BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

Target Test Prep · GMAT

Choose how you want to prepare

Learn live with an expert or move at your own pace. Every option includes the complete TTP study system.

★★★★★5.0559 reviews
GMATLiveTeach 7 seats left
Chris Peckover
NEXT LIVE COHORT

Oct 13 to Jan 7, 2027

with Chris Peckover

Schedule
Tue, Thu · 8:00 to 10:00 PM ET
Included
40 live hours + 6 months of GMAT OnDemand
  • Live instruction and real-time questions
  • Class recordings and assigned practice
View class & enroll
Limited cohort · enrollment openTarget Test Prep
EALiveTeach 5 seats left
Logan Thompson
EXECUTIVE ASSESSMENT

Sep 6 to Dec 6, 2026

with Logan Thompson

Schedule
Sun · 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM ET
Included
40 hours of live online classes plus six months of access to the complete TTP EA OnDemand course.
  • 165+ EA Score Guarantee
  • 4,100+ Quant, Verbal, and Integrated Reasoning practice questions
  • 400+ hours of in-depth video lessons
  • 3,000+ step-by-step video solutions
View EA class & enroll
Limited cohort · enrollment openTarget Test Prep
GMATOnDemand Start anytime
SELF-PACED MASTERCLASS

Target Test Prep GMAT OnDemand

Complete access from day one. Study on your schedule.

715+ score guarantee
$0to start then $127/mo
  • Personalized study plan and analytics
  • Thousands of lessons and practice questions
Start free 5-day trial
Read 559 reviewsTarget Test Prep

Compare the format, schedule, and included access before enrolling. Prices and seat counts shown reflect the supplied offer details.

Quasars

Expert replies
Post new topic Locked
Previous Topic Next Topic
Legendary Member
Posts: 1799
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:03 amFollowed by: 2 members
Thanked: 36 times
by goelmohit2002 » Sat Sep 05, 2009 11:04 am
Hi All,

In the below question OG-12, Q#45.....

[spoiler]OA = B. For kicking out C...OG says "The clause some believe them to be does not supply a verb to accompany quasars as the subject of the sentence, and the clause supplies an object them so that quasars cannot be the object, making the sentence ungrammatical."
[/spoiler]

Can someone please tell what is meant by bold one above ?

=============================================

Quasars, at billions of light-years from Earth the most distant observable objects in the universe, believed to be the cores of galaxies in an early stage of development.

(A) believed to be
(B) are believed to be
(C) some believe them to be
(D) some believe they are
(E) it is believed that they are
Top
Join the discussion
Log in to postLogin with Googleuse password
QUOTE IN REPLY
Source: — Sentence Correction |
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2009 10:30 am
Thanked: 19 times

by bharathh » Sat Sep 05, 2009 1:09 pm
This one can easily be solved by looking for Subject verb agreement

In fact only B has subject-verb agreement.

When I find the subject of a phrase, first thing I do is to find the verb associated with it. In this case it has to come after the extraneous information.

Only B has a verb that agrees with the subject.

If you feel that A also has subj verb agreement... check out the phrase

Quasars, believed to be the cores of galaxies ..

It does not feel complete. If you copy paste the above phrase in MSWord, the application will complain that it is a fragment.
Top
Join the discussion
Log in to postLogin with Googleuse password
QUOTE IN REPLY
Legendary Member
Posts: 1035
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:56 pmFollowed by: 1 member
Thanked: 104 times

by scoobydooby » Sat Sep 05, 2009 1:20 pm
guess the og explanation for C means: a pronoun in an objective case (them) cannot be used to refer to a noun (quasars) in the subjective case.
Top
Join the discussion
Log in to postLogin with Googleuse password
QUOTE IN REPLY
Legendary Member
Posts: 1799
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:03 amFollowed by: 2 members
Thanked: 36 times

by goelmohit2002 » Sat Sep 05, 2009 1:23 pm
scoobydooby wrote:guess the og explanation for C means: a pronoun in an objective case (them) cannot be used to refer to a noun (quasars) in the subjective case.
Hi Scooby,

Thanks....but why so....i guess there are plenty of examples in OG that does not follow the same....

or there is something that i am missing here ?

kindly tell...
Top
Join the discussion
Log in to postLogin with Googleuse password
QUOTE IN REPLY
Legendary Member
Posts: 1035
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:56 pmFollowed by: 1 member
Thanked: 104 times

by scoobydooby » Sun Sep 06, 2009 11:11 am
quasars is the subject. the part within the commas modifies quasars. we need a verb to go with the subject quasars. this is best provided in B

C: quasars, (modifier),some believe them to be x
here quasars is a subject, "some" is also a subject and the verb "believe' agrees with subject "some", not with quasars. so the subject "quasars" is without a verb.

for the og explanation, is there a typo? does it say "quasars cannot be the subject" ?
Top
Join the discussion
Log in to postLogin with Googleuse password
QUOTE IN REPLY
Legendary Member
Posts: 1799
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:03 amFollowed by: 2 members
Thanked: 36 times

by goelmohit2002 » Fri Sep 25, 2009 3:10 am
scoobydooby wrote:quasars is the subject. the part within the commas modifies quasars. we need a verb to go with the subject quasars. this is best provided in B

C: quasars, (modifier),some believe them to be x
here quasars is a subject, "some" is also a subject and the verb "believe' agrees with subject "some", not with quasars. so the subject "quasars" is without a verb.

for the og explanation, is there a typo? does it say "quasars cannot be the subject" ?
Hi Scooby,

No there is no typo....in neither the question nor in the explanation that I wrote for kicking out C that OG gives....

Can you please help understand what does the highlighted one as mentioned in OG explanation says ?

Copy pasting again for quick reference:

==============================================

OA = B. For kicking out C...OG says "The clause some believe them to be does not supply a verb to accompany quasars as the subject of the sentence, and the clause supplies an object them so that quasars cannot be the object, making the sentence ungrammatical."


Can someone please tell what is meant by bold one above ?
Top
Join the discussion
Log in to postLogin with Googleuse password
QUOTE IN REPLY
Legendary Member
Posts: 1035
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:56 pmFollowed by: 1 member
Thanked: 104 times

by scoobydooby » Fri Sep 25, 2009 7:36 am
guess it means:
subject is "quasars". in the clause "some beleive them...", the object is "them", "them" stands for quasars, the subject.
so "quasars" is both the subject and the object, which makes it awkward. (subjects and objects can be the same in case of reflexive actions though- x ej: killed himself)
Top
Join the discussion
Log in to postLogin with Googleuse password
QUOTE IN REPLY
Legendary Member
Posts: 1799
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:03 amFollowed by: 2 members
Thanked: 36 times

by goelmohit2002 » Fri Sep 25, 2009 8:10 am
scoobydooby wrote:guess it means:
subject is "quasars". in the clause "some beleive them...", the object is "them", "them" stands for quasars, the subject.
so "quasars" is both the subject and the object, which makes it awkward. (subjects and objects can be the same in case of reflexive actions though- x ej: killed himself)
oh ok thx...

does it mean that the folllowing sentence would have been correct(in case we are not aware whether Quasars are living or non living) ?

Quasars believe themselves blah blah blah...
Top
Join the discussion
Log in to postLogin with Googleuse password
QUOTE IN REPLY

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 2228
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pmFollowed by: 694 members
Location: Montreal, Canada
Thanked: 639 times
GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Wed Oct 07, 2009 2:40 pm
The basic idea is that you have this noun, quasars, sitting by itself at the beginning. It's not part of a prepositional phrase or subordinate clause or something like that. So, is it the subject? Is it the object? What is it?

Well, it can't be the subject, because there's no verb to go with it.

Okay, so then "some" must be the subject and "believe" must be the verb, which leaves "them" as the object... wait, so quasars can't be the object either.

So we have this word that doesn't fit any proper category in the sentence. Bad sentence.
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT

Contributor to Beat The GMAT!

Learn more about me
Top
Join the discussion
Log in to postLogin with Googleuse password
QUOTE IN REPLY
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:43 am

by sarthak » Sun Feb 14, 2010 12:33 am
this is a subjunctive mood right ? believe indicates subjunctive right ?
Top
Join the discussion
Log in to postLogin with Googleuse password
QUOTE IN REPLY

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 2228
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pmFollowed by: 694 members
Location: Montreal, Canada
Thanked: 639 times
GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Tue Feb 16, 2010 10:37 am
No, actually. It isn't the case that any use of the verb "believe" indicates subjunctive.

I believe in ghosts.

Nothing subjunctive about that.

You could use the verb "believe" in a hypothetical subjunctive construction:

If I were to believe in ghosts, then I would also believe in fairies. (NOTE: This construction doesn't get used much on the GMAT. Also note: this depends more on the "If" and "were" constructions, not so much on what the other specific verbs are.)

You could also use "believe" in a command subjunctive construction:

I believe it is imperative that she be made president of the club. (Though this is kind of clunky - it would be cleaner to chop off the "I believe" and just say "It is imperative that..." Again, the construction here really depends on the command language, imperative, and is not triggered simply by usage of the word "believe.")
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT

Contributor to Beat The GMAT!

Learn more about me
Top
Join the discussion
Log in to postLogin with Googleuse password
QUOTE IN REPLY
User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 109
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2009 4:58 amFollowed by: 1 member
Thanked: 12 times
GMAT Score:720

by jeffedwards » Tue Feb 16, 2010 11:45 am
A complete sentence needs a
Subject + a verb

Choice C does not have a verb. Quasars is the subject. Knock out the middle part of the sentence, sectioned off by commas, then read the sentence with the answer choices. B should become the obvious choice.
Top
Join the discussion
Log in to postLogin with Googleuse password
QUOTE IN REPLY
User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 406
Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:36 amFollowed by: 4 members
Location: Syracuse, NY
Thanked: 23 times
GMAT Score:740

by tomada » Tue Feb 16, 2010 12:42 pm
Am I the only one who thought "at billions of light-years from Earth the most distant observable objects in the universe" was clunky as written?
Top
Join the discussion
Log in to postLogin with Googleuse password
QUOTE IN REPLY

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 2228
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pmFollowed by: 694 members
Location: Montreal, Canada
Thanked: 639 times
GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:44 am
No, you're not the only one. It is awkward - but it's grammatically correct, and that's what really matters. "Awkward" only matters if there's something better with which you can replace it, because avoiding awkwardness is a preference, not a rule.
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT

Contributor to Beat The GMAT!

Learn more about me
Top
Join the discussion
Log in to postLogin with Googleuse password
QUOTE IN REPLY
Post new topic Locked
• Page 1 of 1