A majority of the international journalists surveyed view nuclear powe

GMATNinja here the usage of 'but' is more of a connector (and therefore should be followed by a verb) rather than as a ',+ FANBOYS' right, which is used to connect independent clause right?

Gagan

Hi All,

A majority of the international journalists surveyed view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present but that they will, or could, be made sufficiently safe in the future.



Error Analysis:

Conjunction “but” joins two independent clauses. But we have a dependent clause after “but” that does not connect too well with the preceding independent clause. The meaning of the sentence is not very clear from the way this sentence has been written.

POE:

Choice A: that they will, or could,: Incorrect for the reasons stated above.

Choice B: that they would, or could,: Incorrect. Same errors as in choice A.

Choice C: they will be or could: Incorrect. Pronoun “they” appears as the subject of the second independent clause and “a majority of the international journalists surveyed” is the subject of the first independent clause. The placement of “they” is such that it refers to the subject of the first independent clause that makes the sentence illogical.

Choice D: think that they will be or could: Correct.

Choice E: think the power stations would or could: Incorrect. Use of “would” is incorrect in this sentence. When the reported speech is in the present tense then the future tense verb in the statement should be “will”. “would” is used when the reported speech is in the past tense. In this choice the reported speech “think” is in present tense. Hence the verb “will” should be used here and not “would”.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

A majority of the international journalists surveyed view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present but that they will, or could, be made sufficiently safe in the future.

Hi All,

A majority of the international journalists surveyed view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present but that they will, or could, be made sufficiently safe in the future.



Error Analysis:

Conjunction “but” joins two independent clauses. But we have a dependent clause after “but” that does not connect too well with the preceding independent clause. The meaning of the sentence is not very clear from the way this sentence has been written.

POE:

Choice A: that they will, or could,: Incorrect for the reasons stated above.

Choice B: that they would, or could,: Incorrect. Same errors as in choice A.

Choice C: they will be or could: Incorrect. Pronoun “they” appears as the subject of the second independent clause and “a majority of the international journalists surveyed” is the subject of the first independent clause. The placement of “they” is such that it refers to the subject of the first independent clause that makes the sentence illogical.

Choice D: think that they will be or could: Correct.

Choice E: think the power stations would or could: Incorrect. Use of “would” is incorrect in this sentence. When the reported speech is in the present tense then the future tense verb in the statement should be “will”. “would” is used when the reported speech is in the past tense. In this choice the reported speech “think” is in present tense. Hence the verb “will” should be used here and not “would”.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Hello
For the same reason (use of would) that you rejected E, why can't we reject D as even D uses "could"?
any expert can respond GMATNinja egmat VeritasKarishma

"would" is usually used with imaginary situations, especially when the situation is not expected to happen.
If better materials were available, the reactors would be made safer.
Hence, use of "could" is justified here, but "would" is not.

Hi AndrewN,

I hope you are doing great. I stumbled upon this SC question during a revision and fell into a ponder.

Here, many "experts" and "users" have commented on the validity of the word "would".
The one that caught my attention is this one:

I believe, we can use "would" to depict the "expectations" of the journalists. Because, the usage of "would" when stating expectations about future, which may or may not be fulfilled, is correct.
Example,
1. "The analysts expect that after the appointment of the new CEO, the profit margins of the company would increase". They expect profits to increase, they are not sure that the profits will increase, so using hypothetical "would" is correct. No?
2. In order to stimulate her child's senses, she would need to learn more engaging activities.
In both examples, the results may or may be reached (uncertain). Similarly, in the given question, Journalists are speculating about the safety of nuclear reactors. So, in my opinion, using "would" should not be considered wrong.

There are other issues with (E) that make it incorrect, such as the absence of "that", which makes it a run-on sentence, and would and could be are not parallel. So, I understand why it is incorrect but is the usage of "would" really unwarranted here?

This query may be outside the scope of question but I wonder whether we can replace "could" with "can" here? would and could together looks paralleled to me in term of tense.

Hi all,

A majority of the international journalists surveyed view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present but that they will, or could, be made sufficiently safe in the future.



Error Analysis:

Conjunction “but” is followed by a dependent clause that begins with the connector "that". So, structurally, there should be another clause starting with "that" that can be parallel to the "that" clause after "but". But there is no such clause present in the sentence before "but". So, this sentence is incorrect because there is a parallel connector here but not the other parallel entity.




POE:

Choice A: that they will, or could,: Incorrect for the reasons stated above.

Choice B: that they would, or could,: Incorrect. Same errors as in choice A.

Choice C: they will be or could: Incorrect. Pronoun “they” appears as the subject of the second independent clause and “a majority of the international journalists surveyed” is the subject of the first independent clause. The placement of “they” is such that it refers to the subject of the first independent clause that makes the sentence illogical.

Choice D: think that they will be or could: Correct.

Choice E: think the power stations would or could: Incorrect. Use of “would” is incorrect in this sentence. When the reported speech is in the present tense then the future tense verb in the statement should be “will”. “would” is used when the reported speech is in the past tense. In this choice the reported speech “think” is in present tense. Hence the verb “will” should be used here and not “would”.

Hope this helps.

Thanks
Shraddha

Hi Shraddha,

It has been taught to us in eGMAT course that we use would for uncertainty and we cannot decide the usage of would based on the tense of the reported speech.
Can you please explain the logic applied here?


Thanks

Hi all,

A majority of the international journalists surveyed view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present but that they will, or could, be made sufficiently safe in the future.



Error Analysis:

Conjunction “but” is followed by a dependent clause that begins with the connector "that". So, structurally, there should be another clause starting with "that" that can be parallel to the "that" clause after "but". But there is no such clause present in the sentence before "but". So, this sentence is incorrect because there is a parallel connector here but not the other parallel entity.




POE:

Choice A: that they will, or could,: Incorrect for the reasons stated above.

Choice B: that they would, or could,: Incorrect. Same errors as in choice A.

Choice C: they will be or could: Incorrect. Pronoun “they” appears as the subject of the second independent clause and “a majority of the international journalists surveyed” is the subject of the first independent clause. The placement of “they” is such that it refers to the subject of the first independent clause that makes the sentence illogical.

Choice D: think that they will be or could: Correct.

Choice E: think the power stations would or could: Incorrect. Use of “would” is incorrect in this sentence. When the reported speech is in the present tense then the future tense verb in the statement should be “will”. “would” is used when the reported speech is in the past tense. In this choice the reported speech “think” is in present tense. Hence the verb “will” should be used here and not “would”.

Hope this helps.

Thanks
Shraddha

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Parallelism + Redundancy/Awkwardness

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

A: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between “view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present” and “that they will, or could, be made sufficiently safe in the future”; please remember that any elements linked by a conjunction (“but” in this sentence) must be parallel. Further, Option A fails to maintain parallelism between "will" and "could"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("or" in this sentence) must be parallel.

B: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between “view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present” and “that it would, or could be made sufficiently safe in the future”; please remember that any elements linked by a conjunction (“but” in this sentence) must be parallel. Further, Option B fails to maintain parallelism between "would" and "could be"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("or" in this sentence) must be parallel.

C: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between “view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present” and “they will be or could be made sufficiently safe in the future”; please remember that any elements linked by a conjunction (“but” in this sentence) must be parallel.

D: Correct. This answer choice maintains parallelism between “view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present” and “think that they will be or could be made sufficiently safe in the future”. Further, Option D maintains parallelism between "will be" and "could be".

E: Trap. This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "would" and "could be"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("or" in this sentence) must be parallel.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

If E had " would be or could be", would that be a correct choice?

As per one solution posted by egmat, "would" is not the correct usage. It should be "will"