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TIP: Learning grammar as a subject in isolation from reading is not effective. :)
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TIP: READING STRATEGY THROUGH VISUALISATION IN MIND.
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Hidden Stories of Chinese Migration and Culture Found in Giant Genetic Study



Lamb stew, hearty and fragrant, cooked until meat falls off the bone and served alongside thick, chewy noodles — this is the type of food that cuts through northern China’s winter chill.
Further south, warmer climates support more crops. Fresh, stir-fried greens might accompany dim sum in Guangdong or punctuate a spicy meal in Sichuan. Lychee, durian and other fruits ripen the air.
Nevertheless, the study suggests that simple clinical tests can be an effective resource for surveying the genetics of large populations and generating hypotheses for study, said Ekta Khurana, an assistant professor of computational genomics at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York who was not involved in the research.
“This can be expanded to include not just mothers, but all different people,” she said.

Comb through the DNA of Chinese people and you’ll find a trace of this culinary story, according to the largest-scale genetic study of Chinese people to date, published Thursday in Cell. The authors reported that a mutation of FADS2, a gene involved in metabolizing fatty acids, is more common in northern than southern populations, indicating a diet richer in animal content. It is one of an assortment of findings resulting from a sweeping analysis of genetic information from 141,431 participants.
The approach — a novel one using data from prenatal blood tests — came with a trade-off. Though researchers were able to cheaply sequence a large number of genomes, they had access to a small fraction of each person’s genome, much less than what genome-wide studies typically look at.

The authors used data from noninvasive prenatal testing for fetal trisomy, a condition that can cause Down syndrome. Pioneered in China, the test analyzes free-floating bits of fetal DNA in the mother’s blood and is administered for $100 or less throughout the country, said Xin Jin, a research scientist at BGI, a genome sequencing firm in Shenzhen, and an author of the paper. High-quality, whole genome sequencing, in comparison, costs about $1,000 per person.
The data set, which represented nearly every Chinese province and 37 out of 56 officially recognized ethnic groups, eclipsed many genome-wide studies, which often include only thousands, or tens of thousands, of participants.
But the team’s analysis covered a mere 10 percent or less of each person’s genome, while most rigorous genome-wide studies cover 80 percent or more, said Anders Albrechtsen, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen and an author of the study.

To overcome this, the researchers relied on heavy computation and statistics, designing custom software that could infer missing DNA. They reported many preliminary but interesting insights.
For instance, the Han — comprising 92 percent of China’s population — were quite genetically homogeneous, mostly differing between the North and South.
This likely reflects governmental policies and job opportunities since 1949, which have largely driven migration eastward or westward, said Siyang Liu, a senior research scientist at BGI and lead author of the paper.
Her team identified several gene variants differing in frequency between northern and southern populations, related to immune response, bipolar disorder and earwax type.
Minority ethnic groups showed more genetic divergence than the Han, particularly Uyghurs and Kazakhs in Xinjiang and Mongols in Inner Mongolia.
This is noteworthy because sequencing studies are rarely done on ethnic minorities, even though findings can have important medical implications, said Charleston Chiang, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine who was not involved in the research.
The researchers also diagnosed viruses in the mothers’ blood by checking DNA that did not align to the human genome against a database of viral sequences. They found a relatively high prevalence of hepatitis B and other viruses that can affect pregnancies, as well as a gene variant associated with roseola, which causes a high fever and rash in babies.

Last, to show that noninvasive pregnancy testing data can reveal associations between genes and specific traits, the scientists analyzed height and body mass index across their sample, finding 48 gene variants associated with height and 13 with body mass index. They also reported gene variants associated with maternal age and the likelihood of having twins.
Some of these associations had been reported in previous studies with Europeans, but the team also discovered new links, which underscores the importance of doing research in non-European populations, Dr. Jin said.
This study served as proof-of-concept, he added. His team is moving forward on evaluating prenatal testing data from more than 3.5 million Chinese people.
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Deep in Human DNA, a Gift From the Neanderthals


Long ago, Neanderthals probably infected modern humans with viruses, perhaps even an ancient form of H.I.V. But our extinct relatives also gave us genetic defenses.
People of Asian and European descent — almost anyone with origins outside of Africa — have inherited a sliver of DNA from some unusual ancestors: the Neanderthals.
These genes are the result of repeated interbreeding long ago between Neanderthals and modern humans. But why are those genes still there 40,000 years after Neanderthals became extinct?
As it turns out, some of them may protect humans against infections. In a study published on Thursday, scientists reported new evidence that modern humans encountered new viruses — including some related to influenza, herpes and H.I.V. — as they expanded out of Africa roughly 70,000 years ago. Some of those infections may have been picked up directly from Neanderthals. Without immunity to pathogens they had never encountered, modern humans were particularly vulnerable.
“We were actually able to not only say, ‘Yes, modern humans and Neanderthals exchanged viruses,’” said David Enard, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona and co-author of the new paper, published in the journal Cell. “We are able to start saying something about which types of viruses were involved.”
But if Neanderthals made us sick, they also helped keep us well. Some of the genes inherited from them through interbreeding also protected our ancestors from these infections, just as they protected the Neanderthals.

Lluis Quintana-Murci, a geneticist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris who was not involved in the new research, said that until now, scientists had not dreamed of getting such a glimpse at the distant medical history of our species.
“Five years ago, we would never have imagined that,” he said.
Our immune cells kill off viruses with an arsenal of weapons, such as antibodies and signals that cause infected cells to commit suicide. But Dr. Enard began his research by wondering if humans have evolved other ways to avoid getting infected.
Viruses can’t replicate on their own. They appropriate proteins inside our cells to do the heavy lifting, copying viral genes and building new shells to put them in. If those proteins were to change shape, however, it should become harder for viruses to use them to multiply.
“Instead of a strategy where you attack the virus, you run away from it,” said Dr. Enard.
To learn whether this is really a defense the body uses, Dr. Enard needed to find all the human proteins known to interact with at least one virus. But no such list existed. So he plowed through the scientific literature, looking for every example.
Once he had built a catalog of 1,300 proteins — it took four months — he studied their evolutionary history. By comparing these proteins across different species, he discovered that many have changed over the course of evolution.

In the several million years since our ancestors split from other primates, one-third of the adaptive changes in our proteins have occurred among those that interact with viruses. And this remarkable discovery led Dr. Enard and Dr. Dmitri Petrov, an evolutionary biologist at Stanford University, to wonder about Neanderthals.
The common ancestor both of modern humans and Neanderthals lived roughly 600,000 years ago, probably in Africa. Neanderthals left the continent long before modern humans and spread across a huge range, from the coast of Spain to Siberia, before becoming extinct.
From fossils, scientists have been able to reconstruct entire genomes of Neanderthals. And they’ve found that living people with non-African ancestry carry 1 percent or 2 percent Neanderthal DNA.

That remnant DNA got into our gene pool through repeated interbreeding. But after Neanderthals became extinct, their DNA gradually declined in our genomes.
It’s likely that most Neanderthal genes were bad for our health or reduced our fertility, and therefore were lost in modern humans. But certain Neanderthal genes became more common, probably because they provided some kind of evolutionary advantage.
In recent years, researchers have found that some of those genes encode proteins made by immune cells. They speculated that modern humans benefited by borrowing Neanderthal genes to fight infections.
Dr. Enard and Dr. Petrov had a more specific question: Did modern humans acquire genes that helped cells evade specific viruses by altering the shapes of cellular proteins?
The researchers pored through the genomes of living Asians and Europeans, and discovered a large fraction of those Neanderthal genes make proteins that interact with viruses.
The viruses that infected Neanderthals must have posed a major threat to modern humans as they left Africa. They had no immunity to these infections. But Neanderthals did, and through interbreeding, Neanderthals provided modern humans with genetic defenses.
“It’s like they brought the knife, but they also brought the shield,” Dr. Petrov said. Dr. Enard and Dr. Petrov also found clues about exactly what kinds of viruses these Neanderthal genes protect against.
In living humans, many of the proteins made by those genes interact only with influenza viruses, for example. Others interact only with H.I.V.
“We are not saying that viruses that infect the human population now come from Neanderthals,” said Dr. Enard. It’s clear, for example, that H.I.V. jumped into humans just a century ago from chimpanzees.
Instead, it’s likely that modern humans got infected with an ancient relative of H.I.V. Dr. Enard couldn’t say how they were exposed to the new pathogen — perhaps directly through sex with Neanderthals, or by eating animals that both modern humans and Neanderthals hunted.
But it’s clear that, for billions of people alive today, Neanderthal genes likely play an important role in defending against such viruses.
“We are not anything but the result of our past,” said Dr. Quintana-Murci.
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EXPOSITORY TEXT - READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES



*****no one mentioned on gmatclub that GMAT tests expository texts :lol:*****

Expository text is typically structured with visual cues such as headings and subheadings that provide clear cues as to the structure of the information. The first sentence in a paragraph is also typically a topic sentence that clearly states what the paragraph is about.
Expository text also often uses one of five common text structures as an organizing principle:

    Cause and effect
    Problem and solution
    Compare and contrast
    Description
    Time order (sequence of events, actions, or steps)
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HOW TO AVOID RC ANSWER TRAPS

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DAVE13`S READING COMPREHENSION TRICK :)


Read all the questions of the passage before reading the passage itself. Put the key words of each question on the paper, that way you will stay engaged when reading a passage and retain the key information.
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dave13 wrote:
DAVE13`S READING COMPREHENSION TRICK :)


Read all the questions of the passage before reading the passage itself. Put the key words of each question on the paper, that way you will stay engaged when reading a passage and retain the key information.


dave13

Questions in GMATPrep appears one by one
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Re: SC TIPS & TRICKS [#permalink]
NandishSS wrote:
dave13 wrote:
DAVE13`S READING COMPREHENSION TRICK :)


Read all the questions of the passage before reading the passage itself. Put the key words of each question on the paper, that way you will stay engaged when reading a passage and retain the key information.


dave13

Questions in GMATPrep appears one by one


NandishSS so on official gmat exam questions will appear one by one ? :? :)
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dave13 wrote:
NandishSS wrote:
dave13 wrote:
DAVE13`S READING COMPREHENSION TRICK :)


Read all the questions of the passage before reading the passage itself. Put the key words of each question on the paper, that way you will stay engaged when reading a passage and retain the key information.


dave13

Questions in GMATPrep appears one by one


NandishSS so on official gmat exam questions will appear one by one ? :? :)


dave13 YES ;)
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How to crack any GMAT RC passage
:) YAY!

    Use POE method / eliminate answer choices that are not relevant to the passage as if you were to tackle CR.

    After eliminating three wrong answer choices if you are confused between the two remaining answer choices, look carefully, which answer choice has more key words mentioned in the passage. Again don’t forget relevance to RC :)

    Pay VERY special attention to the first and the last sentences of each paragraph, when reading.

    Pay attention to transition words. By paying attention to these words as they appear in the passage, you can quickly summarize the main arguments and ideas of a passage and easily return to details when needed
    .

Addition

Addition words add on to an idea, or in the case of an argument, preceding reasons or premises. An author uses addition words to set up additional evidence, establish similar ideas or buffer a line of reasoning.

Furthermore; Further; In addition; Not only … but also; Also; Not to mention; Besides; And; What is more; In fact

Countering


Countering transition words signal a change in direction from one idea to a contrasting idea. Countering words help complicate or refute an original idea. The idea or argument of the passage was going in one direction, but now it’s going in the another direction.

But, yet, however, still, on the other hand, while conversely, though, when in fact, in contract

Reasoning

As the name suggests, reasoning transition words signal that the statement that follows them is a reason for a conclusion. The conclusion is a separate statement that may precede or follow one or more reasons.

Because, since, as, for, due to, being that, seeing that, in light of, in that, owing to

Concluding


In an argument, a conclusion is a statement that is given as a result of reasons or premises. Concluding transition words mark an idea or statement as a conclusion, which means that other statements in the passage act as reasons for this conclusion. Additionally, conclusions can be used as reasons in a new argument.

As a result, hence, so, because of this, as a consequence, therefore, consequently, thus, accordingly, ergo
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HOW TO ANSWER CORRECTLY 99.99% OF CR QUESTIONS :)


CALIBRATION OF GMAT CR MIND :)


I made experiment after trying about 50 CR questions in succession (primarily 700 level questions (OG, GMAT PREP PACKS AND A FEW LSAT) I have identified a method that is universal and works in 99% of cases. Exception is question "most vulnerable to criticism", which is rare.


FIRST STAGE OF POE

-POE based on reformulation of main idea

-POE based on relevant information

SECOND STAGE OF POE

-POE based on key words

-POE checking key words WITH main idea (final step)


EXAMPLE ONE

Lyme disease is caused by a bacterium transmitted to humans by deer ticks. Generally deer ticks pick up the bacterium while in the larval stage from feeding on infected white footed mice. However, certain other species on which the larvae feed do not harbor the bacterium. Therefore, if the population of these other species were increased, the number of ticks acquiring the bacterium and hence the number of people contracting Lyme disease—would likely decline.

Which of the following it would be most useful to ascertain in evaluating the argument?

applying my method


FIRST STAGE OF POE

-POE based on reformulation of main idea Step one----> Lyme disease is an infection that contaminates human through deer ticks. deer ticks get contaminated in larval stage when eating some infected species. however some other species deer ticks eat are not contaminated. so if healthy species increase, the number of infected deer ticks will reduce.

-POE based on relevant information - Second Step eliminate three wrong answer choices quickly :)

SECOND STAGE OF POE

-POE based on key words - Third Step - I am left with B and D. Pre-Eliminate based on key Words. :) In B there are FOUR DISTINCTIVE RELEVANT WORDS TO THE ARGUMENT , AND in D there are TWO relevant key words + 1 word "adult" irrelevant (NOT MENTIONED IN THE ARGUMENT). Based on this analysis Eliminate D. :cool:

-POE checking key words WITH main idea (final step) Check carefully again. and Click on B. :grin:

A. Whether populations of the other species on which deer tick larvae feed are found only in areas also inhabited by white footed mice. (out - not concerned by white footed mice )

B. Whether the size of the deer tick population is currently limited by the availability of animals for ticks ‘s larval stage to feed on

C. Whether the infected deer tick population could be controlled by increasing the number of animals that prey on white footed mice. (out - not concerned by white footed mice


D. Whether deer ticks that were not infected as larvae can become infected as adults by feeding on deer on which infected deer ticks have fed.

E. Whether the other species on which deer tick larvae feed harbor any other bacteria that ticks transmits to humans. (out - not concerned with other bacteria that contaminates human. )


link to this question: https://gmatclub.com/forum/lyme-disease ... 77944.html




EXAMPLE TWO

Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

The irradiation of food kills bacteria and thus retards spoilage. However, it also lowers the nutritional value of many foods. For example, irradiation destroys a significant percentage of whatever vitamin B1 a food may contain. Proponents of irradiation point out that irradiation is no worse in this respect than cooking. However, this fact is either beside the point, since much irradiated food is eaten raw, or else misleading, since ___________.


FIRST STAGE OF POE

-POE based on reformulation of main idea ---- > step one --- irradiation kills bacteria and retards spoilage. Also reduces calories and vitamins such as B1. some say irradiation is as bad as cooking.

-POE based on relevant information ---- step two ---- eliminate three wrong answer choices quickly. :)

SECOND STAGE OF POE

-POE based on key words - step three left with E and C. lets count key words in each option and make a matching process in step below

-POE checking key words WITH main idea (final step) In E there are 4 RELEVANT KEY WORDS and in C there are THREE RELEVANT KEY WORDS.


So, by the majority of voices E wins the race :) :lol: YAY!


(A) many of the proponents of irradiation are food distributors who gain from food’s having a longer shelf life (out of scope - "ditrubutors" )

(B) it is clear that killing bacteria that may be present on food is not the only effect that irradiation has ( I am not concerned with other effect)

(C) cooking is usually the final step in preparing food for consumption, whereas irradiation serves to ensure a longer shelf life for perishable foods

(D) certain kinds of cooking are, in fact, even more destructive of vitamin B1 than carefully controlled irradiation is ( out of scope - "certain kinds of cooking are even more destructive")

(E) for food that is both irradiated and cooked, the reduction of vitamin B1 associated with either process individually is compounded



link to the question: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-irradiat ... 38471.html

Originally posted by dave13 on 13 Dec 2018, 12:48.
Last edited by dave13 on 13 Dec 2018, 14:38, edited 1 time in total.
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EXAMPLE THREE: ( in CR question askinng to complete the passage PRETHINKING WORKS LIKE GAME WHEN YOU TASTE SOMETHING AND NEED TO GUESS IT WHAT IT IS - IMAGINE YOU ARE TASTING CHOCALATE BAR ) :lol:


Which of the following, if true, provides evidence that most logically completes the argument below?

According to a widely held economic hypothesis, imposing strict environmental regulations reduces economic growth. This hypothesis is undermined by the fact that the states with the strictest environmental regulations also have the highest economic growth. This fact does not show that environmental regulations promote growth, however, since ______.


FIRST STAGE OF POE

-POE based on reformulation of main idea ----> imposing strict environmrntal rules reduces economic growth. however they say that stated with strictest eco rules also have highest economic growth. Though this fact doesnt show that eco rules promote growth however since ( prethink - need to strengthen states desision with something positive )


-POE based on relevant information Eliminate three incorrect answer choices.

SECOND STAGE OF POE

-POE based on key words

-POE checking key words WITH main idea (final step)

(A) those states with the strictest environmental regulations invest the most in education and job training. ( correct need to strengthen by giving example of some additional benefit relevant to main keey words in the argument )

(B) even those states that have only moderately strict environmental regulations have higher growth than those with the least-strict regulations. ( out of scope "moderately" and " "least strict")


(C) many states that are experiencing reduced economic growth are considering weakening their environmental regulations. ( totally illogical)

(D) after introducing stricter environmental regulations, many states experienced increased economic growth. ( this goes against prethinking)

(E) even those states with very weak environmental regulations have experienced at least some growth. ( illogical)
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Originally posted by dave13 on 14 Dec 2018, 11:36.
Last edited by dave13 on 17 Dec 2018, 09:29, edited 4 times in total.
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EXPERIMENT


READ FOUR CRs IN SUCCESSION, WITHOUT READING QUESTIONS. AFTER READING ARGUMENTS TRY TO ANSWER THOSE QUESTIONS. START FROM THE FIRST ONE. :)
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Expert Reply
dave13 wrote:
ABSOLUTE PHRASE


When the participle of an absolute phrase is a form of to be, such as being or having been, the participle is often left out but understood.

The season [being] over, they were mobbed by fans in Times Square. (generis what is the meaning of 'season being over" does it mean it is finishing ? or does it mean it is over ?

dave13 , Are you quoting from Bryan Garner at times in your Absolute Phrase post?
The writing style looks really familiar.
Garner edits Black's Law Dictionary. Where was I? Oh. Here:

A time span or a duration that is over is finished. The time period or duration has ENDED.

• The "season being over" means that the season IS over.
-- No more competition. No more matches.
-- The season is finishED.

• These ___ING words in "participial phrases" can be tough.

-- participles as adjectives
-- (___INGs) that stand alone and that are not nouns ("Jogging is boring"), almost always are adjectives
-- The frightening actions of the leader had been predicted with uncanny accuracy by an American news anchor.
-- the adjective frightening describes actions

-- participial phrases also often act as adjectives.
-- "being over" is a participial phrase and an adjective that modifies season
-- "being" is a participle of linking verb TO BE. "Over" is like a subject complement for "season."
-- a season is a time frame, or a duration.
-- If "over" is used with a time frame and over is by itself (i.e., without almost or nearly or half), over means ended.
-- This mnemonic, albeit depressing, usually helps with usage of words such as season, holiday, month, celebration:
English speakers often say, "This relationship is over!" ("Our friendship or romance has ended!")
Quote:
According to a recent study of consumer spending on prescription medications, increases in the sales of the 50 drugs that were advertised most heavily accounts for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, the remainder of which came from sales of the 9,850 prescription medicines that companies did not advertise or advertised very little.


(A) heavily accounts for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, the remainder of which came

(B) heavily were what accounted for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year; the remainder of the increase coming

(C) heavily accounted for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, the remainder of the increase coming

(D) heavily, accounting for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, while the remainder of the increase came

(E) heavily, which accounted for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, with the remainder of it coming

generis how should I interpret this part in terms of tense "the remainder of the increase coming" is it the same as "the remainder of the increase came" or "remainder of increase is coming" or "remainder of increase will come" or "remainder of increases comes" ?

Participles do not indicate tense, so your question is spot on. Insert option C into the sentence:

(i)ncreases in the sales of the 50 drugs that were advertised most heavily accounted for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, the remainder of the increase coming from sales of the 9,850 prescription medicines that companies did not advertise or advertised very little.

• "coming from" means that the remainder of the increase came from sales of other drugs
• we find the clues from the other verbs or time-referenced words in the sentence: "were advertised" and " accounted for" and "spending last year"
• in other words, the context indicates simple past tense

My rewrite of the meaning of this sentence (leaving out the emphasis on advertising):
Last year, just 50 drugs accounted for half of a $20 billion increase in drug spending.
The remainder of the increase in spending came from sales of nearly 1,000 other drugs.

Quote:
why D is it incorrect ? because heavily is separated by comma ? what if there was no comma

dave13 , good questions. This sentence is hellish; the author is clever. Who wrote this monster?

Error in option D: The case of the Missing Verb, often well disguised by GMAT

Answer (D) is so convoluted that describing its errors is difficult.

The easiest error to spot is that the subject (increases), has no verb.

Option (D) inserted into a shortened sentence:
Increases in the sales of the 50 drugs that were advertised heavily, accounting for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, while the remainder of the increase came from sales of less-advertised medicines.

The subject "increases" does not have a verb. The sentence is a fragment.

Increases (SUBJECT)
--- in the sales
----- of the 50 drugs
------- that were advertised heavily, COMMA
----------accounting
---------------------------------for half of the increase in spending last year
• while the remainder came from [other medicines] (dependent clause with its own verb)

By contrast, in correct answer (C), increases takes the phrasal verb accounted for
increases [in sales of X that were Y] accounted for

Removing the comma in (D) does not help.
Increases in the sales of the 50 drugs that were advertised heavily accounting for almost half of the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, while the remainder of the increase came from sales of less-advertised medicines.

• Increases (SUBJECT)
--- in the sales
----- of the 50 drugs
------- that were advertised heavily NO COMMA
-------------- accounting for
------------------------------------- half of the increase in spending last year
• while the remainder came from [other medicines]

accounting, by itself, is not a verb.
If an ___ING looks like a verb, find the auxiliary/helping verb. No auxiliary?
Then accounting is not verb.
accounting is a present participle and is sometimes described as a "verb form."

We need to stay consistent with the non-underlined were advertised (simple past). We need "accountED (for)"

You continue to do great work here. Thanks for gathering all these resources.

I hope that helps. Happy Holidays!
GMAT Club Bot
Re: SC TIPS & TRICKS [#permalink]
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