The data being collected in the current geological survey are providin

VeritasKarishma thank you for the helpful explanation

Could you also clarify the use of being from the Brian's quote . Particularly, i have problem in understanding "So in this question, which clearly denotes the "current geological survey", "being collected" is a temporary state. The data won't always be collected, but currently for a temporary period of time the data are being collected, so "being" is used properly here."

Is the being used to describe the ongoing action- Data is being collected? I CANNOT UNDERSTAND HOW IS IT DESCRIBING THE TEMPORARY STATE..please help

B, C and D have pronoun issue. Being is correct when being +..ed construction is used.
B and D uses its to refer to data. C says Data is providing and in E , the subject should come after the. SO we are left with A and being is used with being +...ed construction. SO A it is.

Data, media, fish etc are plural.

VeritasKarishma

Just wanted to confirm how we can determine where the usage of being is incorrect. Thanks.

Aviral1995, gmatapprentice

Here is a post that discusses the usage of 'being':
https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2014/1 ... s-part-ii/

Good work narrowing the choices down to A vs. E. While A is certainly not ideal, it's better than E for a few reasons. Main ones are:
1) E has less clear meaning - "For engineers in consideration for the new dam project" can also imply these data points are being provided to engineers who are being considered for the new dam project if you read closely. So the meaning is fuzzy and then the focus is not on the actual viability of the project, but the engineers themselves --- likely not the author's intent.
2) The importance - Nothing wrong with that per se but "their importance" is clearer.

This is a very good question. Those who could select the correct answer in the first attempt, take a bow!

While in our day-to-day life we use data as a singular noun, it is actually the plural of datum. However, some experts do consider it as a collective noun, so it may be treated as a singular as well. In case of this ambiguity, we need to seek support from the question stem itself.

Let us analyse the portion that is not underlined: "...might lie in how they influence the upcoming decision by those same engineers on whether to retrofit 75 bridges in the survey zone."
the antecedent of "those" is clearly engineers, as evident by the portion itself. We need to find out the antecedent of "they". The statement is "... how they influence the upcoming decision by those same engineers". Thus, "they does not refer to engineers. Clearly, then, it refers to "data". Thus, in this sentence, the noun "data" has been used as a plural, rather than a collective noun. The same usage must happen throughout the sentence.

Now let us look at the options


data - plural. Correct
"their" must have the same antecedent as "they" in the portion not underlined. We determined above that the antecedent of "they" is "data". So, again, data - "their" - plural. Correct. No other visible error. Good to keep for now.


data - its -singular. Incorrect. Reject


data - is providing - singular. Incorrect. Reject


data - provides - singular. Incorrect. Reject


data - provide. Plural. Correct.
Overall structure seems fine. However, there is one major issue:
it changes the intended meaning: As per the question stem, the data is still being collected. It is present continuous. But this option states that the work of data collection is already over. This error also exists in option (D) & (C), but was overlooked, since they carried clearer subject verb disagreement.

So, the only option with no error whatsoever is (A)


Please do let me know if my approach has any flaw; or if there is any verbal mistake in my explanation. I am going to write my GMAT on 22nd June 2021

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