A recent poll of elected officials suggests that candidates, when in

Question

A recent poll of elected officials suggests that candidates, when in the midst of a tough campaign, often make statements about an opponent that they may not think  is  true.

(A) is
(B) are
(C) to be
(D) of as
(E) it is

Guys need help to analyze the last clause...  that they may not think is true . what is subject that or they? why there are two verbs.
I picked up C(not a verb) ..but its wrong...
please post your comments.
People who only want to post the ans option rather than full dissection please refrain . B'coz all of us know the ans no need to repeat it.

egmat · Accepted Answer

HI Sujit,

A recent poll of elected officials suggests that candidates, when in the midst of a tough campaign, often make statements about an opponent that they may not think  is  true.

Since your question is specific, let us dissect this sentence to know analyze the structure:

Cl. 1:  A recent poll of elected officials   suggests

Cl. 2: that  candidates , when in the midst of a tough campaign, often  make  statements about an opponent

Cl. 3:  that

Cl. 4:  they   may not think

Cont. of Cl. 3:   is   true.

(blue = subjects, pink = verbs)

Let’s focus only on the structure of the sentence. For a minute assume that Clause 4 “they may not think” is not there. So the relevant portion of the sentence now is as follows:
Candidates,…, often make statements about an opponent that is true.

As you can see now in this sentence there should not be any confusion that “that” is the subject of the verb – is. And obviously “that” refers to the noun phrase “statements about an opponent”. Now let’s bring back clause 4 – they may not think. This clause adds contextually important information - what candidates may think or not think about those statements. But it by itself has SV pair. So this clause definitely adds contextually important information but structurally it fits right in.

The subject of Cl. 3 “that” stands for “statements”. Since “statements” is a plural subject, we need a plural verb for that. That is why choice B (are) is the correct answer.

Choice A leads to SV number agreement error and the other choices fail to make a clause with subject “that” that refers to “statements”.

I hope this helps resolve the confusion. If you still have doubts about this then think of it the following questions - what is “that” associated with; what “is true”.

You can refer to OG 12#118 question as well. Following is the sentence with correct answer choice C:

The world wildlife fund has declared that global warming, a phenomenon that most scientists agree is caused by human beings's burning of fossil fuels will create havoc among migratory birds by altering the enviroment in ways harmful to their habitats.
 
Thanks 
Shraddha

egmat · Answer

Hi Ankit, If you have studied the sentence structure that I have mentioned in my post, you will notice that there are 4 clauses in this sentence. Clause 3 is a “that clause” where “that” stands for “statements”. In the original sentence, this plural subject has singular verb “is” and hence is incorrect because we have subject-verb number agreement error. Now let’s analyze choice C : “to be”. Notice that “to be” is not a verb. This does not complete Clause 3. We need a verb to have a complete Clause 3. We need a verb for “that = statements”. Hence, this choice is incorrect. Choice D is incorrect again for the same reason. Prepositional phrase “of as” does not complete Clause 3. There is no verb for “that”. Choice B is the correct naswer as it rectifies the SV number agreement issue. Hope this helps.

Thanks. Shraddha

G800 · Answer

A recent poll of elected officials suggests that candidates, when in the midst of a tough campaign, often make statements about an opponent that they may not think  is  true.
Here 
recent poll suggests that candidates ..... often make STATEMENT S  about....that they may not think ARE true.
It is number (noun) problem. the subject of is plural (statements); so plural verb is needed.

HTH

crashVcrush · Answer

A recent poll of elected officials suggests that  candidates, when in the midst of a tough campaign, often make statements  about an opponent  that they  may not  think is true.

the reduced stem : Candidates make statements THAT they think .................... true.

Guess removing the clutter makes it a bit easier to zone in on the correct variable / to fill up the blank

Leading to ARE.

daagh · Answer

Abhi398

Only statements about opponents can be true or untrue. An opponent cannot be said to be true or not. What will be the meaning of a true opponent or an untrue opponent? The meaning doesn’t gel, does it

ankit0411 · Answer

Can anyone please explain how to rule out options C and D ?

Thanks,
Ankit

nikhil007 · Answer

I think this whole explanation relies on the fact That "that" in this sentence acts as a subject. now to understand this construction I read a good article here learn-how-that-can-help-you-demystify-a-long-sentence-138358.html (Kudos for this BTW. but the way I see is something like this. A recent poll of elected officials suggests Suggest what? that candidates , when in the midst of a tough campaign, often make statements about an opponent (so "that" is a connector here not a subject.) that they may not think is true what kind of statements they make.. answer is that is not true. now again as I noticed in eg in link of post above "that" where used as a connector combines 2 clauses and where it is subject it touches the noun left to "that" (in the examples cited in the article). I understand that it may be just a case with the examples mentioned in article but not a general rule, however in the context of this sentence problem I felt that "they" is subject and not "that" can you tell me a more elaborate or a mechanical way to make out what is the context of "that" in such tricky sentences as I really get confused in such situations.

egmat · Answer

https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/gmat2-banner11-e1373945998281.jpg Hi nikhil007, I completely agree with you that the first "that" in the sentence is a connector that joins two clauses. However, the second "that" is a relative pronoun. It is not a connecter that joins the clause "they may not think" with the previous clause. This clause is actually inserted between the Subject "that" and the verb "is" in the original choice. You can see my clause split for this sentence. Now insertion of clauses between the Subject and the Verb is not uncommon on GMAT SC. Since the second "that", the relative pronoun, refers to its immediately preceding noun plural "statements about an opponent", we need a plural verb to agree in number with the plural Subject. The clause "they may not think" gives us some more information that candidates often make statements that they themselves may not think are true. The information given by the clause adds to the context of the sentence. Hope this helps. :-)

Thanks. Shraddha

dentobizz · Answer

Nice question,caught b/w B and C. Initially My ear led me to believe that option C is correct but when you read again 'statements about an opponent that they may not think  are  true' is better than 'statements about an opponent that they may not think  to be  true'
IMO the word  think  changes it because you usually find  think  being paired up with 'that' not 'to be'.
'To be' would work if the question said 'often make statements about an opponent that may not be true'

KanupriyaS · Answer

Good question. Tricky!

B it is.

I got caught between B and C. Colloquialism tempted me to choose C. But after analyzing a bit more I figured that since we are talking about 'statements about an opponent that they may not think', it has to be 'are'.B is the clear cut winner

A, D and E are incorrect.

thangvietname · Answer

i choose d and wrong
"think of something as something" 
is idiom
there is no "think of something as+adjective"

this question test a basic idiom , which is seldom used. hard one.

DmitryFarber · Answer

thangvietnam ,

Yes, we can use "think of X as (noun)," but I can't think of a case where "think of X as (adjective)" is useful. It would be easier just to say "think X is (adjective."

The noun form is used when we want someone to look at something a different way:

Person 1: "Thanks for paying for dinner, but you didn't have to do that."
Person 2: "Think of it as an early birthday present."

Abhishek009 · Answer

Test of Subject Verb issue

A recent poll   of elected officials   suggests   that candidates ,  when in the midst of a tough campaign,  often make  statements  about an opponent that they may not think   are  true.

renzofig · Answer

Hi experts,

I have one doubt regarding "suggests". I believe "suggests" requieres the subjunctive, so shouldn't we use "to be" instead of "are".

Where am I going wrong?

Renzo

Kritisood · Answer

@experts,  GMATNinja   AjiteshArun  could you please provide more clarity on why C is incorrect? Thanks.

GMATNinja · Answer

Let's start with some simpler examples:

"I think that the statements are true."  - My guess is that you're okay with this one! The verb "are" agrees with its subject, "statements". 
  "I think that the statements to be true."  - Hmm. We're expecting a verb for "statements", but instead we get an infinitive. Without a verb for statements, this sentence doesn't work. 
  "I think the statements are true."  - Well, this is really the same thing as the first example, but now the "that" is implied. No problem here. 
  "I think the statements to be true."  - This might not  sound  as bad as the second example, but it's wrong for the same reason! The "that" clause makes a whole lot more sense with a verb for "statements", but we never get one.

So let's use the first (and third) examples as our starting point: "I think (that) the statements are true." But now let's  refer  to those statements:

Candidates make statements. 
 Which statements? 
 The statements that I think   are   true.

Putting that all together, we have:

"Candidates make statements that I think   are   true."

Notice that we don't suddenly switch to "to be" here -- that would be incorrect for the same reason that the second and fourth examples above are incorrect.

I hope that helps a bit!

pk6969 · Answer

hello! Is this question only using idioms as a point of differentiation? I couldn't find any reason to eliminate choice C and D. Please help  AndrewN   GMATNinja   DmitryFarber

faat99 · Answer

Hi Tandon, and other GMAT experts,

Am I right to think that "they may not think" is a modifier?

The right answer is clear to me but the fact that there are two verbs think before are confuses me.

GMATNinja · Answer

You can check out our take on choice (C) in  this post .

As for choice (D), let's start with a couple examples that illustrate how a "think of as" construction might be used:

"Tim's children think of his  books  as  an excellent source of fuel for the fireplace ." - One thing (Tim's books) is thought of as another thing (an excellent source of fuel). 
 "Tim writes  books  that his children think of as  an excellent source of fuel for the fireplace ." - This is basically the same as the last sentence, but rearranged to look more like choice (D). The use of "think of as" works because we still have one thing that is thought of as another thing.

But now check out this super-simplified version of choice (D):

"Candidates make  statements  that they think of as  true ."

Notice that we no longer have one  thing  that is thought of as another  thing . Instead, we have one thing that is thought of as true (a modifier).

I don't think that automatically makes it wrong, but now let's rearrange this to mirror the first example above ("Tim's children think of his books as..."):

"Candidates think of their statements as true."

Why would we ever write this instead of simply writing "Candidates think their statements are true"? There's no need to use the "think of... as" construction because we aren't comparing the statements to another  thing . At the very least, this version leaves me wondering, "Well, why did the author write 'think of as true' instead of just 'think are true'? Is 'thinking of things as true' different than 'thinking things are true'? I'm confused."

So yes, there is an idiomatic difference between (B) and (D) (one that isn't worth worrying too much about, by the way). But ultimately the idiom is better in (B) because it conveys the intended meaning in a clearer, simpler way. That makes (B) the better choice.

I hope that helps!

A recent poll of elected officials suggests that candidates, when in

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A recent poll of elected officials suggests that candidates, when in

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