In his Uses of Enchantment (1976), it was psychologist Bruno Bettelhei

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, in his book Uses of Enchantment (1976), asserted that the apparently cruel and arbitrary nature of many fairy tales is actually an instructive reflection of a child’s natural and necessary “killing off” of successive phases in his or her own development.

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Meaning + Verb Forms + Awkwardness/Redundancy

A: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "nature" with the plural verb "are". Further, Option A uses the passive voice construction "it was psychologist Bruno Bettelheim’s assertion", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

B: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "what is apparently the cruel and arbitrary nature"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that what appears to be the cruel and arbitrary nature of many fairy tales actually is an instructive reflection of a child’s natural and necessary “killing off” of successive phases in his or her own development; the intended meaning is that the nature of many fairy tales, which appears to be cruel and arbitrary, is an instructive reflection of a child’s natural and necessary “killing off” of successive phases in his or her own development. Further, Option B uses the passive voice construction "it was the assertion of psychologist Bruno Bettelheim", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

C: This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as the verb "is" is part of a modifying phrase - "that what is..." - there is no active verb to act upon the subject noun "psychologist Bruno Bettelheim’s assertion".

D: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "nature" with the plural verb "are".

E: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the singular noun "nature" with the singular verb "is". Further, Option E acts upon the subject noun "Bruno Bettelheim" with the active verb "asserted" to form a complete thought, producing a complete sentence. Additionally, Option E uses the phrase "the apparently cruel and arbitrary nature", conveying the intended meaning - that the nature of many fairy tales, which appears to be cruel and arbitrary, is an instructive reflection of a child’s natural and necessary “killing off” of successive phases in his or her own development. Besides, Option E is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Hey @Quantumliner/@AbdurRakib,

I am stuck with D and E;I selected D because when I ask the question 'What is/are an instructive reflection..."? The answer is "The apparently cruel and arbitrary nature". hence the verb should be 'are' and not 'is'

The part 'of many fairy tales' is the the middleman here

Kindly correct me if I am wrong

Damn! Such a silly mistake.
They are adjectives and not compound plural subjects

Thanks

Imo E

Subject of the sentence is "Nature" and "apparently cruel and arbitrary" are adjectives modifying "nature"
As such nature is a singular noun. Try to count in head 1 nature 2 nature 3 nature etc. It does not make sense as nature is an uncountable noun so a singular verb "is" correct in the sentence. So let us get on with answer choices

A incorrect SVA
B use of What is not correct and this sentence is written in a very awkword manner with lots of meaning error
C again uses what incorrectly
D incorrect SVA
E correct

A,B,C are straight OUT. We need 'In his uses of Enchantment' to modify the psychologist and not his assertion.
Between D & E the difference is between 'are' and 'is'
D - 'Cruel' and 'Arbitrary' are adjectives modifying 'nature' => Nature is singular => 'are' is incorrect. Out.

E is the right answer.

The key thing to note is in "the apparently cruel and arbitrary nature"-- apparently modifies cruel and arbitrary and apparentlyis an adverb-- therefore, cruel and arbitrary can not be nouns, they are indeed adjectives.
the cruel and arbitrary nature are
apparently cruel and arbitrary nature is

Hi Experts,

Could you please help with the following?

Query 1

Had B been written as following, would it have been grammatically correct?

Original (B): it was the assertion of psychologist Bruno Bettelheim that what is apparently the cruel and arbitrary nature of many fairy tales actually is....

Modified (B): it was the assertion of psychologist Bruno Bettelheim that what apparently is the cruel and arbitrary nature of many fairy tales actually is....

**I do realize, E would still be better than modified B**

Query 2

Does the Subject <psychologist Bruno Bettelheim> must follow the Initial Modifier <"In his Uses of Enchantment (1976),...">?
or
construction in B: "In his Uses of Enchantment, it was the assertion of psychologist Bruno Bettelheim..." is also acceptable?

Best
RzS

1. No. The apparently is intended to modify cruel and arbitrary, and shifting it out of that position just makes the sentence harder to understand. The what is... is wordier than the alternative in E. Finally, actually is is not as good as is actually.

She is not an engineer. She actually is part of the management team. ← "I couldn't believe that she's part of the management team!"
vs.
She is not an engineer. She is actually part of the management team. ← "I'm just helping you see what her real role is."

2. There is no rule against that, especially if the noun that the his refers to has already been introduced in an earlier sentence. However, on the GMAT, I think it's a very good idea to make the logical noun the subject after the initial "in his".

Insightful - Thanks AjiteshArun

1. Modifier Error
The main clause of the sentence must start with the antecedent of the pronoun his in the opening prepositional phrase modifier to logically convey “he” did something in his UE. However, the main clause starts with the placeholder pronoun it. This usage leads to modifier error.

2. SV Number Agreement Error
The singular subject nature does not agree in number with plural verb are. Please note that cruel and arbitrary are the two adjectives for the singular subject nature.

Another approach from my side:
+1st split: "his Uses of Enchantment" requires human stated as a subject--> We can easily eliminate A, B&C. C is incorrect since it emphasises his assertion, not human intention as we are looking for.
+2nd split: What would be the subject for the verb "are"? It's "the nature" so it has to be a singular verb "is", so D is out.
So there's only E left, it is the answer.

In his Uses of Enchantment (1976), it was psychologist Bruno Bettelheim’s assertion that the apparently cruel and arbitrary nature of many fairy tales actually are an instructive reflection of a child’s natural and necessary “killing off” of successive phases in his or her own development.

(A) it was psychologist Bruno Bettelheim’s assertion that the apparently cruel and arbitrary nature of many fairy tales actually are

(B) it was the assertion of psychologist Bruno Bettelheim that what is apparently the cruel and arbitrary nature of many fairy tales actually is

(C) psychologist Bruno Bettelheim’s assertion that what is apparently the cruel and arbitrary nature of many fairy tales actually is

(D) psychologist Bruno Bettelheim asserted that the apparently cruel and arbitrary nature of many fairy tales actually are

(E) psychologist Bruno Bettelheim asserted that the apparently cruel and arbitrary nature of many fairy tales is actually

The clause 'in his uses of Enchantment' should be followed by the antecedent of the pronoun 'his' but it is followed by the placeholder 'it'
. The subject of the verb 'are' is nature and hence it is incorrect. cruel and arbitrary are only two adjectives used to describe nature. A is incorrect.

B makes the same mistake as A. The clause should be followed by BB.

C. The clause should be followed by BB and not the assertion. Plus there is no verb for the subject assertion.

D. incorrect because of the plural verb 'are' for singular subject 'nature'

E. Correct

it makes no sense and is not grammatical to say

in his book, it is assertion ( that...). "that-clause" is content of "assertion" so, we can cut off that-clause and see that the sentence is meaningless.

that-clause after "assertion" is long but this clause modifies only "assertion" and can be cut off . that-clause is made long to confuse us and make us unable to realize the sentence structure.

VeritasPrepHailey mam Kindly enlighten for this question why Option E is incorrect and how the subject is singular nature in this question

Hi vasuca10! Happy to clarify! (Though I assume you meant to ask why (E) is *correct* )

In the portion of the sentence at hand: psychologist Bruno Bettelheim asserted that the apparently cruel and arbitrary nature of many fairy tales is actually [an instructive reflection of a child’s natural and necessary “killing off” of successive phases in his or her own development] we're looking for what "is actually an instructive reflection." Here, the nature of many fairy tales is actually an instructive reflection, so we're looking to agree to the singular term "nature."

If you were uncertain of the logic behind this agreement, you can always take a moment to "slash and burn," or learn to read past, modifying language to get at the core of the agreement in the sentence. In this case, "of many fairy tales" modifies nature, and "of a child's natural and unnecessary killing off of successive phases in his or her own development" modifies reflection. So we could simplify this portion of the sentence to read:

the apparently cruel and arbitrary nature of many fairy tales is actually an instructive reflection of a child’s natural and necessary “killing off” of successive phases in his or her own development

This makes it easy to see that the verb phrase "is actually an instructive reflection" should agree with the singular "nature."

In general, it's important to look out for modifiers, not only when they're actively being tested in a SC example, but also when they're being employed to distract us from the agreement at hand by placing modifying phrases between the verb at hand and its corresponding subject.

I hope this helps!

Thank you so much mam for prompt response and explaining me in details about the entire periphery of the question

To be honest in this question I considered incorrect this entire phrase as subject "The apparently cruel and arbitrary nature of many fairy tales "
Ultimately marked incorrect answer choice ......I must have paid attention to modifiers and also adjective cannot be subject....cruel and arbitrary both are adjectives
Hence I marked incorrect answer option as D.....

Please keep guiding me mam
I would be requiring your guidance and support

Ahh... yeah not an uncommon mistake. (but a totally avoidable one once you know what to look out for!) Whenever confusion arises about the subject of a particular verb, you can

1) Use logic (basically, ask yourself who/what takes on the verb at hand) and/or

2) "Slash and burn" (learn to read past modifiers, adjectives, and adverbs to get to the core of the clause)

Feel free to reach out with any other questions you might happen to have!