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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 10 Feb 2019, 06:14
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In a lighter vein, it is amazing to see how resourceful and creative GMAT could get regarding statistics. However, let us rest assured that these statistics are not intended to unnerve any.

Aside that, coming back to our infinity of grammar and meaning of SC, one need not be worried about the use of subjunctive mood here, since there is no indication at all of a command subjunctive mood verb in any of the subordinate clauses in A and B. The actual command subjunctive verb is the bare infinitive "comprise" and not 'comprises' or the sickening 'may be comprising'.

Yet again, C, D, and E are not even the structured command subjunctive clauses, having no subordinate clauses of their own.

Can we now see, how GMAT is teaching the test takers a lesson by exploiting the reason that many jump to think of a ghostly subjunctive case reflexively even when common words such as 'suggest' and 'propose' are used.
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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 05 Mar 2019, 12:09
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Hi Expert,

Please address my confusion here.

Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility that the normal human life span comprises an even number of days.

(A) that the normal human life span comprises an even number of days
---ignored this choice because I was expecting subjunctive mood.

(B) that an even number of days may be comprising the normal human life span
--"possibility" and "may be" redundant

(C) of the normal human life span to be comprised of an even number of days
--choose this option

(D) of an even number of days that may comprise the normal human life span
--"possibility" and "may" redundant

(E) of an even number of days to comprise the normal human life span
--wrong; life span comprises an even no of days
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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 28 Aug 2020, 11:25
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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths
suggest the possibility that the normal human life span
comprises an even number of days.

(A) that the normal human life span comprisesan even number of days

(B) that an even number of days may be comprising the normal human life span

(C) of[ the normal human life span to be comprised of an even number of days

(D) of an even number of days that may comprise the normal human life span

(E) of an even number of days to comprise the normal human life span

IMO A
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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 30 Sep 2020, 23:53
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redfield
Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility that the normal human life span comprises an even number of days.

(A) that the normal human life span comprises an even number of days

(B) that an even number of days may be comprising the normal human life span

(C) of the normal human life span to be comprised of an even number of days

(D) of an even number of days that may comprise the normal human life span

(E) of an even number of days to comprise the normal human life span

Show SpoilerMy question
As a native speaker, this looks like complete gibberish to me (even though it's an official question). Firstly, is "possibility" generally followed by "that" and not "of"? Or it depends on context? Or is there a hard and fast rule that always applies? Secondly, my brain hurts from reading these answers as it feels very wrong to not have an "of" after "comprises". To me, the ideal answer would be "A" but instead say "is comprised of an even number of days". Am I playing this too much by ear?

I'm not sure what tags this would be so please let me know if there is a specific tag I should add/remove.
Show more

Hi AndrewN GMATNinja

I was stuck between options A and C. Selected A just that it looked more clear.
Can you plz. suggest how to eliminate C, and any take away from this question?
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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 01 Oct 2020, 09:46
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shanks2020
redfield
Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility that the normal human life span comprises an even number of days.

(A) that the normal human life span comprises an even number of days

(B) that an even number of days may be comprising the normal human life span

(C) of the normal human life span to be comprised of an even number of days

(D) of an even number of days that may comprise the normal human life span

(E) of an even number of days to comprise the normal human life span

Hi AndrewN GMATNinja

I was stuck between options A and C. Selected A just that it looked more clear.
Can you plz. suggest how to eliminate C, and any take away from this question?
Show more
Good for you, shanks2020, for selecting (A). Remember, you want to select the option that is hardest to argue against, and getting a question correct after observing this guideline will only reinforce such thinking. Although I did not write off any of (C) through (E) on the basis of possibility of alone, I did have a preference for possibility that right away. Furthermore, choice (C) uses a redundant comprised of. Although this is common in everyday speech, I do not think it would hold on any grammar test: comprise means made/composed/consisting of. I can see why people get the words comprise and compose mixed up, though. They are used in similar contexts. Compare:

1) The LEGO set comprised 1000 pieces.

2) The LEGO set was composed of 1000 pieces.

When there are multiple reasons to doubt one answer choice compared to another, and we have not even touched on the of... to be construct, then you should feel confident abandoning the weaker option.

I hope that helps. Thank you for calling my attention to the question.

- Andrew
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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 01 Oct 2020, 10:09
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redfield
Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility that the normal human life span comprises an even number of days.

(A) that the normal human life span comprises an even number of days

(B) that an even number of days may be comprising the normal human life span

(C) of the normal human life span to be comprised of an even number of days

(D) of an even number of days that may comprise the normal human life span

(E) of an even number of days to comprise the normal human life span

Hi AndrewN GMATNinja

I was stuck between options A and C. Selected A just that it looked more clear.
Can you plz. suggest how to eliminate C, and any take away from this question?
Good for you, shanks2020, for selecting (A). Remember, you want to select the option that is hardest to argue against, and getting a question correct after observing this guideline will only reinforce such thinking. Although I did not write off any of (C) through (E) on the basis of possibility of alone, I did have a preference for possibility that right away. Furthermore, choice (C) uses a redundant comprised of. Although this is common in everyday speech, I do not think it would hold on any grammar test: comprise means made/composed/consisting of. I can see why people get the words comprise and compose mixed up, though. They are used in similar contexts. Compare:

1) The LEGO set comprised 1000 pieces.

2) The LEGO set was composed of 1000 pieces.

When there are multiple reasons to doubt one answer choice compared to another, and we have not even touched on the of... to be construct, then you should feel confident abandoning the weaker option.

I hope that helps. Thank you for calling my attention to the question.

- Andrew
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Hi AndrewN

Thanks for the detailed reply.
I do understand the issue with using "comprise of". But i felt here, the use of "of" was because of the usage of "to be" earlier.
It would be correct to say "...possibility of the normal human span to comprise an even number of days". But not sure if this would be correct - "..possibility of the normal human span to be comprise an even number of days."
Hence, i felt that the use of comprise OF is correct here. Your thoughts...
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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 01 Oct 2020, 10:38
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shanks2020

Hi AndrewN

Thanks for the detailed reply.
I do understand the issue with using "comprise of". But i felt here, the use of "of" was because of the usage of "to be" earlier.
It would be correct to say "...possibility of the normal human span to comprise an even number of days". But not sure if this would be correct - "..possibility of the normal human span to be comprise an even number of days."
Hence, i felt that the use of comprise OF is correct here. Your thoughts...
Show more
Whether it would be correct, shanks2020, to say what you wrote above is beside the point: there is no choice (C) that says, possibility of the normal human span to comprise an even number of days. Note the two instances of "of." Instead, we get, [possibility] of the normal human life span to be comprised of an even number of days. There are now three instances of "of." If you replace comprised with any of the alternatives I listed earlier, you expose a redundancy problem that cannot be bypassed: of the normal human life span to be made/composed/consisting of of an even number of days. If the game were how to cram as many instances of "of" into a sentence that sounded somewhat plausible, our count would now be up to four. In short, I disagree that comprised of is used properly in choice (C), but with more than one reason to doubt the answer choice, I did not keep it in the running too long.

You may want to let the dust settle on this one. In a day or two, you might see the question and answers differently.

- Andrew
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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 13 Dec 2020, 21:09
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redfield
Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility that the normal human life span comprises an even number of days.

(A) that the normal human life span comprises an even number of days

(B) that an even number of days may be comprising the normal human life span

(C) of the normal human life span to be comprised of an even number of days

(D) of an even number of days that may comprise the normal human life span

(E) of an even number of days to comprise the normal human life span

Show SpoilerMy question
As a native speaker, this looks like complete gibberish to me (even though it's an official question). Firstly, is "possibility" generally followed by "that" and not "of"? Or it depends on context? Or is there a hard and fast rule that always applies? Secondly, my brain hurts from reading these answers as it feels very wrong to not have an "of" after "comprises". To me, the ideal answer would be "A" but instead say "is comprised of an even number of days". Am I playing this too much by ear?

I'm not sure what tags this would be so please let me know if there is a specific tag I should add/remove.
Show more

I fell for C. As a native English speaker I thought "comprised of" is correct grammar. However after studying this question there are a couple key things that make A stand out as correct:

1. "comprise" or "comprises" means "made of". Therefore if you plug in "made of" into each of the answer choices where "comprise" is, then clearly "of" in C is redundant since it would read "made of of". Apparently this is a common English grammar error where people incorrectly use "comprise" + "of" even though "comprise" already inherently means "made of". Also this means that B, D and E are already crossed out since they would have the nonsensical meaning of "even number of days" are "made of" a normal human lifespan. The meaning we are supposed to have is that the normal human lifespan is MADE OF an even number of days, not the other way around.

2. This sentence is in the Subjunctive mood. The statistics "suggest the possibility...", since "suggest" is in present tense this indicates that the sentence has an actual possibility and therefore we should be using indicative tense for the next part of the sentence since the result will also have an actual possibility. C is "comprised of" which is past tense. Furthermore "to be" in C is as if this was a command situation, but the application of "to be" here would be incorrect since this is not a command.

Therefore A is the correct choice.
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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 25 Feb 2021, 11:25
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What's wrong with option C . Is the use of to be comprised incorrect

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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 27 Mar 2021, 00:52
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What's wrong with option C . Is the use of to be comprised incorrect

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See Andrew's explanation above. Comprised of introduces redundancy. Also, it's much better to say "possibility that" rather than "possibility of".
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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 10 May 2021, 08:24
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Bunuel, could you please tag this question? This question appeared in one of the official mocks.

Thank you!
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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 10 May 2021, 09:15
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Bunuel, could you please tag this question? This question appeared in one of the official mocks.

Thank you!
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________________________
Added the tag. Thank you.
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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 11 May 2021, 07:59
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redfield
Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility that the normal human life span comprises an even number of days.

A. that the normal human life span comprises an even number of days

B. that an even number of days may be comprising the normal human life span

C. of the normal human life span to be comprised of an even number of days

D. of an even number of days that may comprise the normal human life span

E. of an even number of days to comprise the normal human life span


My question
Show Spoiler
As a native speaker, this looks like complete gibberish to me (even though it's an official question). Firstly, is "possibility" generally followed by "that" and not "of"? Or it depends on context? Or is there a hard and fast rule that always applies? Secondly, my brain hurts from reading these answers as it feels very wrong to not have an "of" after "comprises". To me, the ideal answer would be "A" but instead say "is comprised of an even number of days". Am I playing this too much by ear?

I'm not sure what tags this would be so please let me know if there is a specific tag I should add/remove.

Hi,
the two points raised -
1) possiblity that or possiblity of- Both are correct and depend on the context they are used
Possiblity of should be followed by a noun-
there is a high possiblity of rain today...
possiblity that should be followed by a clause
there is a high possiblity that the rains will bring respite to drought hit areas..

2) comprises vs comprise of-
comprises is almost always used without 'of'- comprise itself means 'consist of'
of used in "comprised of"

these two points are followed ONLY in A
A
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"possibility that" require that-clause which show an action. "possitibily of+noun" require an action noun, which show an action
possibility of existence of the strange persons. an action is presented by an action noun.
possitility that strange persons exists. an action is presented by a clause.
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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 02 Oct 2021, 00:11
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Hi chetan2u

I eliminated Option A only since it did not contain "of" . I deduced - "How can a life span comprise of only days?"
Is option C wrong only because "comprise" contains "of" by itself?

Are there any other questions with similar understanding ?

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Human mortality statistics on natural deaths suggest the possibility.. 09 Sep 2023, 17:47
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