Genes not inherited from your parents, long thought to be irrelevant

HI Vyshak,

Firstly, could you please help me to understand the structure of the sentence- Genes not inherited from your parents, long thought to be irrelevant to genetics research, are apparently important in determining your lot in life
I understand that "long thought to be irrelevant to genetics research" is modifying Parents, but I am not sure about the use of the part- "not inherited from your parents".

Secondly, In option B, aren't we missing a "then" to form a proper "If X, Then Y" structure?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Tamal

tamal99 - let me try to help you.

Split 1: where vs if. where can be used for places, usage of 'where' is not correct here. Eliminate A and D.

E. if parents have certain gene variants, their children, more likely to go to college, ---- Notice the ';' before underline sentence, you need an independent clause after it. (means subject and verb is must.) 'if clause' is dependent clause. it again need an independent clause, and there is not even a clause, just 'their children' . wrong.

C. if parents, having certain gene variants, have children more likely to go to college, ---- 'having clause' is modifier, modifying parents. if clause is dependent one, need another dependent clause. there are none.

B. if parents have certain gene variants, their children are more likely to go to college, - Correct

First let see why it is correct.

1. we need an independent clause ---- "their children are more likely to go to college" --- found it.
2. sv agreements are correct. ---- if X then Y is correctly preserved.

your queries:
long thought to be irrelevant to genetics research --- this is not answering to parents, its for Genes. Look at it this way . What long thought to be irrelevant to genetics research - geans or parents.

not inherited from your parents --- this one again modifying Genes. Take the What test.

not inherited from your parents [but] long thought to be irrelevant to genetics research --- you need to see a hidden but in the meaning. [not X but Y]. I hope you can connect dots now. Let me know if you need more exploration around it.

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

To succeed on this problem, it is important to look for logical meaning. In this case, think about the cause and effect within this sentence. If parents have a certain gene, then their children will be more likely to go to college. The correct answer will follow this logic.

Answer choice (A) is an illogical construction. If you remove the appositive “who have certain gene variants,” you are left with “where parents their children…”, which is clearly illogical. Eliminate (A).

Choice (B) contains a logical construction - if parents have this, then children are that - and is therefore the answer. It has the correct “if/then” construction, leaving a complete sentence.

Choice (C), similar to (A), leaves the sentence with an illogical construction if you cut out the appositives. If parents have certain gene variants…, (then) regardless of whether their children have those same variants… what? You need a consequence in order for the if/then statement to work. You can therefore eliminate choice (C).

You can then apply the same logic to (D). Since you don’t have a consequence for the implied if/then construction, the choice creates an illogical construction.

Choice (E) creates not only an illogical construction but also an incomplete sentence. Because you must have a complete sentence on either side of a semicolon, it can also be eliminated.

The correct answer is (B).

aragonn Isn't the last "their" ambiguous?