Researchers at U.C.L.A medical school say the findings suppo

Question

Researchers at U.C.L.A medical school say the findings support the idea that some patients who appear completely unresponsive have some level of consciousness that they cannot show — perhaps low, but real —  and also that they might have the potential to recover .

(A) and also that they might have the potential to recover
(B) and the potential to recover
(C) and that have the potential for a recovery
(D) as well as having the potential to recover
(E) the potential for a recovery

The difficulty in this problem lies in understanding and recognizing the different structures within the sentence. For finding core structures, the slash-and-burn technique is particularly useful. This sentence in its correct form, without all the extra modifiers and garbage, reads: “Researchers say the findings support the idea that some patients have some level of consciousness and the potential to recover”.

In (A) the meaning and structure are incorrect – the findings support one idea: that they have some level of consciousness and the potential to recover. The findings do not support two separate things (emphasized by the word also) that would then seem illogically unrelated to each other. Also, “might have the potential to recover” is redundant – “might” and “have the potential” are nearly synonymous in meaning.

In a careful read of (C) you see that “the consciousness” is being modified illogically by “that have the potential for a recovery.” Also “the potential for a recovery” is an awkward and improper way to say “the potential to recover.”

In (D) the “having” is incorrect as it is not parallel to any other potential structure and this structure does not show that the patients have two things: some level of consciousness and the potential to recover.

(E) lacks the necessary “and” and also uses the awkward structure “potential for a recovery”.

Only (B) creates a simple, logical sentence as shown above without all the confusing modifier structures that make it confusing.

Answer is (B).

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/health/pet-scans-found-to-clarify-vegetative-state.html

Researchers say the findings support the idea that some patients who appear vegetative have some level of consciousness that they cannot show — perhaps low, but real —  and the potential to recover .

utkgogia2003 · Answer

A. and also that they might have the potential to recover : and also not required , they may be improper referrent to reserchers also
B. and the potential to recover : cud be correct
C. and that have the potential for a recovery : potential to correct idiom 
D. as well as having the potential to recover : and is required to add new clause
E. the potential for a recovery potential to correct idiom

clipea12 · Answer

whats wrong with C ? 
somehow I see 'have the potential for a recovery' and 'have some level of consciousness' to be parallel.
what am I missing ?
THX

souvik101990 · Answer

With option C the sentence become something like this

Researchers at U.C.L.A medical school say the findings support the idea that some patients who appear completely unresponsive have some level of consciousness that they cannot show — perhaps low, but real — and that have the potential for a recovery.

Now think about the parallel items

idea 
1. that some patients who appear......
2. that have the potential for a recovery.

These two are PSEUDO parallel. In the second item on the list, "have" does not have the intended subject! 
the second item sounds like this
 .....support the idea that have the potential for a recovery. The idea DOES NOT have the potential for a recovery, but the people do. So, Wrong!

shashanksagar · Answer

B is concise and somewhat parallel. What's O A?

Sent from my SM-N910H using Tapatalk

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

The correct option here is option B.
You can see the correct option in the spoiler on the first post itself.

aman15390 · Answer

Correct Answer is C. Less thn 40 seconds :-D

Here is how ... C maintains "THAT" "AND THAT" parallelism. Eliminate A and B straightaway.. Try to like at it following way.. Researchers at U.C.L.A medical school say the findings support the idea that some patients ......... have some level of consciousness that they cannot show — ...... — and that have the potential for a recovery. What is OA ? Please provide source

sayantanc2k · Answer

Do you mean "that that they cannot show" and "that have the potential for a recovery" are parallel? In that case the sentence conveys a faulty meaning. The relative pronoun "that" refers to "consciousness". The second parallel element would then imply: "consciousness have the potential for a recovery", which does not make sense.

The parallel elements are: " some level of consciousness" and " the potential to recover".
Some patients have  some level of consciousness  and  the potential to recover .

B is the correct answer.

aman15390 · Answer

Sorry but I beg to differ... I can not find any mistake in C and in GMAT not many options are choosen for being concise.. Please provide OA and source..

sayantanc2k · Answer

Probably my previous post was not clear enough - I did not say anything about concision. Let me try to explain once again, and this time I am trying to make it even simpler:

Let us say C is correct - the sentence is then:

Researchers at U.C.L.A medical school say the findings support the idea that some patients who appear completely unresponsive have some level of consciousness  that they cannot show  — perhaps low, but real — and  that have the potential for a recovery .

Your point is that C maintains "THAT" "AND THAT" parallelism. Therefore I have made the font colour blue for the first element of the parallel structure and green for the second element of parallel structure.

Now please let me know what does "THAT" refer to - what is the antecedent for "THAT"?

Once you answer this question, we shall discuss further (unless you realize yourself where the error is).

cledgard · Answer

B. The idea that some patients who appear completely… (the subject of the that clause is  some patients )… have  some level of consciousness that they cannot show  — perhaps low, but real —  and   the potential to recover .

C. The idea  that   some patients who appear completely … (the subject of the that clause is  some patients )… have some level of consciousness that they cannot show — perhaps low, but real — and     that   have the potential for a recovery …( by not mentioning  some patients , the subject becomes   that  , which refers to  the idea , not to  the patients .)

rish2708 · Answer

Can anyone please explain how option a is wrong?

Per original meaning I thought that the idea conveys two things:
1) some patients...
2) they have potential to recover.

Per me this makes more sense and I eliminated b because of absence of "that"

Regards,
Rishav

Posted from my mobile device

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Rishav, in A,  that  in the underlined portion would be parallel to  that  on the LHS of  and  ( that they cannot show ).

So, A seems to suggest some patients have some level of consciousness:
i)  that they cannot show 
- Seems fine, since  that  refers to  consciousness

ii)  that they might have the potential to recover 
- This is absurd. By virtue of parallelism,  that  would again refer to  consciousness . However, the sentence then doesn't make sense.

Option B is portraying that some patients have:
i) some level of consciousness and
ii) the potential to recover

abhishekmayank · Answer

Hi  AjiteshArun ,  daagh ,

Your help is solicited

Not much has been explained as to why the option A is incorrect :

Researchers at U.C.L.A medical school say the findings support the idea  that some patients  who appear completely unresponsive  have some level of consciousness  that they cannot show — perhaps low, but real —  and also that they might have the potential to recover .

Whether highlighted parts are not parallel ?

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  abhishekmayank ,

There are two ways to take A out quickly:
1. Focus on the little things: (a)  also  is redundant with  and , (b) using  might  and  have the potential  also introduces redundancy, (c) adding a pronoun ( they ) creates (some) ambiguity, (d) the  that  is ambiguous (as  EducationAisle  mentioned, does it refer to  idea  or  some level of consciousness ?), and (e) option A is too wordy.
2. Focus on the intended meaning: The sentence seems to be introducing one idea ( the idea ). Do we want to go with a  the idea (i) that... and (ii) that...  structure, where (ii) does not seem to be directly related to what is in (i)?

Option A: ... the idea (a)  that some patients who appear completely unresponsive have some level of consciousness ... and also (b)  that they might have the potential to recover 
Option B: ... the idea that some patients who appear completely unresponsive have (a)  some level of consciousness ... and (b)  the potential to recover

Along with all the other issues we identified in (1), option B is just so much simpler and cleaner than A.

For what it's worth, I think the people who made this question made sure that option A included an almost absurd number of small issues because they wanted there to be no doubt that A is incorrect.

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

(A) and also that they might have the potential to recover
and also is unnecessary since since it's part of the study

(B) and the potential to recover
The meaning is perfect and the wording consice

(C) and that have the potential for a recovery
This gives us a meaning as though the patients are going for a coverted operation

(D) as well as having the potential to recover
as well isn't the right usage distorts the meaning therefore out

(E) the potential for a recovery
Similar reasoning as C

Therefore IMO B

Researchers at U.C.L.A medical school say the findings suppo

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Researchers at U.C.L.A medical school say the findings suppo

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