Last visit was: 09 Jul 2025, 23:58 It is currently 09 Jul 2025, 23:58
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
avatar
srij13
Joined: 13 Jan 2018
Last visit: 17 Feb 2021
Posts: 30
Own Kudos:
138
 [12]
Given Kudos: 27
Location: India
Concentration: Operations, Strategy
GMAT 1: 530 Q46 V17
GMAT 2: 640 Q49 V28
Products:
GMAT 2: 640 Q49 V28
Posts: 30
Kudos: 138
 [12]
2
Kudos
Add Kudos
10
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Most Helpful Reply
User avatar
VeritasPrepBrian
User avatar
Veritas Prep Representative
Joined: 26 Jul 2010
Last visit: 02 Mar 2022
Posts: 416
Own Kudos:
3,162
 [1]
Given Kudos: 63
Expert
Expert reply
Posts: 416
Kudos: 3,162
 [1]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
General Discussion
User avatar
Abhishek009
User avatar
Board of Directors
Joined: 11 Jun 2011
Last visit: 21 Apr 2025
Posts: 5,965
Own Kudos:
5,154
 [4]
Given Kudos: 463
Status:QA & VA Forum Moderator
Location: India
GPA: 3.5
WE:Business Development (Commercial Banking)
Posts: 5,965
Kudos: 5,154
 [4]
3
Kudos
Add Kudos
1
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
User avatar
push12345
Joined: 02 Oct 2017
Last visit: 10 Feb 2019
Posts: 547
Own Kudos:
524
 [1]
Given Kudos: 14
Posts: 547
Kudos: 524
 [1]
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
After seeing the options we can narrow down to C and E

Clearly E conveys meaning in better way as C includes factors and contribute which makes kind of redundancy.

Good explanations by
VeritasPrepBrian Abhishek009
avatar
avikroy
Joined: 04 Jun 2010
Last visit: 26 Mar 2020
Posts: 99
Own Kudos:
34
 [1]
Given Kudos: 264
Location: India
GMAT 1: 660 Q49 V31
GPA: 3.22
GMAT 1: 660 Q49 V31
Posts: 99
Kudos: 34
 [1]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
VeritasPrepBrian
srij13
I am confused between C and E.

I'd look at the problems with C in two ways:

1) The meaning is off. When you include the "as factors" caveat, you're attributing "as factors" as an important part of how they contribute. For example if you say "As a university employee, you can receive free tuition for your immediate family" -- there "as a university employee" is integral to your ability to receive tuition. Or "Stacy was able, as CEO, to turn the company's fortunes around" -- that means she did that as CEO, not in a previous capacity as VP or Director of Ops or whatever.

So...when C says "are able to contribute as factors to..." it's assigning extra value to "as factors" as integral to how high cholesterol or unbalanced homocysteine contribute heart disease. Which doesn't really make sense..."factors" is kind of a placeholder definition - whether or not we give them that designation doesn't really matter as to whether they can contribute to heart disease.

2) Redundancy. If they're contributing to heart disease, then they're automatically factors that lead to heart disease...we don't need to call that out specifically (especially because of point #1 - calling it out specifically creates a strange meaning). E says the same thing more concisely without that redundancy, and therefore has a much cleaner, more precise meaning.




Dear Sir,

Is answer option A grammatically correct?? it sure is not concise or succinct How do we eliminate option A
User avatar
EpilepticLearner
Joined: 24 Feb 2019
Last visit: 03 Feb 2020
Posts: 44
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 73
Posts: 44
Kudos: 25
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
avikroy
VeritasPrepBrian
srij13
I am confused between C and E.

I'd look at the problems with C in two ways:

1) The meaning is off. When you include the "as factors" caveat, you're attributing "as factors" as an important part of how they contribute. For example if you say "As a university employee, you can receive free tuition for your immediate family" -- there "as a university employee" is integral to your ability to receive tuition. Or "Stacy was able, as CEO, to turn the company's fortunes around" -- that means she did that as CEO, not in a previous capacity as VP or Director of Ops or whatever.

So...when C says "are able to contribute as factors to..." it's assigning extra value to "as factors" as integral to how high cholesterol or unbalanced homocysteine contribute heart disease. Which doesn't really make sense..."factors" is kind of a placeholder definition - whether or not we give them that designation doesn't really matter as to whether they can contribute to heart disease.

2) Redundancy. If they're contributing to heart disease, then they're automatically factors that lead to heart disease...we don't need to call that out specifically (especially because of point #1 - calling it out specifically creates a strange meaning). E says the same thing more concisely without that redundancy, and therefore has a much cleaner, more precise meaning.




Dear Sir,

Is answer option A grammatically correct?? it sure is not concise or succinct How do we eliminate option A

Please why is A incorrect? Should "factors" be singular?
User avatar
VeritasPrepBrian
User avatar
Veritas Prep Representative
Joined: 26 Jul 2010
Last visit: 02 Mar 2022
Posts: 416
Own Kudos:
3,162
 [1]
Given Kudos: 63
Expert
Expert reply
Posts: 416
Kudos: 3,162
 [1]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Good questions on (A). A couple things on (A):

1) The meaning there is off. If you look at the subject/verb setup, (A) says "either X or Y can be factors" (and then "contributing to..." qualifies what kind of factors) - this makes the fact that these conditions contribute to heart disease kind of an afterthought, vs. E which more directly says "they contribute to heart disease." The purpose of the sentence is to say that these conditions lead to heart disease...(A) kind of buries the headline by saying they're factors as the main thought, and then qualifying those types of factors also. (NOTE: A vs. E to me is a great example of why having five answer choices is a HUGE advantage vs. trying to edit a single sentence in isolation - I wouldn't necessarily see this meaning problem unless I compare A and E, but when I do I think "yeah that meaning in A is off").

Also "can be factors" puts the conditional "can be" in an odd spot - the conditional "sometimes but not always" isn't that these conditions could be factors, but that they could contribute to heart disease. "Can be factors" suggests that we don't know whether they're always factors...what we really don't know is whether these factors can cause heart disease.

Similarly the tense on "contributing" is off, too - that suggests that these are temporarily contributing to heart disease, but with scientific cause-and-effect, logically they either contribute to heart disease always, or they don't. There isn't a "during this limited period high cholesterol will cause heart disease, but after the summer solstice that won't be the case anymore" kind of thing. If it were "are factors that contribute" then we solve that problem by using a more definitive tense fitting of the scientific subject, but as written it's too temporary.

2) It's a tricky one but in an Either/Or construction, the singularity/plurality is dictated by the noun that comes after "or." And here although "levels" is plural, we're not really saying the levels themselves are what cause heart disease, but rather the state of them being unbalanced. You really should have "unbalanced homocysteine levels can be a factor," singular.

This is one that's pretty ugly - you wouldn't say "unbalanced levels is a factor" but rather "unbalanced levels are a factor"...as a test-taker what I love about E is that it just avoids the situation altogether. That's pretty classic GMAT - wrong answers introduce a really unique and odd structure, but instead of making you choose a unique grammatical structure, they give you an answer that just totally avoids it.
avatar
Harshjha001
Joined: 14 Sep 2019
Last visit: 08 Oct 2021
Posts: 60
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 19
Posts: 60
Kudos: 25
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Can someone please explain me whats the difference between -:

can contribute , along with elevated blood pressure, to

and

can , along with elevated blood pressure, contribute to

Thanks in advance . VeritasPrepBrian GMATNinja
User avatar
VerbalBot
User avatar
Non-Human User
Joined: 01 Oct 2013
Last visit: 04 Jan 2021
Posts: 18,440
Own Kudos:
Posts: 18,440
Kudos: 953
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.
Moderators:
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
7349 posts
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
235 posts