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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In this case, I am rather skeptical about the use of the modal would rather than will. Would Is normally used
1. when a direct speech that is set in the past is converted into a reported or indirect speech, where in the term will is turned into ther past would, to avoid the shift of tense.

2. As a past subjunctive, when presenting a hypothetical ness that is never going to happen.

Ex: if I were to choose to visit a planet, I would rather choose Jupiter, because it is the biggest.

3. Where you want to impart a certain degree of speculation about the event or the phenomenon

Ex: With Sachin losing his sheen, I think that Mumbai Indians would be hammered out in this IPL.
Well, it is just a crude guess and it may or may not happen. There may be other instances, but by and large, these are the uses of the auxiliary verb 'would'.

In this case, the climatologists have all along indicated that the most obvious effects were those three things. In fact, it sounds as if these are the only three things that are sure to happen. There seems to be not even an iota of speculation about it. How can we use a verb such as would in such cock-sure circumstances. I rather think that the use of will be the most appropriate in the given text and in A
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Hi there,

Option B changes the intended meaning significantly. Notice what the original sentence says, and how it uses "would".

The sentence uses "would" to indicate what the most obvious effects would be. "The most obvious effects... would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess."

However, in option B, the placement of "would" -- and thus, the meaning it indicates -- has changed. This option says that "the effects... would be those impacting." So, this option is using "would" to refer to the impact of the effects, whereas the original uses "would" to identify what the effects would be. I hope this distinction in meaning is now clearer.

Regards,
Meghna
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Is the usage of present "have ..." and past "would" correct ?

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.

Breaking down the sentence
Discussion(Main Subject) of greenhouse effects has (verb) usually focused on whether the Earth would warm AND by how much , BUT (coordinating conjunction)
climatologists (subject) have indicated (verb) 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 words in blue are the prepositional phrases in parallel separated by AND
the words in green are the relative clauses in parallel separated by AND
Lastly, 'AND' is used in the list -temperature , precipitation AND Storminess

The bare sentence structure without fluff : Discussion has focused on (X) and (Y) BUT Climatologist have indicated that [A] and [ B] would be extremes of P,Q,and R .

Usage of AND:--
AND is used to combine two words (Andy and George) --compound subject that takes a plural verb ;
combine two sentences/independent clauses (I went to school AND played football )--coordinating conjunction
and indicate the end of a list (U,V,W,X,Y,AND Z)
Hence AND is a excellent marker for //m since you can easily spots whether the grammatical elements on either side of AND are // or not and eliminate the options accordingly

Question about "would"
whenever we talk about a FUTURE prediction we use "would"
Here the scientist are predicating the climatic factors with the largest impact in the FUTURE .Hence, the usage of WOULD is correct.

Question about "HAVE"
Present perfect tense is used for a task that has begun in the past and continues in the present or the effect of the task continues upto the present (though the task is over)

Here the task of Indicating (by the scientist ) has already been done and its effect (the indication/prediction) goes on upto the present point . So HAVE INDICATED is correctly used.

Hope it's clear

This is my analysis
A. this alternative sounds good, It could be consider a posible answer
B. the function of "extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess," is not clear. It is a noun phrase but does not have a function
C. The same problem as B
D.The conector ", " that join "storminess, the most" create a run on sentence
E. the use of "the most on people' is wrong, The correct for of superlative is "The most + noun/noun phrase".

Other alternative to be considered is evaluate the structure the superlative 'The most" that need a noun/noun phrase.
With this analysis B and E are out.
D is a run on sentence
C presents a noun phrase "extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess" that does not have function.
A is the best

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
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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


Hi, E GMAT
Thanks to your explanation I can eliminate answer choices (B), (C),(D),and (E).
However, as a non native, I feel uncomfortable about sentence structure of (A).

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

this sentence can be revised like bellow, thereby the phrase "and those that would have the ...." works as absolute phrase or apposition?

Revised version (my opinion)
climatologists indicated that the most obvious effects would be extremes of temperature, precipi, and stormi, and those that would have the largest impact on people.


climatologists have indicated all along that the most obvious effects would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess and those that would have the largest impact on people

Please help me !

Hi TamYooo, your revised version would be interpreted as:-

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

This is clearly changing the meaning of the original sentence, for it fails to mention that extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess are the effects that would have the largest impact on people.
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The main clause here is "Climatologists have indicated all along that the most obvious effects would be extremes of temperature, precipitation, and storminess." The three elements in red are the aforementioned "obvious effects." Note that it's perfectly acceptable for one of the elements to be a noun phrase - "extremes of temperature" - and two of the elements to be simple nouns - "precipitation" and "storminess." The important consideration is that all the elements in the list perform the same function, and here they do.

I hope that helps!
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