The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap that is anticipated to adva

The sentence compares “red oak tree sap” and “sap extracted from other trees” (two types of sap)

A) Compare “discovery” with “other trees”  Incorrect
B) Compare “discovery” with “sap extracted from other trees”  Incorrect
C) Compare “discovery” with “other trees”  Incorrect
D) Correctly compare “red oak tree sap” and “sap extracted from other trees”  Correct.
E) Compare “red oak tree sap” and “other trees”  Incorrect

Hope it helps.

I will only discuss choice B and D. Choice B is FLAWED in meaning. Choice D is not so much a problem of parallelism.

Let's breaking down the initial statement:
The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap that is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and at a lower cost.

- The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap [that is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines] will be able to...
Question: What will be able to?
Answer: The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap.

- .... will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and at a lower cost.
Question: The sentence compares what?
Answer: It is comparing the discovery (...able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture....) THAN other trees???

Such flaw in meaning eliminates B also.
(B) The recent discovery of [a red oak tree sap] is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines and will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from at a lower cost than the sap extracted from other trees

The valid comparison should be between the sap of the recently discovered red oak tree and the sap of the other trees. Answer D tackles this problem.

(D) A recently discovered red oak tree sap, [which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines], will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from THAN the sap extracted from other trees can, and at a lower cost

It is clear that the new discovered red oak tree sap itself (in B, it seems that the discovery provides chemist with that sap) provides chemist with a more potent mixture to work from THAN the sap extracted from other tress does.

Ambiguity in meaning is solved.


As for the parallelism:

Indeed "can" does NOT make a perfect parallelism with "will be able to". However, considering all other answer choices, D is the best possible.

Sincerely,

In A and D, the parallelism marker ‘and’ is joined by the prepositional phrase ‘at a lower cost’ on the right side. What is the other parallel element on the left of ‘and’?

Why is the comma there before and, when there are only two elements involved? Logically therefore, should the 'and' and the comma before be removed to make D problem free?

The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap that is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and at a lower cost.

A. The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap that is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and at a lower cost

B. The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines and will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from at a lower cost than the sap extracted from other trees

C. The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from at a lower cost than other trees

D. A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than the sap extracted from other trees can, and at a lower cost

E. A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and to decrease the cost


Meaning needs to be clear;The subject of the sentence should be the sap and not the discovery.
Hence, A,B and C are out.
Between D and E ' D is correct.
E makes the comparison error by comparing potent mixture with other trees.
D corrects the comparison error by comparing sap from red oak (a potent mixture) with sap from other trees.

A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than the sap extracted from other trees can (provide), and (will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture) at a lower cost.

A great Q, although tough and time consuming

Meaning issue in the choices:
A. The sap is anticipated to advance experimentation - okay. The recent discovery is compared with other trees - Wrong.

B. The recent discovery is anticipated to advance experimentation - may work. The recent discovery is compared with sap extracted from other trees - Wrong.

C. Same as A. Wrong.

D. The recent discovery is NO subject anymore. Subject is the sap (relief!). The sap is anticipated to advance experimentation and compared with sap extracted from other trees. Great!!

E. All good except the sap will be able to decrease the cost - meaning is NOT great.

Answer: D.

Took almost 3.5 minutes.
Main point: red oak sap will result in a mixture that has more potential than the mixture resulted from sap of other trees.

A. The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap that is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and at a lower cost

oak sap is compared to other trees here.

B. The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines and will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from at a lower cost than the sap extracted from other trees

at a lower cost is misplaced here. It is another reason apart from more potent mixture.

C. The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from at a lower cost than other trees

same comparison issue as in A

D. A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than the sap extracted from other trees can, and at a lower cost

correct comparison

E. A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and to decrease the cost

removal of word chemists gives rise to meaning error.

I was surprised so many others got this wrong. By focusing on the splits, I was able to find the errors quite easily. If you are able to find the modifier error, that eliminates the first three answer choices. From there, D and E are moderately difficult to eliminate depending on how you see "to decrease the cost".

The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap that is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and at a lower cost.

(A) The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap that is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and at a lower cost
It's not the discovery of the red oak tree sap that is anticipated to advance the experimentation. It's the actual red oak tree sap.

(B) The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines and will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from at a lower cost than the sap extracted from other trees
It's not the discovery of the red oak tree sap that is anticipated to advance the experimentation. It's the actual red oak tree sap.

(C) The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from at a lower cost than other trees
It's not the discovery of the red oak tree sap that is anticipated to advance the experimentation. It's the actual red oak tree sap.

(D) A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than the sap extracted from other trees can, and at a lower cost
Correct. The red oak tree sap is the noun being modified to advance the experimentation. This makes logical sense. At a lower cost is also correct.

(E) A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and to decrease the cost
"to decrease the cost" needs to have a clause after it in order to maintain the parallelism. Here, it sounds awkward when compared with "to provide a more potent mixture to work from than other trees"

The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap that is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and at a lower cost.
(A) The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap that is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and at a lower cost. :- Too long no punctuation, its a classic anti jumbler

(B) The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines and will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from at a lower cost than the sap extracted from other trees. The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap is anticipated & will be able to provide?? what does that mean.

(C) The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from at a lower cost than other trees. Now Which refers to Oak Tree Sap , hence OTS is anticipated to advance experimentation??? Seems illogical to me, and comma will be able to provide makes the same mistake as B

(D) A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than the sap extracted from other trees can, and at a lower cost.
This is the most sane of all till now, recently Adverb modifies ROTS, which is anticipated to advance Experimentation? wait isnt this the reason i eliminated the other two? MF okay lets go ahead anyways, Oh The IDIOM PROVIDE WITH, this was not in any of the others, and its a correct idiom, carry on, With a more potent mix and at a lower cost, very clear and very parallel. If E is not better i go with this.


(E) A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and to decrease the cost.

Adverb modifier okay, Which clause seems to be very popular here so dont pay attention, provide whom??? who is working here chemists are eliminated. And to decrease cost is again very non clear.

Thats how i got to D.

Please guide me if any mathematical or surgical way to tackle such Questions.

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The original sentence is long and confusing. In order to simplify the sentence, let's figure out what it is trying to say: The main verb of the sentence is will be able. The subject appears to be The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap, but it is not logical that The recent discovery of sap... will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture because discoveries don't provide mixtures. What provides the mixture? The logical subject of the sentence is sap; we should look for the answer that places sap at the beginning of the sentence.

The comparison more...than does not compare like—or parallel—items; will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than other trees illogically compares the ability to provide chemists with a more potent mixture and other trees. Mixtures cannot be more potent than trees; it is the abilities of the mixtures and the abilities of the saps from other trees that are being compared.

Choice D is correct. This choice changes the subject to A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is the logical subject of the verb will be able to provide. This option also compares the ability of the recently discovered sap to provide chemists with a more potent mixture with the ability of the sap extracted from other trees by using the word can.

Choices B and C retain the incorrect subject, The recent discovery of a sap, which illogically seems to be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture. These options also retain comparison errors. In B, the new trees are able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture....than other saps, and we want to compare the abilities of the saps. C makes the comparison to other trees. Both B and C are incorrect.

Choice E fixes the subject error but not the comparison error; the more potent mixture than other trees is illogical .

Choice D is correct.

Inline is my take,

X will be more potent than Y, rather than X will be more potent from Y
With this in mind we can directly eliminate B and C

(A) The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap that is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and at a lower cost
Now elimination is based on what was the idea of the author ??
Was the discovery or the red oak tree sap important here ??
Latter wins.

(D) A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines , will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than the sap extracted from other trees can, and at a lower cost
Answer D, even when you remove the run on sentence, you get the correct intent.


(E) A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and to decrease the cost
E is not complete, it is missing something after this

The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap that is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and at a lower cost.

Firstly always reduce the statement to as crisp as you can in order to understand better. Remove all the modifiers, non-essential information.


(A) The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap that is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and at a lower cost.

Here the subject is Recent discovery and it is being compared with other trees. Always make sure to compare only comparable things or items. You can't compare a discovery with trees. So ELIMINATED.

(B) The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines and will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from at a lower cost than the sap extracted from other trees

Here there are many errors. 1) There is no parallel structure maintained. Is anticipated ... and... will be able - are not parallel. Also, this repeats the same error as in option A. Compares discovery with trees. So ELIMINATED.

(C) The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from at a lower cost than other trees

This choice also repeats the same error as in option A. Compares discovery with trees. So ELIMINATED.

(D) A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than the sap extracted from other trees can, and at a lower cost.

This choice perfectly compares oak tree sap with sap extracted from other trees. This is a valid comparison. This choice is the correct one.

(E) A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide a more potent mixture to work from than other trees and to decrease the cost.

This choice compares red oak tree sap with other trees. You can compare England Men's cricket team with Australia Women's cricket team. But you can't compare England cricket team with Russia football team. A comparison should always be apt. So this choice is ELIMINATED.

Always remember that if a sentence says "Prince of Persia", then Prince is the subject here, but not Persia. In options A, B, and C, the recent discovery is the subject but not red oak tree sap.

OPTION: D

Recently discovered sap ,

Will provide better than other Sap from tree at a lower cost . This is the basic meaning .

D will provide the best choice as per above meaning

Posted from my mobile device

A B C are wrong because they treat ‘the discovery’ as the subject of the sentence, rather that the ‘red oak tree sap’.



E makes the mistake of comparing ‘potent mixtures’ with ‘other types of trees’.



So D is the right answer.

1. Discovery is compared with other trees in Option A, B, C. Eliminated
2. In Option E, "to decrease the cost" is correctly modifying "red oak tree sap" . The sentence becomes nonsensical.

Option D is the correct answer

The key to caracking the code is eleminating a few key ambigious meanings such as tree is not lowering the cost of the sap such as in C and A
in B we are not in a position to determine whether other mixtures included the sap of the trees or other mixtures
and in E the red oak tree sap will advance the experimentation the chemists are the one advancing
Only D puts all these into consideration and put in the right meaning hence IMO D

GMATNinja

I have a problem accepting option D. I feel like it reads as though the oak tree sap is anticipating to advance, rather than the discovery which creates this anticipation..

I'd feel much more comfortable selecting D if it was written "The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap is anticipated to advance " than "A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated"

Would you clarify please?

Thank you!


(B) The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines and will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from at a lower cost than the sap extracted from other trees

(C) The recent discovery of a red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from at a lower cost than other trees

(D) A recently discovered red oak tree sap, which is anticipated to advance experimentation with natural substances in order to create cancer medicines, will be able to provide chemists with a more potent mixture to work from than the sap extracted from other trees can, and at a lower cost