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The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe

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bschool83
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The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   Updated on: 01 May 2019, 23:03
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The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever when it is present and indicate that there is one when it is not.

A. a fever when it is present and indicate that there is one
B. a fever when it is present and indicate that one is present
C. when a fever is present and indicate that there is one
D. when a fever is present and indicates its presence
E. the presence of a fever when it is there and indicates its presence
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B

Originally posted by bschool83 on 14 Aug 2011, 09:01.
Last edited by Bunuel on 01 May 2019, 23:03, edited 1 time in total.
Renamed the topic, edited the question and added the OA.
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   28 Jun 2013, 22:12
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The tip to pick a correct answer is to see the non-underlined part "when it is not". Technically, the correct structure should be "X is abc....when it is not abc.....", ("abc" is adjective). Two parts (before and after "when") should be parallel.

The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever when it is present and indicate that there is one when it is not.

a fever when it is present and indicate that there is one
Wrong. "There is one when it is not" is not parallel.

a fever when it is present and indicate that one is present
Correct. "one is present when it is not [present]" ==> Parallelism. (subject + is + adj when subject + is not [+ adj])

when a fever is present and indicate that there is one
Wrong. Same as A.

when a fever is present and indicates its presence
Wrong. "its present when it is not" ==> not parallel (noun vs clause)

the presence of a fever when it is there and indicates its presence
Wrong. Same as D. "its present when it is not" ==> not parallel (noun vs clause)

Hope it helps.
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   29 Jun 2013, 05:25
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skamal7 wrote:

Wrong. "its present when it is not" ==> not parallel (noun vs clause)
Can you explain this part little more elaborately.It will be of immense help dude
fever is present(clause)
Indicates(verb)+ its presence(noun)= clause
SO both the sides clauses are only there.SO please point me out where my understanding is going wrong :)


pqhai's method is WAY too complicated and not correct
Wrong. "There is one when it is not" is not parallel. "when" is NOT a parallelism marker
Maybe I can give you an easier one

The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever when it is present and indicate that there is one when it is not.

register "a fever when" or "when a fever"? The latter changes the meaning, the correct construct is "register (what?) a fever when(-refer to fever-)", if you change the position of "when" it will refer to the verb and not to the fever itself.
C and D are out.
E is out because of subj-verb agreement

a fever when it is present and indicate that there is one
a fever when it is present and indicate that one[a fever] is present<==parallel, hence correct. "and" is a parallelism marker
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   15 Aug 2011, 23:49
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D, E are obviously out because of simple subject verb agreement issue..

out of A,B,C.. B maintains the parallelism the best..
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   15 Aug 2011, 08:05
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confused b/w A and B..
but B looks the better option
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   13 Oct 2011, 04:21
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I go with B. makes more sense to me.
A and C out because there should always refer to a place in the GMAT
D and E out because of parrallism issues.....the use of its
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   01 Sep 2013, 02:28
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I chose B

discarded A and C for " there is one when it is not" - "when it is not" should be preceded by "that one is ___"
discarded D for almost the same reason
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   29 Jul 2020, 04:03
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abhishekmayank wrote:
I fail to understand that why so many replies are discarding the option A for the reason that it is not parallel. There seems to be a correct parallelism in both A and B, but not at the place where the option A is being faulted at, for missing parallelism :

In both A and B, the correct parallelism lies at the highlighted place :

A:
The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever when it is present and indicate that there is one when it is not.

B:
The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever when it is present and indicate that one is present when it is not.

Experts, could you help as to why B is preferred to A ?

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Hello, abhishekmayank. I agree that parallelism is not the offense in (A). We can just replace one with a fever, though, and see why (B) would be preferred:

A. The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever when it is present and indicate that there is a fever when it is not.
B. The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever when it is present and indicate that a fever is present when it is not.

You want to look for a direct answer to the question, What does the thermometer indicate? The answer is a fever, not there is. Moreover, the end of choice (A) forces us to do a little backtracking to qualify the meaning of there is a fever when it is not [present]. Compare this to the straightforward expression of vital meaning at the tail-end of (B): a fever is present when it is not. (B) wins, hands down.

I hope that helps. Thank you for bringing my attention to the question.

- Andrew
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   14 Aug 2011, 11:48
IMO, B.

C and D changes the meaning.
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   14 Aug 2011, 13:50
I think it's B too.

a) wordy
b)
c) that there is one sounds strange
d) it shouldn't fail to register the time (WHEN...)...changes meaning of orginal sentence
e) very wordy
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   15 Oct 2011, 07:36
totally agree with supporters of B
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   21 Oct 2011, 11:37
Went for B as well but can't really pin point any mistake in A!
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   04 Nov 2011, 12:36
Hi,

I am waiting for the final answer.

In my opinion, E could be the answer.

Though it is wordy, the usage is good.

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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   07 Nov 2011, 11:58
bschool83 wrote:
The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever when it is present and indicate that there is one when it is not.

a fever when it is present and indicate that there is one
a fever when it is present and indicate that one is present
when a fever is present and indicate that there is one
when a fever is present and indicates its presence
the presence of a fever when it is there and indicates its presence


Between A and B, I chose B because it has less number of pronouns. :roll:
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   28 Jun 2013, 07:33
verb 'present' is needed to make proper parallel construction , therefore 'B' is correct.
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   29 Jun 2013, 04:55
pqhai wrote:
The tip to pick a correct answer is to see the non-underlined part "when it is not". Technically, the correct structure should be "X is abc....when it is not abc.....", ("abc" is adjective). Two parts (before and after "when") should be parallel.

The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever when it is present and indicate that there is one when it is not.

a fever when it is present and indicate that there is one
Wrong. "There is one when it is not" is not parallel.

a fever when it is present and indicate that one is present
Correct. "one is present when it is not [present]" ==> Parallelism. (subject + is + adj when subject + is not [+ adj])

when a fever is present and indicate that there is one
Wrong. Same as A.

when a fever is present and indicates its presence
Wrong. "its present when it is not" ==> not parallel (noun vs clause)

the presence of a fever when it is there and indicates its presence
Wrong. Same as D. "its present when it is not" ==> not parallel (noun vs clause)

Hope it helps.



Wrong. "its present when it is not" ==> not parallel (noun vs clause)
Can you explain this part little more elaborately.It will be of immense help dude
fever is present(clause)
Indicates(verb)+ its presence(noun)= clause
SO both the sides clauses are only there.SO please point me out where my understanding is going wrong :)
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   30 May 2019, 18:30
The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever when it is present and indicate that there is one when it is not.

A. a fever when it is present and indicate that there is one
B. a fever when it is present and indicate that one is present
C. when a fever is present and indicate that there is one
D. when a fever is present and indicates its presence
E. the presence of a fever when it is there and indicates its presence

E - "presence" makes sentence wordy, we can drop the presence.
C,D - when is not needed in this context.
A- "there" seems to be suspect in option A, B is more clear.

Hence, B is the answer.
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The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   29 Jul 2020, 01:17
I fail to understand that why so many replies are discarding the option A for the reason that it is not parallel. There seems to be a correct parallelism in both A and B, but not at the place where the option A is being faulted at, for missing parallelism :

In both A and B, the correct parallelism lies at the highlighted place :

A:
The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever when it is present and indicate that there is one when it is not.

B:
The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever when it is present and indicate that one is present when it is not.

Experts, could you help as to why B is preferred to A ?

VeritasKarishma
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AjiteshArun
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   29 Jul 2020, 11:44
Thanks MentorTutoring for your explanation !!
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Re: The defective thermometers will sometimes fail to register a fever whe [#permalink] New post   16 Nov 2022, 05:58
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