The herbicide Oryzalin was still being produced in 1979, three years

Question

The herbicide Oryzalin was still being produced in 1979, three years after the wives of workers producing the chemical in Rensselaer, New York, were found  to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of their pregnancies was  normal.

(A) to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of their pregnancies was 
(B) to have had children born with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of the pregnancies was 
(C) either to have had children with heart defects or miscarriages, without any of their pregnancies being 
(D) either to have had miscarriages or to have borne children with heart defects; none of the pregnancies was 
(E) either to have had miscarriages or children born with heart defects, without any of their pregnancies being

Project SC Butler: Day 8: Sentence Correction (SC2) 
 For SC butler Questions  Click Here

daagh · Accepted Answer

The herbicide Oryzalin was still being produced in 1979, three years after the wives of workers producing the chemical in Rensselaer, New York, were found  to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of their pregnancies was  normal. 
 The problem is the placement of the modifier 'with heart defects or miscarriages.' Both the elements are modifying the children. However, it is absurd to expect children to have miscarriages. The wives had miscarriages and the children, if born, had heart defects. Therefore, it is essential to break the two elements and bring miscarriages close to the wives. 
'Their' also has to refer to the wives only, since we do not expect children to have pregnancies. Seen in this light,

(A) to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of their pregnancies was ---  wrong word order. Miscarriages should modify the wives  
(B) to have had children born with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of the pregnancies was --  The same problem as in A.  
(C) either to have had children with heart defects or miscarriages, without any of their pregnancies being ----  1. Being as a modifier is not correct2. Miscarriages should point to wives. 3. Either or correlative parallelism is defective.  
(D) either to have had miscarriages or to have borne children with heart defects; none of the pregnancies was -----  correct  
(E) either to have had miscarriages or children born with heart defects, without any of their pregnancies being ---  1. Either or correlative parallelism is defective 2. Being as a modifier is incorrect.

generis · Answer

dave13 - These words are easy to mix up. Native speakers mix up "borne" and "born" in writing quite often. There is a difference. Born is an . . . adjective.

Borne is the past participle of "bear." "To bear" can also mean to give birth to . The examples I list are probably better at conveying the distinction than the description of parts of speech. How each word is used (parts of speech) -- "borne" is the past participle of the verb "to bear" -- "born" is (1) very loosely, the "rest" of a verb "to be => born" (2) formally, born is an adjective that goes with the linking verb to be. Born as an adjective describes or renames the subject. "Born" is simultaneously a subject complement . The baby was born today. "Was" is a linking verb. Born describes the noun baby . We can substitute an easier adjective. The baby was upset. "Upset" is a subject complement and adjective that describes the baby. Active vs. passive I will use the terms "active" and "passive" in this sense: -- "Active": A woman is the person who bears, gives birth to, or has borne a child. She does something. She performs an act. The verb is transitive; it needs an object. We cannot say "She has borne." We say, "She has borne a child." -- "Passive": A child who IS born is part of a process in which he is not actively making himself be born. Nature is "acting" upon him. Passive = TO BE BORN: a child IS BORN Active = TO BEAR (a child) = a woman HAS BORNE a child correct, PASSIVE: A child IS born on a certain day. His birthday is November 18. correct, ACTIVE: The mother has thus borne a child on November 18. If a woman has borne a child . . . she has given birth to a child. She has "had" a child (very common in the U.S.). Your pickup is outstanding. I recommend that people read the definition of "bear" and especially the examples in The Oxford English Dictionary, online and The Cambridge English Dictionary online. Examples You are correct that • BORNE is the past participle of BEAR Additionally • BORN is an adjective WRONG : A child is not borne on November 18. -- CORRECT : A child is BORN on November 18. -- WRONG : A woman has not born that child on November 18. -- CORRECT : The woman has borne (given birth to) that child on November 18. • Option A (this analysis will apply to the verb in D that bothers you) -- Some women bear children with a doctor and a doula present. -- She bore two children. -- She is likely to have borne a child with dimpled cheeks. -- She is likely to have given birth to a child with dimpled cheeks. Different issue in A and B: "children with miscarriages" is incorrect Options A and B involve a different issue. (A) states "to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages " -- The preposition with "distributes" across the objects of the preposition. -- I have worked in Boston and New York. I have worked in Boston and in New York. Distribute the preposition "with" in A and B (I will "distribute" additional words to make the error clear). (A) to have borne children with heart defects or children with] miscarriages . . . (B) to have had children born with heart defects or children born] with miscarriages . . These phrases are absurd in meaning : from (A), children with miscarriages ; and from (B), children born with miscarriages . Children do not have miscarriages. Children are not born with miscarriages. Women who are pregnant have or suffer miscarriages. Hope that helps!

sowmiyav · Answer

Question: 
The herbicide Oryzalin was still being produced in 1979, three years after the wives of workers producing the chemical in Rensselaer, New York, were found to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of their pregnancies was normal. 
 Meaning: 
The herbicide was produced even in 1979 which was 3 years after the wives of workers who produce the chemical in Rensselaer were found to have had miscarriages and to have borne children with Heart defects. Also, none of the pregnancies was normal.

Error Analysis: 
A)  to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages - This does not clearly imply that the wives were found to have miscarriages. Instead it creates an ambiguity by incorrectly implying that the wives borne children with heart defects or borne children with miscarriages. -Eliminate
B) similar error as in (A). It incorrectly implies that children were born with heart defects or children were born with miscarriages. - Eliminate
C) *Either.. or parallelism is not maintained.
* none of the pregnancies is more precise than without any of their pregnancies 
*incorrect use of being
D)*Correct use of either.. or.. parallelism
*Correctly connects 2 independent clauses that are closely related in terms of subject matter using a semicolon. -- Correct
E)Same errors as in option (C)

IMO: OPTION D

ankit9291 · Answer

Error is meaning wives has children with heart defect or miscarriage , it looks like children have miscarriage

A have same error with ....were found ... And none of their ...another errot
B same as A
C either x or y error and being make things pasisve 
D perfect
E either x or y

Posted from my mobile device

raunakme19 · Answer

IMO B

A) ambiguous antecedent for "their" ---  Incorrect 
B)Concise and in accordance with the original sentence---  Correct 
C) Same as A ----  Incorrect 
D) Wordy- unnecessary use of either..or...--  Incorrect 
E) Same as A--  Incorrect

KB04 · Answer

The herbicide Oryzalin was still being produced in 1979, three years after the wives of workers producing the chemical in Rensselaer, New York, were found to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of their pregnancies was normal.

(A)  to have borne children  with heart defects  or miscarriages , and none of their pregnancies was 
(B)  to have had  children born with heart defects  or miscarriages , and none of the pregnancies was 
(C)  either to have  had children with heart defects or  miscarriages , without any of their pregnancies being 
(D)  either to have  had miscarriages  or to have borne  children with heart defects; none of the pregnancies was 
(E)  either to have  had miscarriages  or children  born with heart defects, without any of their pregnancies being

The wives were found - 1) to have had children borne with heart defects 
 2) to have borne children with heart defects

a. Use of their is ambiguous
b. "or miscarriages" is not connected with to have, making the choice incorrect.
c and e. Not parallel.

Skywalker18 · Answer

The herbicide Oryzalin was still being produced in 1979, three years after the wives of workers producing the chemical in Rensselaer, New York, were found  to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of their pregnancies was  normal.

(A) to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of their pregnancies was - Illogical meaning - children did not have miscarriages
(B) to have had children born with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of the pregnancies was - Illogical meaning - children did not have miscarriages
(C) either to have had children with heart defects or miscarriages, without any of their pregnancies being - parallelism issue - either to have had children with heart defects or miscarriages ; Illogical meaning - children did not have miscarriages
(D) either to have had miscarriages or to have borne children with heart defects; none of the pregnancies was - Correct
(E) either to have had miscarriages or children born with heart defects, without any of their pregnancies being - parallelism issue - either to have had miscarriages or children born with heart defects

Answer D

none of the pregnancies was normal -- I thought none of the pregnancies should take plural verb were (Though did not face an issue since that wasn't a decision point in this question)

AjiteshArun  ,  GMATNinja  ,  MagooshExpert  ,  GMATGuruNY  ,  VeritasKarishma  ,  DmitryFarber  ,  ChiranjeevSingh  ,  VeritasPrepBrian  ,  MartyMurray  , other experts - please enlighten

Arushit · Answer

was conflicted between B and D. but seems like B has modifier error. 
D is the best option.

aragonn · Answer

Official Explanation: 
Choices A and B are incorrect because with governs both heart defects and, miscarriages; in other words, choice A says that the children and not the women suffered the miscarriages. For the sentence to make sense, miscarriages must be the object of a verb that has wives as its subject. Also, their in choices A, C, and E is ambiguous because it is far from its referent, wives. Choices C and E lack parallel construction: a verb form like the one after either should appear after or. Choice D is the best answer.

AdityaHongunti · Answer

aragonn   daagh  shouldnt it be "none of the pregnancies WERE.... " ?? None is one of the SANAM. and hence depends on the main subject (pregnancies)

aragonn · Answer

Rule - None is another exception. It can take either singular or plural. Ex - None of the ties fit this shirt. (Ties is plural, so the verb is plural.) But when none refers to a singular, uncountable noun, the verb is singular: None of the pizza has been eaten.

My take is that 'pregnancies' is uncountable over here. I mean everyone has one pregnancy ? pronouncing it one/two is not making much sense. Better phrase should be pregnancy of two people. I think It should be singular. Though I will take  daagh  sir's opinion too.

dave13 · Answer

Surprisingly i chose D BUT i have a doubt in one verb

As far as i know there is difference between verbs Born Vs Borne We use " born " in the phrase be born to indicate that a child has entered this crazy world

"Borne" is past participle of verb "bear" i.e. bear, bore, borne - means to tolerate something. I dont get how can this verb be used in the context below (in option D)

gmatbusters you could include "born" vs "borne" into your collection of confusable words

(A) to have borne children with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of their pregnancies was ( incorrect usage of verb Borne + pronoun "their" ambiguity) (B) to have had children born with heart defects or miscarriages, and none of the pregnancies was ( "either" is missing ) (C) either to have had children with heart defects or miscarriages, without any of their pregnancies being ( pronoun "their" ambiguity ) (D) either to have had miscarriages or to have borne children with heart defects; none of the pregnancies was (CORRECT SV agreement + "either ... or" ) (E) either to have had miscarriages or children born with heart defects, without any of their pregnancies being ( INCORRECT pronoun "their" ambiguity and many other defects

) generis may be you can enlighten me ?

AdityaHongunti · Answer

I do not think that pregnancies here is uncountable :
"wives of workers.... " the subject is wives ( plural of wife) , which makes sense because wives OF WORKERS makes sense. Now if "pregnancies" were uncountable, Wives would have to be too. Wives = multiple woman. Countable. They will have their own pregnancies . SO the author is saying pregnancies(individual pregnancy of each ) of those wives of workers.....

GMATNinja   VeritasPrepBrian   DmitryFarber   GMATNinja Two  chetan2u

generis · Answer

aragonn  and  AdityaHongunti

I'm sure if the guys above want to add something they will.

Pregnancy in English is both a countable and uncountable noun.

Dictionary definitions might help:
 Cambridge Dictionary online is HERE  and 
 Longman's is HERE

Uncountable:  Teen pregnancy is a growing problem. 
Countable:  Her first pregnancy coincided with the writing of her PhD dissertation.

Because the pregnancies in this question are endured and possessed by real women,
the pregnancies are countable.
"Their" pregnancies -- and the number of heart defects in the babies who developed during
those women's pregnancies -- are countable.

GMAT generally treats NONE as singular.
Linguists debate hotly about whether NONE can be plural.
GMAC tends to stay away from heated linguistic debates.

Both  egmat   HERE , and
and  RonPurewal   HERE  assert that GMAC does not test the issue. (None is singular.)

GMAC? NONE = singular.
A non-issue.

AdityaHongunti · Answer

generis 
So to conclude ignore none and look for another error...
Cool?
   Posted from my mobile device

generis · Answer

• Yes, ignore none, except in one case, see below. "None" standing alone is not a decision point. daagh and sowmiyav gave the best answers. • Correlative conjunctions and parallelism One answer uses the term "correlative," which may not be familiar to some people. Correlative conjunctions work together, join one sentence element to another, come in pairs, and must be used in particular ways. A few examples of correlative conjunctions include either/or , not only/but also , as/as , and as many/as . • Correlative conjunctions that involve prepositions such as with must be checked for parallelism. The first word in the correlative conjunction determines where the parallelism begins. In option E the setup of the correlative conjunction either/or plus to is incorrect. (E) either to have had miscarriages or children born with heart defects -- We need either X and or Y to be parallel. In E the either X/or Y phrases are not parallel. In (E) we have either to have had X or Y (the "to have had" should also come before Y and does not) • What is the rule about where the preposition belongs? We have two choices. 1) we can make two parallel prepositional phrases. We use to twice AFTER the "start" word of the pair. Correct, parallel prepositional phrases: either to X or to Y (E), corrected: to have had miscarriages to have had children born with defects 2) we can use one preposition followed by two parallel c oordinate conjunction phrases We use to just one time, BEFORE the "start" word of the pair: to either X or Y (E), corrected: to have had miscarriages or children born with heart defects] • Incorrect constructions Incorrect because the TO phrase is used only one time after either , such that only either is modified: either to have had miscarriages or children born with heart defects

either to X or Y

Also incorrect (not shown) because the TO phrase is used one time before the start word either and one time after to have had either miscarriages or to have had children born with defects

to either X or to Y

The subject of prepositional parallelism with coordinate conjunctions is difficult. THIS POST by Mike McGarry discusses "once outside, twice inside" in the context of "correlative" conjunctions such as either/or . • Final note about NONE Although the phrase none of the pregnancies was has no errors, uses simple and clear construction + Subject + Verb . . . I would not use the phrase as a first decision point (compared to "without any . . ."). At the same time, the phrase, without any of their pregnancies being normal is MUCH worse than the none phrase. So I would use the "none" phrase if I were down to two answers, say, D and E. I would pick none of over without any of and eliminate answer E in order to avoid the lengthier thought process about the first parts of D and E. Just a thought on strategy.

teaserbae · Answer

oun
I have doubt in parallelism in either part there is clause where as in or part there is phrase how are they parallel
 daagh

daagh · Answer

teaserbae

You are referring to choice D, I suppose. In 'either part,' could you please indicate the specified clause that you think is there.? As I see, 'either to have had miscarriages' is only an infinitive phrase. One can see that there is no tensed verb in that part.

soapbolt · Answer

generis  
The herbicide Oryzalin was still being produced in 1979 - Independent Clause 
three years after the wives of workers producing the chemical in Rensselaer, New York, were found - Independent Clause

Both the IC are joined by just a Comma. I am finding it hard to digest. As we know two IC should be joined by Comma + FANBOYS.

Can you please help me with the understanding. What i am missing here?

The herbicide Oryzalin was still being produced in 1979, three years

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The herbicide Oryzalin was still being produced in 1979, three years

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards