In an effort improve the quality of patient care, Dr. Lydia Temoscho

Question

In an effort to improve the quality of patient care, Dr. Lydia Temoscho is directing one of several clinical research projects that  seek to determine the extent that psychological counseling helps to supplement  the medical treatment of serious disease.

(A) seek to determine the extent that psychological counseling helps to supplement 
(B) seek to determine how helpful psychological counseling is in supplementing 
(C) seeks to determine how helpful psychological counseling is to supplement 
(D) seeks to determine to what extent psychological counseling is a help in supplementing 
(E) seeks to determine the extent that psychological counseling is helpful in supplementing

GMATPill · Accepted Answer

Just posted on another thread discussing this topic.

In the above example, "one of several projects that SEEK"

Here PROJECTS is further described - and since PROJECTS is plural, you use SEEK.

BUT--if you wanted to talk about that one particular project, you would say:

"Only one of the several projects submitted was actually chosen."

Other examples:

"One of many teachers WHO WERE"

Teachers is plural so you use WERE.
"one of many teachers who were awesome"

On the other hand, if you didn't use the word WHO there, you could focus on the SINGULAR part by saying:

Only one of the 5 teachers was awesome.
or
Only 1 of the 5,000 people who applied was awarded a scholarship.

Based on the above, you should be able to immediately narrow down the answers to (A) and (B). From there, (B) just sounds more natural.

Hope that helps!

GMATNinja · Answer

Sadly, I don't think that there's any meaning difference in this one. Once you're down to (A) and (B), the only real decision point is the idioms. And I hate it when this happens, because it's a real pain in the arse to learn all of the 25,000 idioms in the English language . But unfortunately, questions like this one exist on the GMAT. The biggest problem with (A) is that it's simply incorrect to say "the extent that." "The extent to which..." would be fine, though. I'm not convinced that "helps to supplement" is 100% incorrect on the GMAT, but the GMAT does seem to like "help in verb-ing" or "aid in verb-ing", for whatever it's worth. Here's a classic example: https://gmatclub.com/forum/among-the-ob ... 82658.html Sorry, I wish that there was a better answer here!

RaviChandra · Answer

ill go with A

Reason: one of several clinical research projects : seek is required.

i some how feel A i better than B

My Bad just learned  extend that  is wrong idiomatic usage.....

So B is the answer

nusmavrik · Answer

Its B.
“one of several x “ takes plural verbs
Between A / B. 
A : “extent that” is not correct. extent to which.

heman2402 · Answer

Hey stringworm, I got following information from Grail and hope this will clarify your doubt: One of the 'Noun' (will always be plural) + that/who + Plural Verb Seems a kindda idiom :-)

One of the X Who/That Y Anyways, reffer to Page# 48 of SC Grail 2nd edition for better understanding. Hope this helps !!

kaiserkaran · Answer

I don???t understand how option B can be the correct answer here. ???one of several clinical research projects??? means that you are talking about one i.e. singular. It should relate to seeks.

e.g: One of the letters is mine ... It will never be One of the letters are mine!!!
Even if i consider the bizarre ???One of the 'Noun' (will always be plural) + that/who + Plural Verb.??? Rule. If i apply on a example,
One of the ladies who is coming via this train... (One of the ladies who ???are??? coming ... is just odd)
One of the cars that exploded in the accident was mine. (One of the cars that exploded in the accident were mine.... odd)

Isolating and comparing the sentences ...i believe clears the picture.

In an effort improve the quality of patient care, Dr. Lydia Temoscho is directing one of several clinical research projects that seeks to determine the extent...
In an effort improve the quality of patient care, Dr. Lydia Temoscho is directing one of several clinical research projects that seek to determine the extent...(odd).

Kindly clear my doubt. Thanks in advance...

sayantanc2k · Answer

The pronoun "that" refers to "projects" (modifier touch rule), not "one of the projects".

There are many projects that seek xxx. Dr. Temoscho directs one of them.

brightandamen · Answer

Can someone explain why "in supplementing" is correct instead of "to supplement"?

egmat · Answer

Hello brightandamen , I would be glad to help you with your query in case you still have this doubt. :-)

The phrase help/s in doing is an idiomatic expression that is used in a structure such as: A helps in doing B. Same is the structure of this official sentence. However, IMHO, Choice A is NOT incorrect because of the use of to supplement . Even this phrase works in the context of the sentence. Choice A is incorrect for the incorrect usage of extent that . Hope this helps. :-)

Thanks. Shraddha

pikolo2510 · Answer

Hello Experts, I am unable to exact meaning difference between A and B Request your help to understand the meaning

egmat · Answer

Hello pikolo2510 , I would be glad to help you with this one.

Both Choice A and B convey the same meaning. They both suggest that Dr. Temoscho is directing one of many clinical research projects. These projects attempt to figure out to what extent psychological counseling helps in supplementing the medical treatment of serious disease. From meaning stand point, Choice A and B convey the same meaning. However, Choice B uses the correct expression to convey the meaning clearly. Hope this helps.

Thanks. Shraddha

RMD007 · Answer

GMATNinja  , I am unable to ascertain the difference between choice A and choice B. Meaning wise both the options appear to be correct. 
Is the use of "extent that" the only thing makes choice A incorrect?

Ravindra.here · Answer

between a and b can you please tell a specific reason to eliminate a . According to me their is nothing wrong with extent that, and as far gmat sc goes, I don't think that gmat is testing this particular issue in the sentence. Also there is nothing wrong with to supplement and in supplementing , one is an infinitive and other is an idiom or phrasal verb . Can you help me with this

gvij2017 · Answer

One of X that verb.... Verb qualifies according to X. Here X is plural, Verb will be seek undoubtedly.
 Now between A and B, here is my analysis. 
 
(A) seek to determine the extent that psychological counseling helps to supplement
Remaining part after the extent is modifier. And sentence seems to tell that "seek to determine the extent"..... Which is ambiguous.

(B) seek to determine how helpful psychological counseling is in supplementing
Here it is clear that projects that seek to determine how helpful+ remaining part.

B is correct. 
Would like to get feedback over my explanation!

ARIEN3228 · Answer

In an effort improve the quality of patient care, Dr. Lydia Temoscho is directing one of several clinical research projects that seek to determine the extent that psychological counseling helps to supplement the medical treatment of serious disease.

(A) seek to determine the extent that psychological counseling helps to supplement
(B) seek to determine how helpful psychological counseling is in supplementing
(C) seeks to determine how helpful psychological counseling is to supplement
(D) seeks to determine to what extent psychological counseling is a help in supplementing
(E) seeks to determine the extent that psychological counseling is helpful in supplementing

As pointed out earlier, SV pair here is projects-seek.

C D E out.

I want to focus a great deal on option A, explain why option A is incorrect.

Original sentence as it is

In an effort improve the quality of patient care, Dr. Lydia Temoscho is directing one of several clinical research projects that seek to determine the extent that psychological counseling helps to supplement the medical treatment of serious disease.

I have no problem with the first that,referring back to projects.

The second that after extent, what is "that" doing there?

The word “that” primarily has four different uses in English:

a) as a demonstrative adjective
The word “that” can be used as a demonstrative adjective, that is to say, as a noun-modifier that indicates precisely which noun is meant. In this role, it always immediately precedes the noun it modifies.

I enjoyed that Netflix series.

b) as a demonstrative pronoun

The word “that” can be used as a demonstrative pronoun. Like any pronoun, in this role the word “that” stands in for a noun, and of course, the noun it represents must be a proper antecedent somewhere in the sentence.

Ex:That looks like the car I used to drive. That points to car

c) as a subordinate conjunction

The word “that” can be used as a subordinate conjunction, that is, as a word that marks the beginning of a dependent clause.

Ex: The teacher is confident that her students mastered the lesson.

d) as a relative pronoun

The word “that” can be used as a relative pronoun; in other words, as a pronoun that begins a subordinate clause and is the subject of that clause.

Ex: There is no English word that rhymes with orange.

Coming back to the original sentence, the second that is definitely not acting as a subordinate conjunction or as a relative pronoun.

Is that acting as demonstrative pronoun? is there a logical antecedent to the second that? -NO

How about that referring back to extent, as a demonstrative adjective? does not make sense. replace that with extent and see how illogical sentence becomes.

In an effort improve the quality of patient care, Dr. Lydia Temoscho is directing one of several clinical research projects that seek to determine the extent extent that psychological counseling helps to supplement the medical treatment of serious disease.

Therefore option B.
Source Credit : https://magoosh.com/gmat/verbal/sentenc ... s-of-that/

pratyush86 · Answer

One of the .......abc that ..."verb" - the verb needs to be plural and hence only A and B remain.

Extent that is unidiomatic here . It's better to user extent to which.

Hence option B.

Pankaj0901 · Answer

Between options A and B, I luckily chose A (not sure for the correct reason). (I did read the explanations that talk about idioms "aid in supplementing", "help in enabling". So, these points on idiom are duly noted.)

It is like saying...seek to determine the  extent   that psychological counseling helps to supplement  
=> seek to determine the "extent" (the essential modifier "that" is giving more info about the "extent". But ultimately this option is determining the EXTENT.)

Whereas in this option, it is clear what we are seeking to determine: "How helpful...."

Hence, Option B

himanshu0123 · Answer

in A]
''one of several clinical research projects that seek''

how to determine whether 'that' is referring to 'one' or 'projects'. It is very confusing because at times 'that' jumps over the prepositional phrase and sometimes it does not.

context wise both 'one' and 'project' makes sense with the verb 'seek'

please guide.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  himanshu0123 ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the main object is the pronoun "one"; we can tell that "that" refers to "projects" by taking a close look at the meaning of the sentence.

If we take "that" to refer to "one" (the research project that Dr. Lydia Temoscho is directing), then the meaning that we get is that Dr. Lydia Temoscho is directing one project, out of a general set of projects, and this one project seeks to determine some fact about psychological counseling.

In this interpretation, the "one of several...projects" phrase essentially becomes redundant, as it just conveys that other research projects exist; this is awkward and confuses the meaning of the sentence.

If we take "that" to refer to "projects", then the meaning that we get is that Dr. Lydia Temoscho is directing one of the multiple projects that seek to determine some fact about psychological counseling.

In this interpretation, the "one of several...projects" phrase is much more relevant, as it tells us that there are many projects looking into this issue and Dr. Lydia Temoscho is directing one of them.

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

In an effort improve the quality of patient care, Dr. Lydia Temoscho

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