The cytokines of the immune system, acting as signalers to adjacen

Interesting question. Lets take an example:

Good people often suffer because they are not able to be tough even when the situation demands.

What does they refer to in the above sentence? It does not refer to people but to good people. In other words, a pronoun not only refers to the noun (people) but also to the adjacent adjective (good).

Coming back to this question, in E, they would refer to damaged cartilage and bone. But this does not make logical sense, since the intent of the question is to say that autoimmune disease is characterized by:

1. cartilage and bone becoming damaged, though
2. cartilage and bone are not actually attacked by the immune system

In short, damaged cartilage and bone not being attacked by the immune system, as depicted in E does not make sense.

[quote="Shashank8888"]The cytokines of the immune system, acting as signalers to adjacent cells, can provoke dangerous inflammation; the resultant autoimmune disease, characterized by cartilage and bone that become damaged although they are not actually attacked by the immune system, are known as "rheumatoid arthritis."

(...) characterized by "damaged cartilage and bone" or "cartilage and bone that become damaged"?

The first option does not make sense, because it seems that the disease is characterized by
1)damaged cartilage -- fine
2)bone -- does not makes sense that a disease is characterized by bones...

Out D and E.

We can solve the question quickly now, just by looking at the subject:
resultant autoimmune disease, (...) is / are
Only B fits.

Hi Shashank8888, E changes the meaning (as I explained above).

Keep in mind that redundancy, "wordiness",.... are the last thing you have to check.Only if the meaning, the structure and the other (let me say) more relevant parts are OK, then pick the least redundant option.


Hope it helps

Nope.
The parallel structure is "characterized by X and Y", the fact that X is damaged does not mean anything regarding Y.
In D and E the adjective refers only to cartilages.

However in A B C, the modifier "that become damaged" refers to both the cartilage and the bone; the word "and" makes cartilage and bone a single unit

cartilage and bone (-a single unit-) that become (-refers to the single unit-)

Hope it's clear

The cytokines of the immune system, acting as signalers to adjacent cells, can provoke dangerous inflammation; the resultant autoimmune disease, characterized by cartilage and bone that become damaged although they are not actually attacked by the immune system, are known as "rheumatoid arthritis."

Intended meaning:
1.The cytokines of the immune system,
---acting as signalers to adjacent cells,
can provoke dangerous inflammation;
2. The resultant autoimmune disease,
---cartilage and bone that become damaged although they are not actually attacked by the immune system,
is known as "rheumatoid arthritis."

a) cartilage and bone that become damaged although they are not actually attacked by the immune system, are
b) cartilage and bone that become damaged although they are not actually attacked by the immune system, is
c) cartilage and bone that become damaged although the immune system does not actually attack them, are
d) damaged cartilage and bone although the immune system does not actually attack them, are
e) damaged cartilage and bone although they are not actually attacked by the immune system, is
>> Awkward as "they" refers to damaged cartilage and bone.

Hi,

the Q hinges on two points-

1) "the resultant autoimmune disease" is singular and thus requires singular verb..... only B and D fit in..
2) THAT can modify the phrase preceding it, so that correctly modifies BOTH cartilage and bone, whereas in "damaged cartilage and bone" bone is not modified by damaged.. ONLY A, B and C fit in..

ONLY B is free of the above two errors
B

Can you please explain why damaged in option D does not modify bone? There is a very subtle difference between B and D, and can be very hard to pick.

I think you meant B vs E (D has a clear S-V agreement issue, since it uses are).

Would agree that this kind of a difference in options is extremely unlikely to be tested. In fact, from a meaning clarity perspective, B is not very clear, because it states:

..autoimmune disease, characterized by cartilage and bone...

This is not a great construct, because autoimmune disease is not characterized by cartilage and bone, but by damage to cartilage and bone. GMAT would typically articulate this as:

..autoimmune disease, characterized by damage to cartilage and bone...

What's the source of this question?

Yes I meant B vs E, thanks for correcting. The reason you pointed out was the exact reason i got confused and did not choose B. I hope the questions on the test are not as vague.

Not sure of the source.

Yes in fact, there is a lot of thrust that GMAT puts on meaning clarity. For example, it is very unlikely that the following sentence would be correct:

The room became very hot because of air-conditioner that failed.

This is just not a great construct, because it says: ...room became very hot because of air-conditioner...

A better way to articulate this would be:

The room became very hot because of failure of air-conditioner.

Glad it helped! In fact, GMAT tends to test this meaning clarity perspective quite extensively. For example, following is an incorrect option on a GMATPrep question:

...the studies indicate dolphins as capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors - an ability that is often considered a sign of self-awareness - and to grasp spontaneously the mood or intention of humans .

Among other reasons, one reason this is not a great construct is because the studies don't indicate dolphins; studies indicate something about dolphins (that dolphins have the ability of recognizing themselves in mirrors....). Hence, the correct answer is:

...the studies indicate that dolphins have the ability of recognizing themselves in mirrors - an ability that is often considered as a sign of self-awareness - and spontaneously grasping the mood or intention of humans

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses this concept of meaning clarity, its application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id, I can mail the corresponding section.

The cytokines of the immune system, acting as signalers to adjacent cells, can provoke dangerous inflammation; the resultant autoimmune disease, characterized by cartilage and bone that become damaged although they are not actually attacked by the immune system, is known as "rheumatoid arthritis."

Option (B) must be the correct answer for Correct S-V usage...

Your query is valid. The adjective "damaged" covers both "cartilage" and "bone". Option E is wrong not because of the reason you mentioned.The reason for eliminating is E as follows:

The conjunction "although" indicates contradiction. Thus we require a verb that contradicts "are not actually attacked". Option E does not have such a verb. Option B is correct because the contradiction is shown clearly:
..become damaged, although... are not attacked.

Thank you. Every other explanation in this thread, and the OE by Kaplan, is wrongly stating that "damage' will not be considered a parallel element.

The cytokines of the immune system, acting as signalers to adjacent cells, can provoke dangerous inflammation; the resultant autoimmune disease, characterized by cartilage and bone that become damaged although they are not actually attacked by the immune system, are known as "rheumatoid arthritis."

(A) cartilage and bone that become damaged although they are not actually attacked by the immune system, are
disease does not agree with are

(B) cartilage and bone that become damaged although they are not actually attacked by the immune system, is
although i feel that become damaged is an awkward way to say, lets hold this option and see do we get any better choice

(C) cartilage and bone that become damaged although the immune system does not actually attack them, are
disease does not agree with are

(D) damaged cartilage and bone although the immune system does not actually attack them, are
disease does not agree with are

(E) damaged cartilage and bone although they are not actually attacked by the immune system, is
here it talks about damaged cartilage and undamaged bone, but questions actual intent was damaged cartilage and damaged bone

IMO its B

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