Research suggests that much of the documented cases of Nipah

"Case" is countable, so we should use "many", not "much". For this reason alone A, B, and C are out.

(D) many of the cases of Nipah virus infection that are documented in the human population result
Wordier than the original. Cumbersome syntax.
(E) many of the documented cases of Nipah virus in the human population result
Closer to the original and free of errors.

Here is a different stroke. The paramount question is what the thread is centrally concerned about. Whether it is the cases per se or the Nipah virus infection? As far as I see, the intended meaning of the example is to say that the infection is spread by the physical human contact with the saliva of the flying fox. Therefore, case or cases, it does not matter to us as they are all inessential modifiers, which can be ignored. The real issue is how to quantitatively describe infection, much or many? Obviously much, I guess. Thus one may see the irrelevance of using many in this contest. It is precisely for this reason I doubt the veracity of the OA, choice E; Choice E just mentions cases of Nipah virus but not its infection. This, IMO, is a fractured intent .

This is just my gut feeling, subject to comment and correction. But knowing Kaplan for its relish for ambiguity, I am not surprised this question leaves a yawning gap in perception. if infection is the core issue rather than the countability of cases, then A would be my preferred choice.

the question stem:
Research suggests that much of the documented cases of Nipah virus infection in the human population results from human contact with the saliva of the flying fox.

(A) much of the documented cases of Nipah virus infection in the human population results
(B) much of the documented cases of Nipah virus infection in the human population result
(C) much of the cases of Nipah virus infection that are documented in the human population result
(D) many of the cases of Nipah virus infection that are documented in the human population result
(E) many of the documented cases of Nipah virus in the human population result


DAAGH: we need to take both CASES and NIPAH virus into consideration.
a: cases is countable so it has to be many but nipah virus has to be in human population ... creates confusion between nipah virus bein in human population or the documented cases in human population.
b: same error...much does not relate to plural cases, also have a look at results/result as an anomaly. it has to be either cases result or case results.
c:same error
d: many cases (correct) , documented IN HUMAN POPULATION.. (how can a case be documented in human population?? ) (incorrect) , result (correct)
e: many cases (correct) , nipah virus IN HUMAN POPULATION (correct...a virus can be in human population) , result(correct) ----- this is the best available choice out of five given ..


I hope it makes sense... Let me know if there's a problem.

Answer explanation is posted right after the question. Link for the explanation is: research-suggests-that-much-of-the-documented-cases-of-nipah-152621.html#p1223724

You have done an nice analysis and there are points to be taken. I agree to your point that many of the Kaplan questions' correct answer choice contain ambiguity! Here, however, that may not be the case.

If the focus were on "infection", then the logical concern would have been the degree of the infection; in that case, number of Nipah virus infection would not have made sense as we would have dealt with only one type of infection, i.e., Nipah virus infection. Then the part "documented cases of" would have been a meaningless addition.

The concern here is different cases of Nipah virus infection -- the idea is to analyze different cases to find out the common cause of getting Nipah virus infection. Hence the question has a focus on "cases of Nipah virus infection".

I do agree that option E needs the word "infection" to make it perfect. Please see the detailed explanation on this question here: research-suggests-that-much-of-the-documented-cases-of-nipah-152621.html#p1223724

doe007, I do appreciate you point. I just mentioned another aspect of this episode. Let us say, for example, we have come across 200 registered cases of avian flu in some part of India. The bigger worry is the infection per se and how to contain it. Then the government insists that the remaining 20,000 birds have to manually killed (this killing is called culling). So an epidemic is not always a number game. The worry is that the Nipah Virus infection is just only type of virus and it manifests itself, as the WHO quotes “NiV infection in humans has a range of clinical presentations, from asymptomatic infection to acute respiratory syndrome and fatal encephalitis. NiV is also capable of causing disease in pigs and other domestic animals. There is no vaccine for either humans or animals. The primary treatment for human cases is intensive supportive care’


So I felt, the text is more bothered about the infection and its depth per se, rather than the numbers.
But the problem with Kaplan is that there are no definitive answers. And pondering over an issue inordinately does not lend to good practice. I do take your view as final, since the OA seems to say so.

The answer choice comes down between D & E and the correct answer finally is E.

The difference between D & E is that option D is the adjective form and option is the relative clause which makes it wordy and lengthy.

Adjective form is preferred over the noun form when the intended meaning is the same.

Hence OA is E.

Research suggests that much of the documented cases of Nipah virus infection in the human population results from human contact with the saliva of the flying fox.

(A) much of the documented cases of Nipah virus infection in the human population results
much cannot be used for the documents as they are countable
(B) much of the documented cases of Nipah virus infection in the human population result
much cannot be used for the documents as they are countable
(C) much of the cases of Nipah virus infection that are documented in the human population result
much cannot be used for the documents as they are countable
(D) many of the cases of Nipah virus infection that are documented in the human population result
it seems that the infections are documented in the human population.
(E) many of the documented cases of Nipah virus in the human population result
Correct

daagh, apologies for not replying early. What you are saying, that makes sense perfectly. I agree that in general we should be concerned with infections. Also I didn't like the construction "documented cases ... result" -- documented cases do not result from something -- correct sentence structure should imply the number of Nipah virus infected people who were contracted from the saliva of the flying fox. But, point to acknowledge is that we need to deal with the best option which may not be perfect one.

Here is the official explanation from Kaplan

Scanning the choices, we see two major choices: (i) "much of the . . . cases" versus "many of the . . . cases"; and (ii) "results" versus "result". Since "cases" is a countable noun, "many" is correct. Therefore, we eliminate choices (A), (B) and (C). Also note that, for the "results" versus "result" issue, the relevant kernel is "many of the cases . . . result/results". Since "many of the cases" is plural, we need to use the plural "result".

Between (D) and (E), (E) is more economical (less wordy) and fixes both of the problems. So (E) is correct.

I do agree with this point. In my opinion, it should be "the infection results from ST", rather than "many of the documented cases result from ST"

straight it have to be many not much so ans must be D or E
(A) much of the documented cases of Nipah virus infection in the human population results
(B) much of the documented cases of Nipah virus infection in the human population result
(C) much of the cases of Nipah virus infection that are documented in the human population result
(D) many of the cases of Nipah virus infection that are documented in the human population result
(E) many of the documented cases of Nipah virus in the human population result

D,Well it looks like wordy, while E is more concise.

E it is !!!

E is correct because of the use of many and because it is the most concise.

Research suggests that much of the documented cases of Nipah virus infection in the human population results from human contact with the saliva of the flying fox.

(A) much of the documented cases of Nipah virus infection in the human population results
(B) much of the documented cases of Nipah virus infection in the human population result
(C) much of the cases of Nipah virus infection that are documented in the human population result
(D)many of the cases of Nipah virus infection that are documented in the human population result
(E) many of the documented cases of Nipah virus in the human population result

There are 3 splits:
many cases vs much cases
cases result vs cases results
documented cases vs infection that are documented (documented infection)

The underlined portion of the sentence incorrectly uses the word "much" to describe the "cases" of the virus. The word "much" is only used for non-countable things. For countable things, the correct word is "many." For example, You will get many points on the GMAT. You will achieve much success. Points are countable; success is not. Additionally, since "many" is plural, the singular verb "results" will be incorrect. The sentence should read many ... result.

A vertical scan for the first word reveals a 3-2 split, with (A), (B), and (C) using "much," while (D) and (E) use "many." This useful split allows for the immediate elimination of the first three choices. A scan for the verb "results" is not as fruitful, as all of the choices except (A) use the correct "result."

(A), (B), and (C) can all be eliminated immediately, since they use the incorrect "much" to refer to the countable "cases."

(D) does fix the two errors noted in the initial analysis, but this sentence sounds like it is referring to infections of any species (not just humans), as long as they are documented in the human population. Compare this to the original sentence, which refers to cases of "infection in the human population." (D) ends up changing the meaning of the sentence and must be eliminated.

(E) corrects the two noted errors without adding any new errors. (E) is the correct answer.

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