Hello Everyone!
Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down our options quickly so we know how to answer questions like this when they pop up on the GMAT! To begin, let's take a quick look at the question and highlight any major differences between the options in
orange and
blue:
Plausible though it sounds, the weakness of the hypothesis is that it does not incorporate all relevant evidence.
(A)
Plausible though it sounds,
the weakness of the hypothesis(B)
Even though it sounds plausible,
the weakness of the hypothesis(C)
Though plausible,
the hypothesis’ weakness(D)
Though the hypothesis sounds plausible,
its weakness(E)
The weakness of the hypothesis which sounds plausibleSo - we have a bit of a problem here. There are no clear differences we can home in on. Each option seems very different from the others. When this happens, we need to look at the bigger picture. What can we identify as the potential grammar concept we can focus on?After a quick look over the options, we see that each one contains the same basic grammatical concept:
MODIFIERS. Let's start there. We need to make sure the modifier is referring to what comes directly after the comma - the antecedent - and that the antecedent makes sense for the sentence's intended meaning:
(A)
Plausible though it sounds,
the weakness of the hypothesis =
WRONGThis sentence is saying that the weakness is plausible, which isn't what the writer is trying to say. The writer is trying to say that the hypothesis is plausible, but that it has some kind of weakness. The modifier has a clear antecedent, but it's not the one we want, so let's rule this out.
(B)
Even though it sounds plausible,
the weakness of the hypothesis =
WRONGThis has the exact same problem as option A - the antecedent is the wrong one for this sentence's intended meaning.
(C)
Though plausible,
the hypothesis’ weakness =
WRONGYet again, the weakness isn't plausible - the hypothesis is. We can rule out this option too.
(D) Though
the hypothesis sounds plausible,
its weakness =
OKAYMuch better! This option makes it clear that the hypothesis is plausible, but that there is a weakness to it. The meaning is absolutely clear, so let's keep this option for later.
(E) The weakness
of the hypothesis which sounds plausible =
WRONGThis one has a couple problems. First, phrases that start with "which" need to be set off with commas. Second, if we take away the prepositional phrase "of the hypothesis," we still have the same problem as we do in options A, B, and C - it's attributing "plausible" to "weakness," which isn't what we want.
There you go - option D is the only one that has a clear, logical meaning. Remember - if it looks like everything about the options are different, think bigger - and that should help you find your way!
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