vasuca10 wrote:
Expert
mikemcgarry GMATNinja Vyshak hazelnut sayantanc2k please guide...In my views Option C must be the answer, we cannot use both singular and plural verbs together in the same option unless the subject changes....Moreover here as per the sentence structure and meaning essential modifier must be used i.e. "that" instead of "which" non essential modifier.....Please give your views
Dear
vasuca10,
I'm happy to respond.
My friend, this is something subtle. You solicited the help of experts: the mode in which you stand to learn the most is one of humility and openness. If you were to say, "
It seems to me that (C) is a better answer: please help me to understand why this isn't correct," that would be a completely appropriate question. It has an oddly arrogant ring to it, though, when you say, "
In my views Option C must be the answer." It's as if you regard yourself as on the same level as the experts and want to dispute something with them as equals. Such an attitude will inherently prevent you from learning as much as you can. Furthermore, a disputative and confrontational attitude is not one that engenders feelings of appreciation, so that the experts, who of their own generosity choose to answer questions, may well be put off when they encounter such an request.
Here's what I'll say about this question.
This is another low quality question, not as bad as some others. Here, what you have to understand is profound asymmetry. You see, it's very very easy to write reasonably good GMAT Quant questions: virtually anyone who knows the math and has a little question-writing skill can produce this. Consequently, most of the math questions posted on GMAT Club are very good, regardless of their sources. Furthermore, the genius Bunuel polices the Quant sub-forum, so that low quality questions get rooted out or changed.
By contrast, it's very very hard to write verbal questions that are up to the GMAT standards. Many questions that have the general form of, say, a SC or CR question still far profoundly short of the high standards of the GMAT. The high standards of the GMAT are subtle and hard to grasp: writing good GMAT Verbal questions involves at least 20x the skill need to solve all the hard GMAT Verbal questions. Consequently, many of the questions here, including most of the questions of some companies, are low quality questions. The official question, from the
OG and from GMATPrep, are incomparably superb.
MGMAT and
Magoosh have excellent questions, and I have been impressed with the vast majority of Veritas questions. Many other companies produce verbal questions that leave something to be desired. Don't assume that a question is up to the GMAT standards simply because it follows the general format of a question. Don't naively assume all GC questions are of the same quality, any more than you would assume that all automobiles of different manufacturers are of the same quality!
Caveat emptor!
The "
which" in this question should be "
that." This is a mistake on the part of the question writer.
Nevertheless, you don't understand clauses, so you don't understand what is happening with the verbs. Here's a 100% correct version:
The set of propositions that were discussed by the panel has been published in the society journal.
That's what the OA should be.
The outer sentence, the main sentence without frills is:
The set has been published in the society journal.
This has a singular subject "
set" and a singular verb. These are the main subject and main verb of the whole sentence.
The singular subject is modified by a prepositional phrase: "
The set of propositions." The object of the preposition, "
propositions" is followed immediately by a noun-modifying clause. In the noun-modifying clause, the verb "
were discussed" is correctly plural, because it refers to the plural noun "
propositions."
As often happens in complex sentences, the verbs at different levels are referring to different nouns. See:
Nested Grammatical Structures on the GMAT Sentence CorrectionThat blog also has three high quality GMAT SC practice questions.
Does all this make sense?
Mike
close
14 Nov 2017, 04:24
