Helllo MadaraU,

I will be glad to help you resolve the doubt.

Following is the correct version of the sentence (with Choice E):

A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research the books (that) James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France.

(Blue = subjects, Green = verbs)

In the correct answer choice, that, the relative pronoun modifier that refers to the preceding noun entity the books is understood. It is so because that, the modifier, does not act as the subject of the dependent clause it starts. Let's take a few simple examples here to understand the usage:

I like the pizza that contains only vegetables.

In the above-mentioned sentence, that refers to the preceding noun the pizza and acts as the subject of the dependent clause that it starts. Hence, it must be explicitly mentioned in the sentence.

Now look at the following sentence:

I like the pizza that my mother makes at home.

In the above-mentioned sentence, that refers to the preceding noun the pizza but does not act as the subject of the dependent clause that it starts. The subject of the dependent clause started by that is my mother. Hence, it it not necessary to mention that in the sentence. The sentence can be written as follows:

I like the pizza my mother makes at home.

Same is the case with the correct answer choice of this official sentence. Since that does not act as the subject of the dependent clause it starts, it has been kept understood in the sentence.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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When "research" alone is used as a verb, no preposition should be used.

Correct: He researched the subject.

When a verb such as as "do" or "conduct" is placed before the word "research" (which is then used as a noun), a preposition should be used. "On," "into," and "about" are all acceptable.

Correct: He did research on the subject.
Correct: He did research into the subject
Correct: He conducted research about the subject.

Comparing the differences in the answer choices, I'm going to focus on the part that comes right before the underlined part. To research on? To research into? To research about? The only one that makes sense is to research the books.

If you're not familiar with that idiom, or rather, that there is no prepositional phrase comes after to research, separate the answer choices based on wrote or written.

The choices that say written make it ambiguous as to who was doing the writing. I would focus on ABE first.

At that point hopefully you will notice that to research on and to research about are both incorrect. E is the answer.

Farrell Dyan Hehn, MBA
Admissions Consultant & Verbal Strategist MBAPrepCoach.com
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A B C D wrong idiomatic usage of research

to research on= WRONG
to research about = WRONG
to research into = WRONG

E is the only remaining option.
The entire exercise has become a POE trick rather than actually honing into the right answer using elegant grammar rules.
"He" is ambiguous in E but by the "pronoun touch rule for unclear antecedents" :- Such pronouns are considered to refer the to the closest noun or other pronoun.
"He" refers to the closest noun which is Baldwin and thus this options delivers the correct intended meaning of the sentence.
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Hi mikemcgarry , DmitryFarber, daagh and other experts !

I have serious doubts in this question and questions like this that stress on diction and idiomatic usages don't breed much confidence in me.

I have a couple of doubts in this question if you can help.

- Can you please clear the air around the right idiomatic usage of research - how "research on" / "research into" etc. differ when used in right context.And how the usage of a preposition after research (when used as verb) jeopardizes the meaning.
- is the usage of 'there' correct in option A when it is used to refer back to a noun i.e. France.
- is there any sort of pronoun ambiguity in option D or E (that actually counts against this option) as suggested by many posts.
- is it correct to say that in option A pronoun 'he' can't refer to James Baldwin because the noun is in possessive form.

Thanks in advance !

Regards
SR

can you please elaborate on why is research on , research about, research into wrong?

as research on also seems correct here as the books were written in past and the professor now is researching on those books not the books .. we generally research on a topic not research the topic.

please explain

Yes, the usage is correct. According to the Free Dictionary, 'there' is a noun, an adverb, a pronoun, or an adjective. Therefore, please be confirmed that 'there' can well refer back to the place and noun 'France'.


.

2. Yes. A is certainly wrong for using the possessive noun Baldwin's for the non-possessive pronoun 'he'.




'Research' can be used both as a noun and as a verb. However when the term is used as a verb, say like in this case, it doesn't normally take a preposition such as on, into, or about etc. Even this is a gray area since dictionaries like the Free Dictionary have not raised any objection to sentence such as --
I decided that I would research into Queen Elizabeth.
We researched into the period in which she lived.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/research

On the contrary, research freely takes a preposition when acting as a noun. Example --I did research on Dinosaurs in my Masters
Project SETI was asked to conduct research into UFOs.
Therefore A, B, C and can all be eliminated in a knock


In my firm opinion- no-. D is, of course, is dispensable on the verb research + preposition score like in A, B, and C. but not on pronoun ambiguity. The pronoun ambiguity referred here is whether the word 'he' stands for the professor or Baldwin. IMO, there is no ambiguity about 'he' referring to Baldwin. I do not also take the argument that he is ok with Baldwin because of proximity. Nay. Look at the verb tenses.
The professor has taken a sabbatical (a present perfect tense, while he lived in the past tense. While denotes simultaneity and hence the professor living in a present perfect could not have taken a leave in the past. It should be either he took a sabbatical when he lived or has taken a sabbatical when has lived or has been living. Tense grammar is clear about this aspect. He cannot logically refer to the professor and only can antecede Baldwin.

The takeaway; boldly click E
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Shouldn't it be "the books that James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France" rather than "the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France" in choice D, because "wrote" comes out of nowhere.
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Hi egmat sayantanc2k GMATNinja



How can THAT refer to PLURAL noun - books? THOSE is correct pronoun for plural nouns.
Does not THAT act as a connector to connect a dependent and an independent clause?

A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research the books- independent clause

(that) James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France.
- dependent clause


Also here, does not to + research acts as an object and not main verb?
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Hi adkikani, actually when that is used as a relative pronoun (as is the case in the sentence under consideration), that can refer to either singular or plural nouns. In fact, this is true for all relative pronouns.

On the other hand, when that is used as a demonstrative pronoun, that can only refer to singular nouns.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses the various "avatars" of that, its application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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sir Can you please clarify why A is wrong
according to pronoun rule :his/her can refer to apostrophes and he and she can only refer to noun
but in the above sentence when we use: that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there . why can't the he refer to the baldwin mentioned

Hey StrugglingGmat2910 ,

Problem with A is that we have two nouns to which "he" can refer to.

It could be either the professor or Baldwin. Therefore, the meaning is ambiguous here. Who was living in france?

Does that make sense?
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@StrugglingGMAT
The problem with A as far as I see is 1. The idiom 'research on' is dubious. 'Research the books' is better as in E.

2. How do you like the expression "on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote"? Who else would have written his books? Isn't it plain redundant?
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Responding to a pm:


In option (E), research is not the verb. "to research" is an infinitive, a verbal. It shows the purpose of the action "has taken" - the verb.
Read more about infinitives here: https://www.veritasprep.com/blog/2017/1 ... finitives/
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Sentence Analysis
The sentence says that a professor has taken a sabbatical to do something i.e. to research books written by James Baldwin. He wrote these books while he lived in France.

The sentence has the following errors:

The sentence is redundant to the point of hilarity! Do we need to say that James Baldwin’s books were written by Baldwin?! Or do we need to say that he wrote the books in France while he lived in France? If he didn’t live there, how would he write the books there?
When ‘research’ is used as a verb, the object of the research should immediately follow the verb without any preposition. Therefore, “to research on the books” is incorrect. We need to have “to research the books”. (If ‘research’ is used as a noun, then ‘research on’ is fine e.g. He conducted research on fatty acids.)

MartyMurray , AjiteshArun , MagooshExpert

Can anyone please explain the POE. I am still not clear on this

Hi Prateek176,

Happy to help



The POE is actually quite simple -- we can eliminate all the incorrect answers with a single split. As others have pointed out, when "research" is used as a verb, it must be followed directly by a noun. So "to research on", "to research about", and "to research into" are all incorrect, leaving only choice E. It's as easy as that

Hope that helps!
-Carolyn
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Dear daagh, as you and thecriticalreader1 wrote that research cannot take a preposition when it acts as a verb, but what I need to understand is how come research acts as a verb in the above sentence? IMO, it is in the form of an infinitive and is a verb looking word (to + research), but not verb.

Subject - A professor , Main verb - has taken.
Can any expert resolve my doubt? It would be much appreciated. TIA.