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KittyDoodles
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Discussion of greenhouse effects has usually focused on whether the 09 Sep 2022, 21:31
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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
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!
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Hi GMATNinja

In Option E, is "those" referring to extremes or effects or we assume that the word after those has been omitted eg. Those (extremes/ effects)

Extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess are those (extremes) to impact the most on people.

I rejected option A as ", and those" seemed to be redundant.

Regarding the idiom error in Option E, how can it be possible to remember so many idioms for non-native speakers like us.

Thanks
Kitty
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Discussion of greenhouse effects has usually focused on whether the 10 Nov 2022, 06:48
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Option A ??? ???..???have indicated all along that??? the most obvious effect, ???and??? those that would have the largest impact.

Isn???t the parallelism wrong here?
Climatologists have indicated all along that
a. The most obvious effects
b. Those that would have the largest impact
I felt (which obviously I am wrong) that climatologist has indicated that obvious effect would be the one having largest impact.
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Rickooreo
Option A ??? ???..???have indicated all along that??? the most obvious effect, ???and??? those that would have the largest impact.

Isn???t the parallelism wrong here?
Climatologists have indicated all along that
a. The most obvious effects
b. Those that would have the largest impact
I felt (which obviously I am wrong) that climatologist has indicated that obvious effect would be the one having largest impact.
Show more


Hey Rickooreo

Happy to help.

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.

Sentence Structure:

    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.

The highlighted portion above is not the second entity in a list of subjects. If it were the second entity in a list of just two nouns, would we place a COMMA before the "and"? No, right?

The highlighted portion is what we call an ASIDE. It is a phrase of additional information inserted between commas. Such phrases are not considered a part of the sentence/clause in which they are found. They are there merely for additional information. This is why, the subject in the final clause is "the most obvious effects" and its verb is "would be".

So, as you can see, there is no question of parallelism.

I hope this improves your understanding.

Rickooreo - You seem to have given the GMAT once already and are solving GMAT Prep questions, questions only solved once we've exhausted all 6 Official Mocks (not before). But, judging from your queries, you're making very basic errors. This is not the ideal way to prepare for the GMAT. I strongly recommend our GMAT Online course to you. One of its many highlights is the Master Comprehension module, in which we teach Sentence Structure Analysis and how to read long sentences in the simplest way possible. Improving your basics could make all the difference in getting from a V35 to a V40+. If you're interested, please write to [email protected]. We'll be happy to help you and even give you free advice.

All the best!


Happy Learning!

Abhishek
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Discussion of greenhouse effects has usually focused on whether the 11 Nov 2022, 05:54
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Rickooreo
Option A ??? ???..???have indicated all along that??? the most obvious effect, ???and??? those that would have the largest impact.

Isn???t the parallelism wrong here?
Climatologists have indicated all along that
a. The most obvious effects
b. Those that would have the largest impact
I felt (which obviously I am wrong) that climatologist has indicated that obvious effect would be the one having largest impact.
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Hello Rickooreo,

We hope this finds you well.

To provide a bit of clarity here, the intended meaning is that extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess would be both the most obvious effects and the effects that would have the largest impact on people.

The elements linked by a conjunction ("and" in this case) are the noun phrases "the most obvious effects" and "those (effects) that would have the largest impact on people"; thus, parallelism is maintained.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Discussion of greenhouse effects has usually focused on whether the 06 Jan 2023, 13:02
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KittyDoodles
In Option E, is "those" referring to extremes or effects or we assume that the word after those has been omitted eg. Those (extremes/ effects)

Extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess are those (extremes) to impact the most on people.

I rejected option A as ", and those" seemed to be redundant.

Regarding the idiom error in Option E, how can it be possible to remember so many idioms for non-native speakers like us.

Thanks
Kitty
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It's hard to tell what "those" refers to in (E), and that's part of the problem. Let's look at (E) without the "which" clause:

    "Discussion of greenhouse effects has usually focused on {X}, but climatologists have indicated all along that extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess are those to impact the most on people."

"Those" must refer to a plural noun, and "extremes" is a logical option, since it's the subject of the clause ("... extremes of t, p, and s are...").

But when we stick the "which" clause back in, the referent for "those" becomes less clear. Do we go with the subject of the clause ("extremes")? Or do we go with the plural noun right before it ("effects")? The latter makes more sense logically, since the climatologists have been trying to tell us that extremes of t, p, and s are both the most obvious effects and the most impactful effects. But if we just go by the structure of the sentence, "extremes" seems to be the referent.

The referent is much clearer in (A), where "those" refers to the noun that (1) is immediately before the pronoun, (2) is the subject of the clause ("the most obvious effects"), and (3) is the most logical (Which effects would have the largest impact? Extremes of x, y, and z).

The idiom errors offer further evidence that (A) is better than (E), but the confusing "those" is a good enough reason to scrap (E).

I hope that helps!
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egmat
Hi All,

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.



Error Analysis:

1. All the subject verb pairs are accounted for: “the most obvious effects” and “those” – “would be”, “that’ (refers to obvious effects) – “would have”.
2. The verb tenses used are correct. Since the sentence talks about future possibility, use of “would” is correct.
3. Pronoun “those” correct refers to “most obvious effects”.
4. Relative pronoun “that” correctly modifies “those” that refers to “the most obvious effects”.
5. “the most obvious effects” is parallel to “those” while “temperature”, “precipitation”, and “storminess” are parallel.
6. There are no idiom error and meaning error in this sentence.
7. This sentence is correct as is.

POE:

Choice A: the most obvious effects, and those that would have the largest impact on people, would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess: Correct for the reasons stated above.

Choice B: the effects that are the most obvious ones, extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, would be those impacting the most on people: Incorrect.
1. “the effects that are the most obvious ones” is way too wordy when we can say “the most obvious effects”.
2. The parallel list has been violated. The entities in the list are now “effects”, “extreme of temperature”, “precipitation”, and “storminess”.
3. Reference of “those” is ambiguous.
4. “impacting the most on people” is absolutely ungrammatical. The correct expression is either “have impact on people” or “impacting people”.

Choice C: those effects to have the largest impact on people, extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, are what are the most obvious effects: Incorrect.
1. Repeats the same parallelism error as in Choice B.
2. “what are “ is not needed.
3. This choice distorts the intended meaning. It says that the effects that would have the largest impact are the most obvious ones.

Choice D: extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, the most obvious effects, that they would have the largest impact on people: Incorrect. There is no verb for “extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess”. This leads to a fragment.

Choice E: extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess, which are the most obvious effects, are those to impact the most on people: Incorrect.
1. Use of “which” is incorrect.
2. “to impact the most on people” is ungrammatical.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Can you elaborate more on why usage of which is incorrect ? Thanks
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