

now its clear...

regards nafi

lunarpower wrote:

mayank.hwr wrote:Hey Ron and Stacey ,

However one more Split Between WAS/IS in all the options is present and not addressed as such like other splits.

The complete sentence and first element is in the past tense but the second element of correct option takes a Present tense verb.

Kindly put forward a reasoning figuring out why the split is irrelevant..

if you're talking about GENERAL TRUTHS, then you use the present tense (regardless of the tense(s) in the surrounding context).
the only exception is for things that WERE general truths, but are no longer. in that case, of course, you'd use the past tense. (or, for things that WILL BE general truths but aren't yet, you should use the future tense.)
e.g.
in 1628, william harvey discovered that human blood circulates through the arteries and veins.
CORRECT
"discovered" --> past tense (since this happened in 1628)
"circulates" --> present tense (since this is a GENERAL TRUTH)

in 1628, william harvey discovered that human blood circulated through the arteries and veins.
INCORRECT
this implies that blood doesn't circulate anymore in today's humans.

--

in this case, the principle in question (whether X is better than Y) is a general truth that isn't subject to a timeframe. therefore, it should be in the present tense.

hello

i was stuck between past and present tense

now its clear...

regards nafi