Rules banning cancer causing substances from food apply to new food

Question

Project SC Butler: Day 10: Sentence Correction (SC1) 
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Rules banning cancer-causing substances from food apply to new food additives and not to natural constituents of food because  their use as additives is  entirely avoidable.

(A) their use as additives is

(B) as additives, their use is

(C) the use of such additives is

(D) the use of such additives are

(E) the use of them as additives is

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dave13 · Accepted Answer

A. their use as additives is ( THEIR refers to constituents or additives? ) INCORRECT

B. as additives, their use is ( wordy and akward)

C. the use of such additives is ( CORRECT meaning and subject verb agreement)

D. the use of such additives are (ICORRECT subject verb agreement)

E. the use of them as additives is ( WRONG usage of pronoun THEM )

p.s. gmat student will eat everything both avoidable and non avoidable

Vinodsai1995 · Answer

Got confused with D and E. But chose D at last. OA please ..

Sent from my iPhone using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

push12345 · Answer

I think C is correct here

Rules apply to additives not to others because use of additives is avoidable. 
Intended logical meaning is conveyed via C only

D and E are discarded because of sub-verb agreement 
A -their ambigiuos
B change meaning

shiblee · Answer

I think C is correct. In main question, "they" is ambiguous because they can refer to additives , substaces and constituents. In such case, the best strategy is to mention the noun .

Subject is The use so it needs singular verb .

Posted from my mobile device

sowmiyav · Answer

Meaning : Rules banning cancer-causing substances from food apply to new food additives and not to natural constituents of food because natural constituents use as additives is entirely avoidable.
 Error Analysis: 
1) As can be used either for comparison or for stating a role.
Here, as is used to state the role of natural constituents
2)their correctly refers to the closest noun natural constituents.
3)use is singular, so singular verb is should be used.
 Option Analysis: 
A) No error
B)slight change in meaning. It says, natural constituents are additives and their use is avoidable. But the intended meaning is natural constituents use as additives is avoidable.
C)use of such additives implies natural constituents of food are additives. This is not true.
D)use of plural verb are for singular use is incorrect
similar error as C
E) There are no meaning or grammatical errors. But, Option A is more precise.

IMO: OPTION A

surendrasaini1 · Answer

Rules banning cancer-causing substances from food apply to new food additives and not to natural constituents of food because  their use as additives is  entirely avoidable.

A. their use as additives is( their is ambiguous,their may refer to both natural constituents and food additives)

B. as additives, their use is( same as in A,meaning of this suggests that natural constituents are used as additives)

C. the use of such additives is( correct)

D. the use of such additives are(SV agreement)

E. the use of them as additives is(what does them refer to)

Will go with choice C

Thanks

mbadream2020 · Answer

A. their use as additives is ......use of their has not got a clear reference..... refers to constituents or additives....incorrect

B. as additives, their use is .....wordy and as..is uasage is not right fit here....incorrect

C. the use of such additives is .....use of such additives is better and correct usage.....correct

D. the use of such additives are ...use..are..wrong usage....incorrect subject verb agreement

E. the use of them as additives is ....pronoun THEM usage is not the right fit..incorrect

+1 for C

warrior1991 · Answer

Their  has so no proper antecedent.  Their  can be anything :Rules , food additives, natural constituents. Therefore incorrect.

Correct S-V agreement.  Use+is

The use is singular and are is plural. Incorrect S-V agreement.

them  has so no proper antecedent.  Them  can be anything :Rules , food additives, natural constituents. Therefore incorrect.

IMO C.

Abhishek009 · Answer

With  warrior1991  answer must be (C) for the same reasons....

generis · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

My comments are in blue text.

Choices A, B, and E are incorrect because the pronouns  their  and  them  could refer to any of
several plural nouns . . .
 AND 
• GMAC will tolerate a fair amount of ambiguity, but 
• not if another answer choice makes the antecedent clear

In other words, we could probably figure out what  them  and  their  refer to
because every answer choice contains "additives."
But ease of understanding is important. 
Compared to (C) and (D), the other three answers are murky.

B and E are also awkwardly constructed.
 See whether you can explain what "awkwardly constructed" refers to.
Understanding WHY something is described as "awkward" will help you 
on harder questions that test rhetoric, diction, and style.

In choice D, the plural verb  are  does not agree in number with the singular noun  use .

Choice C is the best answer.

___________________________________________ 
 Vinodsai1995  ,  mbadream2020  , and  shiblee  - I'm glad you posted!

Today, all correct answers get kudos.

No best answer exists today. (That phenomenon is common in verbal questions.)

I want to add a "guideline" to that which I mention on the main post.
1) We are looking for 4 wrong answers, NOT one correct answer.
AND
  2) Multiple choice means that we have the opportunity to COMPARE, once choices are narrowed down.   
• Use that opportunity in gray areas such as pronoun ambiguity and awkwardness.
In other words, when questions turn on gray areas and meaning,
wrong answers are not so much "wrong" in a way that shouts "definite grammatical error here!" as they are "less good" than the best answer.

• I could argue, for example, that pronoun ambiguity in choice E is not fatal.
I WOULD argue, however, that option E is "not as good as option C BECAUSE . . ."

Nice work, all.

dave13 · Answer

.... because .... you have a bigger vocabulary than us

generis · Answer

Ahem. Than WE.

P.S. You beat me to the punch. You posted while I was writing this comment:

dave13 , yet again your humorous aside adds refreshing levity. Rest assured that I will not be eating any geometrid moths or caterpillar forms thereof.

Gmat2Cracker · Answer

I will go for (C)
-> the  use  of such additives  is

Raveen7 · Answer

Hi Team,

I am failing to understand why "is" is used here for a noun which is plural "additives"?

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi, the subject is  use  and not  additives .

PrafulLata · Answer

Rules banning cancer-causing substances from food apply to new food additives and not to natural constituents of food  because their use as additives is  entirely avoidable.

Rule banning cancer-causing substances from food apply 
 01] to new food additives
 02] not to natural constituents of food
 because 
  their use of as additives is  entirely avoidable

in underline portion, SV agreement is okay singular noun THEIR USE takes the single verb IS
However, antecedent of of THEIR is not clear. Therefore original statement is incorrect.

(A) their use as additives is -  INCORRECT  pronoun error

(B) as additives, their use is -  INCORRECT  pronoun error

(C) the use of such additives is -  CORRECT . pronoun error is resolved by this statement

(D) the use of such additives are -  INCORRECT  SV ERROR; ARE is incorrect

(E) the use of them as additives is -  INCORRECT  pronoun error.

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Rules banning cancer causing substances from food apply to new food

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Rules banning cancer causing substances from food apply to new food

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