Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethica

Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is emotion, not logic or analytical reasoning.

A) the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is

From my point of view, the meaning of the correct answer (option A) is not totally precise and, hence, the sentence could be improved.

It says "the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas". Well, everyone (or almost everyone) pondered ethical dilemmas in the past. Hence, this is somehow vague or inconcrete.

The idea would be better expressed if it said something like "the brain scans of volunteers while they pondered ethical dilemmas".

Your thoughts on this idea will be greatly appreciated.

Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is emotion, not logic or analytical reasoning.


(A) the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is

(B) the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas and found the basis to make tough moral decisions to be

(C) the brain scans of volunteers pondering ethical dilemmas and found that the basis for making tough moral decisions is

(D) volunteers’ brain scans while pondering ethical dilemmas have found the basis to make tough moral judgments to be

(E) volunteers’ brain scans while they pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one problem at a time, and narrow it down to the correct choice! Before we get started, here is the original question with any major differences between the options highlighted in orange:

Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is emotion, not logic or analytical reasoning.

(A) the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is
(B) the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas and found the basis to make tough moral decisions to be
(C) the brain scans of volunteers pondering ethical dilemmas and found that the basis for making tough moral decisions is
(D) volunteers’ brain scans while pondering ethical dilemmas have found the basis to make tough moral judgments to be
(E) volunteers’ brain scans while they pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is

After a quick scan over the options, there are a few things we can focus on to narrow down our choices:
1. the brain scans of volunteers / volunteers' brain scans
2. have found / and found
3. for making / to make
4. is / to be

Let's start with #1 on our list: the brain scans of volunteers vs. volunteers' brain scans. While it seems like these two phrases could be interchangeable, they are not! Let's take a look at each option with the beginning of the sentence plugged in to see the difference:

(A) Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is --> OKAY
(It's clear that the researchers are studying brain scans from volunteers who were pondering ethical dilemmas.)

(B) Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas and found the basis to make tough moral decisions to be --> OKAY
(It's clear that the researchers are studying brain scans from volunteers who were pondering ethical dilemmas.)

(C) Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers pondering ethical dilemmas and found that the basis for making tough moral decisions is --> OKAY
(It's clear that the researchers are studying brain scans from volunteers who were pondering ethical dilemmas.)

(D) Researchers studying volunteers’ brain scans while pondering ethical dilemmas have found the basis to make tough moral judgments to be --> INCORRECT
(The meaning of this sentence is unclear! Who was pondering ethical dilemmas? You could make a case that the researchers are pondering ethical dilemmas, or maybe the volunteers are? If it's not 100% clear, let's eliminate it due to vagueness!)

(E) Researchers studying volunteers’ brain scans while they pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is --> INCORRECT
(This is also unclear, thanks to the vague pronoun "they." WHO pondered ethical dilemmas? It's not clear at all if the pronoun "they" is referring to researchers or volunteers, so let's rule this one out too!)

We can eliminate options D & E because they include vague phrases or pronouns, which is a big no-no on the GMAT!

Now that we're left with 3 options, let's move on to #2 on the list: and found vs. have found. This is a verb issue, so let's take a look at each option with the rest of the sentence plugged in to spot the problem. To make it easier, I've also highlighted the subject of the sentence. It should be clear to you what the subject and verb are, and they should agree:

(A) Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas have found that the basis for making tough moral judgments is emotion, not logic or analytical reasoning.

This is CORRECT! It's clear that the researchers were the ones who found that the basis for making judgements is emotion, not the volunteers!

(B) Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers who pondered ethical dilemmas and found the basis to make tough moral decisions to be emotion, not logic or analytical reasoning.

This is INCORRECT because it changes the intended meaning. This sentence states that the volunteers pondered ethical dilemmas AND found the basis of making tough decision to be emotions. This isn't true - the researchers are the ones who found it!

(C) Researchers studying the brain scans of volunteers pondering ethical dilemmas and found that the basis for making tough moral decisions is emotion, not logic or analytical reasoning.

This is also INCORRECT because it changes meaning. It also gives the volunteers credit for finding the basis of making tough decisions, not the researchers!

There you have it - option A was correct all along! If we focus on one problem at a time, we can narrow down the options quickly and arrive at the right answer!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

GMATNinja,

This is a follow-up to my question on "they" that I asked for OG question 833 ("The Eastern State Penitentiary was established in 1822 by reformers advocating that prisoners be held in solitary confinement and hard labor so as to reform them." question)

For choice (E), shouldn't "they" logically refer to the "researchers"? I do not understand the potential for vagueness here.

Thank you so much again