Sentence Correction

As a result of the ground-breaking work of Barbara McClintock, many scientists now believe that all of the information encoded in 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in a human cell are contained in merely three percent of the cell's DNA.

a) ...
b) 50,000 to 100,000 of the human cell's different genes are contained in a mere
c) the 50,000 to 100,000 different genes found in human cells are contained in merely
d) 50,000 to 100,000 of human cells' different genes is contained in merely
e) the 50,000 to 100,000 different genes found in a human cell is contained in a mere

OA is E

I have two questions for this SC.
- What is the difference between "50,000 to 100,000.... " and " the 50,000 to 100,000..."
- Why is mere preferred over merely

IMO E because

Information should have singular verb 'is'

Only Option E does that correctly, Option D changes meaning.

Can you answer these

- What is the difference between "50,000 to 100,000.... " and " the 50,000 to 100,000..."
- Why is mere preferred over merely

moadhia wrote:Can you answer these

- What is the difference between "50,000 to 100,000.... " and " the 50,000 to 100,000..."
- Why is mere preferred over merely

'The' is a definite article & is required here to refer to the '50,000 to 100,000 different genes found in a human cell'. Since 'information' is singular, the verb in the sentence should also be singluar. That's why choice E is correct. As for preference of mere over merely, its purely contextual.

Hope this helps.

You can use mere as (adjective) and merely as (adverb):
we require an adjective “mere” for noun “three percent of the cell's DNA”

50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes..
Specifically talks only about genes which are different and range from 50,000 to 100,000

Go through this
She is the most dedicated Gardner on the block, Everyday watering the more than 50 plants in her yard

She is the most dedicated Gardner on the block, Everyday watering more than the 50 plants in her yard

Changing the placement of the in the sentence implies that she waters more than her own 50 plants,. Including plants that are not hers

I got E as well.

However I believe "is" is used over "are" because "the number" is always singular.

Oh sorry. Misread, I guess it should be "information" making it singular