SC: Pronoun doubt

[stop@800]

Several years ago the diet industry introduced a variety of appetite suppressants, but some of these drugs caused stomach disorders severe enough to have them banned by the Food and Drug Administration.

A stomach disorders severe enough to have them
B stomach disorders that were severe enough so they were
C stomach disorders of such severity so as to be
D such severe stomach disorders that they were
E such severe stomach disorders as to be

The OA D.


Several years ago the diet industry introduced a variety of appetite suppressants, but some of these drugs caused such severe stomach disorders that they were banned by the Food and Drug Administration.

Now I think they can point to drugs or stomach disorders.

if I change this to
Several years ago the diet industry introduced a variety of appetite suppressants, but some of these drugs caused such severe stomach disorders that they were banned by the Food and Drug Administration.


Several years ago the diet industry introduced a variety of appetite suppressants, but some of these drugs caused such severe stomach disorders that they need to be immediately treated.

Both seems correct to come.

Whats the point I am missing?

[gmat009]

Several years ago the diet industry introduced a variety of appetite suppressants, but some of these drugs caused stomach disorders severe enough to have them banned by the Food and Drug Administration.

A stomach disorders severe enough to have them
B stomach disorders that were severe enough so they were
C stomach disorders of such severity so as to be
D such severe stomach disorders that they were
E such severe stomach disorders as to be

The OA D.


Several years ago the diet industry introduced a variety of appetite suppressants, but some of these drugs caused such severe stomach disorders that they were banned by the Food and Drug Administration.

Now I think they can point to drugs or stomach disorders.

if I change this to
Several years ago the diet industry introduced a variety of appetite suppressants, but some of these drugs caused such severe stomach disorders that they were banned by the Food and Drug Administration.


Several years ago the diet industry introduced a variety of appetite suppressants, but some of these drugs caused such severe stomach disorders that they need to be immediately treated.

Both seems correct to come.

Whats the point I am missing?

Pronoun antecedent is something where I make lot of mistakes.
After reading the sentence I picked E and after reading OA I am still confused why D and not E.
According to grammar rule: " A Pronoun always refers to immediate noun" and in this case it is stomach disorders. Then how D is answer.

[dumb.doofus]

Well D has everything right.. except the usage of "they".. the only logic that comes to my mind right now is that the FDA cannot ban stomach disorders.. they can only ban drugs.. and so the "they" is referring to drugs.. apart from this can't think of anything..
although I agree that "they" doesn't have a clear referral..

[stop@800]

Well D has everything right.. except the usage of "they".. the only logic that comes to my mind right now is that the FDA cannot ban stomach disorders.. they can only ban drugs.. and so the "they" is referring to drugs.. apart from this can't think of anything..
although I agree that "they" doesn't have a clear referral..

But can we use these obvious things in the actual questions??
I think NO, what you guys say?

[Bidisha800]

what his question is testing is an idiom (such x that y).

[stop@800]

what his question is testing is an idiom (such x that y).

I agree, I actually wanted to get my doubt clarified.

[NSNguyen]

Hi All,
can anyone analyse what wrong with E?? 8)

[anju]

Hi All,
can anyone analyse what wrong with E?? 8)

the correct idiom is
so X as to be Y
and not such X as to be Y

D uses correct idiom
such X that Y

[gmatrant]

E comes closest to a correct answer.. though I must admit that not idiomatic. I cannot agree with D due to pronoun mismatch.
Between E and D , E sounds better though...

[aj5105]

chose E..

[codesnooker]

what his question is testing is an idiom (such x that y).

I agree, I actually wanted to get my doubt clarified.

Hello Stop@800, same doubt I had from long time. After seeing this question, I did some search on various forums. Here are briefings:-

From Manhattan forum:

There is hierarchy of rules to be applied on GMAT questions (in case of pronoun errors):-

1. Check all the answers for pronoun ambiguity.
2. If all the choices have ambiguous pronoun. then go for the pronoun that grammatically parallel to its antecedents.

So, in our case, actually there is no pronoun reference error. WHY?

Because it's construction is something like this:-

Several years ago the diet industry introduced a variety of appetite suppressants, but some of these drugs caused such severe stomach disorders that they were banned by the Food and Drug Administration.


Some of these drugs is the subject of 2nd clause and disorders is OBJECT, not the SUBJECT for 2nd clause. Whereas, THEY is again SUBJECT of 3rd clause.

So as per my understanding, both SUBJECTS are parallel, and THEY can referred as ANTECEDENT of SOME OF THESE DRUGS.
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/post17383.html

From Gmatclub forum:

It also said the same thing but even in more simpler way. It states that the sentence structure should be like this:

" S+V+such ~ that+S...structure, those two S should be the same. So, "they" here refers to the some of the drugs.

Here, S represents to SUBJECT.
https://gmatclub.com/forum/11-t70455&p=519854

Hope this helps a bit...