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Sub 505 Level|   Grammatical/Rhetorical Construction|   Verb Tense/Form|                              
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Digging in sediments in northern China, evidence has been gathered by 14 Feb 2022, 01:58
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akt715
I still don't understand how emerged can be compared with previously thought? Can anyone explain it further.
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Hello akt715,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, here, "previously thought" is a shortened version of the phrase "previously thought to have emerged"; thus the comparison is between the time when complex life forms actually emerged and the time that they were previously thought to have emerged in.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Digging in sediments in northern China, evidence has been gathered by 27 Mar 2022, 00:36
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GMATNinja KarishmaB mikemcgarry ChrisLele ExpertsGlobal5

Would option E be incorrect, if we had scientists instead of that?

Modified option E - Digging in sediments in northern China, scientists have gathered evidence which suggests a much earlier emergence of complex life-forms than "SCIENTISTS" previously thought.

I am not clear whether option E has pronoun error or some other error. Is the comparison correct phrase(much earlier emergence of complex life-forms) is compared with clause(scientists previously thought)?

Thanks in advance!
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Digging in sediments in northern China, evidence has been gathered by 27 Mar 2022, 05:00
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GMATNinja KarishmaB mikemcgarry ChrisLele ExpertsGlobal5

Would option E be incorrect, if we had scientists instead of that?

Modified option E - Digging in sediments in northern China, scientists have gathered evidence which suggests a much earlier emergence of complex life-forms than "SCIENTISTS" previously thought.

I am not clear whether option E has pronoun error or some other error. Is the comparison correct phrase(much earlier emergence of complex life-forms) is compared with clause(scientists previously thought)?

Thanks in advance!
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Hello waytowharton,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the primary error in Option E is that it uses "which" rather than "that" to refer to information that is vital to the core meaning of the sentence - the fact that the evidence suggests that complex life-forms emerged much earlier than previously thought.

To understand the concept of "Which" vs "That" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
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Digging in sediments in northern China, evidence has been gathered by 28 Mar 2022, 00:14
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waytowharton
GMATNinja KarishmaB mikemcgarry ChrisLele ExpertsGlobal5

Would option E be incorrect, if we had scientists instead of that?

Modified option E - Digging in sediments in northern China, scientists have gathered evidence which suggests a much earlier emergence of complex life-forms than "SCIENTISTS" previously thought.

I am not clear whether option E has pronoun error or some other error. Is the comparison correct phrase(much earlier emergence of complex life-forms) is compared with clause(scientists previously thought)?

Thanks in advance!
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No, option (E) is not good and the replacement you suggested will only make it worse. Option (C) is clean, clear and precise.

Note that the verb 'suggest' takes an object. Often, it is a 'that clause'.
He suggested that we should ...

Else, it could take a noun/pronoun.
Please suggest a song...

(E) ... scientists have gathered evidence which suggests a much earlier emergence of complex life-forms than that previously thought.

It is better to use 'that' with a defining clause, not 'which'.
What does 'that' refer to? It has to refer to a noun so perhaps it refers to 'emergence'. But it still doesn't make any sense if we write 'suggests a much earlier emergence of complex life-forms than emergence previously thought'.
If instead, 'that' were to refer to 'scientists', we would get a clause 'scientists previously thought' being compared with a noun 'much earlier emergence'.

After 'suggests', we need a 'that clause' to explain what the evidence suggests because we need to compare the time of emergence (emerged earlier than previously thought). So it is best to give the verb and then compare. A verb requires a clause.
Hence, (C)'s that clause: '... suggesting that A emerged much earlier than previously thought' works well.

If there were no comparison or the comparison were implied, it would be acceptable e.g.
(E) ... scientists have gathered evidence that suggests a much earlier emergence of complex life-forms.
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Digging in sediments in northern China, evidence has been gathered by 24 Jun 2022, 11:05
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mikemcgarry

how is the phrase "Than previously thought" clear? Shouldn't it have been "than they had previously thought"? Because from what I understand, GMAT wants you to be clear when it comes to the subject of the phrase.

Please correct me if there's anything that I am not thinking about correctly.
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Digging in sediments in northern China, evidence has been gathered by 27 Aug 2022, 18:48
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I understand that "comma which" is a noun modifier. I have also noticed other uses of which such as "in which". What are other examples of correctly using "which" besides "comma which" and "in which"? Thank you for all of your time and help.
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I understand that "comma which" is a noun modifier. I have also noticed other uses of which such as "in which". What are other examples of correctly using "which" besides "comma which" and "in which"? Thank you for all of your time and help.
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okay so let's make sure you understand how this works.


first:

According to the (American) style conventions observed by the GMAT,
• "which" introduces NON-essential modifiers (WITH COMMA),
• "that" introduces ESSENTIAL modifiers (WITHOUT COMMA).
(Be aware—Sources from Britain and former British Commonwealth countries will regularly use "which" in both of these contexts.)

This distinction is not explicitly tested on the GMAT. (It can't be tested, because it's not a rule—it's a style convention.)
Still, GMAC observes both parts of this convention scrupulously; you may be able to leverage this knowledge to interpret long/complex sentences faster and more accurately.



once you understand the above, this is where there's a bit of a twist: Adding a preposition to NO COMMA + "that" turns it into NO COMMA + prep + "WHICH". The end result is that BOTH sides of the convention above end up using "which" if there's a preposition in play.


Example pairs should help:

On the table is a wooden box that contains the chess pieces
On the table is a wooden box in which the chess pieces are stored

Chess is played on an eight-by-eight board, which can also be used for checkers.
Chess is played on an eight-by-eight board, on which checkers can also be played.


Pl let me know whether this all makes sense.
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woohoo921
I understand that "comma which" is a noun modifier. I have also noticed other uses of which such as "in which". What are other examples of correctly using "which" besides "comma which" and "in which"? Thank you for all of your time and help.

okay so let's make sure you understand how this works.


first:

According to the (American) style conventions observed by the GMAT,
• "which" introduces NON-essential modifiers (WITH COMMA),
• "that" introduces ESSENTIAL modifiers (WITHOUT COMMA).
(Be aware—Sources from Britain and former British Commonwealth countries will regularly use "which" in both of these contexts.)

This distinction is not explicitly tested on the GMAT. (It can't be tested, because it's not a rule—it's a style convention.)
Still, GMAC observes both parts of this convention scrupulously; you may be able to leverage this knowledge to interpret long/complex sentences faster and more accurately.



once you understand the above, this is where there's a bit of a twist: Adding a preposition to NO COMMA + "that" turns it into NO COMMA + prep + "WHICH". The end result is that BOTH sides of the convention above end up using "which" if there's a preposition in play.


Example pairs should help:

On the table is a wooden box that contains the chess pieces
On the table is a wooden box in which the chess pieces are stored

Chess is played on an eight-by-eight board, which can also be used for checkers.
Chess is played on an eight-by-eight board, on which checkers can also be played.


Pl let me know whether this all makes sense.
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Thank you! So, there are no examples that would be correct of just using "which" by itself in a sentence? (not "in which" or "on which"...just "which")
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woohoo921
Thank you! So, there are no examples that would be correct of just using "which" by itself in a sentence? (not "in which" or "on which"...just "which")
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Sure there are. In fact, there's one in the post to which you're replying right now: Chess is played on an eight-by-eight board, which can also be used for checkers.
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woohoo921
Thank you! So, there are no examples that would be correct of just using "which" by itself in a sentence? (not "in which" or "on which"...just "which")

Sure there are. In fact, there's one in the post to which you're replying right now: Chess is played on an eight-by-eight board, which can also be used for checkers.
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I am sorry for the back-and-forth and thank you for all of your time. I apologize, but I meant "which" WITHOUT a comma...
The example you provided is a "comma which". So, I am assuming there would not be a correct scenario in this case.
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woohoo921
I am sorry for the back-and-forth and thank you for all of your time.
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You are very welcome. Thank you for the kind consideration.



Quote:
I apologize, but I meant "which" WITHOUT a comma...
The example you provided is a "comma which". So, I am assuming there would not be a correct scenario in this case.
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This point is addressed in the same post. This is the relevant part:

RonTargetTestPrep
According to the (American) style conventions observed by the GMAT,
• "which" introduces NON-essential modifiers (WITH COMMA),
• "that" introduces ESSENTIAL modifiers (WITHOUT COMMA).

(Be aware—Sources from Britain and former British Commonwealth countries will regularly use "which" in both of these contexts.)
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To confirm—You won't see plain "which" without a comma on the GMAT, but you'll see it quite often if you're reading an English-language source from a country other than the U.S. or Canada.
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In the sentence. "Digging in sediments in ..." is modifier

This modifier cannot modify "evidence"

Eliminate A and B

In option D,

"than that which was". which refers to "that".

"which cannot refer to "that"

Also, there is a comparison present in the sentence.

When ever there is comparison, "that" is used a pronoun.

When "that" is used as pronoun, "that" must be followed by "some preposition". For example, "that of something"

here, the usage of "that" is wrong.

Eliminate D

Similarly

In E, " than that previously thought"

Usage of "that" is wrong

Also, there is a comparison present in the sentence.

When ever there is comparison, "that" is used a pronoun.

When "that" is used as pronoun, "that" must be followed by "some preposition". For example, "that of something"

here, the usage of "that" is wrong.

Eliminate E

Hence C is the correct answer
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Digging in sediments in northern China, evidence has been gathered by 18 Sep 2025, 06:06
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