A substance derived from the Madagascar periwinkle, which has proved

C is wrong because it conveys that the madagascar periwinkle derivative itself is cultivated. Madagascar periwinkle is cultivated, not its derivative

A substance derived from the Madagascar periwinkle, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, is cultivated in China as part of a program to integrate traditional herbal medicine into a contemporary system of health care.

(A) A substance derived from the Madagascar periwinkle, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients,
(B) A derivative, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, of the Madagascar periwinkle,
(C) A Madagascar periwinkle derivative, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients,
(D) The Madagascar periwinkle has a derivative which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, that
(E) The Madagascar periwinkle, a derivative of which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients

OA is E. Please explain why? I go with C

The Madagascar periwinkle is cultivated in China as part of a program to integrate traditional herbal medicine into a contemporary system of health care but not the The derivative of periwinkle .
In "C" the meaning goes as follow :

The derivative of Madagascar periwinkle is cultivated in China as part of a program to integrate traditional herbal medicine into a contemporary system of health care.

Which is why the same option is ruled out [:)] ..

The answer should be "E" ..hope this will help.

IMO E...
Madagascar periwinkle is cultivated in ................ not derivative as in C

Look at the non-underlined part for clues:

,_______________ is cultivated in China as part => From this usage it is clear that we need a subject for the action verb "is cultivated "(what is cultivated) . Definitely the substance is not cultivated, neither is the derivative cultivated => A, B and C out. D is just absurd as that is used to modify patients ...

E is the obvious winner.


Crick

Is it not the substance derived from ....... cultivated in china ???

If there were no "is" in the original sentence, the usage would be correct

The substance derived from grass cultivated in china => here cultivated in china is modifying the noun (grass).

But you cannot say,

The substance derived from grass is cultivated in china => Incorrect. This says "The substance derived from grass" is actually cultivated => something that is absolutely absurd. The substance is not cultivated, the grass is cultivated.

Crick

A substance derived from the Madagascar periwinkle, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, is cultivated in China as part of a program to integrate traditional herbal medicine into a contemporary system of health care.
(A) A substance derived from the Madagascar periwinkle, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients,
(B) A derivative, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, of the Madagascar periwinkle,
(C) A Madagascar periwinkle derivative, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients,
--> meaning changed
(D) The Madagascar periwinkle has a derivative which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, that
(E) The Madagascar periwinkle, a derivative of which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients,
--> correct

Most of the options have modifier issues i believe ....



A substance derived from the Madagascar periwinkle, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, is cultivated in China as part of a program to integrate traditional herbal medicine into a contemporary system of health care.

(A) A substance derived from the Madagascar periwinkle, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, Which refers to Madagascar periwinkle When it should refer to its derivative..... Incorrect
(B) A derivative, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, of the Madagascar periwinkle, The subject of the sentence here is derivative not the madagascar perwinkle Incorrect
(C) A Madagascar periwinkle derivative, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, again the subject is changed to Derivative so incorrect
(D) The Madagascar periwinkle has a derivative which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, that that modifying the wrong thing....
(E) The Madagascar periwinkle, a derivative of which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, Correct Subject is Madagascar Periwinkle and is grown ....

The whole idea is below:

Madagascar periwinkle, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, is cultivated

Hi All,

I typically use the standard 3 step approach suggested by egmat :

Meaning analysis:

A substance derived from the Madagascar periwinkle, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, is cultivated in China as part of a program to integrate traditional herbal medicine into a contemporary system of health care.

Imagine that the wheat plant is cultivated and the flour is useful for a treatment. Now flour is a derivative of the plant, can the flour be cultivated ?

Now based on this analogy lets understand the original question:

What is useful in decreasing mortality ?
The derivative

What is cultivated ?
Madagascar Periwinkle.

Error Analysis:

1. "from the madagascar periwinkle, which has proved useful" --> "Which" always refer to the immediate preceding noun which in this case is the periwinkle. As per our meaning analysis "the derivative" is what is useful
2. " A substance derived from the Madagascar periwinkle, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, is cultivated " --> The striked out portion is providing more information about periwinkle and should be ignored to understand what is cultivated. A substance derived, ..., is cultivated --> This is incorrect as per our analysis

Answers analysis:

(A) A substance derived from the Madagascar periwinkle, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients,--> As pointed out in the error analysis

(B) A derivative, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, of the Madagascar periwinkle, --> A Derivative,..., is cultivated --> Incorrect as pointed in the error analysis.

(C) A Madagascar periwinkle derivative, which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients,--> Derivative is cultivated--> As pointed in the error analysis, this distorts the meaning

(D) The Madagascar periwinkle has a derivative which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, that --> "that" has a hanging precedent noun. In this statement "that" can refer to patients

(E) The Madagascar periwinkle, a derivative of which has proved useful in decreasing mortality among young leukemia patients, --> This correctly addresses the mistakes.

I hope this is helpful !

Regards,
Shradha

The answer should be E.
A. which incorrectly modifies Madagascar periwinkle.
B. Derivative changes the meaning....of the Medagascar periwinkle is far...
C. young lukemia patients is cultivated changes the meaning.
D. which has proved useful in decreasing is incomplete...decreasing what...
E. Seems correct


Sent from my Moto G (5S) Plus using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

this question is fairly easy if one knows what is to be cultivated. if we know this, we can eliminate choices a, b, and c. between d and e, e is the obvious answer.

Now i have a question. how/why would i know that a derivative of a plant, which technically will be/is a plant cannot be cultivated?

Well, all of us can agree with the fact that a substance, as the name suggests, technically cannot be cultivated so A is out straightaway.

would gmat really test us on these type of concepts? GMATNinja egmat daagh ....I don't think so.

what i just said is my personal opinion. I am not a teacher/tutor. i am just a curious student.

@
This is said to be a 700-level question. Why wouldn't GMAT test this? If it is just a technical issue, and if you believe it is an easy one, some statistics in this thread also claim that the difficulty level is 85%hard and that 57% of the people responded incorrectly. I feel it must have been tested by GMAT sometime in the past. All the same, you deserve congratulations for your deep involvement in the subject.

Hard question.

1. I thought periwinkle was either another word for island (in the same class as "perimeter" or something), or some animal, though I should have noticed the word "herbal".

2. "A derivative of which" is a construction Im not used to. It just feels wrong. For example: "Soccer, some rules of which have been recently questioned, is the most popular sport in the world."
Isnt this a very very odd construction? When I read it, I instantly thought it must be wrong.

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