A, B,& C are incorrect because of using incorrect pronoun. In option A use of "They" to refer to psychotherapy is incorrect. In option B use of " They" to refer drug therapy is incorrect. Option C repeats the same error as option A. Between option D & E, parallelism is not maintained in option E. So option D is the correct answer as it maintains parallelism and avoids any pronoun error.

Drug therapy can supplement, but it does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease which has psychological and physiological components.


A. supplement, but it does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease which has
--> Incorrect: what does 'they' refer to? Surely not the singular noun psychotherapy! 'they' has no clear antecedent.

B. supplement, but they do not replace psychotherapy in the treating of a disease having
--> Incorrect: same issue as (A). Moreover, it is 'in the treatment' not 'in the treating' of a disease.

C. supplement but does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease having
--> Incorrect: same issue as (A).

D. supplement but not replace psychotherapy in the treatment of a disease that has
--> Correct: What does supplement but not replace psychotherapy=> drug therapy. Also the usage of 'in the treatment' is clearly better.

E. supplement, but there is no replacement for psychotherapy in the treatment of a disease that has
--> Incorrect: Why do we need a demonstrative pronoun 'there' in this sentence in the first place? Are we talking about a place that exists as replacement for psychotherapy? Where are we talking about actually

Hence answer : (D)

Drug therapy can supplement, but it does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease which has psychological and physiological components.
A,B ,and C are out as they wrongly refers to singular 'Drug therapy'
In E, a new sentence starts without completing the sentence Drug therapy can supplement

Answer-D

A. supplement, but it does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease which has

B. supplement, but they do not replace psychotherapy in the treating of a disease having

C. supplement but does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease having

D. supplement but not replace psychotherapy in the treatment of a disease that has

E. supplement, but there is no replacement for psychotherapy in the treatment of a disease that has

D
"comma + but" connects two independent clauses
Drug therapy can supplement ...... seems incomplete.

A, B, E gone
C; pronoun "they" is ambiguous.
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Drug therapy can supplement, but it does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease which has psychological and physiological components.


A. supplement, but it does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease which has -- pronouns are all over the place; "it" & "they" refer to nothing in particular unambiguously

B. supplement, but they do not replace psychotherapy in the treating of a disease having -- before "But", the first independent clause is not an independent thought (supplement what?)

C. supplement but does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease having -- "they" has ambiguous referent (can refer to both drug therapy and psychotherapy)

D. supplement but not replace psychotherapy in the treatment of a disease that has -- CORRECT, "but" is used as conjunction with common subject noun and object noun. Pesky pronouns are gone

E. supplement, but there is no replacement for psychotherapy in the treatment of a disease that has -- same as B and modifier error

So, answer is D

Pronoun

A. supplement, but it does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease which has: "It" cannot refer to the whole clause " Drug therapy can supplement ", The clause can be referred to by "a practise " or " a method " etc. Additionally " they" has no referent. INCORRECT.

B. supplement, but they do not replace psychotherapy in the treating of a disease having: Pronoun " they" has no referent. INCORRECT.

C. supplement but does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease having.Pronoun " they" has no referent. INCORRECT.

D. supplement but not replace psychotherapy in the treatment of a disease that has: CORRECT.

E.supplement, but there is no replacement for psychotherapy in the treatment of a disease that has: Wordy, not as concise as option D.INCORRECT.

Ans- D

Hope it's clear.
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Drug therapy can supplement, but it does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease which has psychological and physiological components.

In above question, all Subject Verb Pair exist, Present tense used in tense , but pronoun error is there.
Modifier, Parallelism , Comparison , Idiomatic Usage all are seem correct.

A. supplement, but it does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease which has

1. There is ambiguity in the antecedent of "it" weather it belongs to "Drug therapy" & " supplement".
2. Pronoun error "they" refer to singular antecedent

- Incorrect

B. supplement, but they do not replace psychotherapy in the treating of a disease having

1. Pronoun error , "they" refer to whom?
2. Incorrect tense usage " do not"

- Incorrect

C. supplement but does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease having

1. "they" Pronoun error.

- Incorrect


D. supplement but not replace psychotherapy in the treatment of a disease that has

- It removes the pronoun ambiguity and usages the correct tense

- Correct

E. supplement, but there is no replacement for psychotherapy in the treatment of a disease that has

- Changes the meaning of the sentences & too wordy.

- Incorrect

IMO(D)

IMO D

A. supplement, but it does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease which has
'they' is not clear. referring to singular object

B. supplement, but they do not replace psychotherapy in the treating of a disease having
'they' is not clear. referring to singular object

C. supplement but does not replace psychotherapy as they treat a disease having
'they' is wrong again.

D. supplement but not replace psychotherapy in the treatment of a disease that has
Correct meaning, clear grammer.

E. supplement, but there is no replacement for psychotherapy in the treatment of a disease that has
complicats the intended meaning.

Hello Bunuel

WHat is the official explanation of this answer?
Isn't 'BUT' used wrongly here?

FANBOYS stands for the coordinating conjunctions For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So. We use these words to connect other words, phrases, and clauses together. When you see one of these connecting words and there are two complete thoughts in the sentence, you should always insert a comma before FANBOYS.

Please help in clarifying my doubt.
Thanks in advance

egmat CrackVerbal gmatwhiz AjiteshArun generis GMATNinja

Hi bratbg,

The correct option does not use but between two complete thoughts (most of the words are "understood"):
Drug therapy can supplement but not replace...

Even in option A, the portion on the left is not complete. That is, we cannot stop at supplement. We must include psychotherapy:
Drug therapy can supplement, but it does not replace psychotherapy... ← "drug therapy can supplement" is not complete on its own.

Also, there is no reason to apply the "rule" you mentioned. People may have (very) strong opinions on how commas should be used, but I think we should treat only a few select comma "rules" as rules (for example, the GMAT would almost certainly consider a comma splice an error).
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Here's the official explanation provided by the GMAC for this question:

In the original version of this sentence, the opening phrase, Drug therapy can supplement is followed by an independent clause, it does not replace psychotherapy ... leaves supplement with no object. The sentence could be made grammatical and coherent by changing Drug therapy can supplement to Drug therapy can supplement psychotherapy. However, there are ways to make the sentence more concise by avoiding the awkward repetition of psychotherapy as answer choice D does.

Option A: This mistakenly treats supplements as an intransitive verb, claiming that drug therapy can supplement but not mentioning anything that it supplements. Thus, it is ungrammatical. The referent of they is not entirely clear. The intended significance of as is also unclear; it could mean while or because, but neither meaning would be entirely coherent.

Option B: Like answer choice A, this mistakenly treats supplement as an intransitive verb. Furthermore, the referent of the plural pronoun they is unclear; it has no plural antecedent within the sentence. In the treating of a disease is awkward and indirect.

Option C: This structure makes the referent of they unclear. The intended significance of as is also unclear; it could mean while or because, but neither meaning would be entirely coherent in this context.

Option D: Correct. This is grammatically correct and expresses a coherent meaning. It does so concisely by putting both supplement and not replace within the scope of the single auxiliary verb can.

Option E: Like answer choice A, this mistakenly treats supplement as an intransitive verb.The intended connection between the two clauses is unclear.

The correct answer is D.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.
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