New, strong varieties of antibiotics show the potential to

This question is basically trying to measure your capacity to read for meaning in parallel structures. However, I suspect that the correct answer choice (E) does poorly its intent, because GMAT is very strict in terms of "which" usage. "Which" should only refer to previous term.

Read for meaning: The sentence wants to compare new varieties of antibiotics with earlier varieties. Pay attention to where the term "earlier high-strengh varieties" is located in the sentence. Any choice that refers only to one aspect of "earlier high-strengh varieties", you can eliminate it. Go ahead and cross these answers out:

New, strong varieties of antibiotics show the potential to kill a harmful bacterium without the unintended effects of killing benign bacteria and development of resistant strains of bacteria by earlier high-strength varieties.

a. unintended effects of killing benign bacteria and the development of resistant strains of bacteria by earlier high-strength varieties - linked only to the 2nd aspect
b. unintended effects by earlier high-strength varieties of development of resistant strains and killing benign bacteria - linked only to the 1st aspect
c. unintended effects for the development of resistant strains of bacteria and killing benign bacteria of earlier high-strength varieties - linked only to the 2nd aspect
d. development of resistant strains of bacteria and killing of benign bacteria that were required by earlier high-strength varieties - linked only to the 2nd aspect, no comma, no distribution
e. killing of benign bacteria and development of resistant strains of bacteria, which were unintended effects of earlier high-strength varieties - close enough to refer to both terms, but notice that "which" actually refers to a term used in the beginning of the phrase "new, strong varieties of antibiotics"

Unfortunately I picked option A here. I didn't quite like the which in answer choice E, but not too convinced either with the second part of the sentence for answer choice A

Please advice
Thanks!
Cheers
J

1. New, strong varieties of antibiotics show the potential to kill a harmful bacterium without the unintended effects of killing benign bacteria and development of resistant strains of bacteria by earlier high-strength varieties.

5. New, strong varieties of antibiotics show the potential to kill a harmful bacterium without the killing of benign bacteria and development of resistant strains of bacteria, which were unintended effects of earlier high-strength varieties

There is a huge meaning shift in 1 AND 5.

1. without the unintended effects of killing benign bacteria
5. without the killing of benign bacteria

1 talks about effects of killing whereas 5 talks about killing of benign bacteria.

I would say its a poor quality question.

stuck between A and E.

considering whcih usage ..i marked A which is the closest.

B was temtpting but A clearly had an edge over B in my case.

Pls experts explain ....would E option be not there.....was A the answer then??


-h37

My approach is to eliminate those ambiguous options:

New, strong varieties of antibiotics show the potential to kill a harmful bacterium without the unintended effects of killing benign bacteria and development of resistant strains of bacteria by earlier high-strength varieties.

A. unintended effects of killing benign bacteria and the development of resistant strains of bacteria by earlier high-strength varieties
without the unintended effects of... and without the development of ...
or
without the unintended effect of ... and the development of ...
B. unintended effects by earlier high-strength varieties of development of resistant strains and killing benign bacteria
by seems illegal
Since the order of modifiers changed, this option changed the original meaning.
C. unintended effects for the development of resistant strains of bacteria and killing benign bacteria of earlier high-strength varieties
same as 2
D. development of resistant strains of bacteria and killing of benign bacteria that were required by earlier high-strength varieties
it removed unintended effects and added were required, thus changing the orginal meaning
E. killing of benign bacteria and development of resistant strains of bacteria, which were unintended effects of earlier high-strength varieties
clear and unambiguous - killing of... and development of... are two unintended effects.

So E is the best.

Thanks,

Hi All,

Are they parallel killing of... and development of...

Regards-
Abhijit

Yes, they are. A complex gerund phrase (the killing of...) can be parallel to an action noun (development).

(A simple gerund, though, cannot be parallel to an action noun. Manhattan SC guide explains the difference between simple gerund and complex gerund elaborately.)

Thank you Sayan. I need to revise them again

Abhijit

I got E as it is the only option which makes the meaning of the sentence clear.

But "which" in option E refers to noun phrases and not nouns.

I thought "which" can ONLY refer to nouns.

Can the experts clarify on this?

Regards
Bitan

the only problem in E is "which", but as Kaplan explains, everything makes sense now.

mikemcgarry

Could you please let me know why option E is right even though it seems to violate the which rule? i.e: which modifies the preceding word.

Dear mohitbahl,

I'm happy to respond.

I don't have the highest opinion of this question.

What you are calling the "which rule" is something known broadly as the Modifier Touch Rule. This is an important pattern and it has important and predictable exceptions, such as appear in this SC problem. The post on the Touch has some detail and these have more:
That vs. Which on the GMAT
GMAT Grammar: Vital Noun Modifiers

Let me know if you have any questions on anything in those three blog articles.

Mike

B,C,D are not idiom and hence out for sure.
E has better logical meaning than A does.
The key word in E is "were"; the word is plural.

I chose option A over E because of the 'which rule'.

I see the mistake in A though now. So if you chose A like me, here is why it is wrong:

unintended effects of killing benign bacteria and the development of resistant strains of bacteria by earlier high-strength varieties

Although the sentence is parallel, the effects are by high strength varieties. But in A, it sounds like only the development is by high strength varieties which is wrong.

This error in correct in option E. Which were (plural) clearly refers to the effects(plural). I blindly rejected option E because I saw which and it cannot modify bacteria.

Please feel free to chime in if my above explanation is inaccurate.

your articles are always amazing
Thank you for such a wonderful help

As written, the end of this sentence seems to indicate that earlier high-strength varieties of an antibiotic developed strains of bacteria resistant to the antibiotic. You need an answer choice that makes it clear that the two unintended effects, killing of benign bacteria and developing resistant strains, were encountered with the earlier versions of high-strength antibiotics.
Scan and Group the Answer Choices:
Each answer choice rearranges elements of this sentence in a different way, making it difficult to group the answer choices at a glance. Read through the choices systematically and eliminate them as you find errors.
Eliminate Wrong Answer Choices:
(A) is the sentence as written, which as discussed above is incorrect.
(B) uses the unidiomatic "unintended effects by," and (C) uses the likewise unidiomatic "unintended effects for."
(D) has a modification error. It incorrectly states that the bacteria were "required by" the earlier antibiotics. This choice also loses the information that the effects of the earlier antibiotics were "unintentional," changing the meaning of the original sentence.
(E) is the only choice that makes it clear that the two unintended effects were the effects of the earlier antibiotics. It is the correct choice.
TAKEAWAY: When awkward wording makes the meaning of a sentence unclear, look for an answer choice that removes the ambiguity and doesn't introduce any new errors.

Hi experts,

Within D, aside from the modification error, is the parallelism wrong? "...without the development of resistant strains of bacteria and killing of benign bacteria..."

An action cannot be parallel with a simple gerund, but does the "the" at the beginning logically carry over to the "killing?" I feel like I could convince myself both ways..

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