OFFICIAL EXPLANATION



HIGHLIGHTS

• Exceptions to the modifier touch rule
-- the modifier touch rule says that a noun modifier ought to touch the noun that it describes
-- if two modifiers exist (such as "in the medical profession" and "which requires"), the essential one "trumps" the nonessential one.
The prepositional phrase cannot be placed elsewhere, so which must come after
-- it is common for WHICH and other modifiers to "reach behind" a prepositional phrase in order to get to the noun.

• COMMAS do not come between subjects and verbs without reason

The first comma eliminates D and E.

Correct: My friend Sam from Texas lived across the street.
Wrong: My friend Sam from Texas, lived across the street.
Wrong: My friend from Texas, lived across the street.

The moment that you see a fairly simple subject such as a career in the medical profession followed by a comma in the non-underlined portion of the sentence, get ready for a modifier, conjunction, dependent clause, or anything except its own verb.

• the causation words are okay except for "due to" (I keep expecting GMAC folks, who read these and other boards) to stop hammering this issue, but they do not.
-- because is the best causal connector in this case. as and since are okay.

THE PROMPT



When one subject (a career in medicine) is followed by two verbs (requires, cannot guarantee), we have a compound predicate (more than one verb phrase).

THE OPTIONS


• singular career does not match plural does
• Remember: a dependent clause such as which requires . . . does not change the singularity or plurality of the subject.
(The Ernest Hemingway question, HERE, explicitly tests that guideline.


• looks good: the subject is modified by a which-clause (something other than the verb must come after that comma) and singular career agrees with singular does


• requiring is an effective way to modify the noun career
• the sentence is a fragment, though—it lacks a verb.
--Requiring is not a working verb.


• the singular verb requires is correct, but it cannot be preceded by a comma
• I would not mark the pronoun IT as ambiguous, though your mileage may vary.
-- a pronoun is ambiguous if it has more than one logical referent
-- from context, I gather that the sentence highlights two negative parts of a career in the medical profession. It requires a lot and it promises little. The much bigger problem is the comma between subject and verb.

(E) A career in medicine, requires that an enormous investment of time and money be made and success cannot be guaranteed due to the competition[/quote]
• the comma before the verb requires is fatal
• requires that X be Y is fine, but the construction is cumbersome.
• "due to" is used incorrectly. Test it: substitute "caused by" for "due to."
When "cause by" works, "due to" is okay.

The correct answer is B

COMMENTS

lifeforhuskar , adityapopli , welcome to SC Butler.

Did you know that today is International Beer Day?

I wish I liked beer. It smells good sometimes.

This answer is pretty straightforwardly (B), but I sense resistance.

True, the word which should be as close as possible to what it modifies.
But "as close as possible" allows for exceptions.
Which can and often does modify the "main noun" in a prepositional phrase.

These answers are all very good.
I often give kudos for good reasoning even if it led you the wrong result.
Assuming that you read these responses , you won't make that mistake again.

bartk , I am bumping your post to Best Community Reply.

Everyone: nice work. Happy kudos.

A career in the medical profession [...] do not guarantee [...].

Nope. "Career" is singular, so we need a verb in a singular form.


(B) corrects the S-V error. Let's keep it.

Note: in this answer choice "which" doesn't modify "medical profession". There's a relatively rare case where "which" can reach behind a prepositional phrase ("in the medical profession") and logically modify "career". See more here.


Well, it's not really a sentence. We need a verb for "career".


I don't see a reason for putting a comma before "requires". Additionally, "it" is ambiguous and needs to reach far behind to "career".
We have a better option. Eliminate (D).


A few things:

• Same issue with comma as in (D).
• Weird/Lack of parallelism (no "that" before "success").
• "Due to" needs to modify a noun, but it doesn't (actually it modifies "cannot be guaranteed").
• It makes the meaning unclear and confusing: a career in the medical profession requires an enormous investment and a success that cannot be guaranteed...nah, let's not go deeper into that.

As you can see, we have plenty of reasons to eliminate (E). (B) is the best what we can do.

There are only 2 viable options : A and B.

"A career" is singular so we use does not. Had it been plural, we would have used do not.

I would , however, love to see a more comprehensive response.

IMO B.
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A career in the medical profession, which requires an enormous investment of time and money, do not guarantee success as there is so much competition.

Subject : A career requires a verb which should be ' requires'

which is a relative pronoun that incorrect modifies medical profession and not a career.
a career does not guarantee success as there is so much competition.

choice (D): requires an enormous investment of time and money, and it cannot guarantee success because there is so much competition

Now a career has a verb 'requires'
It correctly refers to a career
do not is removed and cannot is used instead which corrects the agreement error in other choices.
The sentence is logical and uses proper grammar to convey meaning.

IMHO D

A career in the medical profession, which requires an enormous investment of time and money, do not guarantee success as there is so much competition.

(A) which requires an enormous investment of time and money, do not guarantee success as there is so much competition - Which is an ambiguous term here

(B) which requires an enormous investment of time and money, does not guarantee success since there is so much competition -Which is an ambiguous term here

(C) requiring an enormous investment of time and money, without guarantee because there is so much competition- not a SV agreement, sp ruled out.

(D) requires an enormous investment of time and money, and it cannot guarantee success because there is so much competition- Singular so matching SV agreement and it here refers to career on which we have invested time and money.

(E) requires that an enormous investment of time and money be made and success cannot be guaranteed due to the competition - Requires that is incorrect

A career in the medical profession, which requires an enormous investment of time and money, do not guarantee success as there is so much competition.

(A) which requires an enormous investment of time and money, do not guarantee success as there is so much competition

Which refers to profession, not the career

(B) which requires an enormous investment of time and money, does not guarantee success since there is so much competition

Same as a

(C) requiring an enormous investment of time and money, without guarantee because there is so much competition

No verb

(D) requires an enormous investment of time and money, and it cannot guarantee success because there is so much competition

Correct

(E) requires that an enormous investment of time and money be made and success cannot be guaranteed due to the competition

Be made is incorrect

IMO D

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(A) which requires an enormous investment of time and money, do not guarantee success as there is so much competition - Requires "Does not" for the subject "career"

(B) which requires an enormous investment of time and money, does not guarantee success since there is so much competition - Correct

(C) requiring an enormous investment of time and money, without guarantee because there is so much competition - Changes the meaning - to there are two career in medical profession of which one requires an enormous investment

(D) requires an enormous investment of time and money, and it cannot guarantee success because there is so much competition - What does "it refer to?

(E) requires that an enormous investment of time and money be made and success cannot be guaranteed due to the competition - A career requires money be made - Incorrect

A career in the medical profession, which requires an enormous investment of time and money, do not guarantee success as there is so much competition.

(A) which requires an enormous investment of time and money, do not guarantee success as there is so much competition SVA mistake

(B) which requires an enormous investment of time and money, does not guarantee success since there is so much competition - correct answer

(C) requiring an enormous investment of time and money, without guarantee because there is so much competition - SVA - no verb for the subject career

(D) requires an enormous investment of time and money, and it cannot guarantee success because there is so much competition - double pronoun mistake

(E) requires that an enormous investment of time and money be made and success cannot be guaranteed due to the competition - no needs for comma before requires

IMO correct option is B

A career in the medical profession, which requires an enormous investment of time and money, do not guarantee success as there is so much competition.

(A) which requires an enormous investment of time and money, do not guarantee success as there is so much competition - This option is incorrect on the basis of SVA error - the subject if the sentence is singular "A career in the medical profession", should agree with a singular verb "does" not "do" - Incorrect.

(B) which requires an enormous investment of time and money, does not guarantee success since there is so much competition - Corrects the SVA error in the above option; ",which requires an enormous investment of time and money," correctly modifies the preceding noun phrase "A career in the medical profession" - Correct

(C) requiring an enormous investment of time and money, without guarantee because there is so much competition - Verb+ing modifier when used after comma, this participle modifies the entire preceding clause, but before comma, in this sentence there is no complete clause present, only a noun phrase "A career in the medical profession". Thus - Incorrect

(D) requires an enormous investment of time and money, and it cannot guarantee success because there is so much competition - Lets go by the meaning here & discard the option straight away "A career in the medical profession requires an enormous investment of time and money?????" does it makes sense?? a career requires investment of money & time? or the students who opt for this career option require those?? - Illogical meaning - Incorrect

(E) requires that an enormous investment of time and money be made and success cannot be guaranteed due to the competition - Same error introduced as D & also passive usage is somehow not a favorable option here - Incorrect

A career in the medical profession, which requires an enormous investment of time and money, do not guarantee success as there is so much competition.

(A) which requires an enormous investment of time and money, do not guarantee success as there is so much competition
A career do not guarantee success , does is used for referring the third entity which is singular
I do this , we do this (correct)
career do this (wrong), career does this (correct)

(B) which requires an enormous investment of time and money, does not guarantee success since there is so much competition
does - is the correct form, since is correctly used to explain the reason

(C) requiring an enormous investment of time and money, without guarantee because there is so much competition
A career , requiring lot of investment, without guarantee because ... there is no action or verb in the first part, so sentence appears disconnect

(D) requires an enormous investment of time and money, and it cannot guarantee success because there is so much competition
career requires lot of investment and it cannot guarantee success because... does 'it' point to profession or career.. also this sentence makes it mandatory about career needing lot of investment which is not intended meaning

(E) requires that an enormous investment of time and money be made and success cannot be guaranteed due to the competition
here also it suggests career demands lot of investment to be made. success cannot be guaranteed as a separate element in the list, no more has the connection with career
and use of due to is wrong to specify the reason..

B is the answer!

I have posted the official explanation HERE.

I eliminated A, C and E.
A - Career is singular...So Career do not guarantee is not correct. It should be Career does not guarantee.
C - Incomplete sentence.....Career requiring....without guarantee because.....
E - requires that seems incorrect. somewhat changes the meaning of the sentence too.

D - no need of comma in between a career in medical profession, requires...It is referring to what ????? It may refer to investment or career....Career is too far from it.

Will option D be correct had there been no comma before requires.

A career in the medical profession requires an enormous investment of time and money, and it cannot guarantee success because there is so much competition

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