Even today, a century after Pasteur developed the first vaccine, rabie

Answer: B.

"They" makes it clear that it is the "victims" that are inoculated.

Here's my take:




Meaning analysis:
If the victims of rabies are not inoculated in the early stages of the disease, then rabies almost always kills the victims.

(A) its victims unless inoculated - The verb "inoculated" is not being preceded by a pronoun. A question arises, "What is inoculated"? The rabies or the victims? This is incorrect.

(B) its victims unless they are inoculated - The plural pronoun "they" refers to "victims" as this is the only plural noun preceding it. The victims have to be inoculated in the early stages of disease. This goes well with our meaning analysis. Correct.

(C) its victims unless inoculation is done - Similar error like option "A". It needs to be clear as to inoculation is done "to whom" or "for whom"? (Rabies or victims)? Incorrect.

(D) the victims unless there is an inoculation - Similar error as C. Needs to be clear there is inoculation for whom? Incorrect

(E) the victims unless inoculated - Exact Same error as A. Incorrect

Even today, a century after Pasteur developed the first vaccine, rabies almost always kills its victims unless inoculated in the earliest stages of the disease.

Two possible errors are found in the underlined text.
1. Pronoun error
Pronoun "its" correctly refers to rabies. Even if we don't know the word rabies;which looks plural, verb "kills" implies that rabies is singular, thus "its" is correct. No error.

2. Subject-verb agreement error
There is no subject for the verb "inoculated".

With this pre-thinking, we can eliminate the answer choices A, C, E

(B) its victims unless they are inoculated
(IMO) Correct. Subject "they" are placed and correctly refers to "victims"

(D) the victims unless there is an inoculation
Subject "there" is vague; Normally the answer choice is incorrect in GMAT when "there" is placed in the subject.

Official Explanation :

Choices A and E illogically suggest that rabies rather than the victims of rabies should be inoculated in the earliest stages of the disease.

Choice B is best: it is logical, clear, and more precise than choice C and D, which do not specify who or what is being inoculated.

Even today, a century after Pasteur developed the first vaccine, rabies almost always kills its victims unless inoculated in the earliest stages of the disease.

(A) its victims unless inoculated

(B) its victims unless they are inoculated

(C) its victims unless inoculation is done

(D) the victims unless there is an inoculation

(E) the victims unless inoculated

The key word in this sentence is "kills". It tells you whether rabies is singular or plural.
We can eliminate (D) and (E)
(C) "is done" is passive voice
In, (B), the word "they" refers back to "victims"

Ans: (B)

why is C wrong? kills its victims unless inoculation is done in the earliest stage of the disease(rabies). Inoculation means treat with vaccine. It is very clear to whom treatment is done in early stage of rabies.

Hi, C is incorrect because C doesn't explicitly state whose inoculation is done.

The correct answer, on the other hand, clearly states that they (victims) are inoculated.

Usage of UNLESS requires present tense following it.

Example:
Correct: I will not do X UNLESS there IS Y.
Wrong: I will not do X UNLESS there WILL BE Y.

So, Option A and E will be eliminated.
D distorts the meaning

C is changing the meaning in a subtle way. It is saying that the inoculation is to be done. But the original intent is that the victims should be inoculated.
Hence B is correct.

Correct me if I am wrong. Thanks.

Hello SaiPavanR,

We hope this finds you well.

We are writing to inform you that although you have correctly identified the best answer choice, your reasoning for eliminating Options A and E is a bit off. The salient issues with both Option A and Option E are also meaning-related. the constructions "rabies...kills its victims unless inoculated" and "rabies...kills the victims unless inoculated" both illogically convey that rabies kills its victims unless rabies is inoculated; the intended meaning is that rabies kills its victims unless the victims are inoculated, and Option B clearly conveys this meaning. There is no tense error as such in either option.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Thank you very much for explaining. I will update my SC notes accordingly.

Hi Experts

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Can you please tell me why the option A and E are wrong

I chose my answer as option E

rabies almost always kills its victims unless inoculated in the earliest stages of the disease

Unless inoculated is modifying victims. It's illogical to say that it's modifying rabies. So according to me the correct meaning of the sentence E is - Rabies almost always kills its victims in the earliest stages of the disease , but it does not if they (Victims) are inoculated.

What's wrong with this option and with my understanding?

Hello Vatsal7794,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the constructions "rabies...kills its victims unless inoculated" - in Option A - and "rabies...kills the victims unless inoculated" - in Option E - both illogically convey that rabies kills its victims unless rabies is inoculated; in both these constructions, "unless inoculated" is not actually modifying "victims"; it is Option B that conveys the intended meaning through the phrase "unless they (victims) are inoculated".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Thanks for the response

So you are saying that "Unless Inoculated" in option A and E can't modify the victims, It can only modify the Rabbis. Right?

If yes then you can please explain me why unless inoculated can't modify the victims, with example?

ExpertsGlobal5

Hello Vatsal7794,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the construction "rabies kills...unless inoculated", seen in both Options A and E, is such that "unless inoculated" does not directly modify the noun closest to it, but modifies the subject of the preceding clause - in this case, "rabies".

For a similar construction, consider this sentence - "Some fruits are inedible unless cooked."

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

What does the sentence say?
The basic structure of option (A) without modifiers is
‘… rabies almost always kills its victims unless inoculated in the earliest stages of the disease’

Main clause – rabies almost always kills its victims
Dependent clause (adverbial) with a subordinating conjunction – unless …

But we don’t have a dependent clause here because the subject is missing. It could be a reduced adverbial phrase but that would mean that its subject should be the same as the subject of the main clause i.e. ‘rabies.’ But we know that ‘rabies’ is not inoculated. The victims are inoculated. Hence, it cannot be a reduced adverbial phrase. We need to specify the subject. Hence, both options (A) and (E) are incorrect.

The pronoun ‘they’ in option (B) clearly refers to the only plural noun before it – ‘victims.’
Options (C) and (D) are inferior to (B) because they do not specify who is inoculated.

Answer (B)

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