Fusion, the process through which the sun produces heat and light, has

Question

Fusion, the process through which the sun produces heat and light, has been studied by scientists,  some of whom have attempted to mimic the process in their laboratories by blasting a container of liquid solvent with strong ultrasonic vibrations.
 
(A) Fusion, the process through which the sun produces heat and light, has been studied by scientists,
(B) Fusion, the heat and light produced by the sun, has been studied by scientists,
(C) Fusion, the process through which heat and light are produced by the sun, has been studied by scientists,
(D) Scientists have studied fusion, the process the sun uses to produce heat and light,
(E) Scientists have studied fusion, the process the sun uses to produce heat and light, and

Can someone explain why D would be wrong?

intcan · Answer

Even though D is in active voice, when D is inserted into the complete sentence, 'scientists', the referent of 'whom', gets placed far away from it. Hence, A.

dimitri92 · Answer

..fusion, the process the sun uses to produce heat and light, some of whom have attempted..

firstly, ' the process the sun uses ' lacks the connecting ' through which '
secondly, ' heat and light, some of whom have attempted ' .. how can heat and light attempt something?

HTH

ajit257 · Answer

apologies guys...I meant to ask the difference between A and C and not D which is clearly wrong. I have read that gmat prefers active speech thats why A is a better choice. Another reason why C is wrong is the usage of which. Please correct me if I am wrong.

daagh · Answer

@ Ajit: even A uses ‘ which ’. Once you know why something is wrong, why do you wan to look beyond that and unnecessarily waste your valuable time in the test?

metallicafan · Answer

+1 A

C: Passive voice, while A is written in active voice. A wins.
Note.- Passive voice could also be correct as long as there is not a better option.

ajit257 · Answer

thanks metallicafan.....thats what i wanted to know (active is preferred to passive).

rojans · Answer

active is preferred ,because of mentioned reason.
Active voice precisely tell the subject of sentence.
passive voice ambiguous in telling who is doer.
Ex- I have given the result of GMAT....in this we have no idea ,who is doer...I or someone else.
passive is OK in transitive verbs(which take direct object)
such as,I drive the car.----(v is taking direct object here)
 Car is driven by me
 hope the difference is clear between usage of active and passive

amit2k9 · Answer

D some of whom modifier is placed far from scientists.

A is better.

vivesomnium · Answer

use of whom is the clue here..sentence has to place the noun that whom is referring to close to whom
also, "the process the sun uses" is not really the most optimal usage!

rajeevrks27 · Answer

A is better than C( active vs passive)
IMO A.

alchemist009 · Answer

i pick A. B and C are out because they are unnecessarily passive. D and E have more error. i think one error is that relative clause is required between "the process" and "the sun".

Sachin9 · Answer

Can there be choices on GMAT which would differ only between passive and active voice?

jumsumtak · Answer

In rare cases, yes. It will help you if you know the difference between the two and when to use which. The wrong usage may sometimes alter the meaning as well. 5-strategies-that-gmat-uses-to-distort-meaning-124296.html

hrbiswal · Answer

Fusion, the process through which the sun produces heat and light, has been studied by scientists, some of whom have attempted to mimic the process in their laboratories by blasting a container of liquid solvent with strong ultrasonic vibrations.

a.Fusion, the process through which the sun produces heat and light, has been studied by scientists,
b.Fusion, the heat and light produced by the sun, has been studied by scientists,
c.Fusion, the process through which heat and light are produced by the sun, has been studied by scientists,
d.Scientists have studied fusion, the process the sun uses to produce heat and light,
e.Scientists have studied fusion, the process the sun uses to produce heat and light, and

Though the official answer is A, the original sentence is containing two clauses joined by ",".
 The 1st clause is " Fusion, the process through which the sun produces heat and light, has been studied by scientists " and the 2nd one is "some of whom have attempted to mimic the process in their laboratories by blasting a container of liquid solvent with strong ultrasonic vibrations". 
Is it correct in GMAT Land to join two clauses by "," ???

souvik101990 · Answer

Fusion, the process through which the sun produces heat and light, has been studied by scientists,  some of whom have attempted to mimic the process in their laboratories by blasting a container of liquid solvent with strong ultrasonic vibrations.

• Fusion, the process through which the sun produces heat and light, has been studied by scientists,

• Fusion, the heat and light produced by the sun, has been studied by scientists,

• Fusion, the process through which heat and light are produced by the sun, has been studied by scientists,

• Scientists have studied fusion, the process the sun uses to produce heat and light,

• Scientists have studied fusion, the process the sun uses to produce heat and light, and

The original sentence describes fusion as a "process" studied by scientists. The
underlined portion of the sentence correctly ends with the word "scientists." This is
necessary because the non-underlined portion of the sentence, beginning "some
of whom . . .," is a long modifier that describes what some of those scientists have
attempted to do. Modifiers describing nouns must be adjacent to the nouns that
they describe.
• (A) CORRECT. This choice is correct as it repeats the original sentence.
• (B) This choice incorrectly shortens the modifier that describes fusion to "the
heat and light produced by the sun." This distorts the meaning of the sentence
by incorrectly stating that fusion is the "heat and light" produced by the sun. In
fact, fusion is the "process" used by the sun to produce heat and light; fusion is
not the "heat and light" itself. This is made clear by the use of the word
"process" in the non-underlined portion of the sentence in the phrase "to mimic
the process in their laboratories."
• (C) This choice describes fusion as "the process through which heat and light
are produced by the sun." The use of the doubly passive construction "through
which . . . are produced by" produces an unnecessarily wordy modifier.
- 21 -
Though a passive construction may be correct, a more active construction is
preferable if it is provided.
• (D) In moving the word "scientists" from the end of the opening clause to the
beginning, this choice creates a misplaced modifier. The non-underlined
portion of the sentence that begins "some of whom . . ." is a modifier
describing the scientists; this modifier must be placed immediately adjacent to
the noun that it modifies ("scientists"). However, in this choice this modifier is
incorrectly placed adjacent to "heat and light."
• (E) The last word of this choice, "and," creates two independent clauses:
"Scientists have studied fusion . . ." and "some of whom have attempted . . ."
The phrase "some of whom" can only be used if it is placed immediately
adjacent to its antecedent ("scientists."). A better choice would have been
"some of them" since the pronoun "them" (unlike "whom") does not need to be
placed immediately adjacent to its antecedent ("Scientists have studied . . .
and some of them have attempted . . .").

aniteshgmat1101 · Answer

A for me. Modifiers are modifying the correct entities.

321kumarsushant · Answer

narrowed down to A & C.

C passive construction and A active.

A is preferred option.

chetan2u · Answer

ans A..
as mentioned it is in active voice whereas C, the other close choice is in passive..

gmat6nplus1 · Answer

The answer is A. B is out because fusion is a process and not "heat and light" itself. C is out because when there's a choice as direct as A it is safe to scrap C. D and E are outright wrong.

Fusion, the process through which the sun produces heat and light, has

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Fusion, the process through which the sun produces heat and light, has

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