On Earth, among the surest indications of sunspot cycles are

Question

On Earth, among the surest indications of sunspot cycles are believed to be the rate that trees grow , as seen in the rings visible in the cross sections of their trunks.

A. On Earth, among the surest indications of sunspot cycles are believed to be the rate that trees grow
B. On Earth, among the surest indications of sunspot cycles are, it is believed, the rate of tree growth
C. On Earth, the rate at which trees grow is believed to be among the surest indications of sunspot cycles
D. Among the surest indications on Earth of sunspot cycles, believed to be the tree growth rate
E. Among the surest indications on Earth of sunspot cycles is believed to be the rate at which trees grow

srijay007 · Answer

I will go with C
The subject and verb is clearly defined only in C

NEWKID · Answer

C for me too. But can somebody explain why A is incorrect?

ywilfred · Answer

E for me. 
A,B,C seems to suggest sunspot cycles originate on earth

Paul · Answer

E suffers from misplaced prepositional phrase modifer:
indications on Earth of sunspot cycles --> indications of sunspot cycles on Earth
The second version is better as it properly gives the specific about the noun BEFORE the location of the noun. The order of modifiers should be specific about noun then location of noun as conveyed by prepositional phrases(which also act as adjectives)

Consider these 2 sentences from Ernest Hemingway from webster online grammar dictionary:
https://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/phra ... reposition
The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun

As you can see, the specifics about the noun comes before adjectives for location

A is wrong it has improper pronoun reference:
among the surest indications of sunspot cycles are believed to be the rate that trees grow
simplifies to:
among Xs are believed to be Y.

Let's take a simple example and you will see how illogical this is:
among the best students are believed to be Alex
the above sounds as if "the best students" are Alex himself
Instead, this should be rephrased as:
Alex is believed to be among the best students

crackgmat04 · Answer

I need some help from GMAT Club verbal Gurus..

In this sentence, OA is C.......

But, the non underlined portion doesnt completely gel with the option C in my opinion......

On Earth, the  rate at which trees grow  is believed to be among the surest indications of sunspot cycles,  as seen in the rings visible in the cross sections of their trunks.  
 

Now the latter part of the sentence is modifying "rate"......but it seems to modify sunspot cycles......Am I missing something here........

If there would have been no error in the placement of the preposition in E, wouldnt E have been a better choice?

Sargataur · Answer

If there would have been no error in the placement of the preposition in E, wouldnt E have been a better choice?

man not to be nitpicky but since everyone's goal on here is to help eveeryone else...let me correct the above sentence of yours so that you dont make such careless mistakes on the GMAT

If there HAD been been no error in the placement of the preposition in E, wouldnt E have been a better choice?

now it sounds right...ok onto the question...why not A

simpley becasue the sentence says "of the surest signs for such a thing to happen" ...and then it goes on to describe one of those things....one and ONLY one of those things....

if it said, of the surest signs for such a thing to happen are A & B...then the verb "be" would take the plural form since there r two things now A & B

hope that helps

Dookie · Answer

I'm almost sure it's E. Please let me know what you think:

The sentence end with " their  trunks"
between C and E, only E makes sure that "their" refers to the trees. 
In C, "Their" could refer to "cycles"

What do you say ?

On Earth, among the surest indications of sunspot cycles are

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