Although the term “psychopath” is popularly applied to an especially

Question

Although the term “psychopath” is popularly applied to an especially brutal criminal, in psychology  it is someone who is  apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience.

(A) it is someone who is

(B) it is a person

(C) they are people who are

(D) it refers to someone who is

(E) it is in reference to people

The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 10th Edition, 2003

Practice Question  
Question No.: SC 214
Page: 687

daagh · Accepted Answer

The subject is - the term -, a singular noun and hence choice C using they is out. Further equating the reference of the pronoun – it - to a person is also wrong since it may refer only to anything other than a human. A and B are gone. Between D and E, E refers to people, which is plural and hence is wrong. D is the final choice.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation of this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem: 
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended core meaning of this sentence is that in psychology the term "psychopath" refers to a person who is apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience.

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Meaning + Pronouns + Awkwardness/Redundancy

A:  This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the clause "it is someone"; the construction of this clause illogically implies that the   term   "psychopath" is a   person   who is apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience; the intended meaning is that the term "psychopath"   refers   to a person who is apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience.

B:  This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the clause "it is a person"; the construction of this clause illogically implies that the   term   "psychopath" is a   person   who is apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience; the intended meaning is that the term "psychopath"   refers   to a person who is apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience.

C:  This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "term" with the plural verb "are". Further, Option C incorrectly refers to the singular noun "term" with the plural pronoun "they". Additionally, Option C alters the meaning of the sentence through the clause "they are people"; the construction of this clause illogically implies that the   term   "psychopath" is multiple   people   who are apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience; the intended meaning is that the term "psychopath"   refers   to a person who is apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience.

D:   Correct.  This answer choice correctly refers to the singular noun "term" with the singular verb "refers". Further, Option D correctly refers to the singular noun "term" with the singular pronoun "it". Additionally, Option D uses the clause "it refers to someone", conveying the intended meaning - that the term "psychopath" refers to a person who is apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience. Besides, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

E:  This answer choice uses the passive voice construction "it is in reference to", rendering it awkward and needlessly indirect.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

syamee_u · Answer

C - 'they' wrong

A,B - a term 'it' can not be a person - awkward - wrong
E - awkward

D - best

GetThisDone · Answer

a. parallelism issue - term compared with person
b. parallelism issue - term compared with person
c. parallelism issue - term compared with person
d. correct
e. wordier - option D is better than this

souvik101990 · Answer

Concept tested : Meaning, Pronouns
 Difficulty level : Moderate
 Illustration : The main subject of the sentence is “the term ‘psychopath’” which
is singular. 
 Singularity of the main verb eliminates C which uses a plural pronoun “they”.  
 Also “the term” cannot be people. It serves as only a reference to aclass of people. This logic eliminates A and B.  
 E uses a very awkward construction “itis in reference to people” and is definitely unidiomatic.  
 D is the correct answer.

DmitryFarber · Answer

This one isn't new--it was #132 in OG12.

It's basically testing 2 kinds of pronoun agreement:

*number agreement--since "psychopath" is singular, we can't use "they" or "people"
*conceptual agreement--The sentence is talking about "the term psycopath" rather than an actual person, so we don't want to choose A or B, which say that it *is* someone.

GMATPill · Answer

Note exactly what the  subject of this sentence  is --- as the distinction between "the term" versus "psychopath" is important in figuring out the answer here.

A  psychopath  can be a person.

But the  term  psychopath cannot be a person. It can refer to a person, but the term itself cannot be a person.

We've posted a video solution to this question showcasing our thought process here:

https://www.gmatpill.com/sentencecorrection/og/q131.jpg

ebayarsa · Answer

Although the term “psychopath” is popularly applied to an especially brutal criminal, in psychology it is someone who is apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience.

Subjet of the sentence is " term "
(A) it is someone who is - it = term, so " term " cannot be someone.
(B) it is a person - it = term, so " term " cannot be someone.
(C) they are people who are - they? there is not plural subject in the sentence above.
CORRECT (D) it refers to someone who is - "term" refers to someone who is
(E) it is in reference to people - people is plural.

honchos · Answer

Psychopathy is a term not a person so D is correct.

chetan2u · Answer

the first half of the sentence speaks of term and the second half shifts it to a person.. so A,B, C are out..
E unnecessary creates extra word , only d is left.. ans D

souvik101990 · Answer

The expression "it is in reference" used in answer E is stylistically flawed. It is a very formal expression used to say what you are writing or talking about, especially in business letters, 
e.g. 
I am writing to you in reference to the job opening in your department.

chetan2u · Answer

hi kanigmat,
 you have to look at all choices and see why others are not right choice and why this option is correct..
1) the question stem is talking about a term 'psycopath' but the underlined portion changes it to a person..
so a,b and c are out..
2) choice d and e are close but e is wordy unnecessary..
now why D is correct..
1) when we write 'it refers'.... 'it' means we are talking about some term and this is what is intended...
 it is correctly worded.. use of who is appropriate.

kirtivardhan · Answer

egmat

Hi Egmat,

I was going through your post (https://e-gmat.com/blog/gmat-verbal/eng ... -ambiguity) on pronoun ambiguity where you have highlighted a couple of points

I tried applying those rules in this question but somehow i feel that either i have missed something or i have misunderstood something. I would be happy if you could clarify it.

Although the term “psychopath” is popularly applied to an especially brutal criminal, in psychology it is someone who is apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience.

(A) it is someone who is
(B) it is a person
(C) they are people who are
(D) it refers to someone who is
(E) it is in reference to people

According to the post :

A)
1) first find the logical antecedent -----psychopath

This makes sense.

2) Find if there are other nouns that play the same role.

It could be criminal or term as well

term doesnot make sense but criminal does

Pronoun ambiguity.

B) It should logically refer to psychopath---logical

Other nouns criminal and term.

Term doesnot make sense but criminal does

C) is wrong

D) Still makes sense with criminal and psychopath---ambiguity.

COuld you please let me know where i am going wrong.

vishwaprakash · Answer

Meaning
Entire sentence is talking about the term "psychopath". Not the person. What is believed to be and what it really is

Error :
Meaning error - " it is someone " It refers to term "Psychopath" , now think .. can a term become person. 
E.g : the word "sir" refers to knowledgeable people. or "the word Sir is knowledgeable people" 
i think first version is correct. Isn't it ?

We need to say term refers to some kind of people not term is some kind of people

(A) it is someone who is
Meaning error - as discussed above

(B) it is a person
Meaning error - as discussed above
We need a relative clause to describe a person

(C) they are people who are
They should be refereed to "term", but here in this option "they" does not have . any antecedant

(D) it refers to someone who is

(E) it is in reference to people
Option E will be like
it is in reference to people apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience - lot of things described about people, it will be good if we can club them all in relative clause (like in Option A,C,D)

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Kirti, I am just wondering if you are clear with the  antecedent eligibility  criterion in Pronouns; to me this concept is more important that  pronoun ambiguity , for the simple reason that there are quite a few examples in official sources where the correct answer has a  genuine  issue with pronoun being  ambiguous . Hence, the current school of thought is that  pronoun ambiguity  should actually  not  be the first reason for you to eliminate an answer choice.

Coming to this question,  antecedent eligibility  would imply that  it  as a pronoun  cannot  refer to  persons ; in other words,  persons  are  not  eligible to be referred to, by pronoun  it . Hence, in this case,  it  cannot refer to the  person  psychopath.

Basically,  it  does  not  refer to  psychopath , but to  the term psychopath ”. Now it is hopefully clear why A is incorrect, because it says:  the term psychopath is someone . This is incorrect from a  comparison  perspective, because  term  cannot be a  person  (someone); rather,  term  can  refer  to someone.

Hence, D wins.

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses  Pronoun eligibility and ambiguity , its application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id, I can mail the corresponding section.

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

A) Although the term “psychopath” is popularly applied to an especially brutal criminal, in psychology  it is someone who is  apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience.
 if we replace 'it' with ''psychopath'', the sentence will be:
Although the term “psychopath” is popularly applied to an especially brutal criminal, in psychology  psychopath  is someone who is apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience.
Here,  'it' indicates 'psychopath'  and  ''psychopath''=someone , which makes sense to me.
So, what's the problem in A?
Thanks expert...

lary301254M7 · Answer

Although the term “psychopath” is popularly applied to an especially brutal criminal, in psychology it is someone who is apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience.

(A) it is  someone  who is

(B) it is  a person

(C)  they are people  who are

(D)  it refers  to someone who is

(E) it is in reference to people

The subject of this sentence is "the term", a singular subject. (C) is out. Psychopath merely adds additional information about "the term".
To simplify the sentence:

Although the term is applied to criminal
, in psychology
____________________
incapable of feeling compassion.

(A) & (B) are saying "the term" is a person, and "the term" is someone". Incorrect.

(D) is a far superior option than (E) is. (E) is not concise.

BrentGMATPrepNow · Answer

This question is primarily about   PRONOUN REFERENTS .

In the original sentence, we have the pronoun   it  .
  What does this pronoun refer to?

The pronoun refers to the TERM (word) “psychopath”

So, if we replace the pronoun  IT  with its referent  TERM “psychopath”  we get....

(A) the  TERM “psychopath”  is someone who is
It makes no sense to say that a TERM is incapable of some action
ELIMINATE A

(B) the  TERM “psychopath”  is a person
It makes no sense to say that a TERM is a person
ELIMINATE B

(C) they are people who are
THEY?
There is no clear referent for this pronoun. 
ELIMINATE C

(D) the  TERM “psychopath”  refers to someone who is 
Makes sense!
A TERM can refer to someone. 
KEEP D for now

(E) the  TERM “psychopath”  is in reference to people
This sentence is awkward and uses more words than are necessary. 
Just say "it refers to people.." 
Also, we are mixing the singular term “psychopath” with the plural "people"

Answer: D

Cheers,
Brent

mba757 · Answer

Hello experts!

Within answer choice E, aside from the "people" portion, what is wrong with it? Is it just stylistically not preferred? As mentioned above, this does seem pretty formal and it is definitely used in the real world a number of times. But is it technically wrong here? When can you use this where it's correct? I can't imagine the GMAT having an answer choice with this type of word choice, but this doesn't seem super clear to me.. please help!

Although the term “psychopath” is popularly applied to an especially

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Although the term “psychopath” is popularly applied to an especially

Prep Toolkit

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