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

Question

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

(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

Why not E?

daagh · Accepted Answer

How come this is a //ism issue? This is an issue of S-V agreement and altered intent. The subject is the singular ' disease ' and the verb should be ‘ is ’. B and E are the choices.

E rather distorts the meaning. As per the text the disease is characterized by both cartilage and bone that become damaged; E means to say the disease is characterized by damaged cartilage and bone (alone), leaving bone from the ambit of the damage.

B is the one.

nikhilsrl · Answer

Hello Daagh, Sorry about the title - I understood the S-V part but could not decide on the altered intent and hence posted it here. Phrase "altered intent" did not come to my mind and so ended up with "parellelism" :wink:

. Hello Miguelmick, Let me try to add to what Daagh has already explained: As per E - damaged cartilage and bone although they are not actually attacked by the immune system Here "damaged" appearing just before cartilage, seems to modify "cartilage" alone and not "cartilage and bone" as was intended in the original statement in the question. As per D - cartilage and bone that become damaged although they are not actually attacked by the immune system, is Here "that become damaged" clearly modifies "cartilage and bone". Even though "that become damaged" is next to "bone" the use of "become", a plural verb instead of "becomes" points to "cartilage and bone" instead of just "bone". Hope this helps.

EducationAisle · Answer

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.

Zarrolou · Answer

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.

Zarrolou · Answer

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

Zarrolou · Answer

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

JarvisR · Answer

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.

chetan2u · Answer

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

bethebest · Answer

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.

EducationAisle · Answer

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?

bethebest · Answer

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.

EducationAisle · Answer

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 .

EducationAisle · Answer

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.

Abhishek009 · Answer

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...

sayantanc2k · Answer

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 .

umg · Answer

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.

SairamRamo · Answer

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

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

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

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

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

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards