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Dinesh654
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Scientists say that by bathing the skin cells in extracts of immune c 13 Apr 2022, 22:45
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Hello experts,

I have couple of doubts in choice D and E?
tense seems odd to me in E
If they were........- scientiest have made
one is in past and one is in present; we never use this structure in conditional!

what does as if mean?
Why D is wrong?

Thanks!
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Scientists say that by bathing the skin cells in extracts of immune c 14 Apr 2022, 04:38
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dcoolguy
Hello experts,

I have couple of doubts in choice D and E?
tense seems odd to me in E
If they were........- scientiest have made
one is in past and one is in present; we never use this structure in conditional!

what does as if mean?
Why D is wrong?

Thanks!
Show more

Hello dcoolguy,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the simple past tense is, actually, a correct tense for referring to hypothetical situations in the current time frame.

For example, "If I were an athlete, I would be fitter.": here, the hypothetical situation of being an athlete is one that takes place in the current time frame;the speaker is referring to the hypothetical possibility of being, at this time, an athlete; yet, the simple past tense verb "were" is used.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Scientists say that by bathing the skin cells in extracts of immune c 26 Jun 2022, 21:40
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dcoolguy
Hello experts,

I have couple of doubts in choice D and E?
tense seems odd to me in E
If they were........- scientiest have made
one is in past and one is in present; we never use this structure in conditional!

what does as if mean?
Why D is wrong?

Thanks!
Show more

Hello experts, MartyTargetTestPrep AjiteshArun

In E, There is one pronoun "They"(appearing twice) referring to two different anticidents. Scientiests and skin cells.

Doesn't this create an ambiguity? If not logically, second they can refer to scientists?
although for D, meaning is odd. but in the actual test, This can create a confusion as to keep E or to not!
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Scientists say that by bathing the skin cells in extracts of immune c 26 Jun 2022, 23:22
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dcoolguy
I have couple of doubts in choice D and E?
tense seems odd to me in E
If they were........- scientiest have made
one is in past and one is in present; we never use this structure in conditional!
Show more
"Were" in "as if they were" is not past tense. It's past subjunctive, which can be correctly used in sentences about the present.

Quote:
what does as if mean?
Show more
"As if" is understood to mean "as they would if."

Quote:
Why D is wrong?
Show more
The meaning conveyed by (D) is not logical, and the clearest meaning issue with what (D) expresses is that "human skin cells ... that were behaving as immune system cells" suggests that somehow the skin cells were immune system cells.

Here's an analogous example:

John was acting as governor when he made that decision.

That example conveys, basically, that John was the governor when he made the decision.

So, we see that the (D) version suggests the nonsensical idea that the skin cells were immune system cells.

Quote:
In E, There is one pronoun "They"(appearing twice) referring to two different anticidents. Scientiests and skin cells.

Doesn't this create an ambiguity? If not logically, second they can refer to scientists?
although for D, meaning is odd. but in the actual test, This can create a confusion as to keep E or to not!
Show more
Since it's clear that the cells, and not the scientists, were behaving as if they were immune system cells, there's no ambiguity regarding what the second "they" refers to in (E).
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Scientists say that by bathing the skin cells in extracts of immune c 28 Jun 2022, 03:20
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vaibhav99
Hi GMATNinja,

Can you please throw some light on this question. Just want to understand usage of 2 that's and 'if'.

Thanks for your help.

Vaibhav
I'm not sure that I understand exactly what you're asking, but I'll try to help!

In choice (E), for example, "that" introduces a noun clause. What did the scientists say? They said "that they have made human skin cells in a test tube behave as if they were immune system cells." If you want to get technical: the "that" clause is the object of the verb.

If that isn't clear, consider this example:

    "The scientists say profanities." - What do the scientists say? Profanities. In this case the object of the verb is a simple noun. In choice (E), the object of the verb is a noun clause ("THAT they have made...") - the "that" clause functions as a noun.

Now take a look at choice (A). Ignoring the comma-separated part, we have, "The scientists say that that human skin cells in a test tube are made..." The second "that" shouldn't be there!

The "if" is simply part of "as if", which is the same as "as though." How do the skin cells behave? They behave as if (or as though) they were immune system cells. In other words, they behave as they would if they were, in fact, immune system cells.

I hope that helps!
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Could you please explain what is wrong with option C
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Scientists say that by bathing the skin cells in extracts of immune c 28 Jun 2022, 03:54
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Solenja
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vaibhav99
Hi GMATNinja,

Can you please throw some light on this question. Just want to understand usage of 2 that's and 'if'.

Thanks for your help.

Vaibhav
I'm not sure that I understand exactly what you're asking, but I'll try to help!

In choice (E), for example, "that" introduces a noun clause. What did the scientists say? They said "that they have made human skin cells in a test tube behave as if they were immune system cells." If you want to get technical: the "that" clause is the object of the verb.

If that isn't clear, consider this example:

    "The scientists say profanities." - What do the scientists say? Profanities. In this case the object of the verb is a simple noun. In choice (E), the object of the verb is a noun clause ("THAT they have made...") - the "that" clause functions as a noun.

Now take a look at choice (A). Ignoring the comma-separated part, we have, "The scientists say that that human skin cells in a test tube are made..." The second "that" shouldn't be there!

The "if" is simply part of "as if", which is the same as "as though." How do the skin cells behave? They behave as if (or as though) they were immune system cells. In other words, they behave as they would if they were, in fact, immune system cells.

I hope that helps!

Could you please explain what is wrong with option C
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Hello Solenja,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, Option C fails to convey a coherent meaning, as the phrase "as if immune system cells" lacks an active verb, which it needs to properly convey the hypothetical situation conveyed here.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Scientists say that by bathing the skin cells in extracts of immune c 26 Sep 2022, 16:00
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Solenja
Could you please explain what is wrong with option C
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We attempted to explain the problem with (C) in this post: https://gmatclub.com/forum/scientists-s ... l#p2810644. Check it out, and let us know if you still have questions!
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Scientists say that by bathing the skin cells in extracts of immune c 08 Dec 2022, 23:23
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MartyTargetTestPrep sayantanc2k AjiteshArun Could anyone please explain the structure of option E?

they have made human skin cells in a test tube behave as if

Human skin cells is is the object of the main clause, and it acts as the subjects of the verb behave. How can two clauses be merged into a single sentence in the option?

Thanks for your response in advance!
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Scientists say that by bathing the skin cells in extracts of immune c 09 Dec 2022, 00:42
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Strictly speaking, behave is not a verb here; it is an infinitive: (to) behave.
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Scientists say that by bathing the skin cells in extracts of immune c 09 Dec 2022, 11:38
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MartyTargetTestPrep sayantanc2k AjiteshArun Could anyone please explain the structure of option E?

they have made human skin cells in a test tube behave as if

Human skin cells is is the object of the main clause, and it acts as the subjects of the verb behave. How can two clauses be merged into a single sentence in the option?

Thanks for your response in advance!
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they have made human skin cells in a test tube behave as if means the same thing as they have CAUSED human skin cells in a test tube TO behave as if .

So, we can see that the object of "made" and "caused" is the entire outcome of human skin cells behaving in a certain way.

Thus, "human skin cells in a test tube behave" isn't really a clause, though a clause could serve as a direct object, a one does in the following example.

They have determined that Jim ate the apples.

In that sentence, the noun clause "that Jim ate the apples" is the direct object.
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Scientists say that by bathing the skin cells in extracts of immune c 09 Dec 2022, 12:41
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EducationAisle
Strictly speaking, behave is not a verb here; it is an infinitive: (to) behave.
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Hi - I agree with the above - The structure in (e) is actually the following :

(E) Scientists say THAT They have made human skin cells TO behave as if they were immune system cells.

The word "TO" is frequently used with an infinitive, but it is not an essential part or sign of it. When an infinitive is used without the marker "TO" it is called a bare infinitive.

In some verbs - the "To" CAN be dropped

Verbs such as : "feel,"wish", "hear," "help," "let," "make," "see," and "watch.", "behave"
Quote:

I let John to dance for 5 hours or I let John dance for 5 hours
I helped John to win or I helped John win.
I wish John to win or I wish John win.
I heard John danced last night
I made John to sleep for 5 hours or I made John sleep for 5 hours
I watched John fight last sunday
I wish John to behave or I wish John behave
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Link :

https://www.sjsu.edu/writingcenter/docs ... itives.pdf
https://www.englishgrammar.org/bare-infinitive-2/
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Scientists say that by bathing the skin cells in extracts of immune c 23 Dec 2023, 13:29
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