Last visit was: 19 Nov 2025, 08:56 It is currently 19 Nov 2025, 08:56
Home
GMAT
Messages
Tests
Schools
Events
Rewards
Chat
My Profile
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.
Go to My Error Log Learn more
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
Back to Forum
Create Topic
   1   2 
555-605 Level|   Pronouns|      
User avatar
Abhishek009
User avatar
Board of Directors
Joined: 11 Jun 2011
Last visit: 18 Jul 2025
Posts: 5,934
Own Kudos:
5,327
Given Kudos: 463
Status:QA & VA Forum Moderator
Location: India
GPA: 3.5
WE:Business Development (Commercial Banking)
Posts: 5,934
Kudos: 5,327
Ernst Haeckel held the individual development of biological organisms, 15 Oct 2015, 08:03
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
aditya8062
option C seems best: that the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, passes through all the previous evolutionary stages from single cell organism to the species of these organisms

reason as why E is wrong: the intent of the sentence is to put forward THAT Ernst Haeckel held or propounded some theory which is true in entirety SO that FACT should be presented in PRESENT TENSE and NOT in PAST PERFECT as is done in E
Show more

Undoubtedly (c) -

(C) that the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, passes through all the previous evolutionary stages from single cell organism to the species of these organisms

The highlighted part correctly modifies the development of biological organisms
avatar
sarthaknav
avatar
Joined: 15 Jul 2015
Last visit: 24 Nov 2017
Posts: 34
Own Kudos:
101
Given Kudos: 31
Posts: 34
Kudos: 101
Ernst Haeckel held the individual development of biological organisms, 15 Oct 2015, 09:42
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Ernst Haeckel held some finding and not the individual development
Therefore the sentence needs a that after Ernst Haeckel held
Without that the sentence reads as if Ernst Haeckel was responsible for the individual development.
Eliminate A and B

The original sentence has previous evolutionary stages - The adjective previous modifies evolutionary stages
In option D and E the adverb previously modifies the verb passed. Hence the meaning is changed.
Further I think there is no need of past perfect used in option E.

C is correct answer.

Quote:
Ernst Haeckel held the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, to have passed through all the previous evolutionary stages from single cell organism to its species.

(A) the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, to have passed through all the previous evolutionary stages from single cell organism to its species

(B) the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, to pass through previously all the evolutionary stages from single cell organism to that species

(C) that the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, passes through all the previous evolutionary stages from single cell organism to the species of these organisms

(D) that the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, previously pass through all the evolutionary stages from single cell organism to their species

(E) that the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, had passed through all the evolutionary stages previously from single cell organism to the current species
Show more
User avatar
mikemcgarry
User avatar
Magoosh GMAT Instructor
Joined: 28 Dec 2011
Last visit: 06 Aug 2018
Posts: 4,479
Own Kudos:
30,536
 [4]
Given Kudos: 130
Expert
Expert reply
Posts: 4,479
Kudos: 30,536
 [4]
Ernst Haeckel held the individual development of biological organisms, 15 Oct 2015, 14:15
2
Kudos
Add Kudos
2
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
tuanquang269
Ernst Haeckel held the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, to have passed through all the previous evolutionary stages from single cell organism to its species.

(A) the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, to have passed through all the previous evolutionary stages from single cell organism to its species

(B) the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, to pass through previously all the evolutionary stages from single cell organism to that species

(C) that the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, passes through all the previous evolutionary stages from single cell organism to the species of these organisms

(D) that the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, previously pass through all the evolutionary stages from single cell organism to their species

(E) that the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, had passed through all the evolutionary stages previously from single cell organism to the current species
Show more
I'll add my two cents, because I was the author of this particular question. There is some intelligent discussion already on this page. As a few people have noted, choice (E) cannot be correct, because "the individual development of biological organisms" is something that exists in present time and is ongoing. Every time a human female or an animal is pregnant, this is the occasion of the individual development of another biological organism. Since this is an ongoing happening, we need the present tense.

BTW, Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) summed up this idea in the notorious inscrutable sentence: "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny." You will not have to analyze that sentence on the GMAT!

Mike :-)
User avatar
nitiny
User avatar
Joined: 11 Oct 2016
Last visit: 24 Jul 2022
Posts: 58
Own Kudos:
84
Given Kudos: 72
Location: India
GMAT 1: 610 Q47 V28
GMAT 1: 610 Q47 V28
Posts: 58
Kudos: 84
Ernst Haeckel held the individual development of biological organisms, 20 Mar 2017, 18:40
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
A) the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, to have passed through all the previous evolutionary stages from single cell organism to its species

B) the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, to pass through previously all the evolutionary stages from single cell organism to that species

C) that the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, passes through all the previous evolutionary stages from single cell organism to the species of these organisms

D) that the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, previously pass through all the evolutionary stages from single cell organism to their species

E) that the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, had passed through all the evolutionary stages previously from single cell organism to the current species
User avatar
abhishekdadarwal2009
User avatar
Joined: 04 Sep 2015
Last visit: 07 Dec 2022
Posts: 530
Own Kudos:
476
Given Kudos: 123
Location: India
WE:Information Technology (Computer Software)
Products:
My Reviews
Posts: 530
Kudos: 476
Ernst Haeckel held the individual development of biological organisms, 21 Mar 2017, 17:25
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Ernst Haeckel held the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, to have passed through all the previous evolutionary stages from single cell organism to its species.

A) the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, to have [color=#ed1c24]passed through all the previous evolutionary stages from single cell organism to its species[/color] The tense is wrong

B) the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, to [color=#ed1c24]pass through previously all the evolutionary stages from single cell organism to that species the development is singular and should be refed with passes

C) that the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, passes through all the previous evolutionary stages from single cell organism to the species of these organisms correct choice

D) that the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, previously pass through all the evolutionary stages from single cell organism to their species individual development passes and not pass

E) that the individual development of biological organisms, from embryos to adult forms, had passed through all the evolutionary stages previously from single cell organism to the current species change in meaning because of the wrong tense used.
User avatar
aragonn
User avatar
Retired Moderator
Joined: 23 Sep 2015
Last visit: 30 Sep 2019
Posts: 1,230
Own Kudos:
5,890
Given Kudos: 416
Products:
My Reviews
Posts: 1,230
Kudos: 5,890
Ernst Haeckel held the individual development of biological organisms, 22 May 2018, 07:28
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post

Magoosh Official Explanation:



A question about Ernst Haeckel, the biologist responsible for the idea "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny."

Split #1a: "held" + [infinitive] vs. "held" + "that"-clause. Choices (A) & (B) have the former, and the remaining three choices have the latter. The construction "hold P to be Q" is highly suspect: while it may appear in some contexts, it would never be part of a correct answer on the GMAT. What we have in (A) & (B) is even worse ---- "hold P to do X" --- "hold" + [subject] + [action-verb infinitive phrase]: this is wrong 100% of the time. Choices (A) & (B) are incorrect.

The construction "hold that [clause]" is perfectly correct, so long as what follows "that" is a full clause with a bonafide [noun]+[verb] structure. Here, (C) & (D) & (E) all have full clause after the word "that", so these are correct.

Split #1b: in this "that" clause, subject-verb agreement. The subject of the "that" clause in all three of these choices is "the individual development", which is singular, so we need a singular verb. Choice (C) has "passes", which works. Choice (D) has "pass", a plural verb, which is incorrect. Choice (E) has "had passed", a past perfect verb that could be either singular or plural, so as far as verb-number goes, this works.

Split #1c: verb tense. For the two verbs that pass the subject-verb agreement test, let's talk about the tense. What are we discussing in this part of the sentence? We are discussing something that is true about animals out there in an ongoing way. Bird fly. Wolves howl. We use present tense verbs for this, even when it's an idea of someone in the past. Past people thought that pigs fly. Past people believed that wee people run wild in the woods. Past people believed that salamanders survive fire. All present tense verbs. Thus, we need the present tense verb "passes", which (C) correctly has. The past perfect makes no sense in context, so (E) is incorrect.

Split #2: "previous" vs. "previously". What is previous to what here? What the sentence is trying to say is that the "evolutionary stages" (which happened long before the existence of the individual animal) came before the individual animal's own development. Thus, we need an adjective, "previous", modifying the noun "evolutionary stages." The adverb "previously" could only modify the verb passes/pass/had passed/etc., but this verb does not happen before anything else discussed in the sentence. The adverb "previously" is incorrect, and choices (B) & (D) & (E) make this mistake.

Because of all of these splits, the only possible answer is (C).
User avatar
VerbalBot
User avatar
Non-Human User
Joined: 01 Oct 2013
Last visit: 04 Jan 2021
Posts: 18,830
Own Kudos:
986
Posts: 18,830
Kudos: 986
Ernst Haeckel held the individual development of biological organisms, 21 Jul 2023, 04:18
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.
   1   2 
Moderators:
GMATNinja
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
7443 posts
GMATNinjaTwo
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
231 posts
miag
189 posts