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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 04 Jan 2017, 04:08
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x97agarwal
The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting some forms of cancer, the brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis may also play a role in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.
A. in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting
B. in addition to its possibilities to prevent or inhibit
C. besides the possibility that it prevents and inhibits
D. besides the possible preventing and inhibiting of
E. besides possibly preventing or inhibiting
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I want to contribute something.

"besides" can work as a conjuction, which connect two things of the same kind and can work as a preposition, which stand before a noun. in D, "besides" works as a conjuction, which connect "preventing and inhibiting" with "role". so, "besides" in d is correct. but "preventing and inhibitting" is wrong because there is "prevention" and "inhibition". we have to use these nouns, not the noun of the form "doing".
"besides' in e works as a preposition.
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 10 Jul 2017, 21:01
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Experts: how is usage of semicolon justified in this sentence? Normally in semi-colon sentences two independent clauses are related to each other through some pronoun. For example: John and Jane are best buddies; they are together since 2005.

thanks
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 26 Jul 2017, 10:17
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ManSab
Experts: how is usage of semicolon justified in this sentence? Normally in semi-colon sentences two independent clauses are related to each other through some pronoun. For example: John and Jane are best buddies; they are together since 2005.

thanks
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Hello ManSab,

I will be glad to help you resolve your doubt.

Let me present the sentence with the correct answer choice:

The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; besides possibly preventing or inhibiting some forms of cancer, the brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis may also play a role in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

The semi-colon has been used correctly in this official sentence.

The first independent clause talks about the health benefits of tea that have been the subject of much research.

Continuing the same thought or information further, the second independent clause talks about the possible health benefits of the brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis. From the context of the sentence it is evident that Camellia sinesis is a kind of tea. So both the clauses talk about the same topic. The second clause is the extension of the information presented in the first clause. Hence, use of semi-colon to join two independent clauses is absolutely correct in this official sentence.

Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 26 Jul 2017, 10:23
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rishabhdxt
is this correct ?

besides the possible preventing or inhibiting of
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Hello rishabhdxt,

I will be glad to help you with this one. :-)

The structure that you have mentioned in your post is not correct.

See, the thing is when a structure demands the usage of the noun form of a word, then we must use the conventional noun form of the word and not the verb-ing form of the noun form as we see in the structure you have presented in your post.

The correct structure can be as follows: besides the possible prevention or inhibition of.

However, the way choice E is worded is apt.

Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 05 Sep 2017, 10:04
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Can you please help me with sentence structure of this question? B, D and E look correct to me.
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 05 Sep 2017, 11:02
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12.nehasingh
Can you please help me with sentence structure of this question? B, D and E look correct to me.
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Two sentences can be connected with ";"

Sentence-1: The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research
Sentence-2: in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting some forms of cancer, the brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis may also play a role in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Sentence-2a: "in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting some forms of cancer" - Modifier
Sentence-2b: "the brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis may also play a role in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke." - Main clause

ITS possibilities --> whose possibilities?? so here you look for the subject of the "ITS"

but subject of main clause is "the brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis" i.e. LEAVES and "leaveS" is plural. so "its" referring to plural subject "leaveS" is incorrect.

look for this issue in all other sentences - A, B & C all of these choices are wrong for this reason.

Now who is doing the action preventing or say inhibiting? -- Leaves

so choice E correctly uses the structure "verbing...,subject"

Now beware of choice D here because it fools you with "THE PREVENTING OF", which is not VERBING.

Now there are other flaws as in choices but i was able to get to the righ answer with simply the above issues.

Hope it helps.
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 09 Sep 2017, 11:19
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting some forms of cancer, the brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis may also play a role in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.


A. in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting
 - "and" is incorrect here. PREVENTING = INHIBITING, so this sets up a redundancy error.

B. in addition to its possibilities to prevent or inhibit
 - "its" incorrectly refers to "brewed leaves" -- so not only should "its" be PLURAL, but "plural + possibilities" = UNIDIOMATIC.

C. besides the possibility that it prevents and inhibits
 - "and" sets up redundancy error

D. besides the possible preventing and inhibiting of
 - "the preventing and inhibiting" = UNIDIOMATIC. "and" sets up redundancy error.

E. besides possibly preventing or inhibiting
 - correct as is

> i think the key thing is that if you can find the redundancy error here, you're golden -- you have a 50/50 shot of getting it right if you were guessing.

> if you spot the "its"/"it" error -- noting that "its" refers to a PLURAL subject, you also have a 50/50 shot of getting it right if you were guessing.

Kudos please if you find helpful :)
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 05 Apr 2018, 20:53
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Hello,

Can anyone explain the usage of pronoun "It" in option A, B and C
Since there is a semi colon, the subject of the second independent clause is brewed leaves, so can we eliminate options A, B and C because of its and it.

Let me know if my understanding is correct.

Regards
Anugrah
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 05 Apr 2018, 23:58
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anugrahs
Hello,

Can anyone explain the usage of pronoun "It" in option A, B and C
Since there is a semi colon, the subject of the second independent clause is brewed leaves, so can we eliminate options A, B and C because of its and it.

Let me know if my understanding is correct.
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Hi Anugrah, It in option A, B and C at best qualifies as an ambiguous pronoun, since it has multiple eligible antecedents.

It is well known that GMAT shows a high-level of tolerance for ambiguous pronouns. Hence, eliminating options A, B and C because of this reason, is not correct.

Also, I am curious to know why you are looking at the subject of the second independent clause, to decide on the antecedent of it.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses Ambiguous Pronoun, its application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 02 May 2018, 11:45
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fozzzy
Can someone provide a detailed analyis on this question. Thanks! why isn't "and" used here?
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prevent or inhibit correct
prevent and inhibit incorrect
You cannot 'both' Prevent And Inhibit something at the same time, logically.

between B and E.
In B "its" is awkward.
‘its’ is referring to the ‘brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis’ when it should refer to ‘tea’ .
Also You will realise that it refers to Brewed Leaves: Plural. So, "It" cannot refer to "Leaves."
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 14 Feb 2019, 03:54
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting some forms of cancer, the brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis may also play a role in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

(A) in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting- pronoun issue- the INTENDED antecedent here is "the brewed leaves of camellia sinensis" and singular pronoun 'it' can't refer to plural noun; usage of "possibilities" unidiomatic
-the possibility that NOUN VERB
-the possibility of NOUN
(B) in addition to its possibilities to prevent or inhibit -pronoun issue same as A ; usage of "possibilities" unidiomatic
(C) besides the possibility that it prevents and inhibits - pronoun issue is same as A
(D) besides the possible preventing and inhibiting of - "the possible VERBing" is inferior to "possibly VERBing".
(E) besides possibly preventing or inhibiting - Correct

Answer E

preventing and inhibiting vs preventing or inhibiting
"and" makes lesser sense in context (it makes it seem as though the two effects must occur together); "or" makes more sense.
1. But can we use 'and' vs 'or' as a decision point to eliminate here?
2. Preventing cancer- stop the occurrence of cancer completely
inhibit cancer- slow down the occurrence/degree of cancer
Are these interpretations correct?

AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , MagooshExpert , GMATGuruNY , VeritasPrepBrian , MartyTargetTestPrep , DmitryFarber , generis , other experts - please enlighten
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 13 Apr 2019, 12:11
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I want to unerstand that doesnt option E change the meaning of the orginal sentence?

Origina sentence talks about the possibility of preventing and inhibiting. While, Option E says that possibly preventing.
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 13 Apr 2019, 17:21
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jyotsnamahajan
I want to unerstand that doesnt option E change the meaning of the orginal sentence?

Origina sentence talks about the possibility of preventing and inhibiting. While, Option E says that possibly preventing.
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In general, it's a good idea not to depend on option A to provide the "correct" meaning. In fact, the only case in which A is guaranteed to provide us the intended meaning of the sentence is when it is the correct answer.
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 25 Jun 2019, 10:55
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What are the errors other than pronoun error in A, B and C?

Whether the nature of the phrase following comma should be same as the phrase after "in addition"? For example: In addition to physical fitness, mental fitness can also be achieved by Yoga.

Is there any structure we should follow while using "in addition"?

Why E should be preferred over D ?
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 26 Jun 2019, 00:06
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Balkrishna
Why E should be preferred over D ?
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The preventing... is a little awkward and doesn't make it clear that it is the brewed leaves that are preventing something. I also like or more than and here:

prevent or inhibit
vs.
prevent and inhibit
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 26 Jun 2019, 01:05
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Quote:
The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting some forms of cancer, the brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis may also play a role in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Show more

Hi,
The semi-colon separates the two clauses. The first clause The health.....research could be ignored since its in non-underlined portion.
The second clause starts with a modifier and uses a possessive its. The main subject of the second clause is the brewed leaves, of Camellia sinensis is a prepositional modifier and cannot be the subject.
This makes A, B & C incorrect.
Quote:

(A) in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting

(B) in addition to its possibilities to prevent or inhibit

(C) besides the possibility that it prevents and inhibits
Show more
Quote:

(D) besides the possible preventing and inhibiting of
Show more
D uses the possible and a preposition of making the action of preventing a noun. Since the rest of the sentence is in non-underlined portion, it cannot act as an object.
Quote:

(E) besides possibly preventing or inhibiting
Show more
E uses the adjective form of possible and changes the whole underlined portion into a modifier. There is no pronoun.

So, E is the correct choice.
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 08 Apr 2020, 04:16
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting some forms of cancer, the brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis may also play a role in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

A. in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting
B. in addition to its possibilities to prevent or inhibit
C. besides the possibility that it prevents and inhibits
D. besides the possible preventing and inhibiting of
E. besides possibly preventing or inhibiting

Can someone please explain how options A,B,C,D are eliminated and why is option E the right answer? I really am not able to understand the grammatical errors in the given options.
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 08 Apr 2020, 04:49
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Krishchamp

Can someone please explain how options A,B,C,D are eliminated and why is option E the right answer? I really am not able to understand the grammatical errors in the given options.
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Hi! This is a separate clause:

...in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting some forms of cancer, the brewed leaves….

This clause starts with an introductory modifier in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting some forms of cancer. Pronoun its appears as part of this introductory modifier.

When a pronoun appears as part of introductory modifier, the pronoun mostly refers to the noun immediately after the introductory modifier. In this case, that noun is brewed leaves.

Hence, A, B and C are wrong because it/its (singular pronoun) cannot refer to brewed leaves (plural).

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses Pronoun issues in Introductory modifiers, their application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 07 Sep 2020, 03:22
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1. Why "and" is wrong?
2. How we can determine the antecedent for it?
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The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in 16 Oct 2020, 00:45
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VIBHOJAIN
1. Why "and" is wrong?
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Hi @VIBHOJAIN, this reminds me of another official question that partially tests on this logic between and and or:

Correct: Some buildings that were destroyed or heavily damaged in the earthquake last year had been constructed in violation of the city's building code.

Incorrect: Some buildings that were destroyed and heavily damaged in the earthquake last year had been constructed in violation of the city's building code.

2. How we can determine the antecedent for it?[/quote]
The only eligible antecedents of it will be singular non-person. In this case however, the intent of of it is to refer to the plural the brewed leaves. Hence, the usage of it is invalid here.
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