A federal advisory panel proposes expanding a national computerized

Question

GMAT® Official Guide Verbal Review 2019

Practice Question  
Question No.: SC
OG Code : SC01600 
A federal advisory panel proposes expanding a national computerized file to permit law-enforcement agencies to track people  under criminal investigation but  have not yet been charged.
 
(A) under criminal investigation but
 
(B) under criminal investigation, but who
 
(C) under criminal investigation, but they
 
(D) who are under criminal investigation, but they
 
(E) who are under criminal investigation but

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/11/nyregion/news-summary-thursday-june-11-1987.html 
 https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1987/06/11/383287.html 
 https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/11/us/crime-panel-backs-broad-expansion-of-computer-file.html

A national computerized file would be expanded to permit law-enforcement agencies to track people  under criminal investigation but  have not been charged, under a tentative decision by a Federal advisory panel.

A Federal advisory committee has tentatively endorsed a major expansion of a national computer file that would permit Federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies to exchange information on people  who are suspected of a crime but  have not been charged.

DmitryFarber · Accepted Answer

The initial split here (under investigation vs. who are under investigation) is a non-issue. Either one is usable in the right circumstances. This is entirely about parallelism. Since all A-D all use "but" before "have not been charged," we need another verb for "people." That's where "who are" comes in to save the day. D doesn't fit with that fix because it puts a pronoun in front of the verb, spoiling parallelism. We can't say "I like desserts that  include  lots of chocolate but  they are  not too sweet."

dcummins · Answer

GMATNinja  or anyone else feel free to correct my analysis:
 (A) Parallelism Error: 
 Form: X BUT Y 
Subject: People
X Element: "under criminal investigation" is a prepositional phrase 
Y Element: "have not yet been charged" phrase that starts with a verb, but does not contain a subject

(B) Parallelism error (similar to A) 
 The addition of who corrects the missing Subject the Y element, but we need a form of be (is/was/are/am/be) with "under" as "under" starts a prepositional phrase
We can also eliminate (C) for the same reasons.

(D) who are under criminal investigation, but they
 "who are under" - relative pronoun "who" is connected to form of be. Why is this correct? well it can connect with the non-underlined verb in the Y element of the parallelism marker
And, we can clearly see that the antecedent of "who" is "people".

But, "they" forms an independent clause. This is incorrect.
Rule: A relative clause (a clause beginning with a relative pronoun such as that, who, whom, which, whose) is never parallel to an independent clause
Eliminate D

(E) the relative clause "who" has a clear antecedent.
 The relative pronoun "who" clearly introduces two parallel verbal phrases that are coordinated by the one-word marker, "but" 
"they" is removed, eliminating the previous independent clause error in D

hiranmay · Answer

A federal advisory panel proposes expanding a national computerized file to permit law-enforcement agencies to track people  under criminal investigation but  have not yet been charged.

A.  under criminal investigation  but --> not parallel with "have not yet been charged "

B.  under criminal investigation , but who --> same as A

C.  under criminal investigation , but they --> same as A

D.  who  are under criminal investigation, but  they  --> not parallel

E. who are under criminal investigation but -->  correct

SonalSinha803 · Answer

A. under criminal investigation but - what follows but seems to be ambiguous as we don't know who has not been charged - federal government or people ??

B. under criminal investigation, ((but who)) - incorrect structure + ambiguity of "who".

C. under criminal investigation, but ((they)) - incorrect.

D. who are under criminal investigation, ((but they)) - incorrect.

E. who are under criminal investigation but - brings out the correct meaning by using who before the underlined part so as to convey that both the parts are about people. Thus, ambiguity is removed and correct meaning is conveyed.

Sent from my Lenovo K53a48 using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

torto · Answer

Hi Expert,

I am a little confused about who here.

What is the difference between "people under criminal investigation" and "people who are under criminal investigation". Which is correct.

What is the concept tested here? Where can I read about it more?

DmitryFarber · Answer

I also must take a moment to jump to the New York Times's defense. Although they certainly do make errors, this was one of transcription, as the three versions originally cited make clear. The original article is written correctly, and it's only the digital archive version that gets it wrong. You're still much better off with the NYT than with the WSJ, especially given the latter's limited focus.

Mansi89 · Answer

Don’t we have to use who both the sides? If I remember correctly in Manhattan sc it’s clearly written that we have to use where who etc in all comparative forms.. am I wrong?

Posted from my mobile device

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  Mansi89 , while I am not sure about the exact context in which Manhattan sc says so, I would say that  but  is more of a  contrast  indicator than a  comparison  indicator.

Also, I address the  repetition  of a  relative  pronoun ( who  in this case)  here .

RK007 · Answer

Why is B wrong? I don't get the difference between B and E. Can someone please explain?

GMATNinja · Answer

This is a parallelism issue. Let's start with choice (E):

The parallel list boils down to: "... people who (1) are under criminal investigation but (2) have not yet been charged." We are using "but" instead of "and", but the parallelism rules are the same. Note that both (1) and (2) start with verbs and logically follow "people who...":

"... people who (1) are under criminal investigation" 
 "... people who (2) have not yet been charged"

The parallelism breaks down in choice (B): "... people (1) under criminal investigation, but (2) who have not yet been charged." The first item in the list begins with a preposition ("under"), while the second item begins with a noun modifier ("who"). These two things are not parallel.

And we cannot view the ", but" as a coordinating conjunction, since it does not link two complete thoughts ("Who have not yet been charged" is not a standalone sentence). Either way, (B) doesn't work.

I hope that helps!

aishu0091 · Answer

A  federal advisory  panel proposes expanding a  national computerized  file to permit  law-enforcement  agencies to track people under criminal investigation but have not yet been charged.

(A) under criminal investigation but : no parallelism with have not been charged

(B) under criminal investigation, but who : no parallelism with have not been charged

(C) under criminal investigation, but they: no parallelism with have not been charged

(D) who are under criminal investigation, but they: people who are under criminal investigation, but   they who   have not been charged.

(E) who are under criminal investigation but: perfect parallelism. people who are under... but who have not been...

Sneha2021 · Answer

KarishmaB GMATNinja

Why "but" cannot be a coordinating conjunction in C & D?
(D) who are under criminal investigation, but they

A federal....people under investigation(IC), but they (IC)

"They" must refer to federal acc to structure but it is plural so only single referent for "they" is people. Therefore I did not find it ambiguous. Please help me to reject C & D.

Thank you for your help

carcass · Answer

The tracking is for people, not the agencies.

IF you have, but they -------they is clearly ambiguous.

I eat pizza in the table, but it ..........the table or pizza does it refer to ?

here the problem is NOT about CC but rather of the entire meaning

egmat · Answer

Hello Sneha2021 , Although your question is not for me, here are my two cents.

When we have a structure in which the clause after the coordinating conjunction starts with a pronoun, the subject pronoun tends to refer to the subject noun in the preceding clause. In that case, the plural pronoun "they" refers to the subject of the preceding clause, "A federal advisory panel". Certainly, this reference is illogical. Therefore, the structures in Choices C and D do not work. Hope this helps.

Thanks. Shraddha

KarishmaB · Answer

It can be a subordinating clause but what is your main clause?

A panel proposes allowing agencies to track people who are under criminal investigation, but they have not yet been charged.

The subordinate clause links up to the main clause. Who is 'they' here? Also we are talking about what the panel is proposing. What does it mean when we say 'they have not yet been charged'? In no way does it link to 'who are under criminal investigation.' That is an essential relative clause modifying people in the main clause and it got over when the subordinate clause started. The subordinate clause must talk about the panel and its proposal to make sense now.

If we are to continue the essential relative clause, we should not use a comma before 'but' and 'but' should join verb phrases (with the same subject 'who')

GMATNinja · Answer

The issue is logic, not ambiguity.

Because we have an independent clause following "but" in (C) and (D), we'd expect a contrast between the first independent clause and the second.

This gives us the following construction:

The portions in red and blue don't seem to have any logical relation at all. Why would it be surprising that people haven't been charged in light of the fact that an advisory panel wants to expand some computer file?

However, in (E), we don't have an independent clause after the "but." Instead, we have the verb phrase, "have not yet been charged." This very phrase must be parallel to another verb phrase.

Take another look at the relevant portion:

Now the portions in red and blue are two verb phrases that have a logical connection. Even though these people are under investigation, they haven't been charged. This makes way more sense.

So, you're right. (C) and (D) aren't wrong because they contain an ambiguous pronoun. They're wrong because they contain two parallel independent clauses that create a nonsensical meaning, and (E) fixes the problem by creating parallelism between two related verb phrases instead.

I hope that clears things up!

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Parallelism + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• Any elements linked by a conjunction ("but" in this case) must be parallel.

A: 
1/ This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "under criminal investigation" and "have not yet been charged"; remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("but" in this case) must be parallel.

B: 
1/ This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "under criminal investigation" and "who have not yet been charged"; remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("but" in this case) must be parallel.

C: 
1/ This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "under criminal investigation" and "they have not yet been charged"; remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("but" in this case) must be parallel.

D: 
1/ This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "who are under criminal investigation" and "they have not yet been charged"; remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("but" in this case) must be parallel.

E: 
1/ This answer choice correctly maintains parallelism between "are under criminal investigation" and "have not yet been charged".

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

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