Discussion of greenhouse effects has usually focused on whether the

Salient features of this question are:

The effects are the most obvious, and the impact is the largest. We can't say the effects are the largest effect or the impact is the most obvious, notwithstanding other errors, if any.


(A) the most obvious effects, and those that would have the largest impact on people would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess --- Ok as per the above tenet.

(B) the effects that are the most obvious ones, extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, would be those impacting the most on people-- impacting the most is not provided for in the context. Therefore, out.

(C) those effects to have the largest impact on people, extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, are what are the most obvious effects --- are what are' is redundant -- out


(D) extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, the most obvious effects, that they would have the largest impact on people. This is a blatant fragment. Gone.

(E) extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, which are the most obvious effects, are those to impact the most on people --- same as in B.

A is the last resort.

GMATNinja
I have a doubt concerned to option a and the placement of comma in it. Here their are two subject for one verb. The two subjects are the most obvious effects and those so ideally we should not have a comma between most obvious effects and those. By placing a comma before and arent we violating grammatical rules.

Can you pl correct me.

Excellent question! The truth is that virtually any "rule" related to commas can be violated. Sometimes, when there are unusually long modifiers, commas are used in unconventional ways for the sake of clarity. Other times, commas are used to indicate emphasis.

Take another look at the relevant clause in (A): "The most obvious effects, and those that would have the largest impact on people, would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess." Notice first that the sentence would make perfect sense without the noun phrase in red. The phrase in red isn't a 2nd subject -- it seems to be functioning more as modifier describing the "obvious effects."

Put another way, we're not talking about two different sets of effects - "the most obvious" effects and the effects "that would have the largest impact on people" - but rather one set of effects that happens to have two characteristics (the effects are obvious, and they also have a large impact on people). If we removed the commas, as you noted, it would sound as though there were, in fact, two different sets of effects. That isn't WRONG, exactly, but it isn't the meaning the writer wishes to convey.

Takeaway: comma usage is really complicated and it is intimately connected with meaning and clarity. So don't eliminate an answer because the commas seem to violate an arbitrary rule! Instead, eliminate an answer only if the comma usage creates an unclear or illogical meaning. And in general, comma usage is very rarely a deciding factor on official GMAT questions.

I hope that helps!

[quote="ankur55"]Discussion of greenhouse effects has usually focused on whether the Earth would warm and by how much, but climatologists have indicated all along that the most obvious effects, and those that would have the largest impact on people, would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess.


(A) the most obvious effects, and those that would have the largest impact on people, would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess

(B) the effects that are the most obvious ones, extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, would be those impacting the most on people

(C) those effects to have the largest impact on people, extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, are what are the most obvious effects

(D) extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, the most obvious effects, that they would have the largest impact on people

(E) extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, which are the most obvious effects, are those to impact the most on people


This question has changed since originally appearing in the OG book. The underlines section now starts at the beginning. Can someone give me a new explanation for why the answer choice is C rather than E.

lnstnbass

Can you please give the revised version along with its choices?

It isn't in any answer choice but I wanted to get a better understanding of the split between WOULD AND WILL. Typically would is used to indicate a conditional that happened in the PAST and will is used for the future. Why is it in answer choice, they used WOULD instead of WILL?

can anyone tell me why (D) has no verb?

Hi D does not have a verb after that. that is used as a conjunction here and hence, marks the start of a clause. So, there has to be a verb after that.

Let's look at the following correct sentence:

Peter said that he was busy.

After that, we have a clause he was busy (with was being the verb) .

Now, the structure of D is:

that extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, the most obvious effects

As is quite evident, there is no verb in this part.

EducationAisle
so, in the same way, dose option e is wrong as option d?
I know another problem in E is "those"cannot refer to "obvious effects", which are in the parenthetical phrase.
thank in advance~

Indeed, this would be the easiest reason to eliminate E.

Hi,

Please explain why we reject answer choice B?

Hi Aditi, couple of issues with B:

i) It changes the meaning of the original sentence. The original sentence conveys that the effects listed (extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess) would (a) be most obvious and (b) have the largest impact on people

B changes this meaning and states that the most obvious effects would have the largest impact on people!

ii) Even if what is mentioned in B (the most obvious effects would have the largest impact on people) were the intended meaning of the sentence, I would expect B to be:

...the most obvious ones - extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess - would be those impacting...

Currently, the presence of a long list of commas in B is making the sentence difficult to comprehend.

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down the options to the correct one! To begin, here is the question with any major differences highlighted in orange:

Discussion of greenhouse effects has usually focused on whether the Earth would warm and by how much, but climatologists have indicated all along that the most obvious effects, and those that would have the largest impact on people, would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess.

(A) the most obvious effects, and those that would have the largest impact on people, would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess
(B) the effects that are the most obvious ones, extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, would be those impacting the most on people
(C) those effects to have the largest impact on people, extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, are what are the most obvious effects
(D) extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, the most obvious effects, that they would have the largest impact on people
(E) extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, which are the most obvious effects, are those to impact the most on people

Since there are so many differences between the options, we need to start off by looking at big-picture issues. One of the larger issues we often see on the GMAT is wordiness, so let's start there. It's clear from doing a quick scan over the options that some of these are incredibly tough to follow - which is a sign that wordiness might be a problem! We need to scan through each option, looking for phrases or idioms that are overly wordy or confusing:

(A) the most obvious effects, and those that would have the largest impact on people, would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess --> OK

(B) the effects that are the most obvious ones, extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, would be those impacting the most on people --> WRONG
(The phrase "the effects that are the most obvious ones" is too wordy - why not just say "the most obvious effects?")

(C) those effects to have the largest impact on people, extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, are what are the most obvious effects --> WRONG
(The phrase "are what are the most obvious effects" is overly wordy - just say "are the most obvious effects.")

(D) extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, the most obvious effects, that they would have the largest impact on people --> WRONG
(Aside from the fact that the phrase "that they would have" is overly wordy, it also creates a fragment by leaving out a verb! To fix this, you would have to cut that phrase down to just "would have," which is a verb and much more concise.)

(E) extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, which are the most obvious effects, are those to impact the most on people --> WRONG
(The phrase "are those to impact the most on people" is overly wordy and confusing.)

There you have it - option A was the correct choice because it's the only one that doesn't contain overly wordy phrases or ungrammatical, confusing constructions!


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

Discussion of greenhouse effects has usually focused on whether the Earth would warm and by how much, but climatologists have indicated all along that the most obvious effects, and those that would have the largest impact on people, would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess.


(A) the most obvious effects, and those that would have the largest impact on people, would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess. Correct answer

(B) the effects that are the most obvious ones, extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, would be those impacting the most on people( Same as C, and those that also not correctly use)

(C) those effects to have the largest impact on people, extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, are what are the most obvious effects( those use is incorrect)

(D) extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, the most obvious effects, that they would have the largest impact on people( They ??? referring to ?) incorrect

(E) extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, which are the most obvious effects, are those to impact the most on people( Which is referring to storminess so incorrect)

Hello GMATNinja egmat

Could you please clarify why which is wrong in Option E as pointed by various explanations.
Can't which refers to the whole part extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess

Hi guys,

Why is "which" in letter E incorrect ?

Good question! I wouldn't say that "which" is definitively wrong here. It could logically refer to "extremes of x, y, and z." Whenever we have a "which" modifier surrounded by commas, that modifier is providing non-essential information. You could argue that, in this case, the fact that these extremes are the most obvious effects is essential information, and so the "which" alters the meaning of the sentence in a problematic way. But that feels awfully subtle, and I'd like to have a more concrete reason to eliminate an option.

Take another look at the relevant clause in (E):

"Extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, which are the most obvious effects, are those to impact the most on people."

Here, it's not quite clear what "those" refers to. Is it referring to "extremes?" To "effects?"

If we give the sentence writer the benefit of the doubt, and decide that "those" refers back to "effects", we'd get the following:

"Extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess are the effects to impact the most on people."

This doesn't make much sense. Why is the author telling us that extremes are effects? There's a meaning/clarity problem here. It's far more logical and more concise to write that the effects "have the largest impact on people," as (A) does.

Moreover, the phrase "to impact the most on people," is idiomatically incorrect. When "impact" is used as a verb, it doesn't take a preposition. For example:

"Tim's tendency to shout Lynyrd Skynyrd lyrics at 3:00 a.m. definitely impacted his children."

However, when "impact" is used as a noun, it can take a preposition:

"Tim's tendency to shout Lynyrd Skynyrd lyrics at 3:00 a.m. definitely had an impact on his children."

In (E), "impact" is used as a verb, and so the preposition "on" is incorrect. In (A) "impact" is used as a noun, and so the preposition "on" is fine.

I hope that helps!