Though lively and emotional, the debate over whether certain

[guerrero]

Though lively and emotional, the debate over whether certain psychological problems are genetically determined or cemented in early childhood is ultimately irrelevant to the treatment of those problems.



A)Though lively and emotional, the debate over whether certain psychological problems are genetically determined or cemented in early childhood is ultimately irrelevant to the treatment of those problems.


B)The debate if certain psychological problems are determined by genetics, as opposed to cemented in early childhood, is ultimately irrelevant in treating those problems.


C)Regardless of whether certain psychological problems are genetically determined or cemented in early childhood -- the subject of lively debate -- they are ultimately irrelevant to psychological treatment.


D)Certain psychological problems may be determined genetically or cemented in early childhood -- the subject of lively and emotional debate -- but are ultimately irrelevant to their psychological treatment.


E)Even though lively and emotional debate exists whether certain psychological problems are genetically determined or cemented in early childhood, it is ultimately irrelevant to psychological treatment.

OA A

[vinay1983]

Flagged it to be moved to SC forum. I think it is A.

B-Awkward construction, also "if " usage in incorrect here.
C-"they" has ambiguous reference here. The intended meaning is "cause of such problems genetic or cemented" does not affect the treatment process
D-seems that "problems" are being modified here
E-"it" has no antecedent here

[theCodeToGMAT]

{A} - CORRECT
{B} - INCORRECT; "if" issue
{C} - INCORRECT; meaning issue--> Problems are not irrelevant.. it's the debate
{D} - INCORRECT; meaning issue--> Problems are not irrelevant.. it's the debate
{E} - INCORRECT; incomplete idiom. "debate over"

[theCodeToGMAT]

Flagged it to be moved to SC forum. I think it is A.

B-Awkward construction, also "if " usage in incorrect here.
C-"they" has ambiguous reference here. The intended meaning is "cause of such problems genetic or cemented" does not affect the treatment process
D-seems that "problems" are being modified here
E-"it" has no antecedent here

Vinay, I guess "they" & "it" are fine in {C} & {E}

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Hi guerrero,

You'll notice that this SC is completely underlined; in these sorts of situations, it's quite common for Modification to be one of the rules that is tested. I tend to look for commas (which are a sign of both modification and parallelism).

It's also worth noting that answer A is always a "copy" of the original sentence. It tends to be correct about 20% of the time, so there will be a few SCs on Test Day that are perfect, as is.

For this SC, I "broke down" the sentence into pieces, to see if all of the grammar rules were applied correctly. Here's what I see:

1) The phrase "Though lively and emotional,...." is describing something. "The debate" makes sense.
2) The 2-part phrase "whether....genetically determined....or...cemented" is correct and uses proper parallelism.
3) The noun "the debate" is singular, so we need a singular verb. "....is" works.

Everything about this sentence "looks good", and none of the other answers matches that assessment (they each have at least one objectionable aspect).

Final Answer: A

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich