The data being collected in the current geological survey are providin

The OA is disputable; let’s see why because A GMAT question is just not one aspect; it is multi-dimensional.

A. The data being collected in the current geological survey are providing a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance ----- ‘they consider’ who consider? Data or Engineers? Not definitely data because data do not consider; only people do it. But the second pronoun ‘does’ not refer to engineers. But data for sure. This kind dual reference is not acceptable. I am not even disputing whether data is singular or plural; Data can very well be singular in the context since it is the totality of the data as a collective unit that is being considered here.

B. The data being collected in the current geological survey provide a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but its greatest importance –discordant as far as the number agreement of the data is considered. First, data seems to imply that it is plural because they provide but the pronoun ‘its’ seems to suggest singularity. Is this permissible?.


C. The data collected in the current geological survey is providing a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance -- discordant as far as the number agreement of the data is considered. First, data seems to imply that it is singular because it is providing but the pronoun ‘their’ seems to suggest plurality. Is this permissible? It is obvious that their greatest importance does not refer to the Engineers’ importance

D. The data collected in the current geological survey provides a strong warning for engineers in consideration of the new dam project, but its greatest importance – This is the only choice, where pronouns fit in smugly without room any ambiguity; But there is a sly pitfall here. In consideration may also mean - at a price of- or -in return for-. Like we say the hijackers agreed to release the hostages in consideration of a ransom $10 m. This is what thelosthippie pointed out I suppose.
E. The data collected in the current geological survey provide a strong warning for engineers in consideration for the new dam project, but the greatest importance – ----the greatest importance is too general to specify a purpose, in addition, the tricky issue of the ‘in consideration of,

I would go with D as the least objectionable choice

Hold, hold, even D is not correct. The 'they' in the non - underlined part is plural; it is not tallying with the singular 'its' and the singular 'provides'

Maybe we will have to take E as the answer in spite the idiom error

I hate to say this, but I wouldn't lose too much sleep over this particular example. My usual disclaimer: this isn't an official GMAT question, and it's extraordinarily difficult for test-prep companies to perfectly copy the style of real GMAT questions. After all, the GMAT spends somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500-$3000 to develop each question. Even the very best test-prep companies can't compete with that.

And in this particular case, I think the question has some ambiguities that wouldn't appear on the actual exam.

First, let's talk about the issue of whether data is plural or singular. Reasonable and highly educated people disagree on this point. When I was in PhD school, my professors disagreed about whether data was singular or plural. Most editors treat it as singular now. Technically, I suppose that "datum" is singular, and "data" is plural, but most people would say "data is awesome" not "data are awesome" -- and that's how it would appear in most credible publications. So it's a grey area.

But guess what? That doesn't matter. The GMAT will never test you on something this ambiguous. Plenty of other nouns (media, fish, deer, etc.) could be either singular and plural, and the GMAT was always give you some other clue that tells you whether the noun is singular or plural. Here's a good example from the GMATPrep: https://gmatclub.com/forum/analyzing-ca ... 56-40.html

So no, you don't need to know if "data" or "media" are inherently singular or plural, because there's no standard answer, and it's not going to be an issue on the exam. If you think it's an issue on a question, look closely: the GMAT will give you another hint somewhere else.

I'm skeptical of this language in (A), to be honest: "The data being collected in the current geological survey are providing a strong warning..." It's not necessarily wrong, but the GMAT is unlikely to use "are providing" (progressive tense, if you like that jargon) unless there's a darned good reason for it.

The pronouns are dodgy, but arguably OK. The first "they" clearly refers to engineers; you could argue that "their" refers unambiguously to "data," since "their" is the subject of the second clause, and must refer back to the subject of the first clause. But it's hard to find official questions with pronouns that sound this murky, with several variations of "they" and "their" referring to different antecedents. Again, it's not necessarily wrong, but it's also not a typical construction that you'd see on the actual test.

In other words: don't worry too much about this one. I can see why (A) is the OA, but I see at least three issues that don't quite smell like the real thing.

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Pronouns + Tenses + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• The present participle is used to refer to ongoing actions in any time period.
• The simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature. Additionally, Option A is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.
• The simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.

A: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the plural noun "data" with the plural verb "are providing" and the plural pronoun "their". Further, Option A correctly uses the present participle ("verb+ing" - "being" in this sentence) phrase "being collected" and the simple present continuous tense verb "are providing" to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature; remember, the present participle is used to refer to ongoing actions in any time period, and the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature. Additionally, Option A is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

B: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun "data" with the singular pronoun "its". Further, Option B incorrectly uses the simple present tense verb "provide" to refer to an action that is currently ongoing and continuous in nature; remember, the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature, and the simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.

C: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun "data" with the singular verb "is providing". Further, Option C incorrectly uses the past participle "collected" to refer to an action that is currently ongoing and continuous in nature; please remember, the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature.

D: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun "data" with the singular verb "provides". Moreover, Option D incorrectly refers to the plural noun "data" with the singular pronoun "its". Further, Option D incorrectly uses the past participle "collected" to refer to an action that is currently ongoing and continuous in nature; please remember, the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature. Additionally, Option D incorrectly uses the simple present tense verb "provide" to refer to an action that is currently ongoing and continuous in nature; remember, the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature, and the simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature. Besides, Option D uses the needlessly indirect phrase "in consideration of ", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

E: This answer choice incorrectly uses the past participle "collected" to refer to an action that is currently ongoing and continuous in nature; please remember, the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature. Further, Option E incorrectly uses the simple present tense verb "provide" to refer to an action that is currently ongoing and continuous in nature; remember, the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature, and the simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature. Besides, Option D uses the needlessly indirect phrase "in consideration for", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



To understand the concept of "Simple Continuous Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

First of all, "Data" can be used as either plural or singular. But the usage data as plural is more common.

Second. Because of "they", we should consider data plural noun.

The data being collected in the current geological survey are providing a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance might lie in how they influence the upcoming decision by those same engineers on whether to retrofit 75 bridges in the survey zone.

A. The data being collected in the current geological survey are providing a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance
>>> Wrong. "they" and "their" are not clear.

B. The data being collected in the current geological survey provide a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but its greatest importance
>>> Wrong.

C. The data collected in the current geological survey is providing a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance
>>> Wrong.

D. The data collected in the current geological survey provides a strong warning for engineers in consideration of the new dam project, but its greatest importance
>>> Wrong.

E. The data collected in the current geological survey provide a strong warning for engineers in consideration for the new dam project, but the greatest importance
>>> Correct.

Waiting for the OA.

Note: data is plural form; datum is singular form.

The data being collected in the current geological survey are providing a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance might lie in how they influence the upcoming decision by those same engineers on whether to retrofit 75 bridges in the survey zone.

A. The data being collected in the current geological survey are providing a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance
Correct. I agree A is the best among the lot, but I'm still not satisfied with "they" (as they consider......) because "they" may refer to subject data (plural) or engineers.

B. The data being collected in the current geological survey provide a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but its greatest importance
Wrong. "data" is plural --> "its" is wrong.

C. The data collected in the current geological survey is providing a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance
Wrong. "data" is plural.

D. The data collected in the current geological survey provides a strong warning for engineers in consideration of the new dam project, but its greatest importance
Wrong. "data" is plural.

E. The data collected in the current geological survey provide a strong warning for engineers in consideration for the new dam project, but the greatest importance
Wrong. "in consideration for" is unidiomatic. "in consideration of" is correct.

Hope it helps.

The data being collected in the current geological survey are providing a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance might lie in how they influence the upcoming decision by those same engineers on whether to retrofit 75 bridges in the survey zone.

they in non underlined portion they influence the upcoming decision is plural indicating that data is plural.

B. The data being collected in the current geological survey provide a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but its greatest importance(it is used for plural subject data)

C. The data collected in the current geological survey is providinga strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance (plural subj-singular verb)

D. The data collected in the current geological survey provides a strong warning for engineers in consideration of the new dam project, but its greatest importance (plural subj-singular verb)

left with A and E,

A. The data being collected in the current geological survey are providing a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance

E. The data collected in the current geological survey provide a strong warning for engineers in consideration for the new dam project, but the greatest importance

Dear Charles,

Through my English study, teachers told us that 'Data' is sigular but I found that OG 12 may treats 'Data' as Plural.

SC36, p. 40:
New DATA from United States Forest Service ecologists SHOW that for every dollar spent on controlled small- scale burning, forest thinning, and the training of fire-management personnel, seven dollars are saved that would have been spent on extinguishing big fires.

p. 360:
They ruled out local bias because breakage DATA obtained from other Pleistocene sites WERE similar to the La Brea data.

p. 366:
These DATA HAVE established a strong connection between variations in the Earth’s orbit and the periodicity of the ice ages.

what do you think?

Yes -- the GMAT has a history of treating both "data" and "media" as plural. But I think it's a non-issue. Notice that in each of the examples you cited, you don't have any choice: in the first one, "New data... show" isn't even underlined, so it has no impact on the answer. The other two examples are CR, and the subject-verb agreement isn't our problem.

So you deserve 20 points for attention to detail! (Hopefully the GMAT folks will apply those points directly to your score!) But I still don't think it's anything to worry about: I still haven't seen an official question that requires you to actually know whether potentially ambiguous nouns (data, media, fish, deer...) are singular or plural. If it's an issue, they'll give you another clue to tell you whether "data" is singular or plural.

And I also agree with your English training: at least in the United States, "data" is singular. So please hug your teachers for me.

(E) is incorrect. The correct answer is (A)
You should check out these two posts:
https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2014/11 ... s-part-ii/
https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2014/10 ... -sc-myths/

The first one discusses this question and the second one discusses a similar question with multiple pronouns.

The data being collected in the current geological survey are providing a strong warning for engineers as "they" consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance might lie in how "they" influence the upcoming decision by those same engineers on whether to retrofit 75 bridges in the survey zone.

Here the two they are referring to engineers and data respectively. isnt it creating pronoun ambiguity?

You can narrow down to A and E pretty easily. Intuitively, I find both a little problematic, but in option A, the use of 'they' to refer the engineers and 'their' to refer to data, followed by 'they' to refer to data and 'those' to refer to engineers is very unclear. That leaves us with answer E, which has a very cumbersome construction (especially the in consideration... part) but can't find anything specifically incorrect with it. My answer by elimination is E. The best way would be to use the antecedents in sentence A, but that isn't amongst the choices.

Mo2men, Another concrete example taken from Official Guide Verbal Review 2017. Reading Comprehension Question 62 explanation.

No data are offered to support an assumption.

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.

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/

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

Hi dhardubey

To clearly understand pronoun antecedents, it is helpful to break the sentences into its clauses. here we have two clauses -

Clause 1: "The data being collected in the current geological survey are providing a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project" ----in this clause, antecedent of "they" is engineers

Clause 2: "but their greatest importance might lie in how they influence the upcoming decision by those same engineers on whether to retrofit 75 bridges in the survey zone"-----here we have two relative pronouns "their" and "they". as is clear "their" refers to "data" and if you replace "they" with engineers, it will read as "engineers influence the upcoming......" which does not make sense. Hence in the second clause "their" and "they "both refer to "data "only.

Hence no pronoun ambiguity

I am working in IT industry for many years now. And we have always used 'data' as a singular term. Eg - Data your team has given is raw. I do not understand why the answer is not 'D'. Can anyone pls explain