The only way for growers to salvage frozen citrus is to process them

Question

The only way for growers to salvage frozen citrus is  to process them quickly into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns .

(A) to process them quickly into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns

(B) if they are quickly processed into juice concentrate before warmer weather returns to rot them

(C) for them to be processed quickly into juice concentrate before the fruit rots when warmer weather returns

(D) if the fruit is quickly processed into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns

(E) to have it quickly processed into juice concentrate before warmer weather returns and rots the fruit

The Official Guide for GMAT Review 10th Edition, 2003

Practice Question  
Question No.: SC 4
Page: 653

KingAdam44 · Answer

The only way for growers to salvage frozen citrus is *to process them quickly into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns*:

A) Process them=Growers --> Wrong

?️) they = Growers? --> Wrong

C) for them = Growers? --> Wrong

D) If the fruit is quickly process before THEY ROT=growers rot? --> Wrong

E)Elimination, must be good but let's check: Have it (= fruit) processed into juice before warmer weather returns and ROTS THE FRUIT --> perfect meaning! OA is E!

sarphant123 · Answer

The only way for growers to salvage frozen citrus is to process them quickly into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns.

(A) to process them quickly into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns

(B) if they are quickly processed into juice concentrate before warmer weather returns to rot them

(C) for them to be processed quickly into juice concentrate before the fruit rots when warmer weather returns

(D) if the fruit is quickly processed into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns

(E) to have it quickly processed into juice concentrate before warmer weather returns and rots the fruit

If is used to refer to a condition which is not the case here. (C) for them to be processed quickly into juice concentrate before the fruit rots when warmer weather returns “Them” is incorrect. Reason - Same as A and B. “for them to be processed quickly” – Who/What is getting processed by whom? “Fruit rots” is incorrect here as Weather rots, not the fruit. (D) if the fruit is quickly processed into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns “They” is incorrect. Reason - Same as A and B. (E) to have it quickly processed into juice concentrate before warmer weather returns and rots the fruit. Best of All. Also, there is parallelism here using Linking Verbs. To Salvage frozen citrus IS To process them……….

ayushkumar22941 · Answer

there is subject verb agreement error in all options except e . so e is the correct option

parthgohel · Answer

Dear TGC, GMAT Ninja

In option E - 'to have it quickly processed...' - what does the pronoun "it" refers to? I understand that 'it' is plural and meaning wise it should modify frozen citrus (singular).

Thanks

aimat780 · Answer

(A) to process them quickly into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns:  frozen citrus is singular, 'they' & 'them' are wrong here

(B) if they are quickly processed into juice concentrate before warmer weather returns to rot them:  same error as in option A combined with unnecessary use of 'if'
 
(C) for them to be processed quickly into juice concentrate before the fruit rots when warmer weather returns:  same error as in option A
 
(D) if the fruit is quickly processed into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns:  unnecessary usage of 'if'
 
(E) to have it quickly processed into juice concentrate before warmer weather returns and rots the fruit:  looks good

Option E it is

DanTe02 · Answer

egmat ,  EducationAisle  I rejected E because it refers to the frozen citrus why would GMAT rewrite the fruit later in the sentence and not use it? Isnt it redundant

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  Deeptanshu02 , instead of  rots the fruit , if the sentence had used  rots it , there would at least be  some ambiguity  whether  it  is referring to  frozen citrus  or  juice concentrate .

While pronoun ambiguity is often  not  a deal-breaker in GMAT, here, the sentence, by mentioning  the fruit , is just elegantly avoiding any ambiguity.

svasan05 · Answer

Hi

Let me try to address your query.

"It" is a singular pronoun, and is typically used to address nouns which are not persons. Therefore, both from a logic and tense perspective, "it" in option (E) can only refer to "frozen citrus", which is the correct reference to be made for the following clause since it talks about processing into "juice concentrate". The pronoun at that place cannot talk about growers.

Hence option (E) is the correct answer. Hope this helps.

St123Kt · Answer

The plural of citrus is citrus itself. How can we reject ABCD based on this...?
Also in E, have it processed is passive...I feel A is better.

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Hi

If we were to consider "citrus" to be plural, then in answer options (A), (B), (C) and (D), the pronouns "they" and "them" can be considered ambiguous since we have another plural noun "growers" in the sentence, leading to logical inconsistencies.

Passive voice by itself is not wrong, grammatically speaking. It is simply that GMAT prefers active voice to passive voice,  all else being equal . In order to rule out an answer option for using passive voice, we need a correct answer option in active voice, without any errors. That is not the case in this question. We can therefore select option (E) since there are errors in all the other options.

Hope this helps.

TargetMBA007 · Answer

EducationAisle CrackVerbalGMAT

The OA for this states that "Before" is a better choice here than "When" because it shows the cause and effect better, could you please elaborate on that a bit more?

P.S Here: https://prnt.sc/vo8y77

EducationAisle · Answer

Thanks for tagging me  TargetMBA007 .

The only thing that I can think of, is that  when  may just denote a  correlation  (and not necessarily  causation ).

Tagging other esteemed experts on this, for their opinions:  GMATGuruNY ,  AndrewN .

AndrewN · Answer

Apologies for the delayed response, but I had some last-minute food shopping to do ahead of Thanksgiving (when grocery stores are closed, and when, coincidentally, I happen to do my weekly grocery run—on Thursdays). Thank you,  TargetMBA007 , for sharing that screenshot of the OE; it is a shining example of a poor-quality official explanation, unclear and generally none too useful. Although the explanation singles out a specific word,  before  versus  when , to make a point, that point should have been built instead on comparing causality between the  clauses  that start with those words in the incorrect answer choices, and then putting on the finishing touches by breaking down the correct answer. Take a look at the sentence and answer choices again. I will draw attention to the clauses in question.

Notice how the arrow of time is backwards in choices (A), (C), and (D). I mean, we encounter rotting fruit  before  we know its cause, the return of warm weather. It is jarring to seesaw back and forth in time like this for no good reason. Choice (B) dodges this temporal bullet well enough, but then matters get murky with  to rot , which can be interpreted as a sign of intent (i.e.  in order to rot ). (What malicious weather if so!) Indeed, the only option that presents a straightforward timeline with no ambiguity of meaning is (E), presenting concurrent actions in  returns and rots  instead. Now, getting back to that OE, it is true that  before , rather than  when , should be used in the context of the sentence to indicate a clear timeline that citrus growers must operate within to salvage their frozen fruit. Compare the correct answer with a dummy answer that swaps out  before  for  when :

Correct :  The only way for growers to salvage frozen citrus is to have it quickly processed into juice concentrate  before  warmer weather returns and rots the fruit.

Incorrect :  The only way for growers to salvage frozen citrus is to have it quickly processed into juice concentrate  when  warmer weather returns and rots the fruit.

The correct sentence allows us to appreciate the impending deadline; the incorrect variation conveys that growers quickly process rotting fruit. So yes,  before  is preferable to  when , as stated in the OE, but such a threadbare explanation is a disservice to GMAT™ aspirants.

I hope that helps clarify the matter. Thank you,  EducationAisle , for bringing me into the dialogue. It is always an honor to be called upon by a fellow Expert to offer a second opinion.

- Andrew

TargetMBA007 · Answer

EducationAisle  - Thanks for that and for tagging other Experts.

AndrewN

Thanks Andrew. That's as comprehensive as it gets. That was really well explained.

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

MartyTargetTestPrep Hello sir, How do someone know that 'citrus' is singular? The word 'citrus' carries the plural sign 's/es'. People may mistakenly count the 'citrus' as plural because of its plural sign. I read few SC problems where GMAC tried to introduce the word (if it carries s/es form) either it is singular or plural. The following is an official SC where GMAC introduced the word 'Diabetes' whether it is singular or plural using ' its serious complications'. https://gmatclub.com/forum/diabetes-tog ... ml#p138969

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

You really just have to know the words.

Notice that, according to the GMAT Club tags, the citrus question is originally from OG 9. I think OG 9 came out around the year 2000. Similarly, the diabetes question is originally from OG 11. In the past, the test was likely not as well tuned to test the skills of non-native speakers of English as it is now. So, it may be the case that the GMAT would no longer use in such a way a singular word that could be perceived as plural by non-native speakers.

In any case, the only way to know that the words are singular is to know the words.

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

Thank you so much sir. Yes, it makes sense!

NA08 · Answer

Hi  GMATNinja  MartyTargetTestPrep Have one doubt

The sentence means to say that the fruit rots because of the warm weather or when the warm weather returns. We are asked to be literal with GMAT SC but saying that 
- weather returns to rot the fruit - Isn't that weird literally?

Is this a case where because of definite errors in other choices, we accept this error or is it not even an error to being with

GMATNinja · Answer

Suggesting that warm weather "goes away" or "returns" isn't much of a stretch, so this is perfectly fine.

But your concern is a common one! Check out  this post , which explains how the GMAT (and writers in general) can take a little bit of license with what performs an action.

I hope that helps!

The only way for growers to salvage frozen citrus is to process them

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The only way for growers to salvage frozen citrus is to process them

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