According to a recent Stanford study, how well unsaturated vegetable

Question

According to a recent Stanford study, how well unsaturated vegetable oils such as olive oil, sunflower oil, and canola oil hold up health-wise when matched against saturated fats such as butter, margarine, and lard  depend on what foods are eaten when fewer saturated fats are consumed .

(A) depend on what foods are eaten when fewer saturated fats are consumed

(B) depend on the foods that are eaten when less saturated fats are consumed

(C) depend on the food that is eaten when less saturated fat is consumed

(D) depends on the food that is eaten when less saturated fats are consumed

(E) depends on what foods are eaten when fewer saturated fats are consumed

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/well/good-fats-bad-fats.html

But the best-established facts on dietary fats say otherwise. How well polyunsaturated vegetable oils hold up health-wise when matched against saturated fats like butter, beef fat, lard and even coconut oil depends on the quality, size and length of the studies and what foods are eaten when fewer saturated fats are consumed.

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

Whenever you see a clear decision point for subject-verb agreement as you do here (the choice between “depend” and “depends”) always start by finding the proper subject. Here you have the unusual subject clause “How well the fats hold up…”, which is singular and thus demands the singular verb “depends”. These types of subjects are often confusing but relatively common in language. Consider an analogous example: How Tom Brady is able to perform miracle comeback after miracle comeback astounds even the most diehard Patriots fans. The “how” clause is the subject commanding the singular verb “astounds.”

Once you eliminate (A), (B), and (C) because of the subject-verb agreement error, you need to examine the decision points between (D) and (E), which are much trickier. While there are several differences, the one that matters is between “less” and “fewer” – “less” is used with uncountable nouns, whereas “fewer” is used with countable nouns. “Fat” as a noun is both countable and uncountable: “There are many different saturated fats in fast food meals.” OR “There is very little fat in a chicken breast.” The key here is to recognize that in both (D) and (E) the “s” on the end of fat and the plural verb show that it is being used as a countable noun and thus must be paired with “fewer.” While you can most definitely say, “when less saturated fat is consumed,” you cannot say, “when less saturated FATS are consumed.”  As a result (E) is correct.

abhimahna · Answer

Okay, I could see lots of open questions here. Now, let me chime in.

As you all know whenever a clause is used in the subject of the independent clause, it is considered singular. So, here our clause is "how well unsaturated vegetable oils ....". Hence, we need singular verb "depends", thus A, B and C are out. Now, let's discuss about option D and E. This question is the perfect example where meaning is very important to understand. The meaning of the sentence is how well these oils hold up depends on the some of the foods consumed when you are taking very less quantity of fats. Now, if I talk about option D, it is implying the meaning "how well these oils hold up depends on food eaten when you are consuming very less fats.". Did you all see the change in the meaning? In the 1st option, I am talking about specific types of food while in the 2nd I am talking about only food. It could be anything. Thus, I am changing my meaning in option D. This is not allowed. Now, let's come to the confusion of whether fats are countable or uncountable. So, my friends there has been long discussion on this in the past on different forums and it has been taken as "Fat can either be an adjective (in that case is always singular) or a noun (thus it can be plural)." An easier example to understand would be that chicken fat and pig fat are fats from two different animals. Thus, I would not reject any answer choice based on countable vs uncountable nature of fat. It may also mean I am talking about 2-3 different sources of fats and thus saying fewer saturated fats. Key Note: Meaning is by far very important while selecting any answer choice. Finally, my friends megakee9 Adityasekar : Doesn't make sense or seems better is NEVER a reason to select or reject any answer choice on GMAT. Does that make sense?

CarlosMoraM · Answer

I go with B.

Since the correct answer must contain "depend" rather than depends (it lets us A,B,C). 
Letter C "is" rather than "are" is wrong
Between A and B I go with B because of letter B is more formal than letter A

Saurabhminocha · Answer

Narrowed it down to D and E. Basic structure of the sentence is-...how well oils hold up against fats DEPENDS on...
Please correct me if I'm wrong. 
didn't know which to pick but went with D because it sounded better! Waiting for OA and experts' comments

Posted from my mobile device

Binggm14 · Answer

I also go with B as oils and fats refer to depend 
Also less saturated than fewer

Sent from my Pixel 2 using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

superbenson · Answer

"hold up" matches "unsaturated vegetable oils" thus " depend on" matches "saturated fats". eliminate D and E first. i go with A.

chandra004 · Answer

D for me too. The verb should be "depends" and not depend. Hence D or E. In E, fewer seems wrong to me. We can't count the no. of saturated fats, can we? I'm a bit confused here. Still I'll go with D. Experts please shed some light here.  GMATNinja

SampadaBhootna1 · Answer

The correct answer should be D.

According to a recent Stanford study, how well unsaturated vegetable oils such as olive oil, sunflower oil, and canola oil hold up health-wise when matched against saturated fats such as butter, margarine, and lard depend on what foods are eaten when fewer saturated fats are consumed.

There are 3 issues with the given statement:
1. "depend" plural verb is used with the singular subject (here a situation-how well does X hold up when matched with Y- is the subject, thus it will be a singular subject)
2. "fewer", instead of "less", is used with an uncountable noun-Saturated fat.
3. "depends on food that is eaten" is a better construction than "depends on what foods are eaten"

Option D seems to address all these issues.

megakee9 · Answer

The subject here is a singular: "how well~". Thus the verb should be depends. Between D and E, I was confused, but chose D. "that" seems better than "what" However I am still not sure if fat is uncountable because it says "fats" Can somebody clarify that uncountable nouns can have -s which seems like plural?

Posted from my mobile device

Posted from my mobile device

kkrrsshh · Answer

hi  HKD1710 ,

can you please provide OE as well?
I don't understand how 'saturated fats' is considered as countable and used with 'fewer'.

Adityasekar · Answer

Why is the answer E, Fewer saturated fats do not seems to make sense to me

techiesam · Answer

Here goes my two cents on the question and I wanna vote  for option E.

Its clear from the post that the fight is between D and E .
 Those who cannot understand why A,B and C are wrong,should try to write the sentence by removing the fluffs.It would look like this

According to a recent study, how well unsaturated vegetable oils such as X hold up health-wise when matched against Y depends on what foods are eaten when fewer saturated fats are consumed.

Here the subject is  how well unsaturated vegetable oils such as X hold up health-wise  and that is single so A,B and C are out.

Now why E could be correct?
Saturated fat can be measured and if you give a look at any packet of butter or mergarine,you are gonna find out that the quantity of saturated fat is written as well.

As example:one-inch square of butter contain 2.6 grams of saturated fat .

But I don't think GMAT will ever test this kind of outside knowledge.So this question should be taken seriously on account of subject verb agreement but not on the terms of diction.

TaN1213 · Answer

Because the question addresses saturated fats as countable by:
"saturated fats such as butter, margarine, and lard "

Note that the question does  not  phrases the above as- " items rich in  saturated fats such as butter, margarine, and lard " - In such a construction, the saturated fats would have been termed as uncountable.

chandra004 · Answer

Verbal experts please help here.

Posted from my mobile device

chandra004 · Answer

I'm still confused, why fewer is correct here. Experts please help.

RishiQV · Answer

1). From the options A, B and C can be eliminated because singular 'depends' is correct compared to plural 'depend'.

2). Now, Difference between 'Less' and 'Fewer' is : 
 LESS refers something which is UNCOUNTABLE and thus SINGULAR.
 Eg, '22 Courage' doesn't make sense. Hence, is uncountable. So LESS is used.

FEWER refers something which is COUNTABLE and thus PLURAL.
 Eg, '1000 bus tickets' makes sense. Hence, are countable. So FEWER is used.

So, as per the sentence, we are going to use Fewer because the saturated fats are countable. You can see this fact in the ingredients list of many food items.

Hence, E.

DmitryFarber · Answer

RishiQV has it exactly. We could have said "less saturated fat," but that wasn't an option in any of the choices that have correct subject-verb agreement (which is an absolute must). We certainly can't say "less saturated fats."

If you're wondering why "fats" is used at all, it's because there are actually many different kinds of unsaturated fat, and so this is a way of showing variety.

Saumya2403 · Answer

Hi all,

I'm still not clear with the OA , somebody please explain more clearly.

arbazfatmi1994 · Answer

Is there some kind of subject-verb agreement rule for subject clauses?

According to a recent Stanford study, how well unsaturated vegetable

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

According to a recent Stanford study, how well unsaturated vegetable

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards