avohden wrote:
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