The health benefits of tea

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sparsh.21: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 129; Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2008 3:53 am; Thanked: 2 times

by sparsh.21 » Sat Jan 10, 2009 12:39 am

The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting some forms of cancer, the brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis may also play a role in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

A. in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting
B. in addition to its possibilities to prevent or inhibit
C. besides the possibility that it prevents and inhibits
D. besides the possible preventing and inhibiting of
E. besides possibly preventing or inhibiting

OA is E

Please explain the answer...

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sat Jan 10, 2009 12:39 am

iamcste: Legendary Member; Posts: 940; Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:22 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 55 times

Re: The health benefits of tea

by iamcste » Sat Jan 10, 2009 1:39 am

sparsh.21 wrote:The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting some forms of cancer, the brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis may also play a role in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

A. in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting
B. in addition to its possibilities to prevent or inhibit
C. besides the possibility that it prevents and inhibits
D. besides the possible preventing and inhibiting of
E. besides possibly preventing or inhibiting

OA is E

Please explain the answer...

PLural subject wont take singular pronoun "it" or "its"

Left with D and E

Preventing or inhibit parallels reducing

Also, Prevent or Inhibit seems logical IMO

Choose E

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mmslf75: Legendary Member; Posts: 503; Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:53 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 31 times

by mmslf75 » Tue Jan 12, 2010 12:04 pm

But,

Orginal meaning gives equal status to both INHIBITING and PREVENTION by using AND
In E we use "OR"

is it valid ???

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papgust: Community Manager; Posts: 1537; Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:10 pmFollowed by: 252 members; Thanked: 653 times

by papgust » Tue Jan 12, 2010 6:51 pm

IMO, preventing and inhibiting is illogical.

Prevent means to avoid. Inhibit means to reduce.

You cannot avoid and at the same time reduce cancer. Either you can avoid OR reduce. So, preventing or inhibiting is a proper construction.

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mmslf75: Legendary Member; Posts: 503; Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:53 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 31 times

by mmslf75 » Tue Jan 12, 2010 9:22 pm

papgust wrote:IMO, preventing and inhibiting is illogical.

Prevent means to avoid. Inhibit means to reduce.

You cannot avoid and at the same time reduce cancer. Either you can avoid OR reduce. So, preventing or inhibiting is a proper construction.

thanks man !!

so we must stick to original meaning, if all fails

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Tue Jan 26, 2010 4:55 am

papgust wrote:IMO, preventing and inhibiting is illogical.

Prevent means to avoid. Inhibit means to reduce.

You cannot avoid and at the same time reduce cancer. Either you can avoid OR reduce. So, preventing or inhibiting is a proper construction.

this is correct.

what's the source of this question? it was probably inspired by #37 in the OG verbal supplement, in which we must change "damaged and destroyed" (from the original) into "damaged or destroyed", for exactly the same reason.

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tanviet: Legendary Member; Posts: 1404; Joined: Tue May 20, 2008 6:55 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 18 times

by tanviet » Fri Dec 23, 2011 3:26 am

I agree that E is best.

But I do not understand the grammatical role of "besides" in E. Pls, explain. Thank you.

the second point, pls, help

in D, "preventing" and "inhibiting" work as a noun and so it is not clear that they refer to "leaves" This point makes D become unclear and wrong.

is my thingking correct?

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Fri Dec 30, 2011 8:01 am

duongthang wrote:I agree that E is best.

But I do not understand the grammatical role of "besides" in E. Pls, explain. Thank you.

"besides" is a preposition. its objects are "preventing" and "inhibiting", which are gerunds (-ING nouns).

in D, "preventing" and "inhibiting" work as a noun and so it is not clear that they refer to "leaves" This point makes D become unclear and wrong.

is my thingking correct?

yes. if you say "the VERBing of...", that's usually a reference to the general idea of the action, dissociated from any particular actor/subject.

it's probably easier to eliminate that choice because the "and" doesn't make sense (as explained above -- should definitely be "or"), but this consideration is worth thinking about, too. nicely done.

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