The fall in the Agriculture Institute's hostile disease

As I believe D changes the meaning
So answer should be E...
My concern is with E ....though it must be the right answer but does not has the 100% correct parallel structure....

Archit

The difference between

D- indicates that farmers should maintain a high level of production in the next quarter, but that
and
E- indicates that farmers will maintain a high level of production in the next quarter, but

is the use of should in D and the use of will in E ; but that and that.

Should expresses something morally obliged whereas will expresses to predict or expect an event that still lies in the future.

The original sentence states that farmers should maintain a high level of production in the next quarter but whether they will or not , we don't know...

Hence , E actually changes the meaning.

Now , that is parralel to but that, meaning that the second clause is dependent to the first..

Hope my analysis is fine , what is the OA ?

Hi Archit143, I'm just trying to confirm something. The way you posted this question, it looks like answer choice D (fourth one from the top) is correct. However you are wondering if it changes the meaning of the original sentence. I've reread it 5 times and it appears to be the original text posted verbatim, but with the verb agreement error corrected (subject of indicates is fall).

Rock750's analysis above is spot on, but I'm curious as to perceived differences in meaning. I'd go D on this one.

Hope this helps!
-Ron

I think the correct answer is E.


Reasons:

Meaning:
The fall in the Agriculture Institute's hostile disease threat level = Can not impose an obligation, hence the use of should does not make sense.

(also keep in mind that "should" is within the underlined portion, so we can not say that the intent of original sentence was to impose an obligation and we can not say that by selecting E we are changing the meaning of the sentence)

Parallelism:
The fall in the Agriculture Institute's hostile disease threat level indicates that

farmers will maintain a high level of production in the next quarter
the introduction of a new disease strain will pose a serious threat if suitable preventative measures are not developed.

We could have started the parallel structure with that if these two facts were independent of each other, but they are not in this case.

Ron,
with all due regards to you and to your knowledge.....I was also amazed after finding my answer as wrong..............
Answer is E..........
I do not think source can be questioned...it is from GROCKIT...hardest question.......................

Consider Kudos If my post helps!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Archit

Posting the OA

Consider Kudos If my post helps!!!!

Archit

My vote goes for E and here is my reasoning for the same:
fall .. indicates so left with C, D, E
fall in anything can't recommend the farmers so "should" goes out. Left with C vs E
I got it through the ending but there are other issues in C as well. We do not need parallelism with indicates that/but that .. because doing so will mean:
The fall in the Agriculture Institute's hostile disease threat level indicates (that || but) that the introduction of a new disease strain will pose a serious threat if suitable preventative measures are not developed.
Does not make sense .. how can fall in disease threat level (good indicator) is indicating a serious threat. (bad indicator)
We have got subject for our second clause after "but", so left the parallelism for but and chosen E.

Hi Archit143, definite kudos for a tricky question that lures you in with parallel structure, but actually goes with meaning. OA being E makes sense. Recognizing the meaning trap here is the best way to see that the parallel structure provided in D is not necessary!

-Ron

Hey Ron,

Please can you provide more details about this meaning trap because i think don't get it !! what's wrong with D ?

Thanks in advance

Hi ROck
Question is designed so that people end up chosing D..because of parallel structure but the oA is E......there is very thin line of difference between D and E in the menaing......and E conveys meaning in the best way possible.

Archit

Moreover Kudos to you Ron...for accepting OA......generally people of your standard end up saying that OA is wrong........

Archit

Hi Rock750, the parallel structure is tricky because of the implied causation. The answers that maintain the " indicate that/but that" parallel structure imply causation between the subject (the fall of the threat level). In actuality, the fall of the threat level has causation on the first clause (high level of production), but the second clause (a new disease strain will pose a serious threat) is an independent warning that does not rest on the threat level.

In actuality, the fall of the threat level has implications on the production, but not on the threat of new disease. I'd prefer answer E if it had "should" instead of "will", because I don't see how the threat level guarantees production level (there should seemingly be other factors such as weather, demand, subsidies, etc), but the logic structure trumps this wording as the more egregious error.

And Archit, after seeing the level of difficulty of a lot of the questions asked in these forums, I'm confident I won't get them all right. The main concept is to see why answers are right and learn important takeaways. Above 90th percentile, almost every answer you pick will have something you don't like. The key is understanding which errors are unpardonable and which are simply nice-to-haves.

Hope this helps!
-Ron

Hi Ron,

Sorry, don't really agree with what you are saying here. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't "should" in GMAT used only for advice/recommendation ?
If the original sentence is suggesting "should", I acknowledge that by choosing "will" in E, we are changing the original meaning but isn't it natural to check whether that original choice made sense or not ? To me, that does not ..

The original one literally conveys: "The fall in the threat of a known disease indicates Farmers should maintain high production in the next quarter".

1) Fall cannot recommend anything to begin with.
2) Even if it does, contrast with "but" in the other half of sentence does not align with this recommendation.
It would have been logical, had it been something like this in the non-underlined part: "but the maintenance of high level of production will add to the surplus and will be a net loss to the farmers".

Lastly, I agree to what you said about will (other factors that can be a reason), so to me "will be able to/can" would have made more sense in place of stronger and lonely "will".

That's just my two cents.

HI
The underlined portion contains the word indicates that means....it is the word following must be will because the intent shows it is not compulsory....should is required in the circumstances where things are mandatory or compulsory...but here just something is indicating towards something...which may or may not happen

Consider kudos if my post helps!!!

Archit

Indicates does not tell you any kind of probability. Its not that kind of word. You may consider replacing it with "points, suggests or argue etc."



You may refer to Q54 OG13: The report recommended that the hospital should eliminate unneeded beds ......
Read out its explanation and you will get to know why should is incorrect in Q54 as well as your explanation above.

Now, you may consider giving me kudos for finding out that precise example for you, though it derailed my routine for a while.

Hi
In the question number you have mentioned has sunjunctive problem...In such cases "should " must not be used...Infact the verb used in subjunctive must be plural and base form ie with be.
The two questions are entirely different and not related.
Indicate in this sentence is not imperative and hence the question of elimination should on the basis of subjunctive is out of scope.....

Consider Kudos If my post helps!!!!

Archit

+1 for E.

Should cannot be used for predictions or orders from the authorities. It is used in case of moral obligations. Correct me if I am not.