Unpredictability of the monsoon, unusual, spatial and temporal

A. Unpredictability of the moonsoon, unusual spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall over the four month period, drought-like conditions in some areas and excessive rainfall in others, and the possible impact of global warming has, in the past, given rise to questions frequently about whether or not we are witnessing permanent or quasi permanent changes in monsoon behaviour.
Incorrect
Subject verb agreement error - has does not agree with the multiple subjects

B. Unpredictability of the monsoon, unusual spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall along the four month period, drought-like conditions in some areas and excessive rainfall in others, and the possible impact of global warming have, in the past, given rise to questions frequently about whether or not we are witnessing permanent or quasi permanent changes in monsoon behaviour.
Incorrect
along the four month period is not right

C. Unpredictability of the monsoon, unusual spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall over the four month period, drought-like conditions in some areas and excessive rainfall in others, and the possible impact of global warming, have, in the past, given rise frequently to questions about whether or not we are witnessing permanent or quasi permanent changes in monsoon behaviour.
Correct

D. Unpredictability of the monsoon, spatial and temporal distribution of unusual rainfall over the four month period, drought-like conditions in some areas and excessive rainfall in other, and the possible impact of global warming, have, in the past, given rise frequently to questions about whether or not we are witnessing permanent or quasi permanent changes in monsoon behaviour.
Incorrect
unusual should be placed with spatial

E. Unpredictability of the monsoon, unusual spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall over the four month period, drought-like conditions in some areas and excessive rainfall in others, and the possible impact of global warming, have in the past, given rise to frequent questions of whether or not we are witnessing permanent or quasi permanent changes, in monsoon behaviour.
Incorrect
if it a question of whether or not we are witnessing.... then using questions is wrong

Same IMO should be C, way more logical especially with the placement of "unusual" which respects the original meaning of the first sentence. The placement of "unusual" in D modifies the intendent meaning of the 1st sentence and we could understand that the the rainfalls are unusual. But it's not the original meaning which is that the distribution of the rainfall is unusual, not the rainfall in itself. Makes no sense to pick D over C.

GMATNinja could you please explain why it's D ? it's weird

In continuation to what you said, I would like to add that I couldn't help but observe a "whether or not" present in all the answer choices.

I generally use this as an elimination point on SC questions but now I am slightly confused as to whether I have formed an incorrect (and just lucky so far) elimination criteria basis "whether or not"?

What is GMAT's stand on this Charles, could you please share some insights? Are there any official questions where such usage is accepted?

Posted from my mobile device

Great observation: we've never seen "whether or not" in an OA. As explained in this post, “whether or not” is apparently considered redundant on the GMAT. “Whether” is enough, and the “or not” is just a waste of words.

But it's worth repeating the disclaimer we wrote in this post: the moment we think we've uncovered a "rule," the GMAT tends to put us in our place.

If you see "whether or not," you've probably found an incorrect choice. But blindly eliminating something the moment you spot "whether or not" probably isn't a great idea -- read your options carefully, and hopefully there will be other clues to support eliminating options in which "whether or not" appears.

I hope that helps a bit!

in option D, isnt the the word "other" wrong?
Shouldnt it be "others"?

Posted from my mobile device

Hello banker08,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, you are correct; Option D needs to use the plural pronoun "others" to refer to the plural noun "areas"; this is most likely a transcription error.

We hope this helps.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Given the busy schedule of GMATNinja, I am not sure if he will be prompt to reply to your query. Here are my two cents, instead. "Whether or not" is not wrong. Period. It's just that the part ("or not") after "whether" is not necessary. So, just "whether" alone stands concise and enough. But, if you club it with "or not", it does not make the sentence wrong solely on that basis. So, as Charles would say, " Do not make rules in SC that might bite you back if followed blindly".
You will always get another definite error to eliminate an answer choice. So, you do not need to keep this "whether or not" rule in your POE analysis.

AjiteshArun GMATNinja mikemcgarry
Can you please share your thoughts on why it should be C over D?

Hi Metalking,

I think both C and D are incorrect. That said, if I absolutely had to choose between those two options, I would go for C.


Ignoring the other issues in this option, unusual spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall seems to be okay.


I don't think I've ever heard something like spatial and temporal distribution of unusual rainfall before. Moreover, if the rainfall itself is unusual, surely that's enough? Why would we add something about the distribution of something unusual if the distribution isn't surprising? That said, as GMATNinja points out, it's hard to be absolutely sure that this isn't the intended meaning.

Are options C and D grammatically incorrect? AjiteshArun

Hi Metalking,

I'm not sure how the company or individual who made this question looks at this issue, but if we focus on the comma before have, we can see one of the problems in that option:


The structure is {A, B, C, and D, have}. Or, in other words, {subject, verb}. This is unexpected. Also, we can't ignore the other issue ("drought-like conditions in some areas and excessive rainfall in other, and the possible impact") in the correct(?) option. Moreover, option A isn't the same as the underlined portion (just from a quick glance, as I still haven't read the entire question).

It's possible that most people who attempt this question immediately remove the "correct" option, D, because of "rainfall in other", and that's why this question has a "95% (hard)" rating. It'd be good to go through the OE for this question, but I'm fairly confident that D is not the best answer here.

Dear GMATNinja
Please help to explain why is C wrong here.

Frankly, I wouldn't fret over this question. The explanation that 'C' is wrong due to the placement of 'unusual' doesn't cut it for me. I see no reason why the rainfall must be unusual, and why the distribution of rainfall cannot be unusual.

That's the problem with this question: (C) doesn't really seem to be any worse than (D). Check out this post for more on this.

How is " drought like conditions in some areas and excessive rainfall in other" right? It should have been "others" in option D.