Sentence Correction

Even today, a century after Pasteur developed the first vaccine, rabies almost always kills its victims unless inoculated in the earliest stages of the disease.

(A) its victims unless inoculated
(B) its victims unless they are inoculated
(C) its victims unless inoculation is done
(D) the victims unless there is an inoculation
(E) the victims unless inoculated

OA after some discussion?

IMO-B

d and e can be eliminated as "its" is absent
a and c can be eliminated as noun for verb-inoculated is missing.

Anyone with explanation why E is wrong ?

+1 for B.

Even today, a century after Pasteur developed the first vaccine, rabies almost always kills its victims unless inoculated in the earliest stages of the disease.

(A) its victims unless inoculated
(B) its victims unless they are inoculated
(C) its victims unless inoculation is done
(D) the victims unless there is an inoculation
(E) the victims unless inoculated

First i u read the sentence....We need to understand who are victims here??? they are for Rabies so its referent is needed here.....So, D and E are eliminated...

C is wrong wrong because of awkward construction unless inoculation is done.

Who should be inoculated??? the victims...So THEY should be used to refer them and also THEY usage is correct here because it correctly refers to VICTIMS and no other referent is present.

SO OA is B

hei
can any expert plz explain "specifically" why choice "c" is wrong?
thnks

Confused!! rabies is plural, so we need choices D or E. Then choice D is correct. Can somebody explain why OA is B while rabies is plural and its is singular!!!?

+1 for B. B clearly clarifies who is being inoculated.

Rabies is not plural. You can test this quickly by trying to convert into its singular form which could results in 'raby' However, the disease name itself is rabies and not raby. And so one can determine that rabies is indeed singular as it talks about the single disease.

Any additions to this logic?

shweta.kalra wrote:hei
can any expert plz explain "specifically" why choice "c" is wrong?
thnks

I'm no expert, but IMO, I think that "inoculation is done' sounds passive. Also, it is ambiguous with respect to the object(s) being inoculated.

Rabies is AN infection, ---> singular.

unless the victim are vaccinated(inoculated/injected)

Victims need the antecedent, so "they" is required

The part should be: rabies... kills its victims unless they are inoculated in

Rabies is AN infection, ---> singular.

unless the victim are vaccinated(inoculated/injected)

Victims need the antecedent, so "they" is required

The part should be: rabies... kills its victims unless they are inoculated in

AIM GMAT wrote:Anyone with explanation why E is wrong ?

Option E - does not clarify whether rabies is being inoculated or the victims...

There are a number of singular nouns in English that are plural-looking; some are words from another language (debris (French), rabies (Latin), arthritis (Greek)), while some are kind of aggregate "topics" (news, statistics, mathematics).

"Inoculation is done" is definitely passive and a little wordy and vague (since it doesn't specify who or what is being inoculated, unlike the right answer), but not grammatically incorrect. Still wrong on the GMAT, though.

mk101 wrote:

AIM GMAT wrote:Anyone with explanation why E is wrong ?

Option E - does not clarify whether rabies is being inoculated or the victims...

rabies killed victims [ victims of what? ]
rabies killed its victims [ victims are people having rabies]

shweta.kalra wrote:hei
can any expert plz explain "specifically" why choice "c" is wrong?
thnks

to inoculate is a verb. to do is also a verb. In C, the noun inoculation is used with the verb to do to form a wordy passive construction 'inoculation is done' when the simple use of 'are inoculated' would have done the job (as in B).