Last visit was: 29 Apr 2026, 19:54

It is currently 29 Apr 2026, 19:54

Toolkit

Practice Tests

Sentence Correction (SC - EA only)

GMAT Club Daily Prep

Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.

Go to My Error Log Learn more

Request Expert Reply

Confirm Cancel

Back to Forum

Create Topic

Not every woman, even those who have a strong familial

1 2

navjot177

Joined: 28 Jan 2017

Last visit: 23 Apr 2019

Posts: 14

Own Kudos:

Given Kudos: 60

GMAT 1: 640 Q47 V31 Verified score

Products:

GMAT 1: 640 Q47 V31 Verified score

Posts: 14

Kudos: 11

13 Jun 2018, 01:50

Kudos

Bookmarks

Can we eliminate B,C and E just by this phrase"Not all women". I thought this phrase is wrong so i eliminated these 3 options?

Is this the wrong approach. I thought meaning was not properly conveyed by this phrase?

Help me with this.

Nightmare007

Joined: 26 Aug 2016

Last visit: 05 Aug 2020

Posts: 426

Own Kudos:

447

Given Kudos: 204

Location: India

Concentration: Operations, International Business

Schools: ISB '20 (M) Simon '21 (WL)

GMAT 1: 690 Q50 V33 Verified score

GMAT 2: 700 Q50 V33 Verified score

GMAT 3: 730 Q51 V38 Verified score

GPA: 4

WE:Information Technology (Consulting)

Products:

Schools: ISB '20 (M) Simon '21 (WL)

GMAT 3: 730 Q51 V38 Verified score

Posts: 426

Kudos: 447

07 Jul 2018, 11:38

Kudos

Bookmarks

mikemcgarry

avohden

Not every woman, even those who have a strong familial history of breast cancer, wants to know if she carries a BRCA mutation, a serious risk factor for that cancer.

A. Not every woman, even those who have a strong familial history of breast cancer, wants to know if she carries a BRCA mutation, a serious risk factor for that cancer.
B. Not all women, even those who have a strong familial history of breast cancer, want to know if she carries a BRCA mutation, which is a serious risk factor for that cancer.
C. Not all women, even those who have a strong familial history of breast cancer, wants to know if they carry a BRCA mutation, which is a serious risk factor for that cancer.
D. Not every woman, even the ones who have a strong familial history of breast cancer, want to know if she carries a BRCA mutation, a serious risk factor for that cancer.
E. Not all women, even the ones who have a strong familial history of breast cancer, want to know if she carries a BRCA mutation, considered a serious risk factor for that cancer.

Dear avohden,
I'm happy to help with this one.

Split #1: SV Agreement with indefinite pronouns. See:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-sente ... agreement/
The phrase "every woman" is singular, and demands the singular verb "wants".
The phrase "all women" is plural, and demands the plural verb "want".
Choices (C) & (D) make SV Agreement errors, so they are wrong.

Split #2: pronoun agreement with indefinite pronouns.
The phrase "every woman" is singular, and demands the singular pronoun "she".
The phrase "all women" is plural, and demands the plural pronoun "they".
Choices (B) & (D) make pronoun agreement errors, so they are wrong.

Just with those two, that's enough to isolate (A) as the only possible answer.

What's intriguing about this sentence is that it has all kinds of splits that are not really relevant to the question --- ultimately, false splits, because either way is correct.
(1) We could say this statement about "every woman" or "all women", and as long as verbs & pronouns match, it would be fine.
(2) Either "even those" or "even ones" is perfectly correct.
(3) Two options for modifying the mutation:
"...a BRCA mutation, a serious risk factor for that cancer." ---- an appositive phrase; see:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... e-phrases/
"...a BRCA mutation, which is a serious risk factor for that cancerr." --- a subordinate clause, acting as noun modifier. See:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... d-clauses/
The first might be a tad wordier, but both are grammatically correct and sound natural.
Good tempting false splits are the sign of a very well written SC problem.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

Hi mike , @Abhimanha , daagh Sir,
I got a doubt,
Not every woman (Singular) , even those who have a strong familial history of breast cancer, wants to know if she carries a BRCA mutation, a serious risk factor for that cancer.

Here the red part is _ Singular, So what does that plural pronoun WHOSE stand for ?

Please explain why a plural pronoun is used for singular noun.
If it is allowed under what conditions we need use plural pronoun for singular noun ?

Thank you

daagh

Major Poster

Joined: 19 Feb 2007

Last visit: 16 Oct 2020

Posts: 5,262

Own Kudos:

42,465

Given Kudos: 422

Status: enjoying

Location: India

WE:Education (Education)

Expert

Expert reply

Posts: 5,262

Kudos: 42,465

07 Jul 2018, 11:53

Kudos

Bookmarks

Considering that this is not an official question, there is no need to bother over a parenthesis. The more important issues are the Sub-Verb and sub-pronoun matchings.

ballest127

Joined: 18 Aug 2017

Last visit: 27 Dec 2021

Posts: 104

Own Kudos:

Given Kudos: 599

Posts: 104

Kudos: 44

04 May 2019, 01:37

Kudos

Bookmarks

Hi Expert,

I have question.

In A , Why we can refer to every woman as " those who..." , because "those" are plural but not woman?

Please explain.

Thank you.

MartyTargetTestPrep

Target Test Prep Representative

Joined: 24 Nov 2014

Last visit: 11 Aug 2023

Posts: 3,471

Own Kudos:

5,646

[1]

Given Kudos: 1,430

Status:Chief Curriculum and Content Architect

Affiliations: Target Test Prep

GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51 Verified score

Expert

Expert reply

GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51 Verified score

Posts: 3,471

Kudos: 5,646

[1]

04 May 2019, 06:33

Kudos

Bookmarks

ballest127

Hi Expert,

I have question.

In A , Why we can refer to every woman as " those who..." , because "those" are plural but not woman?

Please explain.

Thank you.

While there may be contexts in which the use of a plural demonstrative pronoun makes sense even though the sentence in which the pronoun appears does not include a logical referent for that pronoun, the use of the plural "those" in this sentence does not make sense.

"Those" is preceded by the singular "every woman" and followed by the singular "wants," and there is no logical reason to use a plural demonstrative pronoun in this sentence.

kaladin123

Current Student

Joined: 06 Jul 2019

Last visit: 10 Jul 2022

Posts: 135

Own Kudos:

Given Kudos: 747

Location: India

Concentration: General Management, Strategy

Schools: IIMA PGPX'23 (II)

GMAT 1: 640 Q39 V39 Verified score

GMAT 2: 700 Q48 V38 (Online) Verified score

GPA: 3.11

WE:Project Management (Computer Software)

Products:

Schools: IIMA PGPX'23 (II)

GMAT 2: 700 Q48 V38 (Online) Verified score

Posts: 135

Kudos: 68

23 Jan 2020, 17:58

Kudos

Bookmarks

"...every woman... wants..." is correct.

Quote:

(A) Not every woman, even those who have a strong familial history of breast cancer, wants to know if she carries a BRCA mutation, a serious risk factor for that cancer.

"...all women... want..." is correct. But, to use the singular pronoun "she" to refer to "women" is incorrect.

Quote:

(B) Not all women, even those who have a strong familial history of breast cancer, want to know if she carries a BRCA mutation, which is a serious risk factor for that cancer.

Should be "...all women... want...". Incorrect.

Quote:

(C) Not all women, even those who have a strong familial history of breast cancer, wants to know if they carry a BRCA mutation, which is a serious risk factor for that cancer.

Should be "...every woman... wants...". Incorrect.

Quote:

(D) Not every woman, even the ones who have a strong familial history of breast cancer, want to know if she carries a BRCA mutation, a serious risk factor for that cancer.

"...all women... want..." is correct. But, to use the singular pronoun "she" to refer to "women" is incorrect.

Quote:

(E) Not all women, even the ones who have a strong familial history of breast cancer, want to know if she carries a BRCA mutation, considered a serious risk factor for that cancer.

Debo1988

Joined: 06 Oct 2019

Last visit: 28 May 2022

Posts: 42

Own Kudos:

136

Given Kudos: 71

Location: India

Schools: ISB'22 (A) Melbourne (A$) IIMC PGPEX'22 (A) IIMB EPGP'22 (A) IIMA PGPX'22 (WL)

GMAT 1: 740 Q50 V41 Verified score

Schools: ISB'22 (A) Melbourne (A$) IIMC PGPEX'22 (A) IIMB EPGP'22 (A) IIMA PGPX'22 (WL)

GMAT 1: 740 Q50 V41 Verified score

Posts: 42

Kudos: 136

20 May 2020, 01:42

Kudos

Bookmarks

mikemcgarry

Not every woman, even those who have a strong familial history of breast cancer, wants to know if she carries a BRCA mutation, a serious risk factor for that cancer.

Is the use of "if" correct in the context of this sentence?
I thought "whether" should be used to present choice/alternative (in this sentence : the woman either carries or does not carry the mutation).
"If", on the other hand, should be used specify conditions. For example : If I study hard, I will get a good score.
Can you please clarify "whether/if" my understanding is correct?
Thanks
Debo

lakshya14

Joined: 31 Jan 2019

Last visit: 27 Jul 2022

Posts: 348

Own Kudos:

Given Kudos: 529

Posts: 348

Kudos: 45

07 Feb 2021, 07:52

Kudos

Bookmarks

"those" in (A) and " ones" in (E), must be different? I chose (A) because "those" is referring to other women also, whereas "ones" may be referring to the same and only women in (E)? Is this ccorrect?

VerbalBot

Non-Human User

Joined: 01 Oct 2013

Last visit: 04 Jan 2021

Posts: 19,426

Own Kudos:

1,010

Posts: 19,426

Kudos: 1,010

12 Aug 2023, 00:09

Kudos

Bookmarks

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot:

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

This post was generated automatically.

1 2

Moderators:

GMATNinja

GMAT Club Verbal Expert

7391 posts

AbhishekP220108

509 posts

bhanu29

363 posts