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Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological trait

1 2 3

NinetyFour

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08 Dec 2018, 00:45

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sondenso

Please let me know if my reasoning is flawed:

a,b) DUE TO is incorrect because substituting in "caused by" makes the sentence non sensical
C) Missing a linking verb after BUT
D) Correct
E) Need a noun in the subordinate clause started by BECAUSE

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Updated on: 03 Sep 2020, 02:26

Originally posted by thangvietnam on 23 Jan 2019, 04:01.
Last edited by thangvietnam on 03 Sep 2020, 02:26, edited 1 time in total.

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choice D is wrong because "simply" is wrong. so, we need verb "are" , and choice D is right.

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23 Jan 2019, 04:09

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sondenso

I inflated my SC score by one, WHYYYY didnt i check the TAG

Nevertheless, Inline is my reasoning

Due to is used in place of caused by, we are comparing something not providing a reason, with that eliminate A and B

(C) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but
Showing a contrast by using but, nothing after "but"

(E) because of enhancing reproduction or survival, but are
is it still enhancing, the intent is never that, OUT

So parallelism could have maintained by -> are not the products of x, but are the products of y

This is correctly done in D

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Updated on: 25 Feb 2022, 05:24

Originally posted by thangvietnam on 10 Mar 2019, 08:08.
Last edited by thangvietnam on 25 Feb 2022, 05:24, edited 1 time in total.

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"simply" can not modify "random" logically. it is not logical to have modification this way. "simply" must be an adverb.

so, in choice C , the pattern is
"are not X but simply Y". this is incorrect because we can not insert an adverb "simply", here. the correct idiom is
"are not X but Y

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10 Mar 2019, 08:26

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crashVcrush

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43. Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection, favored due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.

A due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are
B due to the reproduction or survival they enhance, but they are
C because they enhance reproduction or survival, but
D because they enhance reproduction or survival, but are
E because of enhancing reproduction or survival, but are

hi all, i used the POE technique to eliminate (due to vs Because of) the wrong answers and was left with C & D as the choices for the following questions. I eliminated D because of the expression are not X, but are Y and selected C which has Not X, But Y construction. The OA seems to be D. Can you help pls?

For parallelism : to avoid confusion I follow this Crude method ..........

A ( B+ C) = AB...................+.......................AC = AB & AC should make sense logically / structurally : + = But / AND, parallel markers

Biological traits are not the products of natural selection......................BUT...............are by-products

For option C :

Let : A = Biological traits are not , X = the prodcuts of natural selection , Y = By products

lets substitute these variables in the above eqn and check :

Biological traits are not ( the products of natural selection )..............................BUT..........................Biological traits are not (by products) = Does it make any sense ?

Now Option D ; Rearrangement of variables :

Let : A = Biological traits are , X = Not THE prodcuts of natural selection , Y = By products

Substitution yields :

Biological traits are (not the products of natural selection)..............................BUT..........................Biological traits are ( by products ) = perfect

Leading to D, my take

perfect explanation!!! thank you crashVcrush

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04 Apr 2019, 18:33

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Can someone elaborate on the role of "favored" in the correct answer choice? Does it modify "the products of natural selection" only or does it modify the preceding phrase?

And
What do "they" in "because they enhance production" refer to?
Tks

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18 Feb 2020, 03:58

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Isn't Not x but y a closed parallelism marker? what's inside the two parallelism elements should match? There is no "are" after Not, so there should be no "are" after but as well?

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25 Feb 2020, 00:11

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Meisme I was going to put together a response to your question, but on looking back through the thread I see I already wrote about this a few years ago.

I hope it helps!

DmitryFarber

You can read the structure two ways:

1) are NOT x BUT y
2) are not x BUT are y

In other words, we can see the parallel markers as "NOT/BUT," or we can see a single parallel marker: "BUT." The interpretation the GMAT is going with on this one is 2. It's really a matter of emphasis: I am not this but I AM that. As my colleague Kyle points out above, the use of "are" in this case helps us to interpret the overall meaning more clearly. It's very common (both on the GMAT and in "real" writing) to use seemingly unneeded structuring words or punctuation to make the meaning clear.

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25 Feb 2020, 05:38

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Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection, favored due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.

(A) due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are
(B) due to the reproduction or survival they enhance, but they are
(C) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but
(D) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but are
(E) because of enhancing reproduction or survival, but are

Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits [ are not the products of natural selection, favored due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival,] [ but that they are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.]
I don't think that "that they" after the "but" is necessary.
Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits [ are .... ,] [ but are ....]
This leaves us with option (D) and (E)
(D).
Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits [ are not the products of natural selection, favored because biological traits enhance reproduction or survival,] [ but are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.]
(E)
Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits [ are not the products of natural selection, because of enhancing reproduction or survival, ][ but are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.]
"because" should be followed by a noun. This makes (E) wrong.
Which leaves us with option (D) as our answer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GMATBuddha
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27 Apr 2020, 22:11

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sondenso

Can anyone explain why in option D and Option C, why the usage of 'they' is not ambiguous?
According to me, 'they' could refer to both 'The products of natural selection' and 'Many Bio Traits'.
Because of this ambiguity, I chose Option E. Since verb+ing modifier is used, so I thought this modifier is being used for 'The products of natural selection'.

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27 Apr 2020, 22:33

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agarwal1993

Can anyone explain why in option D and Option C, why the usage of 'they' is not ambiguous? According to me, 'they' could refer to both 'The products of natural selection' and 'Many Bio Traits'.

Hi agarwal1993, pronoun ambiguity, for one thing, should never be a reason to eliminate an answer choice.

Also, in case of pronoun ambiguity, application of following rule often comes in handy:

Pronoun-subject in one clause can be presumed to refer to noun-subject of another clause.

With option D, the sentence is:

Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection, favored because they enhance reproduction or survival, but are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.

Two clauses are:

i) many biological traits are not the products of natural selection - many biological traits is the noun-subject

ii) they enhance reproduction or survival - they is the pronoun-subject

So, going by the above rule, they would correctly refer to many biological traits.

In any case, as I mentioned above, pronoun ambiguity should not be the only reason to eliminate an answer choice.

Quote:

Because of this ambiguity, I chose Option E. Since verb+ing modifier is used, so I thought this modifier is being used for 'The products of natural selection'.

E would be incorrect because the doer of enhancing reproduction or survival is not coming out clearly.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses Pronoun ambiguity, its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

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27 Apr 2020, 23:12

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agarwal1993

sondenso

Hey there,
Thank you for posting the question. Let me try and help you out!
The Important thing first. Let’s start by looking at the intended logical meaning.

Meaning Analysis:
The sentence talks about an argument presented by the Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. So Gould argued that various biological features are not the product of natural selection. In fact the biological features are random by-products made while other evolutionary developments. The belief that the features are the product of natural selection is favored because of the fact that these biological features improve reproduction or survival. This is the intended logical meaning.
Now let's look at your question

In the meaning analysis, we talked about biological traits to be the products of natural selection.
That means many biological traits = products of natural selection.
Now whether 'they' refers to many biological traits or products of natural selection, it actually means the same.

eg if A=B and B=C ,then A=B=C.
Therefore the usage of they is not ambiguous.

(C) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but

When you read this choice, it is a little confusing that 'but simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.' is an extension of "reproduction or survival" or the contrast for "products of natural selection". Logically it should be the contrast for natural selection but this is not clear from this choice. It seems that 'but...' is adding more details to the reproduction or survival part.

(D) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but are
Here because of the repetition of are after but, the author clarifies that "the modifier is over" and now we are back to the contrast. Hence the logical intended meaning is clear and is correct.

(E) because of enhancing reproduction or survival, but are
This choice does not convey the meaning. We do not know from the sentence what is enhancing reproduction or survival. Incorrect

I hope this helps
thanks
Anmol

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28 Apr 2020, 00:59

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DmitryFarber

Meisme I was going to put together a response to your question, but on looking back through the thread I see I already wrote about this a few years ago.

I hope it helps!

DmitryFarber

Hi DmitryFarber egmat
the rule is once outside or twice inside.
If "are" is outside i.e "are NOT x" then why would we use "are" again after BUT? now the sentence reads "are NOT x but ARE y" isn't this incorrect grammatically. you would eliminate it before even thinking of the meaning cus of the rule.

would love some clarity.

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29 Apr 2020, 00:19

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Kritisood Sure, your point holds just fine if we are using the first structure I mentioned, in which NOT and BUT are the parallel markers. However, it doesn't apply if we read BUT as a single, open parallel marker. It's perfectly fine to say "I am not rich but I am happy." In this case, the parallel terms are the entire clauses ("I am not rich"; "I am happy."). The "but" simply links the two, so we don't read this as "I am (NOT rich BUT I am happy)." That reading would definitely be bad! Does that distinction make sense?

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29 Apr 2020, 01:12

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DmitryFarber

It def does

though I doubt I would get this question correct because the Not x But y parallel markers are so ingrained in our heads for GMAT :S

Also, how to know which structure to use when in this case?
I havent seen this construction before where the once outside twice inside rule doesn't apply. Should i just consider this as an exception and move on?

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29 Apr 2020, 14:12

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Sure, you could go with that. I think what it comes down to is that on really hard SC questions, the sentence may not be doing quite what we think it is. There is often more than one way to read a sentence, and what seems to be clearly breaking a rule from one perspective is actually okay from another one. I don't mean that the rules are inconsistent (although that can be the case), but that there are cases when they aren't invoked. In this case, we're not breaking "once outside, twice inside." Rather, we're backing up and making two parallel verb phrases rather than two parallel modifiers.

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10 Jun 2020, 12:57

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Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection, favored because they enhance reproduction or survival, but are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.

In the above sentence what does the clause "favored because they enhance reproduction or survival" modifies ?

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19 Sep 2020, 05:46

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Kritisood

the rule is once outside or twice inside.
If "are" is outside i.e "are NOT x" then why would we use "are" again after BUT? now the sentence reads "are NOT x but ARE y" isn't this incorrect grammatically. you would eliminate it before even thinking of the meaning cus of the rule.

would love some clarity.

This question is a little sketchy.

Yes, "are not X but are Y" can be correct in certain contexts, but this sentence is not really one of those contexts. Hence all the confusion.

The writer used an "are not X but are Y" construction, when the point made, that the traits are not one thing but another, calls for a "not X but Y" structure.