The human growth hormone, produced by the pituitary gland, is secreted

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended core meaning of this sentence is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of the sentence is that the human growth hormone is secreted in higher concentrations when humans are asleep than when they are awake.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Comparison

• Comparison must always be made between similar elements.

A: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the clause “The human growth hormone...is secreted...when awake”; the construction of this clause illogically implies that the human growth hormone sleeps and wakes; the intended meaning is that humans sleep and wake.

B: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the clause “The human growth hormone...is secreted when sleeping”; the construction of this clause illogically implies that the human growth hormone sleeps and wakes; the intended meaning is that humans sleep and wake. Further, Option B incorrectly compares “The human growth hormone” to "waking hours”; please remember comparisons must always be made between similar elements.

C:This answer choice incorrectly compares the noun “The human growth hormone” to the verb “waking”; please remember comparison must always be made between similar elements.

D: Correct. This answer choice correctly compares the phrase “during sleep” with the phrase “during waking hours”. Further, Option D uses the clause “The human growth hormone...is secreted...during sleep than during waking hours”, conveying the intended meaning – that humans sleep and wake.

E: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the clause “The human growth hormone...is secreted...when asleep than when awake”; the construction of this clause illogically implies that the human growth hormone sleeps and wakes; the intended meaning is that humans sleep and wake.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

The human growth hormone, produced by the pituitary gland, is secreted during sleep in higher concentrations than when awake.


A. during sleep in higher concentrations than when awake : Placement of "in higher concentrations" is not right. It should be next to "is secreted". Parallelism is also not clear. Are we comparing concentrations or sleeping and waking hours. Too many errors in A

B. when sleeping in higher concentrations than waking hours : Same as A

C. in higher concentrations during sleeping than waking :1st error of A is okay here but who is sleeping and waking???

D. in higher concentrations during sleep than during waking hours : This changes to sleep and hours. Noun entities are compared. Seems no error

E. in higher concentrations when asleep than when awake : who is asleep and awake. Hormone??? No....

In E, “when “ idiom talks about any specific time, but during gives us information on period. Since meaning of the sentence deals with sleep hours and awake hours, it should be conveyed with “during”.

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'When' refers to exact point of time in GMAT. So here the meaning of when refers to only time when one is asleep. what about throughout the sleep ? Eg. If someone falls asleep at 9 pm, but is sleeping for 6 hours, option E only refers to 9 pm. But meaning is that the hormone is secreted during the entire time when one is sleeping. Same logic can be analogously applied to 'when awake'. Hope this helps.

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Have you tried reviewing this post?

(E) seems to suggest that the human growth hormone is secreted in higher concentrations when the HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE is asleep (vs when the human growth hormone is awake)! Of course that doesn't make any sense.

By using "during sleep" instead, (D) eliminates that meaning issue.

In choice E the subject for asleep/awake is not clear. It tells us that the human growth hormone is asleep and awake.

It doesn't convey the meaning properly.

adityaganjoo
In the example you have given, "the wife" is a noun which needs a verb (does). There, the "does" is implied since there is another action being described in the sentence (cooking pizza) and hence the second noun (wife) attaches itself to the same action.
However, in this question, "awake" is an adjective which itself needs a noun and in absence of a noun, it attaches itself to the other noun in the sentence, i.e., the Human Growth Hormone.

GMATNinja It is obvious that when awake in (E) does not refer to the hormone. Then, how is (E) wrong? I am using the same logic that is used in the sentence John cooks pizza better than his wife to conclude that John cooks pizza and not his wife. Please help!

ayushkumar22941
Here, the state of "sleep" is being compared with the "waking hours", I believe.

This is spot-on, axbycz37! Thank you for jumping in.

Indeed, the modifiers "when awake" and "when asleep" imply that there is someone (or something) that is awake or asleep. And the only something we get in (E) is the "human growth hormone".

Nicely done!

Notice that (D) uses "during sleep" while (E) uses "when asleep." And that's an important difference in this case.

The phrase "when asleep" implies that someone or something is asleep. Since (E) doesn't specifically tell us who or what is asleep, we naturally assume it's the subject of the sentence (as in, "Tim talks more when [he is] asleep than when [he is] awake.").

Of course, the subject in (E) can't be asleep (unless hormones sleep?), and the reader can eventually figure out what's going on from the context. But the phrasing in (E) suggests an illogical meaning: that the hormones are doing something when [they are] asleep.

In other words, in (E) we NEED someone or something to be doing the sleeping, so we naturally look to the subject of the sentence. But with "during sleep" in (D), we don't NEED a sleeper -- not directly anyway. We can refer simply to the state of sleep without specifically referring to the sleeper.

So, the phrasing in (D) does not imply an illogical meaning -- it simply refers to the state of sleep. And since we're talking about human growth hormone, we must be talking about sleep in humans.

That's a ridiculously subtle point, but it's enough to go with (D) over (E).

I hope that helps!

Hi why is option E wrong ; not able to understand clearly.

Hi GMATNinja

Can you please help in understanding the issues with option E

adityaganjoo
In the example you have given, "the wife" is a noun which needs a verb (does). There, the "does" is implied since there is another action being described in the sentence (cooking pizza) and hence the second noun (wife) attaches itself to the same action.
However, in this question, "awake" is an adjective which itself needs a noun and in absence of a noun, it attaches itself to the other noun in the sentence, i.e., the Human Growth Hormone.

GMATNinja and Bunuel - Would love to hear your views on this.

D. in higher concentrations during sleep than during waking hours

Just as in Option E, "awake" and "asleep" can be referred to HARMONE and hence the option is Wrong, why cannot in Option D, "during sleep" and "during waking hours" refer to HARMONE? Why are we assuming that in option D these adjectives are implicitly referring to HUMANS?

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