Bioconservatives, a group who believe that technological innovation th

Eliminate A because group needs "believes" as the verb. US grammar presides.

Eliminate C because the word "bioconservatives" needs the verb "predict."

Eliminate D for the same reason we eliminate A

Eliminate E because we are contrasting the verb "predict" with the noun "techno-progressives."

B is the correct choice because it corrects choice E's problem, contrast "predict" with "forecast"

This is all about SVA: the group who believes (singular) and the bioconservatives (who) predict (plural)

Bioconservatives, a group who believe that technological innovation threatens the existing social order, predict the opposite as techno-progressives, who believe that, when properly regulated, technology can empower and emancipate.

A. a group who believe that technological innovation threatens the existing social order, predict the opposite as techno-progressives, who believe that, when properly regulated, technology can empower and emancipate

B. a group who believes that technological innovation threatens the existing social order, predict the opposite of what techno-progressives, who believe that, when properly regulated, technology can empower and emancipate, forecast

C. a group that believes that technological innovation threatens the existing social order, predicts the opposite of techno-progressives, who believe that, when properly regulated, technology can empower and emancipate

D. a group who believe that technological innovation threatens the existing social order, predict the opposite of believing that, when properly regulated, technology can empower and emancipate

E. believing that technological innovation threatens the existing social order, predict the opposite of techno-progressives, who believe that, when properly regulated, technology can empower and emancipate > just akward to start with believing comparing to B which is more smooth. Additionally we needed no comma if we modify the bioconservatives with believing!

Answer B

Ohhh... i missed it completely!

Group - Believes
Bioconservatives - Predict
are the correct pairs. Thanks for pointing out. +1 Kudos for that

But still, Can 'Who' refer to a group of people??

Although Subject-verb is given importance, meaning is highlight of this sentence as indicated by Aditya.

here is a wonderful explanation from another user,who nails it

• The "who" vs. "that" issue is actually a false alarm.
• Because "who" can be either singular or plural, the fact that it refers to a "group" of people is actually okay.
• In this context, "who" vs. "that" is a trap designed by the test maker to cause novice test-takers into evaluating an issue that is actually a non-issue.

Not every difference in sentence correction is meaningful.

The basic idea behind this problem is simple. Large modifiers hide what is actually going on.
As we read the problem, we should notice the phrase, "the opposite of." This sets up a comparison, and the items within the comparison must be comparable.
However, we need to get rid of the modifiers to see the underlying structure.

The comparison is between what bio-conservatives predict and what techno-progressives predict.
Here is a breakdown of each answer choice, with the large modifying phrases removed to show the structure:

(A) "Bio-conservatives...predict the opposite as techno-progressives" (Can't work... we can't compare a prediction to a group)

(B) "Bio-conservatives...predict the opposite of what techno-progressives...forecast" (Works! We are now comparing a prediction to a forecast -- two things that are actually comparable. The test maker included the modifiers in this question to make it sound very awkward, but awkward doesn't mean it is grammatically incorrect. "It sounds weird" is not grounds for eliminating an answer.)

(C) "Bio-conservatives...predicts the opposite of techno-progressives" (Again, fails with the comparison. We also have a subject-verb agreement issue here, but at this point, two wrongs don't make a right.)

(D) "Bio-conservatives...predict the opposite of believing that" (Again, the comparison issue...)

(E) "Bio-conservatives...predict the opposite of techno-progressives" (Once again, we can't compare the verb "predict" to a noun, "techno-progressives.")

Anyone who misses this question is missing the comparison issue (or is getting lost in the modifiers)

Thanks for the nice explanation. I have a query, For point C, I understood that wrong comparision is made. However, I have doubt regarding the SVA issue. I read many answers and it was mentioned that we should have "predict" as "bioconservatives" is plural. However, "bioconservationes" is "a group". Then why should'nt we have "predicts"?

Aside from the ‘who vs that issue’ which we will keep in the backburner for a while, , let me deal witha different aspect of B

B. a group who believes that technological innovation threatens the existing social order, predict the opposite of what techno-progressives, who believe that, when properly regulated, technology can empower and emancipate, forecast

As per this choice, if technology is said to do three different things such as
1. empower,
2. emancipate,
3. forecast.

Why is the ‘and’ missing before the last item ‘forecast’?

Or does it do only two things such as?
1. empower and emancipate,
2. forecast

(This obviously cannot be, because you cannot group empower and emancipate under one set.) Even so why the ‘and’ is missing before the last item ‘forecast’ perhaps needs some explanation.

Whether who can refer to a group?

It is understandable that Veritas wants to defend its reference of a group for the pronoun ‘who’. But whether its perception is acceptable in GMAT domain is too early to conclude, unless we have concrete evidence. Maybe Veritas can produce some examples in which ‘who’ is used for referring to a group. I tried through the entire verbal review second edition, but all the 20 and odd references to ‘who’ were only humans. I also tried several other OG versions and I couldn’t find at least one instance in which ‘who’ was used to refer to things other than human beings.

Then I found one GMATPREP an example which used ‘who’ for “companies”. Please see the example and RON’s comment on that

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... t2324.html

The odds seem to be against Veritas. But there is no doubt that their hypothesis is rattling our beliefs. Or is this a trivial thing and not t part of the larger picture?

it is described as a group just to add some information which is not necessary to convey the intended meaning of the main sentence.

Min sentence is


the extra information added just for description or as a non-essential modifier(Between the commas) does not affect the main sentence or its meaning.

I hope this helps.

I do appreciate that 'forecast' is the verb for the subject ‘ techno-progressives’. But I only intended to bring out the oddity of this style, in which the verb is so far removed from its subject, being padded up with (three) multiple back-to-back modifiers in between. In fact, the verb ‘forecast’ has to jump at least three other verbs such as ‘believe, empower and emancipate’ to join its subject. Although this choice passes the grammar test, it fails the style test, IMO.

Of course, that it is the best of the lot is the solace.

The subject of ‘predict’ is ‘bioconservatives’ which is a plural subject. Hence predict is correct. The subject for 'believe’ is ‘group’ which is singular. Hence, it should be ‘believes’. So, we can eliminate A,D and E. Between B and C, we eliminate C because of ‘predicts’. Do not base your elimination on ‘that’ and ‘who’. 'That' is technically correct but ‘who’ is also acceptable. C has a major error with subject verb agreement. Hence, we choose the best of the lot which is B.

Hi expert,
I have doubts with the construction of the correct option B.
1) Bioconservatives,a group who...
How can who refer to group correctly?
2) Bioconservatives...predict
If we treat "Bioconservatives" as a group,how can we use the plural verb "predict"

Please help clarify my doubt
Thanks

Expert mikemcgarry please guide for this question....I am confused..Bioconservatives is a group so singular in nature hence predicts must be used instead of predict which is used in Option B. Also my second doubt is how can who refer to a group? Who is used to refer to persons isn't it?

What's wrong with option E?
I could eliminate A,C, and D... Not clear why E is incorrect. Please help

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Posted from my mobile device

Consider the following:
Bioconservatives predict the opposite of techno-progressives.

This usage does not make any sense - one can predict an event, but it does not make sense when someone predicts some people. The oppposite of techno-progressives are the people who are not techno-progressives. Thus it is meaningless to say that X predicts the people who are not techno-progressives.

Correct usage is:
Bioconservatives predict the opposite of techno-progressives' prediction/forecast.

Dear vasuca10,

I'm happy to respond.

My friend, as in another question of yours that I answered, what you believe is a SVA problem is actually a misunderstanding of the nature of the nested clauses. Choice (B) is perfect as is. Here's the main outside sentence, without the noun-modifying clauses.
Bioconservatives . . . predict the opposite of what techno-progressives . . . forecast.
The main subject is "Bioconservatives," a plural noun, and the main verb is "predict," a plural verb. No SVA problem.

The main noun, a plural noun, is followed by a singular appositive phrase "group," and the noun-modifying relative clause, beginning with the word "who," modifies that singular noun and so has a singular verb. You were confusing appositive phrase & subject of the noun-modifying clause with the main subject of the sentence. You were looking at two verbs operating at two completely different grammatical levels in the sentence.

As for your other question, it's 100% perfectly fine for "who" to refer to a group of people, either a few people or a very large group:
my friends, who like to refer to Monty Python, . . .
my family, most of whom live on the East Coast, . . .
the NY Mets, who were the 2015 NL champions, . . .
the French, who take pride in their language, . . .
the world's Muslims, who are an astonishing diverse group, . . .
the human race, whose living members outnumber the dead members, . . .
All of those constructions are 100% grammatically correct. There are about 70 million French people and about 1 billion Muslim on Earth. In the entire history of our species Homo sapiens, there have been about 10 billion human beings altogether, and about 7 billion of those are alive right now. I don't think I can conceive of a bigger number of "who," yet this use of "who" is still perfectly correct.

My friend, rather than continue to cite SVA issues and other problems where in fact you misunderstand the relationship of different clauses, I would recommend developing a deeper understanding of sophisticated grammatical structures. A non-native English speaker develops this understand by cultivating a rigorous habit of reading. Learning all the rules of grammar will only give you about 20-30% of what you need to know. The rest is a living knowledge of how the language is used, and this comes only from reading. See:
How to Improve Your GMAT Verbal Score

Does all this make sense?
Mike

Sir, Thank you for the guidance. However I marked B as Incorrect because the option introduced a new word called "Forecast".The correct answer choice should not have any new words which can change the whole meaning of the paragraph.Please help

Hi sahilsnpt!

I can jump in for Mike here

The word "forecast" is a synonym for "predict". The sentence is talking about what "bioconservatives" and "techno-progressives" each "predict". To avoid repeating the word "predict", option B just substitutes "forecast". The meaning, though, is exactly the same -- just because a different word is used, doesn't mean that it is changing the meaning of the sentence at all. Sometimes it's necessary to add or take away words to correct the grammar, but that's find, as long as the meaning doesn't change (as is the case here).

Hope that helps!
-Carolyn