Scientists have recently received permission to research embryonic ste

Question

Scientists have recently received permission to research embryonic stem cells, derived from blastocysts or early-stage embryos,  that they believe to be capable  of generating new cell growth and curing previously incurable ailments.

A. that they believe to be capable

B. that they believe are capable

C. that they believe will be capable

D. believed as capable

E. believed to be capable

daagh · Accepted Answer

I don’t think this is case of subjunctive. A subjunctive requires a mandate, or wish or some such thing but certainly 'a belief' is not one among them. Secondly a present subjunctive has to necessarily have a subordinate clause introduced by the connector that. Thirdly and compulsorily, the verb of the subordinate clause will have to be in the imperative mood, meaning, in the base form of the verb. An infinitive form such as  'to be capable'  of is not a subjunctive verb. 
 
I feel the debate here is between whether ' to be capable of'  is right or ' are capable of ' is right. I wouldn’t think there is any significant difference between them; I would rather go with B because of the certainty of the stem cells' capability that the choice exudes. C is out for using the future tense;

More importantly, D and E have a fatal grammar error. As written, both the participles that modify stem cells “ derived from, and believed as/ to be capable of’  
are required to be necessarily joined by a conjunction ‘ and ”; otherwise, the second participle will be simply dangling as a run–on. So D and E can be dumped.

nverma · Answer

For me it's E.

Just remove the modifying phrase ("derived from blastocysts or early-stage embryos")from the sentence and we get..

Scientists have recently received permission to research embryonic stem cells believed to be capable of generating new cell growth and curing previously incurable ailments.

OA plz.

mailnavin1 · Answer

A, B and C are out as they is ambiguous, D is awkward

E for me

SudiptoGmat · Answer

OK....mates....OA is not E. That's the surprise here.

nverma · Answer

On second thought..!!

B, If we take the comma after "that" after "cells" into consideration

nilesh376 · Answer

my take on 'B'. it needs a verb only 'b' does this

SudiptoGmat · Answer

The phrase that they believe calls for the subjunctive mood. It needs to be completed by the verb to be in its infinitive form.So eliminate (B) and (C). Answer choices (D) and (E) create invalid sentence structures because they offer back-to-back modifiers without joining them with and or some other conjunction. Only choice (A) remains.

OA is A. Nice try buddies.

OA is A. Nice try buddies.

tirupatibalaji · Answer

Its E for me.
answers with "they believe" is incorrect because it doesn't tell us who are "they", it could be scientists or it could be embryos. therefore choice A, B & C are incorrect.

that leave us with choice D & E.
D is incorrect as it refelcets as embryos believes in it but not the scientist.Therefore choice E is correct.

vraptor · Answer

(A) for me.

The scientists still believe that embryonic stem cells generate new cell growth. So options (D) and (E) are out.
(C) is out because of the usage of "will be" (Suggests a future course of action)

Now the scientists are not sure of the behavior and needs more research. Option (A) looks more apt for the context.

chesstitans · Answer

mikemcgarry 
I need help, thanks

OA is A because of subjunctive mood, but e-gmat has the similar question and the OA is B.
daagh also has a post about the debate between A and B, he himself supports e-gmat.
What is your opinion?

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear chesstitans I'm happy to respond.

Quite honestly, I think this question is so bad that it should be taken out back and shot. All five answer choices awkwardly interrupt the relationship between the target noun " stem cells " and the noun modifier with a parenthetical phrase " derived from blastocysts or early-stage embryos " that gratuitously adds more vocabulary to the sentence. If this statement were set off in dashes, then (A) & (E) certainly would work, and (B) would be correct in a more colloquial sense but perhaps not formal enough for the GMAT. This question is atrocious at a number of levels, a true disaster. Here's a high quality GMAT SC practice question. Alternative Energy Sources Does all this make sense? Mike

chesstitans · Answer

I am thankful; that you have given me a wonderful explanation. There is still one problem. This question comes from Kaplan advance which is a reliable source.

Bunuel · Answer

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The phrase that they believe calls for the subjunctive mood. It needs to be completed by the verb to be in its infinitive form.So eliminate (B) and (C). Answer choices (D) and (E) create invalid sentence structures because they offer back-to-back modifiers without joining them with and or some other conjunction. Only choice (A) remains.

OA is A. Nice try buddies.

An 800 test taker is one of the few people who knows how to use the subjunctive correctly.

gmatway · Answer

Scientists have recently received permission to research embryonic stem cells, derived from blastocysts or early-stage embryos,  that they believe to be capable  of generating new cell growth and curing previously incurable ailments.

this becomes easy when you realise all u need is a modifier at the end . WHY? because no proper FANBOYS are iven in option . so u can't use a VERB in modifier unless you use THAT . this requirement eliminated D & E . and we can safely et rid of C because believe + will has no logical connection with current beleif shown by X(new cell rowth ...) and Y (curin .....).

So lets take a close look on A vs B

A. that they believe to be capable - 1) beleive to be is correct idiom 2) to be isn't verb (to be means its not proved yet but scientists believe that embryos ...) . Lets prefer this option because this acts more as noun form than B (which uses ARE)

B. that they believe are capable - 1) Beleive that IS/ARE = incorrect idiom .

REJECT - below options
C. that they believe will be capable

D. believed as capable

E. believed to be capable

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Scientists have recently received permission to research embryonic ste

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