A federal advisory panel proposes expanding a national computerized

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

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.

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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?

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.

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?

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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.

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

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!

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...

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

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

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

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')

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!

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