sree9890
While scorpion sting can cause moderate damage to an adult human, it can be potentially devastating to infants or elderly humans – the toxins act by binding to sodium channels, inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– for whom it may even cause death.
A)it can be potentially devastating to infants or elderly humans – the toxins act by binding to sodium channels, inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– for whom it may even cause death.
B)it can potentially be devastating for infants or elderly humans– the toxins acting by binding to sodium channels, inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– who may even die.
c)it can devastate infants or elderly humans– the toxins bind to sodium channels, which inhibit the inactivation of activated channels and block neuronal transmission– causing even death.
D) it could be potentially devastating for infants or elderly humans– the toxins binding to sodium channels, thereby inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– for whom it can even be lethal.
E)it is potentially devastating for infants or elderly humans– the toxins act by binding to sodium channels, inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– to whom it can even be lethal.
Source :
Gmat club Tests The answer explanation says A,B,D has redundancy issues for using "can be potentially”“can potentially be” and “could be potentially”.
Could you explain y these are redundant?
Kindly help me in approaching this question in the right way.
Here's my 2 cents:
IMO, In this question 'Can' and 'Potentially' are used to signify possibility or uncertainty. And both of these words can be used to do so. For instance,
1. This
can/could be a threat to the economy. - Here we are not sure if it will definitely be a threat, we are just giving a possibility.
2. This is a
potential threat to the economy. - Here again, we are saying that it has the potential to be a threat to the economy, will it be one for sure? we dont know with certainty!
So a sentence such as- "This
can be a
potential threat to our economy", though common in our speech, overemphasizes the uncertainty by using both the words.
Hope this resolves the redundancy issue
How to approach this:
When i first read the prompt, i did not identify the 'Can+Potentially' redundancy, because that sounded correct to ears. But while looking for splits i found that this was one of the splits; that immediately rung bells- "There
can be a
potential redundancy error in this sentence" .. see even in our thoughts this sound correct but for the GMAT this is a big NO NO! :D
So if you are clueless, look at the options and find slipts to strike-off options.
BTW, is the OA E?