A scarcity of salt can threaten the very life of a community, a fact

Question

A scarcity of salt can threaten the very life of a community, a fact that may explain the decline of several Maya cities.

(A) can threaten the very life
(B) is able to threaten the very life
(C) can be very threatening for the life
(D) may threaten some of the very lives
(E) can threaten some of the very lives

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What's the difference between a and e? why isn't e the answer?

Please, post your answer with reasoning!!

MartyTargetTestPrep · Accepted Answer

"Some of the very lives within a community" is a bit sketchy.

In this context, "the very" means something along the lines of "the actual." So, the expression "the very life" makes sense, because it conveys "the actual life." In the version created via the use of (A), "the very" emphasizes the fact that a scarcity of salt can threaten the life of a community. It says that a scarcity of salt can threaten the actual life of the community.

The expression "some of the very lives" therefore is somewhat the same as "some of the actual lives." However, since the translation from "very" to "actual" is not exact, and since "very" is more just used for emphasis, rather than as a normal adjective, there is not really such a thing as a "very life." Nobody says, "The people in Smithtown lead very lives." So we wouldn't say "some very lives," and so, while we could argue that "some of the very lives" is somewhat logical, somehow that expression doesn't quite make sense.

In addition to the "some of the very" issue described above, this version conveys an unclear meaning. Does "very lives" refer to the lives of people within a community? Does it imply that a community itself has multiple lives, as a cat supposedly does? What exactly does this version convey?

By the way, the idea that there is some "intended meaning" of a sentence in a Sentence Correction question and that a version that "changes the meaning" is therefore incorrect is a misconception. A version that effectively conveys any meaning that makes sense is correct. End of story.

Overall, to perform at a high level in Sentence Correction, you have to go well beyond looking for rule infractions. For example, to see why the version created via the use of (E) is incorrect, you have to analyze the sentence holistically and see why it's illogical in multiple ways unique to that particular sentence.

crick20002002 · Answer

+1 for A.

Collective noun (community) is treated as singular. Hence all choices with lives are incorrect.

Crick

saikarthikreddy · Answer

but i feel there is an error in all the options .The use of can is wrong in the above sentence .Can is generally used to denote ability .ex .I can walk . The use of may is more appropriate .This i remember reading long long back

nostalgia :D

crick20002002 · Answer

Here we are referring to the ability of "scarcity of salt" to be a "threat to life".

eg Smoking can cause lung Cancer.

Crick

tuanquang269 · Answer

in choice E, lives = not Noun, the correct noun is alive, but this word is not the intended meaning of the author.

abhi47 · Answer

The correct answer is A. As " Community" is singular it should be life of community not lives of community.

rajeevrks27 · Answer

live not lives is required..
also threatning some of the lives is not what the actual sentence intend to convey.
+1 A

aa008 · Answer

I marked C . I do not get that what wrong with C?

dabaobao · Answer

GMATNinja  Can you please explain why C is wrong? I thought C was better than A since in A, it appears that "A scarcity of salt" is doing the action of "can threaten".

hsn81960 · Answer

can anyone pls explain why option C is wrong?

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  hsn81960 , at the very least, C is  changing  the meaning of the original sentence, since in C,  very  is modifying  threatening , while the intent is to convey very  life .

Kanika3agg · Answer

A scarcity of salt can threaten the very life of a community, a fact that may explain the decline of several Maya cities.

A) can threaten the very life - No error as per the grammatical formation
B)is able to threaten the very life - Shown as a person possesses a skill, seemed wrong to say it like that.
C)can be very threatening for the life - Emphasis change , Very is emphasizing now on how dangerous it would be rather than on what it could be dangerous for as intended in the original sentence.
D)may threaten some of the very lives - some of the very lives is wrong - SV error - as community is singular
E)can threaten some of the very lives - similar as D

dcummins · Answer

A scarcity of salt  can threaten the very life of a community, a fact that may explain the decline of several Maya cities.

(A) can threaten the very life
(C) can be very threatening for the life
(B) is able to threaten the very life
(D) may threaten some of the very lives
(E) can threaten some of the very lives

MartyTargetTestPrep

I understand how C, B, and D are incorrect, but I incorrectly selected E.

If E were "can threaten some of the very lives within a community" then it would have been correct, right?

Is this down to an SV Agreement issue? "the very life of  ?

After looking at this for a bit, I also see that E changes the logical meaning of with "some" by limiting the threat. I.e. instead of threatening all people, we threaten some people.

saukrit · Answer

A) Looks good with no apparent error. Communicates a fact as required by the original meaning of sentence. Lets keep it
B) We are not talking about the ability of "scarcity of salt" here, we need a valid fact
C) Meaning Error. Scarcity is not a goon who is threatening someone
D)Facts have to be said with surety. "May" does not make a sentence a fact. D is out
E) "some of the very lives" is too awful to be even considered.

Hence, A is correct

Prasannathawait · Answer

I don't understand why C is wrong over A. VERY LIFE is awkward than VERY THREATENING. 
Can you help in my understanding?

thangvietnam · Answer

this is not from official source. I never go deep into the unofficial source. however, I get some ideas for this problem.

look at choice D and E. if the scarity can/may threaten some of the lives of a community, it can NOT explain the decline of the Maya cities. so, the first part of the sentence can not fit with " a fact, that..." logically.

if the scarity can threanten all the life of a community, not a few lives of persons in that community, it can explain whay some Maya cities decline. so meaning in choice A is good.

choice B. "is able" show a qualification, not a possibility. this meaning is not fit inhere.

choice C is wordy. moreover, "threatening" is a process of threaten, so, this meaning of a process is not fit inhere.

akansal211 · Answer

Adding to why C is wrong- So firstly, as many people have stated, C changes the meaning of the sentence by emphasising on threatening rather than on life. Secondly, it should be 'threatening to', 'threatening for' is wrong idiom.

DmitryFarber · Answer

There's an idiom here that many people may not know. To "do X to the very Y" of something means to go all the way to something absolute or essential (described by Y):

He cut to the very heart of the matter.  (Meaning, he went directly toward discussing the central or most important idea at hand.)
 This law threatens the very existence of our company.  (This law is such a threat that it may wipe our company out of existence.)

So A and B are saying something that the other choices only play around with: that a scarcity of salt is so dangerous that it may snuff out the life of an entire community. While there is nothing inherently wrong with using "very" in another way in C--we can't say that C "changes the meaning" any more than A does--it does appear that the use of "very" here is just to prey on those who are confused by its use in A and B. It's not entirely clear what "threatening for the life" would mean.

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A scarcity of salt can threaten the very life of a community, a fact

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A scarcity of salt can threaten the very life of a community, a fact

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