Sentence Correction

Many psychologists and sociologists now contend that the deliberate and even brutal aggression integral to some forms of competitive athletics increase the likelihood of imitative violence that erupts among crowds of spectators dominated by young adult males.

(A) increase the likelihood of imitative violence that erupts
(B) increase the likelihood that there will be an eruption of imitative violence
(C) increase the likelihood of imitative violence erupting
(D) increases the likelihood for imitative violence to erupt
(E) increases the likelihood that imitative violence will erupt

OA after some discussion.
Please support your pick

Between D and E

Any comments for this SC?

S+V agreement leaves us with option D and E

I feel WILL in E doesn't make any sense, IMO D

"likelihood that" is idiomatic. "likelihood for" is unidiomatic.

Moreover in option D, imitative violence to erupt suggests that "imitative violence" can erupt by itself which is not logical.

So Ans should be option E

This question is terrific for S-V agreement study. They do a masterful job of getting a bunch of nouns in front of that verb:

Many psychologists and sociologists now contend that the deliberate and even brutal aggression integral to some forms of competitive athletics.

But they're just as stuck by the need to connect those noun phrases with prepositions and clauses, so you can use that to your advantage:

Many psychologists and sociologists now contend that the deliberate and even brutal aggression integral to some forms of competitive athletics


The "that" sets up "the deliberate and brutal aggression" as the subject of its own clause, meaning that you don't have to worry about "psychologists and sociologists" - their verb "contend" is already accounted for and you can break that part of the sentence off.

And "to" and "of" just modify the aggression (well, "integral to", I guess, is the full modifier...but look out for those connectors anyway), meaning that they're not the subject. So "aggression" must be the subject, meaning that we need a singular "increases".


Between D and E, sungoal is right that it has to be "E". But instead of just calling it an idiom, let me frame it this way. "For" as a connector in this way generally has that meaning of a causal or beneficial relationship. So you'd say:

I mowed the lawn for my elderly neighbors
Sarah Palin's withdrawal from the election paved the way for Michele Bachmann
I left the money for the tickets on your desk
I'm collecting donations for the poor
The conditions look ripe for a storm

"for" usually has some level of intent, beneficiary, or causal relationship to it. But in this case, imitative violence isn't really a beneficiary of the probability, and the probability doesn't have any intent toward the violence happening.

It may be a little subtle and idiomatic, but if I were making that distinction that's how I'd approach that decision - find situations in which I'd use either expression and try to break down the intent of the phrase both ways. It this is from SC1000 it's a pretty old question and maybe just tends toward being more American-idiomatic, but on current GMAT questions if you have to make a decision like this there's a logical way to do it based on meaning that you can generally pick up by transferring these phrases to your own situation to gauge real meaning of the expression.

Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:This question is terrific for S-V agreement study. They do a masterful job of getting a bunch of nouns in front of that verb:

Many psychologists and sociologists now contend that the deliberate and even brutal aggression integral to some forms of competitive athletics.

But they're just as stuck by the need to connect those noun phrases with prepositions and clauses, so you can use that to your advantage:

Many psychologists and sociologists now contend that the deliberate and even brutal aggression integral to some forms of competitive athletics


The "that" sets up "the deliberate and brutal aggression" as the subject of its own clause, meaning that you don't have to worry about "psychologists and sociologists" - their verb "contend" is already accounted for and you can break that part of the sentence off.

And "to" and "of" just modify the aggression (well, "integral to", I guess, is the full modifier...but look out for those connectors anyway), meaning that they're not the subject. So "aggression" must be the subject, meaning that we need a singular "increases".


Between D and E, sungoal is right that it has to be "E". But instead of just calling it an idiom, let me frame it this way. "For" as a connector in this way generally has that meaning of a causal or beneficial relationship. So you'd say:

I mowed the lawn for my elderly neighbors
Sarah Palin's withdrawal from the election paved the way for Michele Bachmann
I left the money for the tickets on your desk
I'm collecting donations for the poor
The conditions look ripe for a storm

"for" usually has some level of intent, beneficiary, or causal relationship to it. But in this case, imitative violence isn't really a beneficiary of the probability, and the probability doesn't have any intent toward the violence happening.

It may be a little subtle and idiomatic, but if I were making that distinction that's how I'd approach that decision - find situations in which I'd use either expression and try to break down the intent of the phrase both ways. It this is from SC1000 it's a pretty old question and maybe just tends toward being more American-idiomatic, but on current GMAT questions if you have to make a decision like this there's a logical way to do it based on meaning that you can generally pick up by transferring these phrases to your own situation to gauge real meaning of the expression.

Hi Brian Thanks for the reply . Isnt
(D) increases the likelihood for imitative violence to erupt
similar to
mowed the land for my neighbours
In the phrase above , the neighbours are not the beneficiary of the land . They are the beneficiaries of the mowing action .It means that someone did something for the neighbours
So doesnt option D say the same thing .
Something increased the likelihood for something else

Hi Bryan.I have 2 questions , 1 in the previous post and 1 in this one .
Here is an SC from Veritas prep That makes use of an idiom . Could you help us find the OA without knowledge of idioms .
Sc 28
Turn-of -the - century Harry Houdini claimed, for his famous water-torture cell trick , the ability to hold his breath for more than three minutes .
A)for his famous water-torture cell trick , the ability to hold his breath
B)for his famous water-torture cell trick , he has the ability of holding his breath
C)for his famous water-torture cell trick , the ability of him holding his breath
D)for his famous water-torture cell trick , to be able to hold his breath
E)for his famous water-torture cell trick , being able to hold his breath

[spoiler]D????

mundasingh123 wrote:Hi Bryan.I have 2 questions , 1 in the previous post and 1 in this one .
Here is an SC from Veritas prep That makes use of an idiom . Could you help us find the OA without knowledge of idioms .
Sc 28
Turn-of -the - century Harry Houdini claimed, for his famous water-torture cell trick , the ability to hold his breath for more than three minutes .
A)for his famous water-torture cell trick , the ability to hold his breath
B)for his famous water-torture cell trick , he has the ability of holding his breath
C)for his famous water-torture cell trick , the ability of him holding his breath
D)for his famous water-torture cell trick , to be able to hold his breath
E)for his famous water-torture cell trick , being able to hold his breath

[/spoiler]

Turn-of -the - century Harry Houdini claimed, for his famous water-torture cell trick , the ability to hold his breath for more than three minutes .

A)for his famous water-torture cell trick , the ability to hold his breath
B)for his famous water-torture cell trick , he has the ability of holding his breath
C)for his famous water-torture cell trick , the ability of him holding his breath
D)claimed, for his famous water-torture cell trick , to be able to hold his breath
E)for his famous water-torture cell trick , being able to hold his breath[/quote]

IMO:D

IDIOM: claimed to be able to

IMO E

Hey mundasingh:

To your initial question about "for"...again, this is just my way of thinking of it so I hope you take the general lesson (think about meaning) more so than this specific "meaning-of-for" lesson.

But even with the "mowed the lawn" example, there's a clear beneficiary (the people who don't have to mow their lawn). With the likelihood of violence...there's no "beneficiary". With likelihood, you could probably say:

-Son, before you shoot let me lower the basketball rim to increase the likelihood for you.

Because the kid is the beneficiary. Again, I don't even know 100% on this but if someone were to write that I wouldn't be bothered by it. And the main point I'm trying to make is that there is a method for making decisions that you aren't completely sure about:

1) See if there is another decision point that's more "GMAT" (verb tense, pronoun, etc.)

2) If not, try the expression in your own sentence to get a feel for its meaning. Is there a similar situation in which you would/wouldn't use it? Just like on the math section, the GMAT is really good at giving you something that, in your own situation, you'd get right every time, but in the unique-looking situation that the test presents it's difficult. So, often, it's really helpful to run a parallel problem or sentence on your own terms to help see the concept more clearly.


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Now, for that Houdini question... You can use the same kind of logic or process here, too. With "claim" there are some common uses:

"I claim this land in the name of the king" (you're using "claim" to show ownership of a unique resource...a noun - "land")

"He claims to have met Muhammad Ali at Burger King" (here it's a unique ability or experience, and that "to have" helps with the infinitive form of the verb to keep things organized)

"He claims that he once ate 50 McNuggets in one sitting" (again, here, the "that" is used for spacing between two verbs: "claims" and "ate", kind of like "claims" and "to have met" before.

Well, in the Houdini example you're closer to the second and third examples here. He's not staking claim to an object...he's claiming an experience or ability, so the "idiom" is correct in D.

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Now, we know that the GMAT has backed off of idiomatic references so the point on these two examples may be moot...but may not. The bigger lesson is that it's often helpful to put these phrases in your own context to see what you'd use if given the choice.

Thanks Brian for the Excellent Explanation

Thanks a lot Brain