Cutoff from the rest of New Caledonia for centuries, the

Question

Cutoff from the rest of New Caledonia for centuries, the  Iriquonje people have evolved habits and a lifestyle that works well in  their unforgiving locale.

(A) the Iriquonje people have evolved habits and a lifestyle that works well in

(B) habits and a lifestyle were evolved by the Iriquonje people that work well with

(C) the Iriquonje people have evolved habits and a lifestyle that work well with

(D) evolving habits and a lifestyle work well together for the Iriquonje people in

(E) the Iriquonje people evolved habits and a lifestyle that work well with

gmat2me2 · Answer

It is between C and E....But not sure...Picking E

HIMALAYA · Answer

I am going with C because i donot think the event is completed rather i think the event is still continueing....................................

banerjeea_98 · Answer

"A" is best...."that" restricts the clause and needs to be followed by a "singular" verb as lifestyle is singular. Also "works well in XYZ" is more logical than "works well with XYZ"

Folaa3 · Answer

I was hung up on C and E but reading Baneer's point regarding the restrictive clause 'that' that preceeds a lifestyle, i think i will pick A. 

If the restrictive clause were absent, then we can habits and a lifestyle (additive) calls for a plural verb. 
Any thoughts?

HIMALAYA · Answer

Banerjee, but that refers to "habits and a lifestyle". right? however, i like your reasoning that   "works well in XYZ" is more logical than "works well with XYZ"

Folaa3 · Answer

I am not quite sure i agree with this Banerjeea :lol:

work well with and work well in both seem logical depending on context. Note that in and with are both prepositions thus i think they are both fine. e.g My car works well in the winter. My car works well with unleaded fuel. So i think context is key as to when each of them is appropriate. Any thoughts

chunjuwu · Answer

Because of 'locale' which means place, I think it prefers to use 'in' rather than 'with.' 

OA, please.

banerjeea_98 · Answer

When I said "XYZ" I meant "their unforgiving locale" and not as a general rule of thumb.

AJB77 · Answer

OA is C.

OE says that "works well with the locale" is correct and that "habits and a lifestyle" is plural as opposed to "habits as well as lifestyle"

I was not too sure that was right and that's why I posted it here.

Boy I hope I don't see such SCs in my GMAT.

AJB77 · Answer

It is from a paper-based practice test set from one of the classroom GMAT centers, don't know which one. I got it from my friend who took that GMAT in 2002.

ssap · Answer

The hopeful contenders A & E have issues:
A - habits and lifestyle is plural. What is likely to throw one off is the 'a lifestyle' - this can mislead you into thinking that it's a singular verb. 
If you think abt it, using the singular verb 'works' will leave the 'habits' portion high & dry - there is no completion for this line of thought.

E - the Iriquonje people evolved habits and a lifestyle that work well with
Here, evolved is in past - & work well is in present.
Clearly a tense mismatch.
Hence only C stands. 
It suggests a feeling of continuity with 'Have evolved ' and 'work well' and uses a plural verb.

vkat007 · Answer

ssap - nice try, but I am not buying it.

First of all, C does not stand a chance in hell, I don't care what the OA and OE say..

Benerjee is right on the money. "works in the locale" is the correct idiom, not "works well with the locale".

Let's dissect the car example given above:

My car works well in the winter. Here in the winter suggests a time continuum and is appropriate.

My car works well with lube oil. Here the lube oil is an object which  goes well with  car's running capability.

Similarly, these people developed a lifestyle that works well in their locality .

Consider this: 
These people developed a lifestyle that works well with the wild life in their locale.

In the above sentence works well with   makes perfect sense.

Folaa3 · Answer

Pls vkat007, ur post is quite intersting however could you color-distinguish your post so we can clearly read your thoughts. Thanks a lot :lol:

Paul · Answer

I got C and partly agree with the OA. ssap has the same explanation I had in mind. "habits and a lifestyle" plays the role of a compound subject and it is what "that" would refer to (plural). Without this assumption, only lifestyle would "work well in their unforgiving locale" and this would leave "habits" dangling as ssap explained.

Keeping this in mind, A is out. Once again, to make the correct transition from past to present, present perfect is the best tense to use and we can eliminate E.

As for "work well with/in" issue, I concede that "work well in" does sound better because we are not speaking of complementary elements but elements within a greater whole. Bottom line, do not worry for this question because of does have some problems of its own. As long as you could see what it tried to test, you should be fine. Concepts being tested here are:

1- compound subject with relative pronoun tense reference (work/works)
2- misplaced modifer in B and D
3- verb tense (past vs present perfect transition)

Folaa3 · Answer

thanks for you response Paul. 
Now do you have pointers as to how we'd know that compound subject is the concept being tested? I'm sure the point Banerjeera raised must be valid in some instances so how do we detect when compound subject applies vs. restrictive cases. 

Thanks

sparky · Answer

C. clear, present is used, subject and verb agree

as for verb-subject agreements

habits, as well as lifestyle, work

lifestyle, as well as habits, works

habits and a lifestyle work

habits or a lifestyle works

things like that, one needs to watch out for real subject of a sentence

Cutoff from the rest of New Caledonia for centuries, the

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