A marine biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute has colle

A marine biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute has collected specimens of several microscopic sea worms, ones that she believes are a species never before seen at close range.

A. that she believes are "that refers to ones incorrect "

B. that she believes them to be "to be a species is incorrect of should be used"

C. she believes that they are of "the use of that in between of the sentence distorts the meaning"

D. she believes that are "same as C"

E. she believes to be of "correct use of to be of"

IMO E

IMO E is correct.

she believes to be of
Usage of that is incorrect in options a,b,c,d



A marine biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute has collected specimens of several microscopic sea worms, ones that she believes are a species never before seen at close range.

A. that she believes are

B. that she believes them to be

C. she believes that they are of

D. she believes that are

E. she believes to be of

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A,B,D doesnt make sense in terms of meaning

Out of C,E .....C is wordy and E coneys the correct meaning

OA:E

Ans: E
Once modifies worms. So we can not use other pronoun. So we are left with only E.

A. that she believes are

B. that she believes them to be

C. she believes that they are of

D. she believes that are

E. she believes to be of

Choice A

Could you please explain if ones modifies warms than how A and B are ruled out........

PS: Please provide a thorough elimination for rejecting A and choosing E....

Pls provide explanation of why usage of that is incorrect....

That is just providing a clause which gives more info about the worms... so why it is wrong.... I acknowledge the fact that believe to be is a correct idioms but there are several instances in which believe to be is no used.... so using believe to be as point of elimination is not correct at all

The sentence has to end with "of" the specimens are not the species themselves. Only option C and E gives us that, C has the word "they" which makes it ambiguous, hence we chose E which conveys the correct meaning of the sentence.

In SC focus on the meaning too, pure grammar elimination is not advisable, especially for 700+ questions, there will always be traps.

Hi Bunuel,

Could you please also share the OE for this? I believe the term 'ones' is referring to 'specimens of several microscopic sea worms' and therefore option E makes sense. Just want to be 100% sure in my understanding.

IMO E

A marine biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute has collected specimens of several microscopic sea worms, ones that she believes are a species never before seen at close range.


1. ones refer to the sea worms. Using them and they to refer to sea worms again is redundant. So B and C are out.

2. As per intended meaning , the biologist thinks of those worms as rare species, not that they are rare species in general


A. that she believes are
>>The sea worms are not a species by themselves . They belong to a species. Eliminate tgis.

B. that she believes them to be

C. she believes that they are of

D. she believes that are

>> that is modifying what here? It modifies the closest noun and here it's referring to she ?? No clear referrant. So eliminate this.

E. she believes to be of
>>Idiomatically correct .

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GMATNinja

Will you pls help in understanding why A is wrong.

Sea worms could be called out here a species never before seen at close range.

In option E "Ones" looks to be referring to specimen. So I don't debate on its validity , as "of" at the end make sense.

But in original sentence "Ones" is very likely to be referring to sea worms and Option A looks correct from meaning and grammar point of view.

A marine biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute has collected specimens of several microscopic sea worms, ones that she believes are a species never before seen at close range.

A. that she believes are
I'm not totally certain why this is wrong. Two things I can think of:
1) "believes are" should be "believes to be" because of the idiom. I'm not sure because "are" is a conjugated version of "to be."
2) "ones" can't be a species, but they can be "of a species"

B. that she believes them to be
Extra pronoun "them." The object of she believes is already "ones"

C. she believes that they are of
Extra pronoun "they". Even if you kept the extra pronoun, it should be "ones". Idiom error with "believes that"

D. she believes that are
Idiom error. Correct usage is "believes to be".

E. she believes to be of
CORRECT

Hello expert,
I went with A and there is no OE for this question. I think E shouldn’t omit “that”.
Hope you get involved. Thanks.

Hello, Mavisdu1017. I cannot provide the OE, but the OA is correct.


The reason that that can be omitted in answer choice (E) is that ones is used as a pronoun just prior to she believes, and that, when it is used to mark the beginning of a relative clause, is also a pronoun. There is no need to stack pronouns.

I would like to say that the question is well constructed, but it is, unfortunately, an altered official question from older editions of the OG. Compare:


I am not sure who writes these competition questions, but I hope they discontinue plagiarizing copyrighted material. Giving a sentence a few different words and testing the same concepts in the same manner as the original does not produce a legitimate question. I offer the same advice I give at the end of many of my posts: stick to official questions for Verbal practice.

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

AndrewN hello expert, much thanks for your fast response. And could you illuminate why A is wrong? Is “ believe to be” an idiom? Thanks.

It has to do with the context of the sentence, Mavisdu1017. In the sentences above, both the species/type and the belief are tentative. That is, the belief is not a conviction that something is true, but is speculative in nature. Also, the belief is that the sea worm, to focus on just one question, may be a member of a previously unseen or unstudied (at least, at close range) species, not that the organism is a never-before-seen-at-close-range species. In the sentence, The biologist believes that the sea worms are a species never before seen, we have to ask ourselves, How is the biologist convinced that the sea worms belong to a new species? By contrast, in the sentence, The biologist believes the sea worms to be of a species never before seen, the speculative nature of the belief comes through. In the question at hand, the stacked pronouns in (A) (ones that), combined with the conflicting information surrounding this belief—is it more grounded (are a species) or speculative (never before seen)?—give us a few reasons to doubt that it is the best way to convey the idea. In (E), the picture is more consistent, the belief speculative, through and through—believes to be of a species never before seen...

That said, this is a quite nuanced question that hinges more on meaning, a question that I would not worry too much about. You are unlikely to see another like it for every 500 questions you study.

- Andrew

Thanks for your inputing. This kind of question is really perplexed, but thanks to it rarely appears.