The development of a new type of manufacturing called 3-D

A, B and C have the same error

The development of a new type of manufacturing (...) will involve

The new type of manufacturing "will involve (...)", not its "developement" (logical error). We are down to D and E.

D. A newly developed type of manufacturing called 3-D printing, or additive manufacturing, involves futuristic printing machines that can replicate 3-D images, and this will lower costs considerably by greatly expanding who and where products can be made.

It seems to say that the fact that "can replicate 3-D images" will lower the cost: wrong.
"who (...)products can be made" is another error in the answer. "Who" needs a different verb than "where" ( where products can be made and who can make them )

E is correct

Howdy! I think I might be able to help a little bit here!



This is an excellent question! It is actually a subtle change that I didn't notice the first time that I read through these answers. Let's look at them:


B. The development of a new type of manufacturing – called 3-D printing or additive manufacturing – will involve futuristic printing machines that can replicate 3-D images and that can lower costs considerably by greatly expanding where products can be made and who can make them.

E. A newly developed type of manufacturing called 3-D printing, or additive manufacturing, involves futuristic printing machines that can replicate 3-D images and that will lower manufacturing costs considerably by expanding where products can be made and who can make them.

Honestly, I am a bit disappointed with this answer choice. You are correct that the meaning has been changed. In (B), we can see that this technology has the ability to lower costs and replicate 3-D images. In (D), the meaning is slightly different. The technology still has the ability to replicate 3-D images, but doesn't yet have the ability to lower costs. That will happen in the future.

Now maybe, in (B) this idea is implied with the use of "will involve," but I think this is a very very weak inference and likely not true.

Ultimately, I think this is a flaw in the question. Whoever wrote this questions probably didn't notice the change that they were making to the sentence in (E). I don't see any reason for the change in meaning, unless the question writer expects us to have outside knowledge about 3-D manufacturing. I know that it is pretty expensive at this point, and it is not good for a lot of uses because it is so expensive. But the GMAT would never require us to have this kind of knowledge to choose a correct answer.

I think the safest thing to say here is that the answer choice is slightly flawed. The question writer made a mistake that alters the meaning of the sentence. The best wording of answer choice (E), and to make this question truly beneficial for GMAT prep is as follows:

A newly developed type of manufacturing called 3-D printing, or additive manufacturing, involves futuristic printing machines that can replicate 3-D images and that can lower manufacturing costs considerably by expanding where products can be made and who can make them.

I hope that helps!
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Is "greatly expanding" grammatically correct?

Yes, it is. "Greatly" is an adverb correctly describing the "expanding", which is a progressive form of verb here.

You can ask: How sh is expanding?
And you can answer: Sh is expanding greatly.

B vs E, although I agree with E as the correct answer choice I'm a bit dissapointed about the change in meaning from the original sentence. B says 'can' lower the costs while E says 'will' lower the costs. These two things are obviously different and thus creates confusion

Anyone wish to add something to this?
Cheers!
J

Whats wrong with B anyways..I mean if the author had not committed the mistake of us having pre knowledge on 3D printng..ie Had there been a can in E too

Zarrolou hints at why (B) is wrong. The problem here is the subject of the sentence. Instead of "type of manufacturing" as the subject, answer choice (B) makes "development" the subject of the sentence. Now this may not make sense immediately, but ask yourself if development is the logical subject of the verb:

"development ... will involve futuristic printing machines ..."

This is illogical! The development won't involve these things. This is a description of 3-D printing and printers—not a description of their development. So this is a subtle distinction but an important one.

"... the new type of manufacturing ... will involve ... printing machines ..."

Does that make sense?

We can't describe the development of 3-D printers in the same way that we describe 3-D printers.

Cheers!
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Is there anyway we can identify such errors...This is my second same mistake today...and I dont seem to get a hold of it...It passes the ear test so smoothly that it is never a suspect

These errors are tough to notice because they are so subtle. And it's even harder when they separate the subject and the predicate, like in this sentence. Our minds are really good at ignoring this sort of illogical sentence and making sense of what is there, so we have to pay attention to the meeting created by the words in the sentence—not what our minds tell us.

This isn't the best answer, I know, but there is no hard fast rule. We have to pay attention to the logical coherence of the subject and the predicate. Do they make sense together? I suppose the word "development" might be a good tip, though. It is real easy to start talking about the thing itself even though the subject is "development." So I'd keep an eye out for that. Besides that make sure the sentence is logical.
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It is not the "development of......." that will involve futuristic printing but a type of manufacturing will involve futuristic printing.....so A, B and C are eliminated.

D breaks the parallel construction of "that"
E - the best answer choice as it says- a Type of manufacturing involves futuristic printing that can.....and that will......

Hope it helps!
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Can you please let me know if E is not changing the tense of the original sentence?

The original sentence seems to be in future tense (suggesting that the technology will develop in future), while E seems to suggest as if the technology has already been developed.

In the original sentence - Development .. will involve - This is not correct. As development (in itself) will not involve.

The intent of the sentence is to highlight what 3-D printing consists of in terms of machines and what are the machines capable of .. (in future)..
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OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Explanation: On questions like this, in which there are so many decision points, you must find a concrete error and use that to eliminate several answer choices. Perhaps the best place to start on this example is the choice of subject between “the development of a new type of manufacturing” and “a newly developed type of manufacturing” along with the verb that accompanies it (“will involve” and “involves”) Here the primary concept is logical predication. First, it is not the development that involves the futuristic printers but the type of manufacturing that involves the futuristic printers. Also, the future tense in (A), (B), and (C) is wrong: if you say “the development will involve” it is as if nothing has yet taken place, which is illogical given the context of the sentence. For the sentence to be correct, it must be the new type of manufacturing that involves the printers and that is taking place now, not in the future. In choosing between (D) and (E), the easiest decision point comes at the end. In (D), “by greatly expanding who and where products can be made” is nonsensical as “who products can be made” is clearly wrong. Answer choice (E) corrects that by changing it to “where products can be made and who can make them”
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VeritasKarishma

Hi,

I checked the official explanation, but it states exactly the opposite of my thinking.

My point is in E-

A newly developed type of manufacturing called 3-D printing, or additive manufacturing, involves futuristic printing machines......

It means, there is a newly developed manufacturing but if it is already developed then how can it involve futuristic products.......

It should only involve products that are currently available.

"futuristic printing machines" means advanced, ahead of the times. So the printing machines are much more advanced than the generally available printing machines.
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VeritasKarishma

I get that point but still, we don't say that we have a futuristic device (in present), we generally say that we have an idea to be built for the futuristic device. If the device is available then we never refer to it as futuristic, yes It can be much more advance as compared to other devices, still, we don't refer to them as futuristic.

For example- The launch of the iPhone was an innovation at its own time (touchscreen), but no one refers to it as futuristic. Or like uber trying to build flying cars, and therefore we refer to them as futuristic, but once it has been built, we won't say that it is futuristic because it has been built. Similar case with tesla, when they were building automatic cars.

I am still not able to understand why we are referring to them as futuristic if technology has been developed, yes it could be advanced from other similar devices, but still as it has been built and its no longer an idea, wouldn't it be wrong to refer them as futuristic.

You are obsessing over the wrong things. Each option uses futuristic so there is no decision point there. Since the word has been used this way, obviously it can be used this way.

Even if you are not convinced, all you have to do is search the word on google news to see umpteen references of the word with things developed recently.
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Okay thanks, Although I did the google search, still was not able to find any reference like this. And yes Futuristic is getting used in every option, but some options are changing their meaning.

And I get that B and C are wrong because it is referring to development but can you please let me know the difference between B and C. One is using which and the other is using a hyphen. If you have two options, one is using which and the other is a hyphen, and the rest of the content is the same, like in B and C, which of those options should be preferred?

E) A newly developed type of manufacturing called 3-D printing, or additive manufacturing, involves futuristic printing machines that can replicate 3-D images and that will lower manufacturing costs considerably by expanding where products can be made and who can make them.

Indeed the OA is less than satisfactory. If it is already developed printing m/c then why will it involve "futuristic" printing m/c?