Child development specialists believe that, in confining babies much

Question

Child development specialists believe  that, in confining babies much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers, muscle development can be inhibited .

(A) that, in confining babies much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers, muscle development can be inhibited

(B) that, in their confinement much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers, muscle development can be inhibited in babies

(C) that confining babies much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers can inhibit muscle development

(D) that babies, if confined much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers can inhibit muscle development

(E) that strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers can, if babies are confined to the much of the time, result in muscle development being inhibited

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/05/science/q-a-519049.html

Child development specialists think that freely crawling, cruising and toddling are a normal progression in a child's  physical and cognitive development . But as soon as babies can move independently, they tend to be confined  much of the time to strollers, infant seats, highchairs, playpens and walkers . According to Dr. Martin I. Lorin, a pediatrician, who wrote ''The Parents' Book of Physical Fitness for Children,'' this can mean that ''young muscles languish away for want of exercise.''

The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review 2018

Practice Question  
Question No.: SC 204
Page: 255

egmat · Accepted Answer

Hello Jat , Thank you for the query. :-)

Let's read what choice D has to say: ...babies, if confined much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers can inhibit muscle development (I have struck out the modifier to focus on the Subject-Verb pair). According to this choice, the babies can inhibit muscle development. This certainly is illogical. The babies do not inhibit the muscle development. The sentence intends to say that because they are confined to certain objects, the muscle development in babies can be inhibited. Choice C does convey this meaning by saying: ...confining babies much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers can inhibit muscle development . Hope this helps. :-)

Thanks. Shraddha

shubham1985 · Answer

I think you did the hard work to figure out the 2 closest options i.e option A and option C. Let us look at option A :

Child development specialists believe that, in confining babies much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers, muscle development can be inhibited

Remove the prepositional modifier between the commas "in confining babies much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers" and then read the sentence. Specialists believe that muscle development can be inhibited. The sentence does not answer in whom the muscle development can be inhibited.

Thanks !
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varun4s · Answer

Child development specialists believe  that, in confining babies much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers, muscle development can be inhibited.

(A) that, in confining babies much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers,  muscle development can be inhibited   (Red portion do not show where muscle development can be inhibited) 
(B) that, in  their  confinement much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers, muscle development  can be inhibited  in babies  (Usage of their is ambiguous also usage of passive should be avoided)  
(C) that  confining babies  much of the time to strollers,high chairs, playpens, and walkers can inhibit muscle development  (Babies can inhibit muscle development not confining babies)  
(D) that babies, if confined much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers can inhibit muscle development  (Correct) 
(E) that  strollers, high chairs, playpens , and walkers can, if babies are confined to the much of the time, result in muscle development being inhibited  (Babies can inhibit muscle development not strollers and high chairs)

Kudos please if you like my explanation!

ayushi15 · Answer

-  INCORRECT  as the sentence is awkward and does not convey the proper meaning.

So the correct answer should be C.

Jat · Answer

Can an expert explain the reason why option D is selected over option C?

DmitryFarber · Answer

C is the only sensible answer. Babies are definitely not what inhibits muscle development! :lol:

arvind910619 · Answer

Child development specialists believe that, in confining babies much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers, muscle development can be inhibited.

(A) that, in confining babies much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers, muscle development can be inhibited
(B) that, in their confinement much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers, muscle development can be inhibited in babies
(C)  that confining babies much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers can inhibit muscle development 
(D) that babies, if confined much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers can inhibit muscle development
(E) that strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers can, if babies are confined to the much of the time, result in muscle development being inhibited

IMO C 
option A has wrong preposition In
Option B Again repeats the same error , it also makes the sentence passive which is not desirable.
Option D suggests that babies inhibit muscle development.
Option E suggests that strollers high chairs etc inhibit muscle development but it is confinement to these things that inhibit muscle development.

adkikani · Answer

Hi  GMATNinja   generis   GMATNinjaTwo

Can you explain why (D) is incorrect when we have subject - babies - and 
verb - can inhibit muscle development - too far with a conditional clause / modifier in between (if confined to ... walkers)

We have much clearer - can be inhibited - verb closer to subject - babies in (B)

Is it because the noun modifier -   in their confinement much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers, 
does not make sense with  muscle development ?

sayantanc2k · Answer

First, the part "in their confinement much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers" is not a noun modifier, but a verb modifier. A prepositional phrase may work as a noun modifier or a verb modifier:
1. A bird in hand worth two in bush: "in hand" = noun modifier ( acting as adjective - referring to "bird")
2. I kept the book in the bag: "in the bag" = verb modifier ( acting as adverb - referring to "book")
In option B, "in their confinement..." refers to the verb "can be inhibited". (Similar to the second example above.)

Now, coming to your question:
The part "in their confinement much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers" is by itself grammatically wrong. The part "much of the time" is an adverbial phrase and hence must refer to a verb / verbal. e.g.,  They are confined much of the time . However in option B, "much of the time" does not have a verb / verbal to refer to - it erroneously refers to the noun "confinement" - an adverb/adverbial phrase cannot refer to a noun. Hence option B is wrong.

viviolivia · Answer

can we delete other choices because "specialist believe that ....." , that should be followed by a clause and no comma should be used ?

EducationAisle · Answer

Only options A and B have  comma  after  that . All the options do have a  clause  after  that .

sriramsundaram91 · Answer

I was left out with options A and C; however, I chose A. Can anyone tell me, why A is incorrect?

thangvietnam · Answer

we have to choose between choice A and C.
in choice A, it is unclear what inhibit the muscle develepment. in choice C, confining inhibit muscle development. this is good.

choice A is in passive voice, which do not show the agent making action. passive voice is used when agent performing action is not important. but inhere, it is important that confining perfoming inhibition.

choice A suffer unclear meaning error.

what is the agent of an action, "confining" is logically the agent of "inhibiting", but not "babies" or "chairs, strolleys".

thangvietnam · Answer

we can normally have 2 types of errors. illogic meaning and unclear meaning. illogic meaning is more easy to see than unclear meaning.

MAnkur · Answer

Hi Expert
Kinldy, explain why option A is wrong?
I felt that "in confining" has been incorrectly used and "confining" would have been a better usage. Is this analysis correct?
Some posts wrote that option A makes "muscle development" the subject and thereby "muscle development" confine babies, but I could not understand this analysis. Kindly, assist.

vishumangal · Answer

Hi  generis ,

I need your help in this Question.

Although the Right option is C but In option C don't you think that we need  babie's  instead of  babies  as it is the time of baby which is confined to stroller, chairs......

abhi017 · Answer

Hi  GMATNinja   generis   GMATNinja Two  egmat

Can any of you please explain why in option C "babies much of time" is correct? Shouldn't it be babies' ? Why is missing an apostrophe fine here?

ravigupta2912 · Answer

(A) that, in confining babies much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers, muscle development can be inhibited -- Incorrect. We don't need "confining babies as a non-restrictive modifier". If we slash and burn here, the sentence appears completely illogical.

(B) that, in their confinement much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers, muscle development can be inhibited in babies -- Incorrect. Same as A.

(C) that confining babies much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers can inhibit muscle development -- Correct.

(D) that babies, if confined much of the time to strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers can inhibit muscle development -- Incorrect. Reverses meaning. Babies can inhibit muscle development? (Apply slash and burn to test)

(E) that strollers, high chairs, playpens, and walkers can, if babies are confined to the much of the time, result in muscle development being inhibited -- Incorrect. Incomplete meaning. We don't need the non-restrictive modifier usage.

apoorvsingh · Answer

How is this community's most helpful answer when this is incorrect?

Child development specialists believe that, in confining babies much

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Child development specialists believe that, in confining babies much

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