In an area devoid of volcanic activity, a discovery has been made by a

We don't want to knock out a choice for using the passive voice unless there is something that makes passive voice wrong/inappropriate. Answer choice A has plenty of problems, and while passive voice is not inherently wrong, it does play a role in the trouble here.

Let's look at the modifier beginning with "that a fragment . . ." What is it supposed to modify? Presumably "discovery." So what if we strip out some other modifiers to see how that looks? "A discovery has been made that a fragment seems like it came from a depth." This doesn't work. First, we can "discover that X happened" or we can "make the discovery that X happened." But we don't want to say "A discovery has been made that X happened." The structure running up to "that" sets us up to expect the modifier to talk about the effect of the discovery itself, as in "A discovery has been made that changes our view of the early Solar System." Do you see the difference? We just want to describe what was discovered, not add detail about the effect or nature of the discovery, so this structure is confusing. That's why passive voice doesn't work well here. Given all that we want to add in the modifiers, it really helps to use the simple structure "discovered that." Strangely, though, none of the answers give us that. This leads us to another problem.

What is it that has really been discovered? According to A, the team has discovered that this fragment seems to have come from great depths. But it's odd that they discovered what it seems to do. If it really comes from the depths, then we don't need to emphasize the seeming, but if it doesn't, then we don't have much of a discovery. It's more sensible to say that the team discovered a fragment, and this fragment seems to come from the depths. That's more or less what every choice but A goes with.

Another problem? "Seems like." This is a common expression in speech, but it's not good for formal written English, especially when no comparison is being made. (If the fragment is "like" something, what is it?) In fact, we can get to D on the merits of "seems to have" alone.

Finally, "a depth as far down" is redundant!
_________________

Scientific discovery is a complete and comprehensive phenomenon, thoroughly probed and proven by Authority. There is no place for a tentative observation such as 'seems' in that theory. This is an inevitable fact of Science.

'Seems like' is rather a spoken language and not formal prose. 'as if' and 'as' followed by a clause are the legal alternatives to 'seem like'.

In an area devoid of volcanic activity, a discovery has been made by a team of scientists from the University of California that a fragment of the Swiss Alps seems like it came from a depth as far down as 415 miles.`

A. discovery has been made by a team of scientists from the University of California that a fragment of the Swiss Alps seems like it came from a depth as far down ----1) wrong as per the observation made above plus 2)the redundancy of 'depth as far down'

B. discovery was made by a team of scientists from the University of California who found a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems like it had come from a depth of as much -- 2. wrong as in A. 2. who can antecede neither California nor the team

C. team of scientists from the University of California have discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that has seemingly come from a depth of as great --- SV number agreement error.

D. team of scientists from the University of California has discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems to have come from a depth as great -- yes, good enough

E. team of scientists from the University of California has made the discovery of a fragment of the Swiss Alps that had seemingly come from a depth as far -- 1. has discovered is more dynamic and active than 'has made the discovery of as per V-A-N 2. What has seemingly come from? is it the fragment or the Swiss alps? We can at least take some refuge if it were the non-restrictive' 'comma plus which' instead of the restrictive 'that'.

D is the choice.
_________________

A. discovery has been made by a team of scientists from the University cf California that a fragment of the Swiss Alps seems like it came from a depth as far down - Incorrect. Usage of 'it' after 'like' makes the sentence awkward. 'As far as' is preferred over 'As far down'. down is redundant.

B. discovery was made by a team of scientists from the University of California who found a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems like it had come from a depth of as much - Incorrect. Awkward for the reasons mentioned in A.

C. team of scientists from the University of California have discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that has seemingly come from a depth of as great - Incorrect. Subject verb agreement error.

D. team of scientists from the University of California has discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems to have come from a depth as great - Correct.

E. team of scientists from the University of California has made the discovery of a fragment of the Swiss Alps that had seemingly come from a depth as far - Incorrect. Change in meaning.

Answer: D

In an area devoid of volcanic activity, a team of scientists from the University of California has discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems to have come from a depth as great as 415 mies.`
_________________

Can anyone explain what the have refers to in the option D?

Posted from my mobile device

That have is part of the infinitive to have come. You won't find a noun that "agrees" with it, if that's what you are looking for.
_________________

In option B "a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems to have come from a depth as great" - The verb 'have' is for 'a fragment'. Does it satisfy the subject verb agreement?

Can someone review answer B in more detail? is the use of "who" in that sentence wrong because we're changing subjects?

That have is part of the infinitive to have come (infinitives are not "full" verbs). The actual verb there is seems, and it agrees with a fragment of the Swiss Alps. Note that seems and a fragment don't actually form a subject-verb pair.
_________________

The meaning is different. For example:

1. A discovery was made by someone who found X. ← This (passive) sentence doesn't really tell us what the discovery was. It seems to say just that there is someone who found something, and that person made a discovery.

2. Someone discovered X. ← This one is much clearer.

Also, the GMAT is unlikely to use like as a conjunction (so we can't put a subject-verb pair after like). This means that "like it had come" is not likely to be correct. I wouldn't use this as an "absolute" rule, but it is another reason not to mark option B.
_________________

The purpose of using passive voice:

Active voice is the direct way of expressing an action, and passive voice is the indirect way of expressing that action. GMAC also like the the direct way of expressing an action. So, why do we some find passive voices in GMAT questions?

Passive Voice is primarily used for two reasons:

(1) If the name of doer (who did the action) is not mentioned or de-emphasized in the sentence
For example,
OG2015, N 81: “Fossils of the arm of a sloth, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, have been dated at 34 million years old, making the sloth the earliest known mammal on the Greater Antilles islands.” [Who dated the fossils is not mentioned in the sentence]

OG2015, N 140: “Rock samples taken from the remains of an asteroid about twice the size of the 6-mile-wide asteroid that eradicated the dinosaurs have been dated at 3.47 billion years old and thus are evidence of the earliest known asteroid impact on Earth. [Who dated the rock samples is not mentioned in the sentence]

(2) To comply with the MODIFIER rule
Even though the name of the doer is mentioned, we may need to use passive voice to comply with the modifier rule.
For example:
OG2015, N 110: Published in Harlem, the Messenger was owned and edited by two young journalists, A. Philip Randolph, who would later make his reputation as a labor leader, and Chandler Owen.
Even though the names of the doers (two young journalists) were mentioned, we need to use passive voice to comply initial modifier "Published in Harlem" with "the Messenger".

Similar modification may also happen at the later portion of the sentence.

Hi Kurtosis AndrewN

Can you plz. help me in understanding how does E change the meaning?

I think your question is more for Kurtosis to answer than it is for me. I said nothing about a change in meaning. But I will say that I think the best explanation for ruling out (E) comes from daagh above, in this post. I hope that helps clarify your concern.

- Andrew

Hi, I am not a native speaker.
I have a question.. can we tell is something with the end of the sentences?

(A) from a depth as far down as 415 miles.

(B) from a depth of as much as 415 miles.

(C) from a depth of as great as 415 miles.

(D) from a depth as great as 415 miles.

(E) from a depth as far as 415 miles.

are these examples of an idiom?

Hello valeriacastro11,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, these answer choices form the idiomatic construction "as A as B".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
_________________

But all the options are correct?

Hello valeriacastro11,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "depth as far down", "depth of as much", and "depth as great" are all correct, but "depth as far down" is redundant.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
_________________

Hi AjiteshArun sayantanc2k MartyTargetTestPrep Three qq's on D

(Q1) Is as great as an adjective to 415 miles ? I think so but not sure

(Q2) why is there no need for an 'of' after depth in option D ?

In the following sentence -- you need to use "OF" after depth.

Correct - Whales are found at a depth OF 500 miles
Incorrect - Whales are found at a depth OF 500 miles

I eliminated D because i thought the "of" is missing in D [X have discovered a fragment that has come from a depth OF as great as 415 miles]

Hi AjiteshArun sayantanc2k MartyTargetTestPrep

(Q3) in D - Isn't 450 miles a countable noun ?

great' and "much" dont go with countable nouns. 'great' and "much" are used with UN-COUNTABLE nouns only.



Hence, i thought the idiom should be -- as many as 450 miles because many IS USED WITH COUNTABLE nouns.