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waytowharton
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Even their most ardent champions concede that no less than a technical 06 Apr 2022, 10:19
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Hey experts, AjiteshArun KarishmaB ExpertsGlobal5 GMATNinja

Could you please explain the error in option D and E apart from incorrect idiom necessity of?

Thanks in advance!
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Even their most ardent champions concede that no less than a technical 06 Apr 2022, 20:35
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waytowharton
Hey experts, AjiteshArun KarishmaB ExpertsGlobal5 GMATNinja

Could you please explain the error in option D and E apart from incorrect idiom necessity of?

Thanks in advance!
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Hi waytowharton,

Another problem with those options is that they use less effective ways to communicate the intended meaning.

1. necessity for an occurrence of a technical or scientific breakthrough
2. necessity for a technical or scientific breakthrough occurring

Compare (1) and (2) with (3):

3. a technical or scientific breakthrough is necessary

This is a reasonably good way to take those options out, but necessity for is the bigger problem.
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Even their most ardent champions concede that no less than a technical 06 Apr 2022, 22:35
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waytowharton
Hey experts, AjiteshArun KarishmaB ExpertsGlobal5 GMATNinja

Could you please explain the error in option D and E apart from incorrect idiom necessity of?

Thanks in advance!
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Also, concede can take an object e.g. concede an election (which means yield the election) but concede the necessity is awkward. We need the rest of the sentence to understand what it means. If a clause is required after concede, then we should use the 'that clause'.
"... concede that A is necessary..."

Even if it were "... concede the necessity of an occurrence of a technical or scientific breakthrough ...", it is still too messy with necessity and occurrence.. Option (C) is simply "concede that A is necessary"

When they say wordy is not good, the point is that keep it as simple and straight forward as possible. SC uses formal, business English - clean, direct, straight forward. So avoid all unnecessary frills (as done in option (A)).
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Even their most ardent champions concede that no less than a technical 07 Apr 2022, 06:20
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waytowharton
Hey experts, AjiteshArun KarishmaB ExpertsGlobal5 GMATNinja

Could you please explain the error in option D and E apart from incorrect idiom necessity of?

Thanks in advance!
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Hello waytowharton,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, as other experts have written, the only other demerit in Options D and E is that they are needlessly wordy and indirect, making them quite awkward.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Even their most ardent champions concede that no less than a technical 08 Apr 2022, 11:07
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Hello expert,
Is there any grammatical error in B? If not, why rule out it?
The meaning in B is logical too and we don’t know the writer’s intended meaning cuz there is only one sentence and no context.
Need your opinions. Thanks
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Even their most ardent champions concede that no less than a technical 10 Apr 2022, 09:39
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Mavisdu1017
Hello expert,
Is there any grammatical error in B? If not, why rule out it?
The meaning in B is logical too and we don’t know the writer’s intended meaning cuz there is only one sentence and no context.
Need your opinions. Thanks
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The meaning conveyed by the (B) version does not make sense.

Here's the complete (B) version.

Even their most ardent champions concede that nothing other than a technical or scientific breakthrough is needed before solar cells can meet the goal of providing one percent of the nation’s energy needs.

Notice the sentence is about what the "most ardent champions" concede. The "most ardent champions" are those who most strongly believe in the use of solar cells. So something that they "concede" would be a drawback or issue with the use of solar cells.

So, the sentence is not logical, because "nothing other than a technical or scientific breakthrough is needed" is something positive about the use of solar cells, not a drawback or issue with the use of solar cells.

Also, "nothing other than a technical or scientific breakthrough is needed before solar cells can meet the goal of providing one percent of the nation’s energy needs," isn't really logical.

It seems to convey that, before solar cells can meet the goal, nothing more is needed, as if perhaps, after solar cells can meet the goal, something other than a technical or scientific breakthrough will be needed.

So, "before" is not the right connector there. The use of "for" would make more sense, as in

nothing other than a technical or scientific breakthrough is needed for solar cells to meet the goal of providing one percent of the nation’s energy needs
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Even their most ardent champions concede that no less than a technical 06 May 2022, 13:04
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Mavisdu1017
Hello expert,
Is there any grammatical error in B? If not, why rule out it?
The meaning in B is logical too and we don’t know the writer’s intended meaning cuz there is only one sentence and no context.
Need your opinions. Thanks
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You could also think about this in terms of "necessary" vs "sufficient."

Choice (C) suggests that a technical or scientific breakthrough is necessary, but that doesn't mean that it's sufficient -- after all, even if we have the breakthrough, there's probably a lot that would need to happen before solar cells can meet the goal of providing one percent of the nation’s energy needs (i.e. mass manufacture/installation of solar cells, creation/demolition of infrastructure, passage of new laws/ordinances, construction approvals, etc., etc.).

Choice (B), on the other hand, suggests that NOTHING else is needed besides a technical or scientific breakthrough. In other words, (B) suggests that the breakthrough is in fact sufficient, and that doesn't really make sense. Does that mean that as soon as some scientist sitting in a lab has that breakthrough, we'll instantly reach the goal? Of course not. We'll need other stuff to happen before the breakthrough translates to actual changes in energy production.

So (C) makes a lot more sense.

I hope that helps a bit!
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Even their most ardent champions concede that no less than a technical 01 Jun 2022, 11:00
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Even their most ardent champions concede that no less than a technical or scientific breakthrough is necessary before solar cells can meet the goal of providing one percent of the nation’s energy needs.

(A) that no less than a technical or scientific breakthrough is necessary

"no less than" & "necessary" redundant

(B) that nothing other than a technical or scientific breakthrough is needed

Distorts the meaning from the original sentence: a breakthrough is "needed," but this choice implies that a breakthrough is "sufficient" for the solar cells to meet the goal

(C) that a technical or scientific breakthrough is necessary

Fixes the problem in (A), while keeping its meaning. Perfect.

(D) the necessity for an occurrence of a technical or scientific breakthrough

Do you concede the necessity? That's not as straight forward as (C) - out

(E) the necessity for a technical or scientific breakthrough occurring

Same as (D)

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In this problem, I chose B, but the OA is C. What makes C better than B?

C is the best choice. The word that functions grammatically to introduce the clause that describes the point that champions of solar cells concede.

Choices A and B needlessly lengthen the statement by expressing the idea through negation: no less than and nothing other than could be dropped without loss of meaning.

In D and E, the preposition for is less idiomatic than of in expressing necessity.

Futhermore, both choices present an awkward and wordy noun-plus-prepositional phrase instead of a that clause that would express meaning more exactly and concisely.

https://www.nytimes.com/1979/12/11/archives/despite-problems-solar-cell-advances-despite-problems-solar-cell.html

Even their most ardent champions concede that nothing short of a materials or manufacturing breakthrough is needed before solar cells can meet President Carter's goal of providing 1 percent of national energy — the equivalent of 500,000 barrels of oil a day — by the end of the century.
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Even their most ardent champions concede that no less than a technical 20 Jun 2023, 03:48
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