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by paes » Thu Jun 24, 2010 5:11 pm
42. Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolved as a kind of snorkel.

(a)that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolved
(b) that has suggested the elephant descended from an aquatic animal, its trunk originally evolving
(c)suggesting that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal with its trunk originally evolving
(d) to suggest that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal and its trunk originally evolving
(e) to suggest that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved

[spoiler]OA later

Very difficult for me to choose the right and discard the others.
Please explain your reasoning for every choice.[/spoiler]
Last edited by paes on Thu Jun 24, 2010 10:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by Patrick_GMATFix » Thu Jun 24, 2010 6:39 pm
Hi Paes,

The author intends to share 2 things that the evidence suggests. (1) elephant comes from acquatic animal (2) elephant's trunk evolved as a snorkel. These things should be listed in parallel.

A is ok, but does not list the 2 things in parallel. "evidence that suggests that the elephant is descended...and its trunk evolved". We should have "that" before "its trunk"*

B We need 'that' between 'suggested' and 'elephant'. Correct: The evidence suggests that the elephant is blue. Incorrect: The evidence suggests the elephant is blue. B is also incorrect because the present perfect doesn't work as well as the present tense. To express an action that is true regardless of time, use the present tense.

C. to express an action that is true regardless of time, use the present tense. The past perfect "the elephant had descended" is incorrect. C also fails to list the 2 things that the evidence suggests as parallel discoveries.

D. Same error as A. Also same verb tense error as C.

E Correct.


*Note that in simpler sentences, the common elements in parallel structures can be implied. For instance "I told you that I love food but hate water". In this case, "that I" is implied before "hate". However, because the two parts of the list are so close, it is acceptable to imply common elements. When, as is the case in the elephant sentence, the two parts are far apart, it becomes very important to be explicit and repeat the common elements in order to re-inforce the parallelism and make the sentence easier to understand.

If you have trouble with parallelism questions, use the Drill Generator to create and take timed drills, and set topics='Parallelism, Comparison & Parallelism, List' and difficulty='600-700 & 700+'


-Patrick
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by albatross86 » Thu Jun 24, 2010 6:55 pm
You have paraphrased the question incorrectly. Here is the original question:

Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolving as a kind of snorkel.

(A) that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolving
(B) that has suggested the elephant descended from an aquatic animal, its trunk originally evolving
(C) suggesting that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal with its trunk originally evolved
(D) to suggest that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal and its trunk originally evolved
(E) to suggest that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved


A. We have a comma + FANBOYS Scenario here, since we have a comma + and. This format MUST bridge two independent clauses. Here, the second clause "its trunk originally evolving..." is not a complete sentence by itself, and thus the entire sentence is incorrect.

B. "has suggested" means the action is completed, which changes the meaning of the original sentence which seems to suggest that the evidence STILL suggests this.

C. This is true even now, so perfect tense is inappropriate. Also, "with its trunk..." is incorrect.

D. Tense issue again.

E. Perfect. We have parallelism. ..to suggest that A and that B. The tense is also fine.

Pick E.
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by paridhi » Thu Jun 24, 2010 8:32 pm
albatross86 wrote:You have paraphrased the question incorrectly. Here is the original question:

Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolving as a kind of snorkel.

(A) that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolving
(B) that has suggested the elephant descended from an aquatic animal, its trunk originally evolving
(C) suggesting that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal with its trunk originally evolved
(D) to suggest that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal and its trunk originally evolved
(E) to suggest that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved


A. We have a comma + FANBOYS Scenario here, since we have a comma + and. This format MUST bridge two independent clauses. Here, the second clause "its trunk originally evolving..." is not a complete sentence by itself, and thus the entire sentence is incorrect.

B. "has suggested" means the action is completed, which changes the meaning of the original sentence which seems to suggest that the evidence STILL suggests this.

C. This is true even now, so perfect tense is inappropriate. Also, "with its trunk..." is incorrect.

D. Tense issue again.

E. Perfect. We have parallelism. ..to suggest that A and that B. The tense is also fine.

Pick E.
I thought in all the sentences the antecedent of its was ambiguous. Can someone pls explain why it is referring to elephant and not to aquatic animal?
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by albatross86 » Thu Jun 24, 2010 9:06 pm
I thought in all the sentences the antecedent of its was ambiguous. Can someone pls explain why it is referring to elephant and not to aquatic animal?
Actually, "from an aquatic animal" is sort of prepositional phrase, and "elephant" is clearly the main subject. Thus after a co-ordinating conjunction, a pronoun can be assumed to refer back to the main subject in the previous clause, and not to refer to some intermediate noun in the adjective or adverb clause or prepositional phrase.

eg. "Jim was born after his brother, but he claimed otherwise.

The "he" is actually not ambiguous here, because "after his brother" acts as a prepositional phrase, and thus the he in the second clause can be assumed to refer back to Jim.

This is a matter of preference - if for example you have a choice that is bother grammatically correct and explicitly shows pronoun-antecedent agreement, go for it, but remember that if you don't see better choices, don't worry about it.

This question is from the 12th edition OG, so I can assure you it could come up on the GMAT.
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by paes » Thu Jun 24, 2010 9:11 pm
Patrick_GMATFix wrote:Hi Paes,

The author intends to share 2 things that the evidence suggests. (1) elephant comes from acquatic animal (2) elephant's trunk evolved as a snorkel. These things should be listed in parallel.

A is ok, but does not list the 2 things in parallel. "evidence that suggests that the elephant is descended...and its trunk evolved". We should have "that" before "its trunk"*

B We need 'that' between 'suggested' and 'elephant'. Correct: The evidence suggests that the elephant is blue. Incorrect: The evidence suggests the elephant is blue. B is also incorrect because the present perfect doesn't work as well as the present tense. To express an action that is true regardless of time, use the present tense.

C. to express an action that is true regardless of time, use the present tense. The past perfect "the elephant had descended" is incorrect. C also fails to list the 2 things that the evidence suggests as parallel discoveries.

D. Same error as A. Also same verb tense error as C.

E Correct.


*Note that in simpler sentences, the common elements in parallel structures can be implied. For instance "I told you that I love food but hate water". In this case, "that I" is implied before "hate". However, because the two parts of the list are so close, it is acceptable to imply common elements. When, as is the case in the elephant sentence, the two parts are far apart, it becomes very important to be explicit and repeat the common elements in order to re-inforce the parallelism and make the sentence easier to understand.

If you have trouble with parallelism questions, use the Drill Generator to create and take timed drills, and set topics='Parallelism, Comparison & Parallelism, List' and difficulty='600-700 & 700+'


-Patrick
Great explanation Patrick

Actually now with your explanation, I understand that A, B, C, D are incorrect.

But E is looking awkward to me.

Australian embryologists have found evidence to suggest that ................


usage to 'to suggest' is looking awkward to me. It seems that embryologists have found the evidence to suggest/prove something.
In my view, it should be --
Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests ..........
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by pooniaabhinav » Thu Jun 24, 2010 9:52 pm
Hi,
I just want to know why A is wrong, cos the 1st as well as the 2nd clause is independent and joined by , FANBOYS. Moreover, we always use THAT after evidence/discovery etc.
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by albatross86 » Thu Jun 24, 2010 9:55 pm
pooniaabhinav wrote:Hi,
I just want to know why A is wrong, cos the 1st as well as the 2nd clause is independent and joined by , FANBOYS. Moreover, we always use THAT after evidence/discovery etc.
Actually thread-starter wrote the question incorrectly. In the original OG question, the second clause is not independent, as you can see in my post above.
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by albatross86 » Thu Jun 24, 2010 10:01 pm
But E is looking awkward to me.

Australian embryologists have found evidence to suggest that ................


usage to 'to suggest' is looking awkward to me. It seems that embryologists have found the evidence to suggest/prove something.
In my view, it should be --
Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests ..........
I see where you are coming from. Actually, your example above is accurate. You would prefer it if the evidence itself suggested some findings.

When we use "to suggest" we are saying that the embryologists found the evidence in order to suggest that...
This may seem less preferable to your example, but remember, on the GMAT we shouldn't bother with coming up with better choices, just to find the best choice out of the 5.

It is grammatically acceptable.
eg. I have discovered clues to suggest that you are the killer.

This means that I have discovered clues which I will now use to suggest that you are the killer. Hope that makes sense :)
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by paes » Thu Jun 24, 2010 10:47 pm
Thanks albatross86.

Actually I copied the sentence from somewhere and didn't realize the underlined portion.
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