The results of two recent unrelated studies support the idea

+1 E

Splits:
"Indicate" requires "that". A, B, and C out.
"Consider" doesn't need "as". D out.
Parallelism. A, B.and C out.

E is the answer.

E for m(E) too.

A/B/C have no verb
D. "ability of" is not idiomatic. Also parallelism is lost.

About E, can't say anything better than duttsit and TeHCM.

capable of X .... and of Y is the right construction

Hi Kinjal,

It's fine to eliminate option D on the basis of "as". Since this part of the sentence is pretty long, it just helps to make the parallelism clear when "of" is repeated.

In fact, the OG explanation states that the two items on the list are not parallel if "of" is not repeated. While it's possible to say that ellipsis can be applied in this case and "of" can be omitted, it's clear from sentences such as this one that official questions prefer to repeat prepositions in parallel items.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Meghna

The main concept tested here is parallelism, which when identified can lead you to the right option.

What is the idiomatic structure here?
… capable of X… and of Y

Let’s look at the options one after the other:

A. dolphins as capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered a sign of self-awareness—and to grasp spontaneously
‘indicate that’ is the idiomatic expression. ‘and to grasp’ breaks the parallelism with ‘capable of’. The intent here is that the dolphins are capable of (A) recognizing and (B) grasping Eliminate.

B. dolphins' ability to recognize themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered as a sign of self-awareness—and of spontaneously grasping
‘indicate that’ is the correct expression. It is unidiomatic to say ‘considered as’ on the GMAT. Moreover, if you substitute this option back in the sentence, you’ll see that the main verb is missing. Eliminate.

C. dolphins to be capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered a sign of self-awareness—and to grasp spontaneously
Same as B – absence of ‘that’ and lack of parallelism ‘to grasp’ Eliminate.

D. that dolphins have the ability of recognizing themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered as a sign of self-awareness—and spontaneously grasping
‘considered as’ is unidiomatic. This option also breaks parallelism with the preposition ‘of’. Eliminate.

E. that dolphins are capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered a sign of self-awareness—and of spontaneously grasping
Idiomatic expression ‘often considered a’. ‘indicate’ is followed by ‘that’. This is the best option.

Hope this helps!

While in this case, both are correct, but we cannot have a blanket rule that in every case, we can remove the preposition, and the sentence would still be correct. For example:

i) Rahul is as comfortable with Shoaib as with Shane Warne.

The above sentence is not the same, when the second preposition with is removed:

ii) Rahul is as comfortable with Shoaib as Shane Warne.

Statement ii) has two interpretations:

a) Rahul is as comfortable with Shoaib as (Rahul is comfortable with) Shane Warne
b) Rahul is as comfortable with Shoaib as Shane Warne (is comfortable with Shoaib)

Coming on to this question, I would agree that there does not seem to be an explicit need of repeating the of with spontaneously grasping, since there does not seem to be any ambiguity in the sentence. However, if you notice, there is another preposition in before spontaneously grasping, and so, by repeating of, the sentence just becomes very easy and unambiguous to read.

Also, I noticed that none of the posters above pointed out that D uses the incorect idiomatic construct considered as. The correct idiom is just considered.

The results of two recent unrelated studies support the idea that dolphins may share certain cognitive abilities with humans and great apes; the studies indicate dolphins as capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered a sign of self-awareness—and to grasp spontaneously the mood or intention of humans.

A. dolphins as capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered a sign of self-awareness—and to grasp spontaneously-- the studies indicate needs THAT ; parallelism issue - capable of recognizing and to grasp are not parallel

B. dolphins' ability to recognize themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered as a sign of self-awareness—and of spontaneously grasping -- same as A

C. dolphins to be capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered a sign of self-awareness—and to grasp spontaneously -- same as A

D. that dolphins have the ability of recognizing themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered as a sign of self-awareness—and spontaneously grasping -- ability of is unidiomatic ; considered as is incorrect

E. that dolphins are capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered a sign of self-awareness—and of spontaneously grasping- Correct

Answer E

Many people would consider that reference incorrect, but personal pronouns referring to nouns in the possessive form have appeared in correct answers to GMAT SC questions. So, it wouldn't make sense to eliminate a choice because it included such a reference.

There is nothing incorrect here about "themselves" referring back to "dolphins." The only way that would be incorrect would be if it were switched to singular (dolphins itself).

The good news is that when a word appears in all of the answer choices on SC, we don't have to worry about it.

Agree with duttsit, E it is

Indicate "that" is needed. ||ism...."of....of"

P.s. Hope all of you guys had a wonderful X'mas!

the results of two recent unrelated studies support the idea that dolphins may share certain cognitive abilities with humans and great apes; the studies indicate dolphins as capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered a sign of self-awareness—and to grasp spontaneously the mood or intention of humans.
A.dolphins as capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered a sign of self-awareness—and to grasp spontaneously

B.dolphins' ability to recognize themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered as a sign of self-awareness—and of spontaneously grasping

C.dolphins to be capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered a sign of self-awareness—and to grasp spontaneously

D. that dolphins have the ability of recognizing themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered as a sign of self-awareness—and spontaneously grasping

E. that dolphins are capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors—an ability that is often considered a sign of self-awareness—and of spontaneously grasping


I rejected option d because ability of is unidiomatic.But the explanation in the Og says that there is one more error in the sentence that of recognizing is not parallel to grasping.
I think that they are parallel. of can be taken as comman as it is taken in many of the other OG questions.

eg.
Lawmakers are examining measures that would require banks to disclose all fees and account requirements in writing, provide free cashing of government checks, and to create basic savings accounts to carry minimal fees and require minimal initial deposits.

(A) provide free cashing of government checks, and to create basic savings accounts to carry
(B) provide free cashing of government checks, and creating basic savings accounts carrying
(C) to provide free cashing of government checks, and creating basic savings accounts that carry
(D) to provide free cashing of government checks, creating basic savings accounts to carry
(E) to provide free cashing of government checks, and to create basic savings accounts that carry
The explanation of this question says that both "to disclose,to provide ,and to create" and "to disclose,provide ,and create" are correct.

please help.


Also wanted to know that which one of the following questions is correct.
1)sid thinks that rahul is the best batsman and that nayan is he best bowler.
2)sid thinks that rahul is the best batsman and nayan(is) the best bowler.

i think that the 2nd sentence is correct as the clause starts from rahul and that is only a connector.

please help.

No, a second "of" is not necessary for maintaining parallelism there.

However, the second "of" does make the meaning clear. Without the second "of," the sentence could be read as saying that dolphins are capable of an action that involves "recognizing themselves in mirrors ... and spontaneously grasping the the mood or intention of humans," as if the point is that spontaneously grasping the mood or intention of humans is somehow closely connected to or the result of recognizing themselves in mirrors.

Since "capable to x" is not an idiomatically correct structure, we can't say whether the two are parallel since there's no logic to "capable to grasp" that we can compare with the logic of "capable of recognizing."

So, the main issue in (A) is that "capable ... to grasp" does not work at all.

Also, we look for as much parallelism as possible (as per context and available options) since similar constructs help better clarify the meaning.
A noun and a verb are not parallel, a noun and a gerund are better and a noun and a noun are best.

the official ans states that--"In the context of the sentence ,the studies indicate must introduce a clause"
my question is- is there any rule like the above,why it MUST introduce a clause??

"Considered" is never used with a preposition such as "as" or with an infinitive form such as"to be". It is on its own. This helps eliminate B and D.

Parallelism helps eliminate A and C

Hence, E

A,B,C - "that" is needed to make the sentence unambiguous
D - Breaks parallelism of... and.. without of

Hence, E is the answer.

Hi egmat

If the sentence was short, can we then apply ellipsis?

For e.g,

1. Dolphins are capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors and of spontaneously grasping the mood or intention of humans.

2. Dolphins are capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors and [of] spontaneously grasping the mood or intention of humans.

Are both the sentences above correct?

Regards