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

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Subject-verb Agreement + Idioms + Redundancy/Awkwardness

A: Trap. This answer choice incorrectly uses the singular verb “comes” to refer to the plural noun “dioxins”. Further, Option A incorrectly uses the term “much” to refer to the countable noun “dioxins”; for a noun such as “dioxins”, the appropriate equivalent term is “many”.

B: Trap. This answer choice incorrectly uses the term “much” to refer to the countable noun “dioxins”; for a noun such as “dioxins”, the appropriate equivalent term is “many”.

C: This answer choice incorrectly uses the singular verb “comes” to refer to the plural noun “dioxins”. Further, Option C incorrectly uses the term “much” to refer to the countable noun “dioxins”; for a noun such as “dioxins”, the appropriate equivalent term is “many”. Additionally, Option C uses the needlessly wordy phrase “dioxins that are currently uncontrolled”, rendering it awkward and needlessly indirect.

D: This answer choice uses the needlessly wordy phrase “dioxins that are currently uncontrolled”, rendering it awkward and needlessly indirect.

E: Correct. This answer choice correctly uses the plural verb “come” to refer to the plural verb “dioxins”. Further, Option C correctly uses the term “many” to refer to the countable noun “dioxins”. Additionally, Option E is free of all awkwardness and redundancy.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

The sentence tells us that a report has concluded that much/many of the dioxins to which North Americans are exposed come from incineration of wastes. Also, that currently these dioxins are uncontrolled (unregulated).
We only need to focus on the noun clause beginning with ‘that’.

(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

Since ‘dioxins’ is plural, we should use ‘many’.
…many of the currently uncontrolled dioxins … or … many of the dioxins …
Hence, options (A), (B) and (C) are not correct.

Since the subject is ‘many of the dioxins’ (plural), the verb should be ‘come,’ not ‘comes.’ Hence, options (A) and (C) are incorrect.

The relative clause beginning with ‘that’ gives us two additional data points about ‘many of the dioxins’ – they are currently uncontrolled and many Americans are exposed to them.
If the two points are joined together with an ‘and,’ we need to put them in a parallel structure or at least as parallel as possible.

For example, the following work:
… many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and quite dangerous come from ….
…many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and are quite dangerous come from...
They both explain two features of these dioxins.

However,
…many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and that are quite dangerous come from...
This is grammatically correct but here we are wondering whether we are talking about the same dioxins or two different types of dioxins – one that are currently uncontrolled and the other that are quite dangerous. Since ‘and’ is conjunctive (discussed in the module in ‘Connectors’ section), we are likely talking about the same dioxins and hence this could work too.

Now, let’s look at option (D):

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

…many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and North Americans are exposed to come from…
Here, we do not have parallel elements. The first underlined is ‘verb + modifier’ (‘many of the dioxins’ is the subject) and the second is ‘subject + verb + preposition’ (‘many of the dioxins’ is the object). Hence, we certainly need two separate that clauses.
…many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and that North Americans are exposed to come from…
Here we can say that the two ‘that’ clauses modify ‘many of the dioxins.’
Hence, as given, option (D) is not correct.

(E) many of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed come

Option (E) is correct. Here, ‘currently uncontrolled’ pre-modifies dioxins so the issue of parallelism disappears. Also, the preposition ‘to’ is placed before ‘which’ making it more formal.

Answer (E)

many is used for countable nouns

much is used for uncountable nouns

dioxins i think should be categorized as countable, hence i will eliminate answers with 'much' leaving me with D & E, between whom E is the better choice.

This is an easy one. There are 2 mistakes in the original question -
1. use of much or many. Dioxins are countable like carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, etc. Therefore it should be many rather than much.

2. come/comes - Since it is plural is is come rather than comes.

Hence Answer is E.

Well competition is between B and E. Now who knows whether dioxins are countable or not.
So, I would look into the context of the sentence to see what makes sense!

Here the sentence clearly suggesting the count of dioxins not the amount of it/them. So 'many' would make more sense.
E.

(E) A report by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science has concluded that many of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed come the incineration of wastes.

I need help to understand why D is wrong...

many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and North Americans are exposed to come

North americans are exposed -> to what? This is not clear, because North americans are exposed to is an independent clause.
Option E corrects this by clearly eliminating the independent clause and bringing in the infinitive and the pronoun.

Also dioxins that are uncontrolled is wordy as compared to 'uncontrolled dioxins'.

Hope this helps,
-pradeep

Friends, IMO Choice E has a split infinitive, where "to" and the verb "exposed" are split. According to manhattan SC guide, this is an error. D has teh reference issue of "to". Also is too wordy. A and B might be having a few errors but one of them is subject verb agreement. IMO B is the correct ans...

split infinites occurs when you place a word between the "to" and the base verb. For example: "to really like."

What you need to keep in mind is that it's considered clumsy when you keep the "to" at the end of the sentence. For example, it is better to say "to which he was accustomed" than "he was accustomed to." This is also true for any prepositins.

Using the relative pronoun "which" doesn't interfer in interupting the split infinitive. That is why option E is correct.

(A) much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed comes – using ‘’comes’’ here is wrong since dioxins are plural.-
(B) much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins that North Americans are exposed to come [color=#0000FF]– I am agree with the idea that mentions We can say much of the dioxin presents in the air.
here we are taking about dioxin level.. "dioxin" --> uncountable
many of dioxins present in the air.
--> dixoins -- countable.[/color]

(C) much of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and that North Americans are exposed to comes comes – using ‘’comes’’ here is wrong since dioxins are plural.-

(D) many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and North Americans are exposed to come – it is wrong because of two reasons . 1)It distors paralelism , it should be many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and that North Americans are exposed inserting that here will eliminate the problem of North americans are exposed -> to what?- 2) using ‘’that are’’ makes the sentence too wordy’’

(E) many of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed come

Hi

A very subtle example comes to my mind to explain this.

Most people might know that 'water' is made up of chemicals/elements. What are those? Hydrogen and Oxygen specifically speaking (assuming that water considered here has not been polluted with other chemicals ). Can we count these chemicals in water? Yes, we can definitely count the number of chemicals present in water. These are 2 in number (hydrogen and oxygen).

Similarly, the statement mentions that Americans are exposed to dioxins, which are some sort of chemicals, primarily when exposed to incinerated wastes. So, we can definitely count the chemicals (for e.g. methane, sulphur dioxide, etc) or dioxins present in these incinerated wastes.

Hope this explains your query.

Cheers!

I am still not convinced because with that logic, even coffee would be countable as coffee has a chemical composition making it countable, which is not the case.
Am I missing something ?

Posted from my mobile device

Hi,

I know that this question has been discussed in this forum before, but I could not find the answer to my question.

Here is the question stem and choice which is followed by my doubt.

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.

Choice d : many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and North Americans are exposed to come

OG explanation for why this choice is wrong is that 'that' is missing in the clause 'North America are exposed to'. I thought that this is the right choice thinking that ellipses is playing a role here and that 'that' from the previous clause can be applied in the 'North America are exposed to' clause, but I guess my understanding of ellipses is wrong. Could you please help me understand why the concept of ellipses cannot be applied here?

Thanks and Regards,
A B

Hi,

Here is option D in full (with amendment

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

Your question is why we need the extra 'that'

I would say 2 things:
1) Keep reading more in English - to a native speaker this is obvious, and the more you get used to constructions like this the easier it will be for you

2) Gramatically the reason you need this, is because you need to be specific in exaplaning what N.Americans are exposed to. As it stands, the previous 'that' is just too distant to be in use.

Hope that helps

James

Hi abm03

I'm happy to help.

D needs a "that" before "North Americans are exposed to come" because of "AND" <== a parallel marker. Technically, elements in the sentence must maintain parallel structure.

Let see another example:
I want to retire to a place WHERE I can relax AND I pay low taxes

Is the sentence correct? Nope, without "WHERE" before "I pay low taxes" --> the sentence could be read I want to retire......and I pay low taxes <== Clearly, it distorts the meaning.
Source: MGMAT - Sentence Correction.

Back to your question.
D) many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled AND North Americans are exposed to come

Without "that" before "North Americans...." --> the sentence could be read many of the dioxins are currently uncontrolled...and North Americans are exposed to (to what?). Keep in mind, "AND" makes the sentence parallel --> the first and second clause are parallel by nature. ==> Wrong.
That's why we need a second that to make a sub-clause maintains it own parallel structure: many of the dioxins [that are uncontrolled....and that North Americans are exposed] come from the incineration of wastes.

Hope it helps.

Hi AB,

Thanks for posting this question here.

Yes, it is correct that we need to repeat "that" before every entity to make them parallel to each other if "that" appears before the first entity in the list.

There is also meaning change in Choice D. Without "that" "North Americans...", the choice becomes incorrect because this entity fails to connect with the previous entity in the list and appears to be hanging without even suggesting what North Americans are expose to. This leads to an ungrammatical construction.

Also, the original sentence says that “much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed”. This means that North Americans are exposed to currently uncontrolled dioxins that come from incineration. There is a relationship between the uncontrolled dioxins and North Americans. They are exposed to the same dioxins that are uncontrolled. This relation is better shown by the expression "to which North Americans are exposed" than the parallel structure employed in Choice D.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

"Coffee," as in "the substance you drink to wake up in the morning," is not countable. However, "coffees," as in "the various things you drink in the morning including espresso, Sumatra, breakfast blend, Dunkaccino," are countable. The second case is a little awkward (types of coffee is more natural) and is unlikely to be on the GMAT, but it's grammatically and logically correct.

Hope this helps!