There is a big difference between government agents scanning items for

I would say that the answer is D because it makes difference between two types of agents describing what they usually do, not just at particular moment in time.
I'm not sure, any suggestions would help.

Hi Stiv

"that" and "which" cannot refer to living beings. "who" can.
Here "that" cannot follow "government agents"

Now let us look at option D

There is a big difference between government agents that scan items for explosives or that look through a suitcase full of clothing, and that search through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers

How many types of agents are we considering ("that" is a marker here)
1) scan items for explosives
2) look through a suitcase full of clothing
3) search through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers

The use of between in the correct part suggests that there are only two types. How can we have three?

Makes sense?

1. Please look at this note below s in the given link. https://www.thefreedictionary.com/who

The relevant portion says this much about the use of ‘that and who’

Some grammarians have argued that only who and not that should be used to introduce a restrictive relative clause that identifies a person. This restriction has no basis either in logic or in the usage of the best writers; it is entirely acceptable to write either the woman that wanted to talk to you or the woman who wanted to talk to you. •

But it is not clear whether GMAT accepts this concept. If GMAT has no issue about using that for human being also, then we can refer to the agents as agents that, and not necessarily agents who.

But looking at the meaning part, the first type of search is a more serious one because it is mostly done as security check against international terrorism, while the search through the drives of a computer is less serious one that searches for less harmful cyber crimes. That is where the big difference lies and not in differentiating between two types of people, who both after all are government agents, .Therefore, I feel there should be no need for hair- splitting between the birds of the same feather. This text definitely tests the difference between two searches. D is not that fit as E

There is a big difference between government agents scanning items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, from searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers, financial records, e‐mail messages and Web site visits.
A. government agents scanning items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, from searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers : idiom is between x and y
B. government agents who are scanning items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, or searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers : idiom is between x and y
C. government agents scanning of items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, and searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer which contains work papers : Scanning is gerund, searching is verb. It should be agents' scanning even if we use gerund
D. government agents that scan items for explosives or that look through a suitcase full of clothing, and that search through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers : We are not differntiating Govt. Agents, but their actions
E. government agents scanning items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, and searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers

Choice A and B are wrong because of incorrect usage of idiom 'between X and Y'

A. government agents scanning items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, from searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing workpapers

B. government agents who are scanning items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, or searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing workpapers

Choice C is wordy - scanning of items'
C. government agents scanning of items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, and searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer which contains work papers

Choice D is wrong because pronoun 'that' is used to refer to 'agents' (= humans)
D. government agents that scan items for explosives or that look through a suitcase full of clothing, and that search through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing workpapers

Choice E is right choice
E. government agents scanning items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, and searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers[/quote]

There is a big difference between government agents scanning items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, from searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers, financial records, e‐mail messages and Web site visits.
A. government agents scanning items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, from searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers
B. government agents who are scanning items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, or searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers
C. government agents scanning of items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, and searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer which contains work papers
D. government agents that scan items for explosives or that look through a suitcase full of clothing, and that search through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers
E. government agents scanning items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, and searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers - СORRECT

Hello Experts,

I am a little confused with the answer. Here option D says: There is a difference 'between government agents... and searching...'. So essentially the scentence is comparing govenment agents and searching??

I am not sure how I feel about this.

Hi SajjitaKundu,
Option D does not have "government agents... and searching"- for clarification I have mentioned option D below



Probably, you meant to ask for option E(quoted below), which has "government agents... and searching".
If yes, a subtle thing to note here is that the sentence compares the process i.e. scanning and searching by govt. agents; and not "govt. agents" and "searching". Also check how option D introduces "that", which changes the intended meaning of sentence from "process" to "agents" and hence this option is wrong. Hope this clarifies

Official Answer (OA) – E
Concepts Tested – Idiom, Pronoun Reference A – between‘ always takes and‘ which is missing in this sentence
B – Distorts the meaning of the original sentence. between‘ always takes and‘ which is missing in this sentence
C – scanning of items‘ is not parallel with the rest of the sentence. Use of which‘ to introduce a restrictive clause is incorrect
D – government agents‘ will be who‘ and not that‘.

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