Astronomers studying the newly discovered star say that it provides

Question

Astronomers studying the newly discovered star say that it provides clues about our galaxy’s origin, that it may supply data  about how fast our galaxy is expanding, and moreover it is perhaps  the most distant star in the entire Milky Way.

(A) about how fast our galaxy is expanding, and moreover it is perhaps
(B) regarding the speed our galaxy expands at; moreover, they think it may be
(C) about how fast our galaxy expands and perhaps be
(D) on the galaxy’s expansion rate and perhaps
(E) about how fast our galaxy is expanding, and that it is perhaps

Igor010 · Accepted Answer

You're right. Here in E we don't have clauses that begin with "about": Astronomers studying the newly discovered star say that it provides clues about our galaxy’s origin, that it may supply data about how fast our galaxy is expanding, and that it is perhaps the most distant star in the entire Milky Way. We have subject (asrtonomers), verb (say) and 3 clauses that begin wit "that". "About" here is an object of "clues" in the first that-clause and "data" in the second that-clause. Answer E maintains a good parallel structure. Hope it's clear...

skpMatcha · Answer

I would go with 'E'

Astronomers say X,Y and Z
3 subclauses

Astronomers studying the newly discovered star say  that it provides clues about our galaxy’s origin ,  that it may supply data about how fast our galaxy is expanding ,  and that it is perhaps the most distant star in the entire Milky Way .

Jasonlu1981 · Answer

I have a hard time to understand this structure: about + clause. I thought a clause can not follow the word "about".

Can anyone help to elaborate this grammar? Thanks.

adalfu · Answer

i believe the correct idiom can be both "supply data about" and "supply data on"... so either about or on can be correct... "supply data regarding" sounds a bit weird, but lets hold off on any splitting technique for now...

also noticed that the first two series of the list starts with "that"... so it must be true that the answer choice has to contain another "that" clause... obviously this would be E...

urchin · Answer

IMO E ..... even i feel it correct due to the parallel structure maintained by 'that'

adymehta29 · Answer

I got the correct answer ,but i would like to know the precise reason as to why B is wrong

arvind910619 · Answer

B violates parallelism. Pronoun it is ambiguous in "  they think it may be "

780gmatpossible · Answer

Can someone please explain all the answer choices in this question that why are right/wrong.

I chose A.

DmitryFarber · Answer

For those wondering why the wrong answers are wrong, adalfu's post from back in 2010 covers it. If we start with "Astronomers say THAT X, THAT Y . . . ," then we need to have "AND THAT Z." Only E provides this, so all the others are wrong!

Shouryaawasthi · Answer

I’m confused with the meaning here. Does it say that this ‘star’ in question will provide data on the most distant star in the entire Milky Way galaxy (could be any other star) or this star is itself the most distant one?

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Posted from my mobile device

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  Shouryaawasthi ,

There are three things that they "say" about the star:

Astronomers studying the newly discovered star say 
(a)  that it provides  clues about our galaxy’s origin , 
(b)  that it may supply  data about how fast our galaxy is expanding , 
and
(c)  that  it is perhaps the most distant star in the entire Milky Way .

deepuvj · Answer

Can anyone explain why choice "c" is wrong,

svasan05 · Answer

Astronomers studying the newly discovered star say that it provides clues about our galaxy’s origin, that it may supply data  about how fast our galaxy is expanding, and moreover it is perhaps  the most distant star in the entire Milky Way.

(A) about how fast our galaxy is expanding, and moreover it is perhaps  Parallelism issue. "Astronomers...say that it X, that it Y and  that  it Z" should be the correct structure. Eliminate.

(B) regarding the speed our galaxy expands at; moreover, they think it may be  Same parallelism issue as (A). Additionally, when talking about an ongoing event such as our galaxy's expansion, present continuous tense ("expanding") is the correct usage and not simple present tense ("expands"). Eliminate.

(C) about how fast our galaxy expands and perhaps be  The two problems in (B) are repeated. Eliminate.

(D) on the galaxy’s expansion rate and perhaps  Same parallelism issue as (A). Eliminate.

(E) about how fast our galaxy is expanding, and that it is perhaps  Correct answer. Parallelism is maintained, present continuous tense is used and no new errors are introduced.

Hope this helps.

brianmontanaweb · Answer

First thing we know about the sentence, "that it(the star) may supply data", contains the phrase. So if we see "and" as an option it should be parallel to "and that it(the start) something".

A, C, and D can be eliminated because they are not maintaining parallelism.

B is passive and the connector doesn't make sense in this instance

E is the most correct and maintains the parallelism mentioned above.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Astronomers studying the newly discovered star say that it provides

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Astronomers studying the newly discovered star say that it provides

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