Many of these gene flaws - there are plenty of them, with na

Question

Many of these gene flaws - there are plenty of them, with names like BCR-ABL - are relative newcomers to  medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs, still in early testing, that are aimed at them .

A. medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs, still in early testing, that are aimed at them.

B. medical terminology like a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs that are still in early testing, and aimed at them.

C. medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs that are still in early testing, aimed at them.

D. medical terminology like a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs, still in early testing, that are aimed at them.

E. medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs, still in early testing, and aimed at them.

I got this question in the veritas question bank and this question stumped me completely.
I have not been able to understand the meaning of the sentence so far especially what is them referring to.
Can someone please throw some light on this question.

PiyushK · Accepted Answer

Between A and E : I selected E.

Many of these gene flaws - there are plenty of them, with names like BCR-ABL - are relative newcomers to medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs, still in early testing, that are aimed at them.

A. medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs, still in early testing, that are aimed at them. --
B. medical terminology like a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs that are still in early testing, and aimed at them. -- modifier parallelism issue "that and -ed" / comma before like is missing. Here we are comparing subject noun to object noun of like, but comma is missing after terminology.

C. medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs that are still in early testing, aimed at them. -- ed modifier is modifying testing but in original sentence drugs are aimed at them not the testing as C suggests.

D. medical terminology like a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs, still in early testing, that are aimed at them. -- same error as in B, comma before like is missing.
E. medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs, still in early testing, and aimed at them. -- " still in early testing" AND "aimed at them" both acting like adjectives modifying noun drugs. As per MGMAT past participles, present participles and adjective (used as adjectives) can be considered parallel but here "still in early testing" adverb + preposition sort of modifier. I think this should also be considered parallel.

A and E are very close.. I am not able to identify flaw in E... Please help.

Following is a snippet from e-gmat's blog::
1. When ‘like + noun’ is separated from the sentence by a comma, the comparison is between the subject of the sentence and the noun following ‘like’.
2. When ‘like + noun’ is not separated from the sentence by a comma, the comparison is between the object of the sentence and the noun that follows ‘like’. Note that this usage is correct only when there is no ambiguity about which two nouns are being compared

gmat2014p · Answer

Many of these gene flaws - there are plenty of them, with names like BCR-ABL - are relative newcomers to  medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs, still in early testing, that are aimed at them.

A. medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs, still in early testing, that are aimed at them.
B. medical terminology like a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs that are still in early testing, and aimed at them.
C. medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs that are still in early testing, aimed at them.
D. medical terminology like a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs, still in early testing, that are aimed at them.
E. medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs, still in early testing, and aimed at them.

Meaning - The sentence is doing a comparison between 2 entities (clauses) in terms of their " relative newness" 
Clause 1 involves gene flaws and Clause 2 involves anti-tumor drugs

POE:

C & D are out because they use "like" to compare clauses 
B - "aimed at them" - it is not clear what this modifies 
E - "and aimed at them" is not parallel are relative newcomers .. does not make sense

A is the correct answer

Sukant2010 · Answer

I went with (a).
There are two reasons for that:
1. From the non-underlined portion, we can see that 'them' refers to 'gene flaws'. Hence, options (b) and (e) are eliminated as they use 'and', indicating that (after removing the fluff) 'gene flaws are relative newcomers to medical terminology and aimed at them (gene flaws). We are left with options (a), (b) and (d).
2. Option (c) is eliminated as it says 'testing' is aimed at them, but rather the drugs are aimed at gene flaws.
3. To choose between options (a) and (d), we have to see the difference between 'as' and 'like'. 'as' is used for clauses and 'like' for nouns, noun phrases etc.
Here, there is a clause after 'medical terminology', so 'as' is perfect.

PiyushK · Answer

Could you please elaborate more why presence of  and  makes option E incorrect.

still in early testing, and aimed at them --- this part is a modifier to drugs and conjunction  and   is used to join to different modifiers.

aditya8062 · Answer

u do not need parallelism in the first place .also parallelism gives u a nonsensical meaning .

this is not correct interpretation . also even if took this interpretation the meaning that u will derive is making no sense !!

note   :also this question seems to flout the basic rules of gmat grammar: there are plenty of them, with names like BCR-ABL  .

PiyushK · Answer

Hey thanks for the reply, but could you please interpret the meaning difference between A and E, what E implies nonsensical ?

A mastodon carcass, thawed only once and still fresh, is on display. <<CORRECT<< this sentence is from MGMAT SC page 220, its construction is very similar to option E.

Only possible flaw which could be in E is that prepositional modifier can't be parallel with -ed modifier...

Sukant2010 · Answer

Hi Piyush K,
As I said, from the non-underlined portion we can determine that 'them' refers to 'gene flaws'.
Now, if you see option E, "Many of these gene flaws - there are plenty of them, with names like BCR-ABL - are relative newcomers to medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs, still in early testing, and aimed at them", the main clause is "Many of these gene flaws are relative newcomers to medical terminology." The rest of the part is just fluff i.e.
1. 'there are plenty of them, with names like BCR-ABL'--- modifies gene flaws
2. 'still in early testing'---- modifies the drugs.
Now, the part after 'and' is made in conjunction with the main clause. So, 'aimed at them' here is not a modifier but a part of the sentence in parallel with the main clause. As 'them' refers to the 'gene flaws', so it is nonsensical to say that 'gene flaws' are aimed at 'gene flaws'. The intended meaning is 'drugs that are aimed at gene flaws.' Only option (a) and (d) does that.
Now, the same concept can be applied to the example sentence you have given.
A mastodon carcass, thawed only once and still fresh, is on display. The sentence is perfectly correct as "thawed only once and still fresh" is a modifier modifying "A mastodon carcass" and "is on display" is part of the main clause. The actual sentence without the fluff will be "A mastodon carcass is on display".
Hope this clears.

aditya8062 · Answer

E says  :  Many of these gene flaws - there are plenty of them, with names like BCR-ABL - are relative newcomers to medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs, still in early testing,  and  aimed at them

the parallel across AND gives a meaning as follows: Many of these gene flaws are ...... AND  Many of these gene flaws are aimed at them ---->this is nonsensical

aditya8062 · Answer

this is different construction all together .here "still fresh" is parallel to " thawed only once" .both are adjective describing "A mastodon carcass"

sayantanc2k · Answer

The modifier "aimed at them" is incorrect - conjunction "and" is missing. The correct usage could be:
 .. that are still in early testing and are aimed at them.  
Without "and" it seems that "aimed at them" refers to " testing".

For A this "and" is not required because "still in early testing" is used as a non-essential modifier ( separated by two commas), and therefore "that" refers to "drugs" correctly.

manhasnoname · Answer

Why is D incorrect? Between A and D, the only difference is A is comparing clauses and D is comparing nouns. "still in early testing" in both cases acts a non essential modifier.

Could someone please clarify?

sayantanc2k · Answer

In D the modifier "like a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs" is misplaced - preferably it should touch "many of these gene flaws".

LakerFan24 · Answer

Use slash and burn.

modifiers you should ignore are colored in  red

Many  of these  gene flaws -  there are plenty of them, with names like BCR-ABL  - are relative newcomers to medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs,  still in early testing , that are aimed at them.

Understand what the sentence is saying: gene flaws AND anti-tumor drugs are relative newcomers to medical terminology. New anti-tumor drugs are still in early testing, AND, these drugs are aimed at the gene flaws. you need "that" to point to anti-tumor drugs that the author last modified ("still in early testing").

^ clearly why A is correct.

- Quickly elim B&D for usage of "like"
- E is elim b/c of "and aimed at them" -- ambiguous. "and" should be "that"
- C is elim b/c also ambiguous. "that are" before "still in early testing" is redundant b/c we already know this applies to the new anti-tumor drugs (considering, "still in early testing" comes right after the drugs)

OreoShake · Answer

Sayantan, could it be more of a meaning issue in C? The usage of 'that' followed by 'still in early testing' indicates essential modifier and and emphasizes that it is the anti-tumor that are still in early testing that are newcomers to medical terminology rather than the anti-tumor drugs that are aimed at the same gene flaws.

According to me the 'aimed at them' towards the end is a correct adverbial modifier.

Please correct me if I am wrong. Thank you.

leanhdung · Answer

Can you explain why we use "are" for a singular noun "a majority" in A,C,E?

Many thanks!

RMD007 · Answer

Expert - Can you please distinguish between choice A and B.

Is B wrong only because of absence of "," before like??

sayantanc2k · Answer

Words such as majority/ minority may be used as singular or plural depending on the stricture:
1. Singular as collective noun: The majority likes him.
2. Singular or plural as quantity words depending on the noun associated:
a. Majority of the pizza is eaten ( pizza singular - hence majority singular)
b. Majority of the slices are eaten (slices plural, hence majority plural).

sayantanc2k · Answer

The prepositional modifier "like a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs..." is misplaced. It should touch the noun it refers to ("many of these gene flaws".) Instead it touches "terminology". Therefore B is wrong.

BillyZ · Answer

OFFICIAL SOLUTION

Solution: A

Explanation: This difficult sentence contains several unusual modifiers that make it hard to breakdown. In (A) you should remove the  modifier  “ still in early testing ” to see that the sentence is correct: “Many of these gene flaws are relative newcomers to medical terminology, as are a majority of the new anti-tumor drugs…aimed at them.” In (B) and (E) the “and aimed at them” at the end creates an nonsensical structure : “Many of these gene flaws are relative newcomers to medical terminology… and aimed at them.”  Aimed at who or what????   You need the “ that ” to show that it is the anti-tumor drugs aimed at the gene flaws. Also in (B) and (D) the “like” links what follows illogically to “medical terminology,” not to the fact that the “flaws are newcomers to terminology”, which is the goal of the sentence. In (C) the “ aimed at them ” at the end has  no logical referent  so is also incorrect. Answer is (A).

Many of these gene flaws - there are plenty of them, with na

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Many of these gene flaws - there are plenty of them, with na

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