Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests that the el

(A) that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolved
The sentence is trying to tell us that the evidence suggests two things: 1) that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and 2) that the elephant's trunk originally evolved as a kind of snorkel; in order to avoid a parallelism issue, we would have to change, "..., and its trunk originally evolved as a kind of snorkel" to "and that its trunk evolved as a kind of snorkel." Furthermore, this sentence has a string of relative clauses ("evidence that suggests that the elephant...", and the GMAT considers it "awkward and confusing to string together relative clauses." For these two reasons, choice A can be eliminated.

(B) that has suggested the elephant descended from an aquatic animal, its trunk originally evolving
The simple present tense ("suggests") should be used instead of the present perfect tense ("has suggested") because we are describing a present action (what is the evidence currently doing?) and not referring to what the evidence was doing in the past. Present perfect is typically used to describe how long an action has been going on, for example, "For the past 100 years, most evidence has suggested (present perfect) that the elephant is descended from a land animal; however, new evidence suggests (simple present) that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal." Furthermore, a past tense should be used instead of "evolving" because we are talking about a past action (how the trunk evolved in the past, not how it is evolving now), so choice B can be eliminated.

(C) suggesting that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal with its trunk originally evolving
This choice can easily be eliminated because the past perfect ("had descended") is not the appropriate tense (we do not have two past actions occurring at different times). Also, a past tense should be used instead of "evolving" (see choice B notes).

(D) to suggest that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal and its trunk originally evolving
Again, the past perfect ("had descended") is not the appropriate tense. Also, this choice contains a parallelism issue ("its trunk originally evolving..." is not parallel to "that the elephant had descended.."), and a past tense should be used instead of "evolving" (see choice B notes).

(E) to suggest that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved
Here the infinitive "to suggest" is properly used as an adjective to modify "evidence". This choice also avoids parallelism issues ("suggest that the elephant is descended... and that its trunk originally evolved..."). The predicate adjective "descended" follows the linking verb "is" and properly modifies "the elephant". This might not sound right because we are used to hearing "descend" used as a verb (ie "I descended a flight a stairs."), but you shouldn't trust your ear when analyzing SC problems! Choice E is correct.

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one problem at a time, and narrow it down to the right answer quickly! To start, let's take a closer look at the original question and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolving as a kind of snorkel.

(A) that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolving
(B) that has suggested the elephant descended from an aquatic animal, its trunk originally evolving
(C) suggesting that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal with its trunk originally evolved
(D) to suggest that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal and its trunk originally evolved
(E) to suggest that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved

After a quick glance over the options, we see a few major differences we can focus on:

1. that suggests that / that has suggested / suggesting that / to suggest that (Meaning)
2. is descended / descended / had descended (Verb Tense & Meaning)
3. how each option ends (Punctuation, Conjunctions, Parallelism)

Let's start with #1 on our list. While it may seem like these phrases could be interchangeable, they do mean slightly different things. What we're looking for here is a sentence that states the embryologists are the ones who suggested that elephants descended from aquatic animals. We need to rule out any options that change or confuse this meaning.

(A) Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolving

This is INCORRECT because it's not conveying the meaning we want. This sentence says that the embryologists found evidence that already suggests that elephants descended from aquatic animals. We're looking for a sentence that conveys that the embryologists found evidence and then made the suggestion themselves!

(B) Australian embryologists have found evidence that has suggested the elephant descended from an aquatic animal, its trunk originally evolving

Again, this is INCORRECT because it's not conveying the meaning we're looking for. The embryologists are the ones who made the suggestion, not the evidence they found!

(C) Australian embryologists have found evidence suggesting that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal with its trunk originally evolved

Again, another one that tells us the evidence made the suggestion, and not the embryologists. So this is also INCORRECT.

(D) Australian embryologists have found evidence to suggest that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal and its trunk originally evolved

This is OKAY for now. It's clear that the embryologists found the evidence, and then they used that evidence to make their own suggestion. So let's keep this one for now!

(E) Australian embryologists have found evidence to suggest that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved

This is OKAY for now. It's clear that the embryologists found the evidence, and then they used that evidence to make their own suggestions. So let's keep this one for now!

We can eliminate options A, B, & C because they change or distort the intended meaning.

Now that we only have 2 options left, let's take a closer look at #2 & #3 on our list to determine which option is the better choice:

(D) to suggest that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal and its trunk originally evolved

This options is INCORRECT for a couple reasons. First, the past perfect "had descended" doesn't work here. Past perfect should be used to indicate that you're talking about two past tense events, and that the one in past perfect tense happened first. We know that elephants were descended from aquatic animals in the past, but they still are today, so this verb tense doesn't make sense here. Second, it doesn't use parallel structure to discuss the two suggestions:

to suggest that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal and its trunk originally evolved --> to suggest that X and Y = NOT PARALLEL

It would need to include the word "that" on both items, or eliminate it from both items to be parallel.

(E) to suggest that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved

This is CORRECT! It uses parallel structure to word the two suggestions (that the elephant / that its trunk), and the present progressive verb tense makes more sense to indicate that elephants were descendants of aquatic animals in the past, and they still are today!


There you have it - option E is the correct choice!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

Hey Mainhoon,

Well, "evidence to suggest" is a better choice than "evidence that suggests," but I'd say the comma is the major issue.

As for Munda's question, no it wouldn't be quite as correct to say "the elephant has descended," this implies the action of descending, as in "The elephant has descended the stairs." But this meaning of "descended" is different. To "be descended" from something is a constant (like being "green" or "American"), and thus ought to be in the present tense, as in "Men are descended from apes." You wouldn't say "men have descended from apes," because it isn't a tense action, but a state of being.

Hope that makes sense!

-t

Concept tested: Parallelism, meaning, usage, style.
Difficulty: High
Illustration: “is descended” and “has/had descended” mean two entirely different things. Has/had descended implies going below (literally or metaphorically).
e.g: I had descended a few steps in the cave.
e.g: I would never want to descend to his level of callousness.
Is descended from implies ancestry. So obviously has/had descended is incorrect.
So, B,C,D are eliminated.
However between A and E, E is marginally better because of two things:
1. That suggests that in A sounds horrible.
2. E maintains “that” parallelism. (however the "second that" in A which apparently seems to be missing is not absolutely essential.)
E is the correct answer

This one was tricky.

Sorry its E.

Observations -
1. I see "evidence that" is broken here. But that's not what the question is checking. I should be able to connect the underlined part with the rest of the sentence.

2. The SC is checking for that || ism

Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal. and its trunk originally evolving as a kind of snorkel.

(A) that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolving >>> descended and evolving are awkward. OUT

(B) that has suggested the elephant descended from an aquatic animal, its trunk originally evolving

same as A. OUT

(C) suggesting that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal with its trunk originally evolved

this means that elephant descended before its trunk evolved. OUT

(D) to suggest that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal and its trunk originally evolved

same as D. OUT

(E) to suggest that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved

This means that elephant descended from aquatic animal and its trunk originally evolved as a kind of snorkel. this looks alright. Especially its not doing any sequencing between the two past events

evidence...... that and that ..... -----> that || ism

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved as a kind of snorkel.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Tenses + Verb Forms

• The simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.
• Information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense.
• The present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present.
• The past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is used when a sentence contains two actions in the past; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past".
• The introduction of the present participle ("verb+ing"- “evolving” in this case) after comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses the present participle ("verb+ing" - "evolving" in this sentence) to refer to an action that concluded in the past; please remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.

B: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "its trunk originally evolving"; the use of the "comma + present participle ("verb+ing" - "evolving" in this sentence)" construction incorrectly implies that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal because its trunk originally evolved as a kind of snorkel; the intended meaning is that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and as a separate action its trunk originally evolved as a kind of snorkel; please remember, the introduction of the present participle ("verb+ing"- “evolving” in this case) after comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship. Further, Option B incorrectly uses the present perfect tense verb "has suggested" to refer to information that is permanent in nature; please remember, information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present.

C: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "with its trunk originally evolved"; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved as a kind of snorkel. Further, Option C incorrectly uses the past perfect tense verb "had descended" to refer to information that is permanent in nature; please remember, information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is only used when a sentence contains two actions in the past; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past".

D: This answer choice incorrectly uses the past perfect tense verb "had descended" to refer to information that is permanent in nature; please remember, information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is only used when a sentence contains two actions in the past; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past".

E: Correct. This answer choice uses the phrase "and its trunk originally evolved", conveying the intended meaning of the sentence - that Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that, as a separate action, its trunk originally evolved as a kind of snorkel. Further, Option E avoids the tense error seen in Option B, as it uses the infinitive verb form ("to + base form of verb" - "to + suggest" in this sentence) rather than an active verb, such as "has suggested" (used in Option B). Moreover, Option E correctly uses the simple present tense verb "is descended" to refer to information that is permanent in nature. Additionally, Option E correctly uses the simple past tense verb "evolved" to refer to an action that concluded in the past.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



To understand the concept of "Comma + Present Participle for Cause-Effect Relationship" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~3 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

evidence should be followed by that here since whatever clause is succeding this gives explanation about what evidence consists of.

hence C,D,E incorrectly point to embryologists instead of evidence.

eliminate C D E
now b/w among A and B ,its trunk evolving is incorrect ,it evolved is correct usage.evolved just once and thts not a continuos process.
A is the answer

Lets see this :
Why is " elephant is descended" grammatically correct.

this is correct always .

usage of suggest

–verb (used with object)
1. to mention or introduce (an idea, proposition, plan, etc.) for consideration or possible action: The architect suggested that the building be restored.
2. to propose (a person or thing) as suitable or possible for some purpose: We suggested him for president.
3. (of things) to prompt the consideration, making, doing, etc., of: The glove suggests that she was at the scene of the crime.
4. to bring before a person's mind indirectly or without plain expression: I didn't tell him to leave, I only suggested it.
5. to call (something) up in the mind through association or natural connection of ideas: The music suggests a still night.

Other examples :
Jerry suggested that tom is back

jerry suggested that the movie is over

I hope i cleared the doubt to some extent.

Hi there,

e-gmat team wishes you a very Happy New Year.

The idioms "evidence that", "evidence to" and "evidence of" are correct. The correctness of their usage depends on the way a particular senetnce has been written.

Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolved as a kind of snorkel.

(a) that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolved
(b) that has suggested the elephant descended from an aquatic animal, its trunk originally evolving
(c)suggesting that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal with its trunk originally evolving
(d) to suggest that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal and its trunk originally evolving
(e) to suggest that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved

The answer choices with "evidence that" has some grammatical issue. Only choice E is the grammatically correct. This is the reason why here use of "evidence to" is correct.

Now take a look at this GMAT Prep question:

Astronomers have uncovered evidence that a star that was as bright as the full moon exploding into view 340,000 years ago, emitting dazzling radiation that could have disrupted Earth's protective ozone layer and sunburned our Stone Age ancestors.

A) that a star that was as bright as the full moon exploding into view 340,000 years ago, emitting
B) that a star as bright as the full moon exploded into view 340,000 years ago, emitting
C) of a star that was as bright as the full moon exploding into view 340,000 years ago and that it emitted
D) of a star as bright as the full moon, exploding into view 340,000 years ago and emitting
E) of a star as bright as the full moon that exploded into view 340,000 years ago and that emitted

The correct answer of this sentence is choice B where the uasge of the idiom "evidence that" is correct. This is so because all the other choices have some grammatical error.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Hi Sid,

Thanks for posting your doubt here.

So let's take your doubts in the order you have posted them.

Choice A: Yes, your analysis is correct that we need another "that" to maintain parallelism in the sentence.

Now, use of "is descended" is correct because it denotes that the elephants have evolved from a water animal. We need "is" because this event is a universal fact. This fact holds true for all time in the past, present, and future. When want to convey that someone has come from certain ancestor or ancestry, we use "is/was descended" depending on the context of the usage.

In this choice, "is descended" together is a verb. But in Choice B, "descended" appears to be a modifier because "that" is missing after "has suggested". The way Choice B is worded, it seems to convey that the evidence has suggested the elephant itself and not something about elephant. In such a structure, "descended" seems to be a modifier rather than a verb. Even if used as a verb, "descended" would not be correct as it would give a complete different meaning.

Choice B: You have said that "only a comma between the two clauses distorts the meaning". What lies after comma is not clause as it does not have a verb. This choice is incorrect for the usage of "has suggested the elephant". Also now the choice does not say that the evidence suggests two things.

Choice C: As I have already mentioned, when we want to denote that something has come from an ancestor or ancestry, we use "is/was descended". Any other verb form changes the meaning of the word. The verb "has descended" means it has literally come down from an elevated point.

Choice D: Your analysis of this choice is correct.

Choice E: This choice rectifies all the errors and is the correct one.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
SJ

Correct. Present tense is kind of weird in English: it indicates a general characteristic. And sure, it works here: the elephant is, as a general characteristic, descended from an aquatic mammal. (Apparently. Frankly, I'd love to see an elephant swim. I splashed around in a river with one once, but she wasn't actually swimming.)



I'm not quite sure what you're referring to in this part. Present perfect (has/have + participle) is used for actions that started in the past, but continue into the present. We could say something like "elephants have evolved from fish", and I think that's OK, since you could argue that elephants started evolving in the past, and are still evolving. But I'm not sure if that answers your question...?


Heh heh. Yeah, this part is tricky. I can tell you what the GMAT is thinking in this particular case: they really don't like the use of two consecutive clauses starting with "that" ("evidence that suggests that the elephant...") here. Fair enough.

But the tricky part is that I don't want to overgeneralize based on this example -- there's no single rule that will help you figure out when to use "to" and when to use "that." I guess we could say that the GMAT prefers the idiom "evidence to suggest that X occurs" over "evidence that suggests that X occurs"... but you won't see this exact issue very often.

Hey, taking a couple steps back there's a good deal to learn here. A couple points:

1) Remember that clarity of meaning is a big emphasis with the error types that the GMAT tests. And here that extra "that" is there to make the meaning crystal clear, that the "and" connects two things that the evidence suggests:

We've found evidence that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal *and* that (the elephant's) trunk originally evolved as a kind of snorkel.

Without that extra "that" it's easy for the reader to see two nouns separated by "and" and see them both as objects, both as things that the elephant descended from. For example, if I were to say "DNA tests suggests that I descended from Irish immigrants and my wife's family is from Sweden" - here you can read it as I descended from two family tree branches (Irish immigrants and my wife's family, which would be a little unnerving) or that two groups (me and my wife's family) have taken DNA tests. (Then the portion "is from Sweden" stands as a fragment, but it makes you go back and re-read to unpack which two things are connected by "and" and that slows the reader down and causes confusion). A "that" after "and" makes it clear that DNA tests suggest two things - one about me and one about my wife's family.

ALSO note that in the SC problem we're talking about there's an "its" right after "and" in some choices. This is another place where clarity can be very helpful. Does "its" mean "the elephant's" or "an aquatic animal's"? With the "that" in place in choice (E), it makes it parallel with "the elephant's":

Evidence suggests 1) that the elephant... and 2)that its

That parallelism signals that both portions of "the evidence suggests" are about the elephant, thereby removing potential confusion about what "its" refers to.

2) So keep in mind that parallel structures in these kinds of constructions exists to ensure clear meanings particularly when you have lots of nouns in a sentence and a tiny connector like "and" or "or" (and potentially some pronouns, too). Parallel structure isn't just a random piece of grammar that the GMAT arbitrarily decided to test - the GMAT tests it because it adds a "reading comprehension" logical component to SC. Which brings me to:

3) One place we love teaching students to look for decision points on SC is anywhere you see a coordinating conjunction (and, or, but, etc.) followed by a structural word like "that," "which," "to," etc. Those are great signals that you're likely dealing with a parallel structure issue, and help point you back to the other parallel structural word - if I see "and that" I'm immediately going back to find a previous "that" so that I can investigate for parallelism and clarity of meaning. If I see "or which" it's the same thing...where's that other "which" so that i can assess? Sometimes (like here) those construction show up in an answer choice, but other times they appear far from the underlined portion. And *that's* where they can be all the more crucial (I'm struggling to find a link to my favorite example of this but I'll grab it and drop it in here via edit function).

The answer choice I picked was E:

A. "That suggests that" is very wordy. Also, parallelism is broken here because "that the elephant..." is not parallel to "its trunk..."

B. The modifier "its trunk originally evolving" seems to be modifying the aquatic animal and not the elephant.

C. The use of the past perfect tense is incorrect. Today, the elephant is still a descendant of these aquatic animals, so past perfect tense doesn't make sense.

D. The use of the past perfect tense is incorrect. Also, parallelism is broken because the first clause "that the elephant..." is not parallel to "its trunk originally..."

E. This answer choice presents the clauses after "to suggest" in parallel and uses the correct verb tense "is descended."

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... t7211.html

I think the above link at MGMAT that discussed this topic from top to bottom in nine pages, with explanations from the entire brigade of the MGMAT, should be of help
Probably because, a past tense reference may erroneously lead to the impression that the elephant of today is not a descendant of the past event.
For instance, we don’t say: My grandfather who is no more, was an Indian. We still say, my grandfather is an Indian. Truly, ancestry pervades through ages.
In the second case, probably because, while the trunk is still there solidly, the development as a snorkel is a completed process.
Beyond this meek explanation, I think you should go through the MGMAT thread to see the spirited defense of MGMAT on this.

ArtVandaley

If I have understood your query in the right perspective, both 'evidence to suggest' and 'evidence that suggests' mean the same thing. In both cases 'evidence' is the agent that is the doer of the action that follows in the form of either an infinitive 'to suggest' or a relative clause 'that suggests/suggested'. In essence, the noun 'evidence' is the object of the verb 'found' and the rest is all a modifier phrase that modifies the noun 'evidence'.

We can see a large number of examples of these kinds of infinitive usage

Jill advised Jack not to dance on the mountain trail.

Kohli asked the fieldsmen to hit the stumps with every ball they stopped.

Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than be confined to a hotel (official example)

Hello moind,

Thank you for sending a PM on this one.

You asked:




Generally, the "to verb" phrase is used to present the intent of an action. However, this is not the only usage of this phrase. This phrase also acts as the direct object of a verb. For example, I love to cook various dishes at festivals.

The "to verb" phrase also acts as a noun modifier. For example, This is a very nice book to read during the long weekend. This is the usage we see in the correct answer choice. The phrase "to suggest" talks about "evidence". The evidence suggests something.



Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

'Its trunk,' the subject of this clause correctly refers to the subject of the parallel clause 'the elephant.'

Australian embryologists have found evidence to suggest
- that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and
- that its trunk originally evolved as ...

There is no ambiguity here. We are giving details about the elephant only. Logically also, only the elephant has a trunk.

Tommy
Isnt it appropriate to say "elephant has descended" instead of "elephant is descended"