A report by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science has co

Hi,
B,C,D could be eliminated at first sight since "to come[s]" is wrong
Between A and E:
If we interpret the sentence as several types of dioxins come from the incineration,"many...dioxins...come" is correct.I agree with the answer.
But what if we would like to imply that the amount of dioxin comes from the incineration? much...dioxin...comes?
And what if we would like to imply that that a large amount from variety of dioxins comes from the incineration? much ...dioxins...comes? --> may be this is wrong,but really want a step further to clarify my doubt

Please help

Grammatically "much" cannot go with a plural noun. So even if the last meaning you mentioned is implied, the correct usage would be "much of the dioxin" - here "dioxin" would refer to the whole group of the chemical.

Split1) Modifier - Countable vs Uncountable nouns. The word "dioxins" is countable. How so? Because using "s" at the end of the word means that is plural = the plural makes the word countable. As a result we should decide whether "many" or "much" can modify dioxins. "Much" is used for uncountable words such as water. Conclusion = Use the word "many" in order to modify the word "dioxins". A, B and C are out.
Split2) Preposition rule. the following is a rule: Preposition + Object. The object can be a 1) noun, pronoun in objective form, 2)gerund, 3)substantive clause/noun clause. In this example = to = preposition => "to" + "which North Americans" = Preposition + Object. B, C, and D are out.
Split3) Meaning. in A, B, and E present the information about dioxins and exposure as one long modifier, while answers C and D separate this portion into two parallel pieces of information by using the word "and". what's the difference? You should use "and" to separate parallel pieces that do not have anything to do with one another directly. In this case, both parts are related "the uncontrolled dioxins that North Americans are exposed" so the following is wrong meaning: "The uncontrolled dioxins and that North Americans are exposed to" C and D are out.

A report by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science has concluded that much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed comes from the incineration of wastes.
(A) much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed comes
(B) much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins that North Americans are exposed to come
(C) much of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and that North Americans are exposed to comes
(D) many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and North Americans are exposed to come
(E) many of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed come

Dioxins is countable and is thus 'many'
D is incorrect structure of the intended meaning.

Oprion E is correct

A report by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science has concluded that much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed comes from the incineration of wastes.

(A) much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed comes
==> Usage of "Much" is incorrect here. Dioxins is plural and hence will need plural "Many" instead of "much"

(B) much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins that North Americans are exposed to come
==> Usage of "Much" is incorrect here. Dioxins is plural and hence will need plural "Many" instead of "much"

(C) much of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and that North Americans are exposed to comes
==> Usage of "Much" is incorrect here. Dioxins is plural and hence will need plural "Many" instead of "much"

(D) many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and North Americans are exposed to come
==> Missing "that" after "and" in order to maintain parallelism

(E) many of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed come
==> CORRECT

I have doubt on Dioxins part, as a person from commercial background, I have no clue about types of Dioxin and so I would simply conclude it as a pollutant causing harm; Just like we treat something like carbon monoxide. Now, constructing a sentence using "many" to refer to carbon monoxide will make it awkward. How to identify issue in such a case, as answer to this question would be obvious only to the ones who know that there are various kinds of Dioxin.

Thanks,
Sumit

Rest assured, the GMAT does not require a strong background in chemistry. Certain GMAT Club experts (*cough*) would be in big trouble if it did.

It's enough to know that "many" refers to countable nouns and "much" refers to uncountable nouns. And if the noun is plural, it has to be countable, right? So the presence of the plural "dioxins" is enough to indicate that "many" is appropriate here.

You're absolutely correct that carbon monoxide is non-countable, but there's no rule that says that pollutants must always be non-countable. It just depends on the specific pollutant in question. The same is true for all sorts of other categories of nouns. Foods, for example, could be either countable ("chips" or "deep-fried Twinkies") or non-countable ("okra" or "oatmeal").

I hope that helps!

I don't understand how people made mistake in this. This should be a sub 600 not 700 sc.

It is simple
Much vs Many(Countable noun many - dioxin 1dioxin, 2 dioxins etc)...
come vs comes.

Many people comes?--- Wrong
Much people comes?--- Wrong

Many people come--->Right

A report ... concluded that much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed comes from the incineration of wastes.

(A) much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed comes
(B) much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins that North Americans are exposed to come
(C) much of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and that North Americans are exposed to comes
Comparisons: much vs. many -- we are talking about the different types of dioxins, this is countable.
Subj Verb: "dioxins" = plural, verb "comes" must be plural.

(D) many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and North Americans are exposed to come
Parallelism: 2 clauses should start with the same word

(E) many of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed come
Correct quantity word, Subj Verb and removes wrong parallel marker "and" and replaces with prep phrase.

Exactly. That's my doubt too. I don't think the "S" technique after nouns will work!

Yeah, that poster is wrong, it's not a rule at all.
First of all, there are countable words that don't take an -es/-s when plural. For example "the deer" / "ten deer" ... or .... "the locus discovered in this study" / "two loci have been added to the gene map." Second of all, even words that are regular in this sense are not countable just because you can add those suffixes to them.

Your point about water(s): We would say "much of the water was spilled from the bottle" -- this is uncountable. We can also say "many of the bottles of water were given out to hurricane survivors" -- this is countable. Notice that we make it countable by defining the noun with some quantity (so like bottles, boxes, liters, etc...).

You can test this by using "one X, two X, three X"
One deer, two deer, three deer --> countable
One water, two waters, three waters --> uncountable

Hope that helps!

Couldnt pick between options B and E. Isnt B a better option choice?

In option B, "much" is incorrectly used.
Note the sentence is talking specifically about chemicals categorized as dioxins = countable nouns
Hence, we need to use "many" instead of much.

Much could have been correct if "proportion/percentage" was used.

This post might also help!

In terms of meaning, what is the difference between "dioxins that are currently uncontrolled" and "uncontrolled dioxins"? As far as I understand, although the structure is different essentially the meaning is same.

Kindly guide !

Hi Adi88

Yes in terms of meaning, both are same.
But option D has parallelism issue hence D can be eliminated.

many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and North Americans are exposed to come
"that" is missing after "and" to maintain parallelism.
Hope it helps

A report by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science has concluded
that much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed comes from the incineration of wastes.
SV Pair – report had concluded
SV pair - Dioxins comes from is incorrect. Come is needed since Dioxins is plural
SV pair – Americans are
Much of the dioxins is incorrect since we dioxins is s countable noun. Many of the dioxins is needed.


(A) much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed comes
SV pair - Dioxins come from
Much of the dioxins is incorrect since we dioxins is s countable noun. Many of the dioxins is needed.


(B) much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins that North Americans are exposed to come
Much of the dioxins is incorrect since we dioxins is s countable noun. Many of the dioxins is needed.


(C) much of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and that North Americans are exposed to comes
SV pair - Dioxins come from
Much of the dioxins is incorrect since we dioxins is s countable noun. Many of the dioxins is needed.


(D) many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and North Americans are exposed to come
Use of the conjunction and is incorrectly used to connect two unrelated ideas.

(E) many of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed come
This is the correct answer choice.