Hello Everyone!
Let's take a closer look at this question to find the correct answer! Before we dive in, here is the original question, with any major differences between each option highlighted in
orange:
In a review of 2000 studies of human behavior that date back to the 1940's, two Swiss
psychologists, declaring that since most of the studies had failed to control for such variables as social class and family size, none could be taken seriously.
(A) psychologists
, declaring that since most of the studies
had failed to control for such variables as social class and family size,
(B) psychologists
, declaring that most of the studies
failed in not controlling for such variables like social class and family size, and
(C) psychologists
declared that since most of the studies,
having failed to control for such variables as social class and family size,
(D) psychologists
declared that since most of the studies
fail in controlling for such variables like social class and family size,
(E) psychologists
declared that since most of the studies
had failed to control for variables such as social class and family size,
After a quick scan over the options, it's clear that two major issues need to be addressed:
1. declaring vs. declared
2. had failed / failed / having failed / failLet's start with #1 on our list: declaring vs. declared. No matter which one we choose, it will knock out 2-3 options quickly.We know that we have a past tense verb (
declared) and a present participle (
declaring).
We can also see that the answers that use "declaring" also have a comma before them, creating a non-essential clause. That means whatever we put between commas is not important, and can be removed without changing the meaning or grammatical correctness of what's left over. Non-essential clauses are a popular problem with GMAT SC questions, so we'll check to make sure they're being used correctly while also checking for verb tense issues.
To make this a little easier to see, I've added the non-underlined portions of the sentence:
(A) In a review of 2000 studies of human behavior that date back to the 1940's, two Swiss psychologists,
declaring that since most of the studies had failed to control for such variables as social class and family size, none could be taken seriously. -->
WRONGIf we remove the non-essential clause that begins with "declaring," we see that the remainder of the sentence doesn't make sense because it's missing a verb (What did the psychologists do?). It also doesn't make sense to use the present participle here. The psychologists are not still declaring the studies are screwed up - it all happened in the past. Therefore, this cannot be the correct option.(B) In a review of 2000 studies of human behavior that date back to the 1940's, two Swiss psychologists,
declaring that most of the studies failed in not controlling for such variables like social class and family size, and none could be taken seriously. -->
WRONGAgain, if we remove the non-essential clause that begins with "declaring," we see that the remainder of the sentence doesn't make sense because it's missing a verb (What did the psychologists do?). It also doesn't make sense to use the present participle here. The psychologists are not still declaring the studies are screwed up - it all happened in the past. Therefore, this cannot be the correct option.(C) In a review of 2000 studies of human behavior that date back to the 1940's, two Swiss psychologists
declared that since most of the studies,
having failed to control for such variables as social class and family size, none could be taken seriously. -->
WRONGOkay, so while this sentence uses the correct past tense verb tense "declared," there is still a problem with non-essential clauses. If we cross out the phrase, "having failed to control for such variables as social class and family size," what we're left with doesn't make sense. Therefore this also cannot be a correct option. (D) In a review of 2000 studies of human behavior that date back to the 1940's,
two Swiss psychologists declared that since most of the studies fail in controlling for such variables like social class and family size, none could be taken seriously. -->
GOODThere is no issue with how the verb "declared" is handled here, so let's save it for later!
(E) In a review of 2000 studies of human behavior that date back to the 1940's,
two Swiss psychologists declared that since most of the studies had failed to control for variables such as social class and family size, none could be taken seriously. -->
GOODThere is no issue with how the verb "declared" is handled here, so let's save it for later!
You can eliminate options A, B, and C because they either use the wrong verb tense or the commas around the non-essential clauses are misplaced!Now that we've narrowed it down to only 2 options,
let's tackle #2 on our list: fail vs. had failed.We know that the psychologists declared in the past that the studies shouldn't be taken seriously. We also know that
before they made that declaration, the studies had failed in some way. This means we have two past tense events to deal with! We also know that we should use different verbs to indicate what order these events happened in:
Past Perfect --> Past Tense --> Present --> FutureLet's see how each answer stacks up!
(D) psychologists declared that since most of the studies
fail in controlling for such variables like social class and family size,
This is INCORRECT because it uses the present tense "fail," which conveys the wrong meaning. These studies aren't still failing - they failed in the past, causing two Swiss psychologists to declare them bad studies. (E) psychologists declared that since most of the studies
had failed to control for variables such as social class and family size,
This is CORRECT! It uses the past perfect "had failed" to show that the studies had failed before the psychologists declared them bad studies.There you have it - option E is the correct choice! It uses the correct verb forms, and doesn't have any problems with punctuation or non-essential clauses!
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