More than five thousand years ago, Chinese scholars accurately describ

Question

More than five thousand years ago, Chinese scholars accurately described the flow of blood as a continuous circle controlled by the heart,  but it went  unnoticed in the West.

(A) but it went

(B) but it was

(C) although it was

(D) but the discovery went

(E) although the discovery was

daagh · Accepted Answer

A subtle difference between D and E, not in terms of grammar but in terms of altered intent. 
D uses a coordinate conjunction but, while E is using a subordinate conjunction although. A coordinating conjunction is used when both the joined arms have equal importance, here in this case, that the Chinese discovery on one hand and the West’s not noticing it on the other. Both are equally weighed as per the original text. This is the correct treatment of the theme. 
However, in E, the west not noticing the discovery is given a subordinate importance, a sort of distortion from the original; That is the reason E is considered inappropriate.

Jivana · Answer

If the word following the underlined section was 'unknown' instead of 'unnoticed' 'was' would have been fine. However, the use of 'was' implies that the discovery was a known fact just not known in the west.

Now, when one is using the word, 'discovery' the implication is that some thing was unknown till a certain point in time -- when it was discovered, it came to be known as the truth.

I hope this helps. Apologies it this is confusing.

Gogoplata · Answer

The main difference btw the answers choices is but/although at my first glance.
but is a coordinating conjunction (needs ind clause here)
although is a subordinating conjunction (needs a dep clause)
This leaves only statements C and D.
C is more concise, but improperly uses a pronoun for a concept...
So, D is correct

kuttingchai · Answer

will vote for : D

Although - introduces subordinate clause
but - introduces independent clause

"it" is ambiguous

jitgoel · Answer

Can you please give more details on the Coordinate COnjunction and Subordinate conjunction. When and where to use these?

rjacobsMGMAT · Answer

Generalizing is probably not the best way to learn this. The difference is meaning.

(E) means that the discovery went unnoticed in the West, but Chinese scholars accurately described the flow of blood anyway. In (E), the West's failure to notice  actually interfered  with the Chinese scholars' ability to describe blood flow.

(D) means that Chinese scholars accurately described blood flow, and we would expect the West to notice this discovery, but  surprisingly  they did not.

So in this case, "although" gives us preconditions that were overcome, while "but" gives us a surprising result. We want the latter, so (D) is the answer.

Debayandc · Answer

Although I have chosen D, why is E incorrect?

E modifies 'discovery" with correct tense "was".

Experts, please help.

GMATNinja · Answer

The word "although" is problematic in choice (E). To understand why, first consider this example: "Although I just ate an entire burrito, I could still eat some pizza." The fact that I just ate an entire burrito is a reason why I would NOT want to eat pizza. But, DESPITE THE FACT that I just ate an entire burrito, I still want pizza.

In this case, "although" basically means "even though". Now back to choice (E): Is the fact that the discovery was unnoticed in the West something that would have interfered with the discovery by the Chinese scholars? Is it a reason why the Chinese scholars might NOT have accurately described {X}? In other words, did the Chinese scholars accurately describe {X} 5,0000 years ago DESPITE THE FACT that the discovery was unnoticed in the West? No, not quite. Whether the discovery was noticed in the West would not have impacted the Chinese scholars' ability to accurately describe {X}, so "although" (i.e. "even though") isn't the best word choice. Also, the verb "was" in choice (E) suggests that the West simply didn't notice the discovery at the time it was made (more than 5,000 years ago). In choice (D), the verb "went" suggests that the West didn't notice the discovery for many years (centuries? millennia?) AFTER the discovery was made. So, are we trying to say that the West simply didn't notice the discovery 5,000 years ago? Or that the West failed to notice the discovery for a long time after it was initially made? The latter makes a bit more sense, especially since the sentence begins by highlighting the fact that the Chinese scholars made the discovery a really long time ago. Is either of those reasons a smoking gun? Probably not. But together, they make (D) a better choice than (E). I hope that helps!

krndatta · Answer

ParamjitDasGMAT ,

Can you throw some light on option's D and E. 
Confused between "but" and "Although".

How do choose between the two?

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  krndatta ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, both "but" and "although" convey a sense of contrast, but "although" carries an additional layer of meaning.

"although" implies that one action took place  in spite of  another action happening; in other words, if we say "Although X happened, Y also happened.", we imply that X happening makes Y less likely or even impossible, but Y happened anyway.

The use of "but" lacks this extra implication; "X happened, but Y also happened." simply implies that X happened and the contrasting action Y also happened.

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

krndatta · Answer

ExpertsGlobal5 ,

Can you explain the difference above from the above question.

Thanks

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  krndatta ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the use of "although" in this sentence conveys that in spite of the fact that the discovery went unnoticed in the West, more than five thousand years ago, Chinese scholars accurately described the flow of blood as a continuous circle controlled by the heart; this usage incorrectly implies that the discovery going unnoticed in the West somehow made it more difficult for the Chinese scholars to make the discovery.

The use of "but" in this sentence, however, correctly implies that more than five thousand years ago, Chinese scholars accurately described the flow of blood as a continuous circle controlled by the heart, and as a separate, contrasting action the discovery went unnoticed in the West.

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

krndatta · Answer

ExpertsGlobal5 ,

I understood your explanation above.

Just rephrasing it once again for my clarity. 
So Option E says that the discovery went unnoticed in the West. Despite the discovery going unnoticed in the west, Chinese Scholars described the accurate flow of the blood.

Option D presents two contrasting ideas. One is that the discovery went unnoticed in the West, and other is Chinese Scholars accurately describing something.

Note: Option E makes sense too. So how do we decide between the two?

Please elaborate.

BansalT · Answer

Hi at some places E is marked as the correct answer and they have provided the explanation that 'went' in option D in inappropriate. I chose D as correct answer because of use of 'but'. Can you please elaborate on this
If this is an OG ques. can you please give ques. number for OG22 so that I can check the official answer.

RonTargetTestPrep · Answer

D should definitely be the correct answer to this one.

The use of "although" in choice E is problematic.

In "X, although Y", the 'Y' is a countervailing background condition that obtains  at the time when 'X' happens / is observed . In other words, 'Y' should be something that's already true, or that has already happened, to make 'X' seem less likely and/or less sensible than otherwise.

In this case, "although the discovery was unnoticed" has the absurd implication that "the discovery" already existed in some sense before the Chinese actually made it!

If this problem is official, it's almost certainly very old (the "OG 1990" citation is quite believable). I'm saying this largely because of the use of "went unnoticed", an idiom with which native speakers of English are much more likely to be comfortable than are non-native speakers.
The GMAT of thirty years ago—whose test-taker pool was almost entirely American—contained a fair number of such things, but GMAC has been scrupulous about eliminating these unfair idioms from the pool in more recent years so that the test isn't biased either for or against test takers from any particular linguistic background.

nahid78 · Answer

It in A b and C has no antecedent.
E does not convey the intended meaning. 
ANS D

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