pkudinov wrote:
Hi
mikemcgarry,
egmat, maybe we should try to figure out this question again? I encountered it in Practice Exam 2 of GmatPrep (see attached picture).
Official Guide has similar (the-period-when-the-great-painted-caves-at-lascaux-and-93734.html) question which has an obvious answer, but this modified version... I can't understand the logic.
Dear
pkudinovI'm happy to respond.
Here's the text of the question:
The period when the great painted caves at Lascaux and Altamira were occupied by Upper Paleolithic people has been established by carbon dating, but what is much more difficult to determine are the use to which primitive peoples put the caves, the reason for their decoration, and the meaning of the magnificently depicted animals
A) has been established by carbon dating, but what is much more difficult to determine are
B) have been established by carbon dating, but what is much more difficult to determine are
C) have been established by carbon dating, but that which is much more difficult to determine is
D) has been established by carbon dating, but what is much more difficult to determine is
E) are been established by carbon dating, but that which is much more difficult to determine isYou know, it's funny. Almost all official questions leave me speechless with admiration. This is one of the few that leave me a bit queasy about what it is doing.
The opening split is interesting. We need the singular "
has been" to agree with the singular subject "
the period." Choices (A) & (D) are the only ones that survive this split. (B) & (C) have the plural form, and (E) is completely bizarre, something that no native speaker would ever pick. It surprises me to have an answer that wrong in an official question. This is not typical.
Choices (A) & (D) are identical up to the last words. A relative pronoun, such as "
what" can be either singular or plural; the relative clause begun by that pronoun takes the number of the pronoun. If the "what" is singular, then all verbs referring to it or the clause should be singular, and if plural, vice versa. In all five answer choices, we get a singular verb after the word "what" inside the relative clause: "
what is much more difficult to determine." That identifies the relative pronoun as singular, which makes the entire relative clause singular, and so we have to pick (D), which has the singular verb at the end. This allows us to come to an unambiguous answer.
My complaint about the question is that the word "
what" ultimately refers to the three separate items listed at the end of the sentence. I feel the word "
what" should be plural. That would require both verbs to be plural. Thus, I would write: "...
but what are much more difficult to determine are..." Technically, I believe that would be the most correct version, but it may be that on this point I am being even more grammatically conservative than the GMAT itself. It's funny. The vast majority of questions on the GMAT accord with my conservative grammatical predilections. This is one of the few that don't.
Nevertheless, it's straightforward to find the OA of this question. Does all this make sense?
Mike
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Mike McGarry
Magoosh Test PrepEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. — William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)