As a result of medical advances, many people that might at one time

Question

As a result of medical advances, many people  that might at one time have died as children  of such infections as diphtheria, pneumonia, or rheumatic fever now live well into old age.

(A) that might at one time have died as children

(B) who might once have died in childhood

(C) that as children might once have died

(D) who in childhood might have at one time died

(E) who, when they were children, might at one time have died

OE : B uses the preferred relative pronoun,   who  , to refer to many people. It observes formal and logical parallelism in the wording of the relative clause and the main clause: first, adverbs(   once   and   now  ), second, verbs (   might have died   and   live  ); and third, adverbial prepositional phrases (   in childhood   and   into old age  ). A and C use the questionable relative pronoun   that   to refer to   many peple  . They also violate the parallel structure noted above. D and E, although they use the correct pronoun,   who  , offer convoluted and nonparallel structures for the relative clause.

daagh · Accepted Answer

Might have died one time is not the same as might have died once. Here the one time belong to the category of arithmetical count one-time, two times etc. After all, of us die only one time. Therefore, that is not the intention of the sentence.

Might have died once - means -might have died once upon a time - ; 
Hence let us drop all the one –time might have died options, retaining only B and C. between B and C, that cannot be used for human beings; Hence, C is gone. This leaves B as the option.

GMATNinja · Answer

I think  egmat  was correct in this case,  hazelnut , but the issue is more with the  placement  of the phrase "at one time", and not really with the difference between "once" and "at one time."

I'm not sure if this little exercise will help, but let's see what happens if we swap "once" and "at one time", but keep the placement the same as before. So which of these two would you prefer?

(B)...many people who might at one time have died as children... now live well into old age.
(D) ... many people who in childhood might have at one time died... now live well into old age.

And what about now?

(B)...many people who might once have died as children... now live well into old age.
(D) ... many people who in childhood might have once died... now live well into old age.

And here's the actual answer choices again:

(B)...many people who might once have died as children... now live well into old age.
(D) ... many people who in childhood might have at one time died... now live well into old age.

The problem is that in (D), "at one time" seems to be modifying "died" -- and as Shraddha pointed out, that doesn't make a lot of sense. If we think about what that's saying strictly and literally, it seems to imply that the people died once in childhood, but then kept living -- or least that's what it seems to be saying. In (B), "once" modifies "might have" -- suggesting that it's possible in the past that they  could have  died before modern medicine became more awesome.

It's a tricky question to explain! I'm surprised that it's tagged as sub-600 level -- this one is slippery, but I hope that this made some sense.

x2suresh · Answer

A,C -out "that" is not appropriate here.

at one time (wordy) = once (concise)
D,E are out.

D,E also distorts the meaning.
as ritula explained.

TraderAK · Answer

Answer B

"might at one time" and "might once" both are correct. But "once" is precise as compared to "at one time". So, "once" is preferred.

"who" should be used to refer to people.

"in childhood" is parallel to "into old age".
"when they are children" is not parallel to "into old age".

sequence:
part I of sentence --> once - have died - in childhood
part II of sentence --> now - live - into old age

jb2010 · Answer

good question. I tried to answer, but chose incorrect choice.

I would appreciate if someone can explain the answer.

goalsnr · Answer

Ok JB, I think I understand this SC now.

I just confirmed my understanding about "that" was incorrect. "That" cannot refer to people.
So we are left with ACs B,D and E.

(D) who in childhood might have at one time died
>>> implies the people actually died when they were children.
The SC means to say the people who might have died of these infections are now alive because of the medical blah blah.

(E)As a result of medical advances, many people who,  when they were children, might at one time have died 
of such infections as diphtheria, pneumonia, or rheumatic fever now live well into old age.
>>> I think this AC changes the meaning of the SC as well.

B is left.

This could very well be a IIlism question.

As a result of medical advances, many people who might  once have died in childhood 
of such infections as diphtheria, pneumonia, or rheumatic fever  now live well into old age .

Hope this helps

-Goalsnr

gmat1220 · Answer

This SC is checking for parallelism.
who is the key. 
B and D left. <--------
Using || it has to be B. ie  live   well into  old age  ||  died   in  childhood

live || died
old age || childhood

gorupruthi · Answer

(A) Wrong : Children – old age are not parallel
(B) Correct : childhood and old age are parallel
(C) Wrong : same reason as in A
(D) Wrong : one time died is wrong  
(E) Wrong : same reason as in A

GMATPill · Answer

These are types of questions the GMAT is moving more towards - one of meaning. Usually you'll be down to 2 answer choices - here B and D and the difference may come to a small technicality or in meaning.

With D - the "one time" if you read closely refers to one time during the childhood period.
For B - the "once" refers to one time in history, something may have happened in a person's childhood.

There is a slight nuance here that is significant. With D, it's a time during the childhood where something happened - death. Now it doesn't make sense here because if there was death, then there was no stage after childhood.

If the sentence said - many people who in childhood might have at one time gotten chicken pox - it would be valid. However, we are using death instead and it just doesn't make sense in this context.

B doesn't have this confusion. One may have died in childhood...when? At one time or moment in history. He is not dying at one time IN his childhood. He is dying as a child at one time IN the timeline of history.

More GMAT questions will be of this type going forward.

ChrisLele · Answer

The key difference is between (B) and (D), and is one of meaning.

(D) suggests that people may have actually died at one time. This is nonsensical. One can only die once.

(B) avoids this error with 'might once have died...'.

BillyZ · Answer

GMATNinja , Could you help to explain why (D) is incorrect here?

egmat · Answer

Hello hazelnut , I will be glad to help you with this one.

Choice D is incorrect for the usage of the phrase one time in childhood . This expression seems to suggest that the many people night have died one time in the childhood as if they could actually die many times. Hope this helps.

Thanks. Shraddha

BillyZ · Answer

Hi egmat, Thank you for replying. However, upon looking up at Cambridge Dictionary, "at one time" = in the past.

doeadoer · Answer

I have a question ,fellow gmat club members.
Does the presence of 'that' make option A incorrect? can people only be modified by using 'who'?

GMATNinja · Answer

Really good question. In general, "who" can only modify people, and "that" can modify either people or things. So I definitely wouldn't argue that "that", by itself, makes (A) incorrect.

But I remember answering another question about this somewhere on GMAT Club (massive kudos for anybody who can find that post!), and I think I went through every OG and verbal guide edition I have, and I couldn't find a case in which "that" was actually used to modify a person in a correct answer. I also couldn't find any official GMAT questions in which the choice between "who" and "that" was a meaningful issue.

So I think "that" is probably acceptable to modify people on the GMAT, just like it is in "real world" English. And I don't think that the GMAT cares about the distinction, one way or another.

I hope this helps!

CapitalWorks · Answer

As a result of medical advances, many people that might at one time have died as children of such infections as diphtheria, pneumonia, or rheumatic fever now live well into old age.

(A) that might at one time have died as children 
(B) who might once have died in childhood
 (C) that as children might once have died 
(D) who in childhood might have at one time died
(E) who, when they were children, might at one time have died

This is a great question and I see why B is the best option, but I'm not clear on WHY.

My questions:

1. Choice B seems wrong because "once" is redundant. The sentence makes more sense as such--

"As a result of  , many people who might have died in childhood  now live well into old age."

This is why I was quick to eliminate B.

2. This sentence makes sense: "As a result of  , many people who in childhood might have died now live   old age."

Here the placement of "in childhood" does not seem to be the problem, except that option D is wordier by awkwardly placing "at one time".

3. Aside from being wordy, does E have any errors?

GMATNinja , hoping to hear your thoughts on this.

GMATNinja · Answer

Here's the essence of the sentence: the type of people who used to die during childhood, now survive to be adults because those diseases are now preventable or curable. (Maybe it's because I'm a dad now, but it's amazing how grim GMAT sentences are sometimes.) "Once" is playing the same role as "in the past" - communicating that a state of affairs used to be the case, but isn't any longer. Do we need "once?" I guess you could debate it. But it basically means the same thing as "at one time." Every answer choice contains either "once" or "at one time," so there's no reason to waste our time worrying about it. In (D), we have: "who in childhood might have at one time died." If we read this strictly and literally, it's hard to make any sense of the meaning. In childhood, they may have died at one time, as opposed to having died at another time in childhood? Or: they may have at one time died, but now at one time do something other than die? Huh? So I guess I would argue that the meaning is warped in (D), and that's a worse crime than wordiness or awkwardness. In (E), we've got: "...who, when they were children, might at one time have died." If we read this strictly and literally, it seems to be saying this: when they were children they might have died, but now that they're not children... they won't die? Notice that in both (D) and (E), moving the modifier "at one time" creates strange meanings. So (B) is easily the most logical and most concise option. But the topic is still pretty darned grim.

I hope this helps!

manusingh · Answer

Hi
 GMATNinja ,  mike

I am still confused with "might have once died" and "might have at one time died" in the answer choices. 
Is it not true that usage of "might" itself suggests that the occurrence is highly unlikely? If that is the case, then "might have once died" and "might have at one time died" both indicate events that were highly unlikely to occur.

Also, is "at one time" not equivalent to "once" ?

" many people who might at one time".

I can understand that "many people who might ONE TIME have died" is correct, because dying "one time" is nonsensical. But I cannot understand how dying AT ONE TIME is incorrect?

Please help!
Manu

GMATNinja · Answer

"Might" just means that something is possible. If I say "it might rain today" or "I might eat eight burritos for dinner", I'm just saying that those things COULD happen. It definitely doesn't mean that they're "highly unlikely."

And it's a non-issue, anyway: "might" appears in all five answer choices, so it's not really relevant to figuring out which answer is correct.

Yes, "at one time" and "once" basically mean the same thing, as discussed in  my post above . (Though I think you might be confusing "one time" and " at  one time"?) If it helps, think of "at one time" as meaning "in a previous era."

As a result of medical advances, many people that might at one time

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As a result of medical advances, many people that might at one time

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