The reason many people consider the Mediterranean island to be ungover

The reason… is/was/ on account of are all well-established redundancies in GMAT. Remove A, C, and E. Between B and D--- If you don't connect the two clauses of the sentence with a connector such as 'that,' then the sentence will turn out to be a fused sentence as in B. D with the appropriate connector 'that' is a complete sentence
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Consider another example in which we get a cause and an effect.

1) The reason Tim got fired is that his kids convinced him to spend all day playing World of Warcraft.

What's the reason Tim got fired? That his kids convinced him to play a computer game all day. It was an action that got him fired, and the word "that" communicates to the reader that we're about to get a clause containing this action.

However, if you remove "that" and put a noun in its place, the noun itself will appear to be the cause. For example:

The reason Tim got fired is his kids convinced him to play World of Warcraft with them.

Now, because we've removed "that," it sounds as though "his kids" caused Tim to get fired, when, in actuality, it was an action -- playing the computer game -- that was the culprit. This isn't wrong, necessarily, and if you reread the sentence, you can figure out what's going on, but it isn't as clear or logical as the first example.

Take another look at (B):


In this version, it sounds as though "the inhabitants" themselves are the cause for why the island is ungovernable. But that isn't quite right -- it's what the inhabitants did, namely learning to distrust and neutralize laws, that's the culprit. Because (D) contains "that," it's crystal clear that the action is the problem, rather than the actual inhabitants.

Moreover, as Ajitesh previously noted, the phrase "learned distrusting and neutralizing" is illogical. You can learn to ride a bike. But if you learn riding a bike, it kind of sounds as though you're riding a bike while learning something else, which is both illogical and probably dangerous.

Similarly, "learned distrusting and neutralizing" seems to convey that the inhabitants were "distrusting and neutralizing" as they learned about some other unnamed topic. Again, this makes no sense.

Taken together, (D) is a clear winner over (B).

I hope that helps!
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Let's look at the possible errors in different choices..
1. Reason and Because
There is redundancy in using both. Both mean the same and only ONE to be used.
2. the reason IS x Vs the reason is THAT X....
If you are talking of a noun word as a reason, you can use
The reason for my success is you.
But if you want to talk of a phrase as a reason use THAT..
The reason for my success is that you motivated me ...
Here too there is a PHRASE, so you require THAT.
3) tense
In non underlined portion, we are using CONSIDER (present tense), so we require present IS here.
4) Infinitive and parallelism
TO distrust and TO neutralise

Only D left
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(A) is because that the inhabitants long ago learned to distrust and neutralize

Because that is incorrect.

(B) is the inhabitants long ago learned distrusting and neutralizing

That is not in place

(C) was because of the inhabitants long ago learning to distrust and to be neutralizing

Sentence is in present tense so was is incorrect.

(D) is that the inhabitants long ago learned to distrust and to neutralize

It seems correct.

(E) was on account of the inhabitants long ago learning to distrust and neutralize

Was is incorrect

So I go for D.

Sent from my ONE A2003 using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

The reason many people consider the Mediterranean island to be ungovernable is because that the inhabitants long ago learned to distrust and neutralize all written laws.

(A) is because that the inhabitants long ago learned to distrust and neutralize
(B) is the inhabitants long ago learned distrusting and neutralizing
(C) was because of the inhabitants long ago learning to distrust and to be neutralizing
(D) is that the inhabitants long ago learned to distrust and to neutralize
(E) was on account of the inhabitants long ago learning to distrust and neutralize[/quote]

Answer D.


Thanks,
GyM
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Fact1 - reason and because should not come together. this will eliminate A,C
Fact2 - "The reason many people consider the Mediterranean island to be ungovernable" This part tells me that something in present tense is coming up, as these people still consider it. C and E eliminated.

(B) is the inhabitants long ago learned distrusting and neutralizing --- that is very important to tell the right meaning of this sentence. I cant say if it was just the inhabitants or they did something.
(D) is that the inhabitants long ago learned to distrust and to neutralize --- Correct use of that. moreover what they learned and what was its purpose is demonstrated effectively .

Read this post if you have not yet to understand what 'that' is doing in option D.
https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 43686.html

Overall D wins the race as perfect parallelism "To neutralize" and "To distrust"
Also there is correct usage of present tense

in some OA in offical problems, "that" is omitted . but this is inferior and we should choose the choice with "that"

so, the concept of inferior on gmat is that inferior is no absolute wrong. this is not hard and fast rule.

thangvietnam - Please read this post, to know more about 'What that is doing?'

https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 43686.html

The first split:

Is/was: Was indicates a completed action in the past. The simple past verb tense is wrongfully applied here as its stated that the Mediterranean island is still ungovernable. This would imply that the effect of the distrust and neutralization is still active in the present. The simple past verb tense is incorrect. We can, therefore, eliminate C and E.

The second split:

A just sounds really weird, but we can't play by ear. So let's discern the grammar: We can discount A because of a parallelism error.
We can spot the parallelism marker of and: X and Y. To distrust and neutralize. According to the principle of parallelism, comparable sentence parts must be structurally and logically similar. To distrust is a verb that takes the infinitive form so according to the principle of parallelism neutralize must do the same. So we can discount A as an answer option.

The third split:

C is definitely parallel in the sense that they both use progressive tenses. But let's delve a little deeper. Learned distrusting and neutralizing all written laws. The sentence sounds incomplete for some reason.

I might be wrong, but I think the fact that we mention the reason idiomatically it should include the word the reason that. I assume this is an idiomatic error, so we discount answer choice C.

Hence we are left with D. D is correct because of the aforementioned reasons of other posters.

Hope this helped. Looking forward to your feedback!

Hi, this is unrelated to any of the answers, but isn't the correct idiom for consider - Consider XY. The GMAT used consider X to be Y here and i would like to know what makes this usage correct in this question?

Hi kchen1994, consider X to be Y is indeed considered to be a correct idiom .

Another officially correct example:

In California, a lack of genetic variation in the Argentine ant has allowed the species to spread widely; because they are so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be close relatives and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limit the spread of this species in its native Argentina.
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I have a question that is actually not related to the answer choice.

Why does the above sentence use idiom "consider .. to be ungovernable " here?

I understand that the correct version would be "consider ... ungovernable" in the scope of GMAT.

Expert please explain.

Thank you

We can't say "the inhabitants learned distrusting and neutralizing". It is possible to say "learned to distrust laws", but it is not possible to say "learned distrusting laws". The same thing applies to neutralizing.
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your posting dose not help. I talk about "that" as noun clause relevant to choice b, "that" in other cases is not relevant.

The sentence started with "the reason" so using because or on account of is redundant. Thus A, C, and E are canceled out. Between B and D we need past tense to keep the sentence parallel with ago. Further, the E has the correct connector "that" unlike "the" of B. The answer is D.

GMATNinja please explain why B is incorrect here

While solving this question, I read it as:



The reason is what? Reasons should be inhabitants did something. so I am looking for some clause

(B) is the inhabitants - Why the reason is inhabitant.
I am looking for reasons of = many people consider the Mediterranean island to be ungovernable
If i read it as: many people consider the Mediterranean island to be ungovernable because of inhabitants?
learned distrusting and neutralizing can be implied as verb ed with inhabitants
The meaning is not very clear. We have some room to debate

Look at D
The reason is that : Ok now i can know what is the reason :--> the inhabitants long ago learned to distrust and to neutralize
After that : it turned into clause and make my understanding more clear.

Hence D is better than B

Hi...
I have a question.
I know option E is incorrect because S-V

But, is the other part of the sentence correct?
"on account of the inhabitants long ago learning to distrust and neutralize"