Severe must be parallel is to numerous. Both severe and numerous are adjectives which modify and describe critics.
Increasingly is an adverb which modifies the adjective numerous.

So the sentence is meaning to say critics are both severe and numerous.
How numerous? increasingly numerous.

Hope that helps.

639. Severe and increasing numerous critics are pointing to deficiencies in the British legal system, deficiencies that seem to deny a proper defense to many clients who are charged with crimes.

(A) Severe and increasing numerous critics are pointing to deficiencies in the British legal system, deficiencies that seem
(B) Severe and increasing numerous critics point to deficiencies in the British legal system, deficiencies seeming
(C) Severe and increasingly numerous critics are pointing to deficiencies in the British legal system that seem
(D) Severely and increasingly numerous critics point to deficiencies in the British legal system seeming
(E) Severely and increasingly numerous critics are pointing to deficiencies in the British legal system that seem


IMO C

severe and increasingly numerous are parallel, also pointing to deficiencies that seem is correct

and why is severe and increasingly and not severly and increasing??

thanks,

Hi, need your help.
Don't you think that in C THAT changes the noun?
In original sentence it's DEFICIENCIES that seem to deny, but in C it's SYSTEM that seem(s) deny


Thanks
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that seem

Here seem is a plural verb and therefore refers to deficincies, which is correct.

IMO C ... wats the OA ??

Deficiencies is plural , seem is correct ......

Ayrish,

If you read the MGMAT SC guide, you read in the first chapter (style) that the GMAT always prefers shorter sentences, so you try to keep things simple.

...point to deficiencies in the British legal system, deficiencies that...

For the sake of brevity, you take out the second time deficiencies appear, with the comma. The that still refers to the noun of the clause "deficiencies in the British legal system". The noun here is deficiencies, and system is just part of a big modifier of that noun.

So, deficiencies being plural should be followed by seem, not seems.

Hope it helped!

Myans: A
MyReasoning: noun 'deficiancies' should be repeated before the 2nd clause to avoid ambiguity, which may result if 'that' is used as in C&E without any clear referent.
I understand 'that' refers to immediately preceding noun & moreover the subject of main clause seems to be numerous critics.

blast my reasoning

can someone provide OA for this q plz??

I need to clarify the difference between "severe and increasing" and "severe and increasingly" numerous critics.
which of these is correct in this sentence?

This is C for sure...
Severe and increasingly numerous critics..

+1 C

Severe modifies critics.
Increasingly modifies numerous.
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But C is changing the meaning, modifier is now modifying the system.
I can't even recall that when I saw such question last time.

I find two things wrong with C and other options .
All options - Adjective is parallel to adverb + adjective.
OK lets say it's a generic error that is persisting in all options and move on.
That ALWAYS refers to the noun beside it preferably when we are using a prepositional phrase to modify the noun.
like a number of whales that are living near Gaura bay are fat.
Now this question violates the law stating
Deficiencies of system that seem - > well system is singular and seem is plural . So option C is wrong.
So basically all options are wrong.
Please correct me if anywhere am missing any concept. GMATNinja

hi,
in option c, that refers to the deficiencies or the legal system? if it does refer to the legal system, why isnt it "seems" after that

Why can't it be E.
Severely and increasingly both are adverbs, thus parallel.

Posted from my mobile device

Please see discussions above - explanation by yangsta8

"Severe must be parallel is to numerous. Both severe and numerous are adjectives which modify and describe critics.

Increasingly is an adverb which modifies the adjective numerous.

So the sentence is meaning to say critics are both severe and numerous.

How numerous? increasingly numerous."

Hope that helps.
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Good question Urvashi26: I was stuck between the same two options. What we need to do here is to see whether we need an adjective or an adverb. Now, we already know that severely is an adverb and severe is an adjective. The next step is to take parallelism into account.

Severe/ly and increasingly numerous critics. What you are trying to do is make severe(ly) parallel to increasingly. However, what you should be doing instead is make it parallel to numerous. And the best way to arrive at this conclusion is by seeing whether severely can modify any of the upcoming words - Severely can't modify numerous, nor can it modify critics. Critics is a noun and only an Adjective can modify a noun. Hence, we need Severe.

Hope this helps!

I was confused about the "increasingly" because I have never heard of "increasingly numerous" or "increasingly many". I am a non-native, but even when I looked up online, there aren't many good sources that use these constructions. However, it is still grammatically correct. But if you didn't know it like me, you can try: "increasing" might modify "critics". However, "critics" cannot increase. Only the number of critics can increase. Therefore, "increasing" is definitely wrong. A and B out.

"severely" in E can only modify "numerous". Uhhh, that sounds really weird. "severely numerous"?? Doesn't sounds right. Cross E out.

In D, "seeming" modifies "system" (because there is no comma before "seeming", otherwise, it is a whole different story). However, "seeming" should modify "deficiencies". Note that "that" works instead of "seeming" because we can use "that" to modify a noun (here, "deficiencies") even it is a little far away because we only have a prepositional phrase before "that". And this construction is clear and allowed on GMAT.
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