A report by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science has co

MartyTargetTestPrep
Thanks for response sir.
But,
B says: much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to come from the incineration of wastes.
C says: much of the dioxins to comes from the incineration of wastes.
D says: many of the dioxins to come from the incineration of wastes.
The preposition (to) after the word 'dioxins' makes the sentence fragment! Is my thinking wrong?


I want to know one more thing about choice E.
What does the word 'exposed' play role in choice E? Is it 'verb' or 'adjective'?

Your thinking is wrong. You have failed to consider some key words in the sentence.


It's part of the verb "are exposed." It is a past participle, which in a way works adjectivally, but it's also part of the verb form.

MartyTargetTestPrep
Thank you sir for quick reply.
If 'exposed' is the 'past participle' then ''North Americans are exposed'' is a passive voice, right? There is nothing like 'exposed to'' in the Cambridge dictionary-at least I did not find any words like that one! So, to is not the part of 'exposed', I think. So, if we remove ''North Americans are exposed'' from the core, then we still get to before come(s) in choice B, C, and D which makes those choice fragment!
I don't know what's going on in my brain!

A report by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science has concluded that much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed comes from the incineration of wastes.

This question checks understanding for Countable verses Uncountable.

(A) much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed comes-> currently uncontrolled is taking about the subject "dioxins" which is plural and countable. So, Much is incorrect.

(B) much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins that North Americans are exposed to come-> currently uncontrolled is taking about the subject "dioxins" which is plural and countable. So, Much is incorrect.

(C) much of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and that North Americans are exposed to comes-> currently uncontrolled is taking about the subject "dioxins" which is plural and countable. So, Much is incorrect.

(D) many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and North Americans are exposed to come-> Many is better used here. But, "And North Americans are exposed to come" which is incorrect.

(E) many of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed come-> Many is used. which is correct. To which is talking about Dioxins, makes sense.

So, I think E.

Hello tulsisood,
This is in response to your PM.

It is important to understand the intended meaning per the given context of the sentence. The sentence says that according to a particular report there are many uncontrolled dioxins in North America. These dioxins come from the burning of waste. So, the original sentence presents the intended meaning clearly.

Now, dioxins are countable. Hence, we cannot use the word "much" for countable dioxins. We must say there are many uncontrolled dioxins in North America. However, Choices A, B, and C use the word "much". Hence, Choice B is incorrect for the usage of this incorrect word. The meaning of the sentence does not change with the use of the word "many". The use of this word makes the sentence grammatically correct.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Dioxins is plural (Noun ending with s or es e.g classes, schools, universities etc)
Countable nouns have a plural form but non-countable nouns do not have a plural form (e.g we don't say rices, oatmeals, musics etc)

Much is used with non-countable nouns (e.g much music, much attention etc)

So, A), B) and C) are gone.

D) changes the meaning - are uncontrolled and N.Americans are exposed to. What? Why do we need 2 independent clauses?

E) is much better.

Someone posted an excellent explanation above explaining why it is inappropriate to end the sentence with a preposition (although I mistakenly do it all the time).


The “to” is part of the relative clause that is modifying “dioxins”.

Cutting down (B) to a smaller sentence.

“Much of the uncontrolled dioxins (subject)

-that North Americans are exposed to (relative pronoun noun modifier)

-come from X. (“come” is the working verb for “dioxins”)

It’s not a sentence fragment, but it is wrong none the less.





Posted from my mobile device

I think that singular/plural debate about doxins still requires some sort of knowledge that a substance, named "doxin", exists. Merely a word ending with "s" doesn't guarantee that the word doxins is a plural word. May be I am too novice not to know the existence of doxin in our world

A report by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science has concluded that much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed comes from the incineration of wastes.

(A) much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed comes
(B) much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins that North Americans are exposed to come
(C) much of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and that North Americans are exposed to comes
(D) many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and North Americans are exposed to come
(E) many of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed come

We cannot say "much of the dioxins", because DIOXINS is the plural of DIOXIN and hence countable.
---> eliminate A, B, C

Reason to eliminate D:
D contains an AND, so we must check parallelism.
After the AND: "North Americans are exposed to"
Before the AND: nothing parallel to "North Americans are exposed to"

"Not parallel" is a good, solid reason to eliminate D.

E has no problem

Posted from my mobile device

You're right that every word ending in 's' isn't necessarily a plural. But many/most are plurals. If the word is unfamiliar, it will be safer for you to assume that the word ending in 's' IS a plural.

At least you now know that dioxin is a word! You must have looked up the meaning of the word too. One of the reasons we practice is to learn such things. Such learning could help in other questions later.

Posted from my mobile device

Even I'm not.
Leave coffee, what about air ? (O2)
Also, everything could be countable apart from abstract nouns.

Not sure whether I understand your question properly. Will try to answer anyway

We're talking about grammatical countability here.
Can we say 'one air, two airs, three airs, ...' and so on? No we cannot. That is not acceptable in the English language.
Can we say 'The airs are polluted'? Again, we cannot. We say 'The air IS polluted'. In English, 'air' is singular.

Let's talk of coffee now.
Coffee is usually singular too, though in some contexts it can be plural.
For example, when you go to a cafe with friends you may say, 'We want three coffees and two shakes'.

Hope this helps.

Hello,

I am bit confused on when and how 'that' act as a pronoun and when it doesn't. I understand that 'that' when acting as a pronoun refers to singular noun , whereas 'those' refer to plural noun. Although I got the answer correct by logic of SV agreement error and usage of 'many', still I want to know if in below options, 'that' is acting as a pronoun or not. If not , how to decipher that? Could this be used as a valid POE in GMAT SC questions. Refer below.

dioxins ''that'' are currently uncontrolled

Since dioxins are not singular, 'that' cannot refer to dioxins which is plural.

Is this also a valid reasoning to eliminate options like B, C, & D.

Kindly assist.

Regards
Vighnesh

THAT can be used as different types of pronoun, and it isn't always singular.

In "dioxins that ARE currently uncontrolled", THAT is a plural pronoun; we know because of the ARE in THAT ARE.
(If THAT were a singular pronoun, the words would have been THAT IS.)

In "dioxins that are currently uncontrolled", THAT is used as a reflexive pronoun. When used as a reflexive pronoun, THAT can be singular or plural.

THAT can also be used as a demonstrative pronoun or as a determiner, and then it has to be singular.

Examples:
My friend wants THAT. / My friend wants THOSE.
My friend wants THAT book. / My friend wants THOSE books.

Posted from my mobile device

I narrowed down the options to D and E. Can you please explain why D is wrong?

Generally,when we are left with two answers, we think in terms of 'Which is better' rather than 'Which is wrong"
In this case, however, Answer Choice D does have a major problem.

D. many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and North Americans are exposed to come (from...)
E. many of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed come (from...)

Notice the AND in Answer D. Any AND must link parallel items.
Before AND: are currently uncontrolled
After AND: North Americans are exposed to
As you can see, what is before the AND is not parallel to what is after the AND.
Answer E has no such problem.

Posted from my mobile device

There is a formal rule (or, at least, a preference, in formal writing) in English to not end phrases/clauses with a prepositions.

"that... North Americans are exposed to" is a modifier of 'dioxins.' 'to' is a preposition.

E rearranges so that we don't end with that preposition: "dioxins to which North Americans are exposed."

This kind of writing sounds stilted and weird to most people because hardly anybody talks like that. But it is stylistically preferred.

Having said that... I don't know if I've seen it tested this explicitly on an official questions. HOWEVER, the 'to which' 'from which' 'of which' kind of modifier shows up with some frequency, and students tend to bristle at it, so it's best to understand how it works and that it's correct, despite sounding kind of stuck up and stilted.