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gmat blows
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gmat blows
Complex human traits such as artistic talent or social skill are likely to be shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the 80,000 or so genes in the human genome.

A.
B. such as artistic talent or social sill are likely shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of 80,000 or so of the
C. such as artistic talent or social skill is likely to be shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of 80,000 or so of the
D. like artistic talent or social skill is likely to be shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the 80,000 or so
E. like artistic talent or social skill are likely shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the 80,000 or so

B - "so of the" is not needed
C - "so of the" is not needed
D and E - "like" usage

so I choose A.
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gmat blows
Complex human traits such as artistic talent or social skill are likely to be shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the 80,000 or so genes in the human genome.

A.
B. such as artistic talent or social sill are likely shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of 80,000 or so of the
C. such as artistic talent or social skill is likely to be shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of 80,000 or so of the
D. like artistic talent or social skill is likely to be shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the 80,000 or so
E. like artistic talent or social skill are likely shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the 80,000 or so

D and E are out - LIKE
C - IS
B - is fine but at the end of 80,000 is not better than "of the 80,000"
A wins
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A

1. likely to be - correct idiom. A,C,D remains.
2. we need plural verb "are" here, because "traits" is plural. A remains.
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1. such as: Only A,B, C comply
2. In C is wrong, plural verb needed to refer to traits ( plural)
3. Leaves option A, B

In B " the if not tens of thousands, of 80,000 or so of the " , there is lack of parallelism, as the is missing before 80,000.

This is present in A Hence A is better
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getafixdruid
gmat blows
Complex human traits such as artistic talent or social skill are likely to be shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the 80,000 or so genes in the human genome.

A.
B. such as artistic talent or social sill are likely shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of 80,000 or so of the
C. such as artistic talent or social skill is likely to be shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of 80,000 or so of the
D. like artistic talent or social skill is likely to be shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the 80,000 or so
E. like artistic talent or social skill are likely shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the 80,000 or so

B - "so of the" is not needed
C - "so of the" is not needed
D and E - "like" usage

so I choose A.

OA is A.

can someone explain the usage of determinants, in particular, 'the'.
I chose A because of the proper usage of 'such as' and I just liked the way '..of the 80,000..' sounded as opposed to '..of 80,000..' in B and C.

how come 'the' in B and C, 'of the genes in then..' is not required?

thanks.
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gmat blows
Complex human traits such as artistic talent or social skill are likely to be shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the 80,000 or so genes in the human genome.

A.
B. such as artistic talent or social sill are likely shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of 80,000 or so of the
C. such as artistic talent or social skill is likely to be shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of 80,000 or so of the
D. like artistic talent or social skill is likely to be shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the 80,000 or so
E. like artistic talent or social skill are likely shaped by thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the 80,000 or so

C,D - out because sub-verb agreement ( traits --is wrong)
E - out it should be such as and

Between A and B --> A sounds better.
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The simple reason for why A and the use of the word "the" in this context has to do with changing the meaning. If you are saying "of the 80,000 genes" you are implying there are about 80k genes in the human genome. However if one selects the "of 80,000 or so" genes then you are implying that there could be a lot more genes that make up the human genome than 80k. This would change the meaning of the sentence which is a no-no in GMAT SC. So at this point B and C are automaticall out. D and E are out because of the incorrect use of "like" so A is the correct answer
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A

1. 'such as' is correct
2. 'of 80,000 or so of the' changes meaning
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here "to be" makes A right option but how do we explain it gramatically,,,
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why is 'so of the' wrong????
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Can someone explain the errors in option B I did pick A but want to know why B is incorrect

D and E are wrong because of like

Option C is out because of subject /verb agreement...

Thanks in advance!

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