Europeans have long known that eating quail sometimes makes the

Question

Europeans have long known that eating quail sometimes makes  the eater ill, but only recently has it been established that the illness is caused by a toxin present in the quail’s body only under certain conditions.

(A) Europeans have long known that eating quail sometimes makes

(B) Europeans have long known quail eating is sometimes able to make

(C) Eating quail has long been known to Europeans to sometimes make

(D) It has long been known to Europeans that quail eating will sometimes make

(E) It has long been known to Europeans that quail, when it is eaten, has sometimes made

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 
January 1980
Volume 242, Issue 1

Since ancient times it has been known in Europe and North Africa that the European migratory quail,  Coturnix , was good eating but that  eating it sometimes made the eater deathly ill . More recently it has been established that  the cause of illness is a unique kind of food poisoning  now named coturnism. The symptoms include difficulty in breathing, impaired speech, nausea, weakness and loss of feeling in the legs and partial paralysis; death may result. The reason the explicit connection between these symptoms and eating quail took so long to establish is that only certain of the birds are toxic to human beings at certain times of the year and in certain parts of their migratory range, so that the symptoms were often attributed to other causes.

rraman · Accepted Answer

I think the most important thing which will help us to eliminate the answer choices is Subject Verb Pair

Looking at the statment 'Europeans' is Plural therefore 'have' is the correct verb and 'eating quail' is Singular therefore makes is also the correct verb, in my opinion A seems correct lets look at the other choices to see if we can find some error
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Europeans have long known that eating quail sometimes makes  the eater ill, but only recently has it been established that the illness is caused by a toxin present in the quail’s body only under certain conditions.

(A) Europeans have long known that eating quail sometimes makes ->  seems Ok to me as per above evaluation

(B) Europeans have long known quail eating is sometimes  able to make  -> what is the need for 'able to' here??

(C)  Eating quail  has long been known to Europeans to sometimes  make  -> Subject Verb error as discussed above

(D) It has long been known to Europeans that quail eating  will sometimes make  -> incorrect use of will, as 'sometimes make' alone tells that there is a possibility of illness

(E) It has long been known to Europeans that quail,  when it is eaten, has sometimes made  -> I don't how to explain it but it's such a bad construction it seems like it is not the eating but quail itself causes the illness

Helium · Answer

Ans : A

surendrasaini1 · Answer

Europeans have long known that eating quail sometimes makes  the eater ill, but only recently has it been established that the illness is caused by a toxin present in the quail’s body only under certain conditions.

(A) Europeans have long known that eating quail sometimes makes( no error,correct)

(B) Europeans have long known quail eating is sometimes able to make(awkward)

(C) Eating quail has long been known to Europeans to sometimes make( passive construction with change in intended meaning)

(D) It has long been known to Europeans that quail eating will sometimes make(quail eating seems awkward,simple future tense is not necessary,simple present would be a better choice)

(E) It has long been known to Europeans that quail, when it is eaten, has sometimes made ( when is used to refer to time,use of when and sometimes makes the meaning ambiguous)

Will go with choice A

Thanks

mbadream2020 · Answer

(A) Europeans have long known that eating quail sometimes makes

Here first of all we can look for subject verb agreement and proper usage. 
 'Europeans' is Plural therefore 'have' - correct verb
 'eating quail' is Singular - correct verb
 eating quail is a better usage than quail eating. Best choice......Correct Option

(B) Europeans have long known quail eating is sometimes able to make

Subject verb agreement is present in this option. But able to is an unwarranted usage. Also the use of quail eating. 
 Sentence construction is akward here.....incorrect option

(C) Eating quail has long been known to Europeans to sometimes make
 
   issue with subject verb agreement. Should have been 'makes' since eating quail is singular.....incorrect option

(D) It has long been known to Europeans that quail eating will sometimes make
 
  will sometimes make.. indicates possibility of getting the illness ..changes the meaning of the sentence....incorrect 
 option

(E) It has long been known to Europeans that quail, when it is eaten, has sometimes made
 
 Has sometimes made ....wrong usage and changes the intended meaning of the sentence...incorrect option

IMO Ans A

soapbolt · Answer

IMHO  A  should be the correct choice.

Option B  --> Europeans have long known quail eating  Changes the intended meaning

Option C --> to Europeans to sometimes make  this structure is awkwardly constructed

Option D --> quail eating will sometimes make As per the intended meaning, there is no need for future tense. Hence Incorrect

Option E --> that quail, when it is eaten, has sometimes made Again it changes the intended meaning

Skywalker18 · Answer

Europeans have long known that eating quail sometimes makes  the eater ill, but only recently has it been established that the illness is caused by a toxin present in the quail’s body only under certain conditions.

(A) Europeans have long known that eating quail sometimes makes - Correct

(B) Europeans have long known quail eating is sometimes able to make -awkward - the phrase quail eating is unclear; are the quail eating something or they are being eaten

(C) Eating quail has long been known to Europeans to sometimes make - illogical meaning - What has long been known is not the eating but the result of the eating: that the eater can become ill

(D) It has long been known to Europeans that quail eating will sometimes make -awkward - the phrase quail eating is unclear; are the quail eating something or they are being eaten

(E) It has long been known to Europeans that quail, when it is eaten, has sometimes made- Tense issue - has made should be in the simple present tense to match the simple present tense verb is; the phrase "when it is eaten" is redundant

Answer A

daagh · Answer

Europeans have long known that eating quail sometimes makes  the eater ill, but only recently has it been established that the illness is caused by a toxin present in the quail’s body only under certain conditions.

(A) Europeans have long known that eating quail sometimes makes

(B) Europeans have long known quail eating is sometimes able to make

(C) Eating quail has long been known to Europeans to sometimes make

(D) It has long been known to Europeans that quail eating will sometimes make

(E) It has long been known to Europeans that quail, when it is eaten, has sometimes made

Quail eating is lousy. Eating quail is the standard expression. Therefore, let's first remove B and D. In E, the past perfect 'has made' is the culprit, which spoils the general nature of a scientific fact. 
Between A and C, The passive structure of C is its undoing. A remains as the correct choice.

saurabh9gupta · Answer

Do we have a subject verb issue in this sentence? Make and makes?

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daagh · Answer

saurabh  
No. 'Europeans' is not the subject. The gerund 'eating' is the subject. Therefore 'makes' is correct.

AdityaHongunti · Answer

isnt A a bit ambiguous??

eating quail sometimes .... makes ....

eating quail... someetimes makes... 
 aragonn  please respond  daagh

aragonn · Answer

Official Explanation: 
Choice A is best. Choice B is awkward: that is preferable after known to introduce the clause describing what Europeans have long known, and quail eating is . . . able is unidiomatic. Choices C, D, and E are also awkward; more-over, will. . .make in D and has. . .made in E are inappropri-ate to describe a condition that holds true in the present as well as in the future or the past.

aragonn · Answer

AdityaHongunti - As daagh sir mentioned

eating something - this suppose to be a singular noun. that is why 'makes' is used. Perhaps this post can help you.

https://e-gmat.com/blogs/functions-verbing-gmat-verbal/

Niraphan · Answer

Got A. But i do not understand “but only recently has it been established that ....”. Why “has it been” not “it has been”?
can someone explain, thanks

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Sam2021 · Answer

Can someone explain what the referent of "it" (but only recently has *it* been established ...) is in this sentence?

EducationAisle · Answer

"it" is referring to "that the illness is caused by a toxin present in the quail’s body only under certain conditions".

This represents a case when the pronoun ("it") is used "before" the antecedent. For example:

It is said that hard-work pays.

Again, "it" is referring to "that hard-work pays". This is equivalent to:

"that hard-work pays" is said.

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses cases when  pronoun is used "before" the antecedent , its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

vishalmal13 · Answer

Considering Meaning Clarity ....Eating Quail Sometimes in the Option (A) ...will it not distort the meaning ...Since it says "Eating Quail Sometimes" However the Option (C) avoids this error..  daagh  Sir ,  GMATNinja  Sir ...Pls Explain

GMATNinja · Answer

It's important to recognize the difference between a concrete error that's always wrong, and a potential source of confusion that should only be considered after you've eliminated all concrete errors. So you aren't wrong that (A) could be interpreted in two ways: it could mean that occasionally eating quail makes you sick -- maybe you don't eat it very often, but when you do, it reliably makes you sick. It could also mean that eating quail will occasionally make you sick, even if you eat it frequently. But both interpretations seem perfectly logical to me, so I don't want to eliminate it on this basis. Now look at the opening phrase in (C): "Eating quail has long been known to Europeans." This makes it sound as though Europeans have known about the phenomenon of eating quail. That's clearly not right. What they've known is that eating this bird can make you sick. Can you figure that out if you reread the sentence a few times? Sure. But it's confusing, and the default interpretation was illogical. So in a side-by-side comparison, (A) is just clearer and better, even if it isn't perfect. For what it's worth, this question is really old (like me?

), and sometimes in these older questions you see subtler distinctions than you're likely to see in newer ones, so I wouldn't worry too much about this example. I hope that helps a bit!

vv65 · Answer

This is what we have with Option (A):
"Europeans have long known that eating quail sometimes makes the eater ill"

Is it likely that if you eat quail occasionally you will fall ill, but if you eat it often you won't?  Is that likely to be true for any edible item?

The question setters probably thought that this alternative meaning is illogical and unrealistic. Option (A) has just one realistic meaning -- and they probably expected test takers to realise that.

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VerbalBot · Answer

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Europeans have long known that eating quail sometimes makes the

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