Plausible though it sounds, the weakness of the hypothesis is that it

(A) Plausible though it sounds, the weakness of the hypothesis

Passive construction of modifier is awkward. Here "it" refers to "the weakness gives rise to a nonsensical meaning (The weakness is plausible, but the actual meaning is "hypothesis is plausible".)

(B) Even though it sounds plausible, the weakness of the hypothesis

"It" incorrectly refers to "weakness".

(C) Though plausible, the hypothesis’ weakness

Same as A and B.

(D) Though the hypothesis sounds plausible, its weakness

Correct.

(E) The weakness of the hypothesis which sounds plausible

We need a comma before "which" and after "plausible" to maintain the proper modification.

The first part is a modifier and it modifies - Hypothesis

A B C are out
D is the answer

E - not sure but which would require a Comma and referent of -"it" is doubtful

daagh chetan2u - plz post your comments

The correct answer should be D. This is actually a pretty straightforward question, but it does reveal an important (and simple!) rule about how to approach SC questions.

The rule is this: the non-underlined portion is ALWAYS correct, and you should look to make the underlined portion agree with it. In this question, we see "it does not incorporate..." in the non-underlined portion. Well, what can the pronoun "it" be replacing? Since it is the hypothesis that does not incorporate the evidence, "it" can only replace "hypothesis".

Options A,B,E - All say "weakness of the hypothesis", thus making "weakness" the key noun being replaced. This is incorrect. OUT

Option C - In the noun phrase "hypothesis' weakness", the leading noun is once again the weakness, rather than the hypothesis. OUT

Option D - Right by elimination, but what we clearly see that sets it apart is that it makes the initial subject "hypothesis" itself. This option is therefore CORRECT

Remember that the non-underlined portion of an SC question is often just as important or critical to help you solve SC questions effectively, since it contains clues as to what the underlined portion needs to line up with. Although this question tests you primarily on pronouns, this rule becomes even more relevant with parallelism/comparison based questions.

- Matoo

Official Explanation

Logical predication; Rhetorical construction

The phrase plausible though it sounds modifies the noun that comes immediately after the comma, namely, the weakness of the hypothesis. As a result, the sentence says that the weakness itself is plausible. It is reasonably clear, however, that the sentence is intended to indicate that the hypothesis sounds plausible, not that the weakness does. Additionally, the referent of the pronoun it is ambiguous. The referent could be either weakness or hypothesis.

A. This choice suffers from the above errors.

B. This choice also inappropriately says that the weakness is what is plausible.

C. This choice also inappropriately says that the weakness is what is plausible

D. Correct. This version appropriately describes the hypothesis itself as plausible.

E. The phrase which sounds plausible should be set off with commas, or else which should be replaced with that. Furthermore, this choice fails rhetorically in that it does not covey, as it should, how surprising it is that the plausible-sounding hypothesis has this weakness.

The correct answer is D.

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down our options quickly so we know how to answer questions like this when they pop up on the GMAT! To begin, let's take a quick look at the question and highlight any major differences between the options in orange and blue:

Plausible though it sounds, the weakness of the hypothesis is that it does not incorporate all relevant evidence.

(A) Plausible though it sounds, the weakness of the hypothesis
(B) Even though it sounds plausible, the weakness of the hypothesis
(C) Though plausible, the hypothesis’ weakness
(D) Though the hypothesis sounds plausible, its weakness
(E) The weakness of the hypothesis which sounds plausible

So - we have a bit of a problem here. There are no clear differences we can home in on. Each option seems very different from the others. When this happens, we need to look at the bigger picture. What can we identify as the potential grammar concept we can focus on?

After a quick look over the options, we see that each one contains the same basic grammatical concept: MODIFIERS. Let's start there. We need to make sure the modifier is referring to what comes directly after the comma - the antecedent - and that the antecedent makes sense for the sentence's intended meaning:

(A) Plausible though it sounds, the weakness of the hypothesis = WRONG

This sentence is saying that the weakness is plausible, which isn't what the writer is trying to say. The writer is trying to say that the hypothesis is plausible, but that it has some kind of weakness. The modifier has a clear antecedent, but it's not the one we want, so let's rule this out.

(B) Even though it sounds plausible, the weakness of the hypothesis = WRONG

This has the exact same problem as option A - the antecedent is the wrong one for this sentence's intended meaning.

(C) Though plausible, the hypothesis’ weakness = WRONG

Yet again, the weakness isn't plausible - the hypothesis is. We can rule out this option too.

(D) Though the hypothesis sounds plausible, its weakness = OKAY

Much better! This option makes it clear that the hypothesis is plausible, but that there is a weakness to it. The meaning is absolutely clear, so let's keep this option for later.

(E) The weakness of the hypothesis which sounds plausible = WRONG

This one has a couple problems. First, phrases that start with "which" need to be set off with commas. Second, if we take away the prepositional phrase "of the hypothesis," we still have the same problem as we do in options A, B, and C - it's attributing "plausible" to "weakness," which isn't what we want.


There you go - option D is the only one that has a clear, logical meaning. Remember - if it looks like everything about the options are different, think bigger - and that should help you find your way!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

chetan2u I'd like to disagree with the above explanation for (A) & (B).

Both (A) & (B) begin with a clause that is supposed to modify the immediate noun.
(A) Plausible though it sounds ------ is a clause. It has a subject "It" and verb "Sounds". The sentence is a rearranged version of "Though it sounds plausible." This is no different from "Even though it sounds plausible". Thus, both versions require "Hypothesis" immediately after. Coz they need to convey "WHAT" sounds plausible.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Plausible though it sounds, the weakness of the hypothesis is that it does not incorporate all relevant evidence.

This underlined structure tells us that it is the 'weakness' of the hypothesis (and not the hypothesis itself) that's plausible. We know that the intended meaning was to indicate that the 'hypothesis' is plausible.

(A),(B) and (C) convey the same incorrect meaning as the underlined portion of the prompt. Hence, eliminate (A), (B) and (C)

We are now left with (D) and (E)

(D) Though the hypothesis sounds plausible, its weakness - Has no error. Hence, (D) is the right answer choice.

(E) The weakness of the hypothesis which sounds plausible - has a relative clause modifier error. Hence, eliminate (E)

Dont fall for the traps in this question

- 'it' in some options refers to the weakness and not the 'hypothesis'.
It should refer to 'hypothesis'
Options A, B eliminated

- 'plausible' modifies 'weakness' in Option C which isnt what the intended meaning of sentence is
Option C eliminated
Similar to C, in option E too, 'plausible' modifies 'weakness'
Option E eliminated

Hence, correct answer choice is D
('plausible' modifies 'hypothesis' and 'its' refers to 'hypothesis')


IF MY EXPLANATION OR LOGIC IS WRONG, PLEASE CORRECT ME.

(A) Plausible though it sounds, the weakness of the hypothesis - We are not sure what it refers back to. I am not sure if it sentence is a modifier because it seems like a proper clause with reworded arrangement. Here, it refers to the weakness.
(B) Even though it sounds plausible, the weakness of the hypothesis - We are not sure what does it refers to here - weakness or hypothesis
(C) Though plausible, the hypothesis’ weakness - the possessive noun of hypothesis makes it refer back to weakness.
(D) Though the hypothesis sounds plausible, its weakness - Seems correct
(E) The weakness of the hypothesis which sounds plausible - Again, we dont know what it refers to here.

For me, pronoun ambiguity was the main issue. Can some expert comment if my explanation is correct?

Kanika3agg
I am not an expert but let me help.
Your analysis is perfectly fine as all the choices have pronoun issues - precisely pronoun antecedent issue. Except D all others have 'it' referring to weakness one or the other way. Other possible issue that you referred is about modifier/clause which really is not being tested here. It is just that like 'it' the initial modifier, whether a clause or not, must modify a logical subject. Here the logical subject is hypothesis since plausibility of hypothesis makes sense whereas plausibility of weakness doesn't.

Also, in D you have 'its' used to refer again to hypothesis. It is perfectly correct to use pronouns of same class - it or its - to refer to same subject.

HTH.

(A) It's an awkward construction in modifying the Plausibility of the hypothesis. Wrong
(B) It doesn't have a clear antecedent. Use of even and though together is wordy. Wrong
(C) The possessive of hypothesis is wrong.
(D) Though the hypothesis sounds plausible, its weakness; Its referring to the hypothesis. Correct.
(E) It has pronoun ambiguity for which. Wrong

The answer is D

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