The use of gravity waves, which do not interact with matter in the way

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down our options quickly so we know how to answer questions like this when they pop up on the GMAT! To begin, let's take a quick look at the question and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

The use of gravity waves, which do not interact with matter in the way electromagnetic waves do, hopefully will enable astronomers to study the actual formation of black holes and neutron stars.

A. in the way electromagnetic waves do, hopefully will enable
B. in the way electromagnetic waves do, will, it is hoped, enable
C. like electromagnetic waves, hopefully will enable
D. like electromagnetic waves, would enable, hopefully
E. such as electromagnetic waves do, will, it is hoped, enable

After a quick glance over the options, we have 2 main areas we can focus our attention on to narrow down our choices:

1. in the way / like / such as
2. hopefully will enable / will, it is hoped, enable / would enable, hopefully

Let's start with #1 on our list: in the way / like / such as. Each of these are used for different things, so we need to make sure they are used correctly in terms of both idiom structure and parallelism. To make this easier to spot, I've added in the first part of the phrase:

A. which do not interact with matter in the way electromagnetic waves do, hopefully will enable = CORRECT
(compares how matter interacts with how electromagnetic waves interact, which is parallel)

B. which do not interact with matter in the way electromagnetic waves do, will, it is hoped, enable = CORRECT
(compares how matter interacts with how electromagnetic waves interact, which is parallel)

C. which do not interact with matter like electromagnetic waves, hopefully will enable = WRONG
(compares how matter interacts to electromagnetic waves, which is not parallel - you must compare actions to actions, not actions to things)

D. which do not interact with matter like electromagnetic waves, would enable, hopefully = WRONG
(compares how matter interacts to electromagnetic waves, which is not parallel - you must compare actions to actions, not actions to things)

E. which do not interact with matter such as electromagnetic waves do, will, it is hoped, enable = WRONG
("such as" is ONLY used to provide examples of something; electromagnetic waves are not an example of matter, so this doesn't work)

We can eliminate options C, D, & E because they either use the wrong idiom or use non-parallel comparisons.

Now that we have it narrowed down to only 2 options, let's explore them more closely to find their differences and consider which one is the better choice. To make problems easier to spot, let's add in the non-underlined parts:

A. The use of gravity waves, which do not interact with matter in the way electromagnetic waves do, hopefully will enable astronomers to study the actual formation of black holes and neutron stars.

This is INCORRECT because the use of "hopefully" is problematic. It's an adverb that isn't being used as an adverb, which is wrong. It actually suggests that the astronomers enabling is hopeful, not that someone else hopes that the astronomers will be enabled to study black holes and neuron stars.

B. The use of gravity waves, which do not interact with matter in the way electromagnetic waves do, will, it is hoped, enable astronomers to study the actual formation of black holes and neutron stars.

This is CORRECT! It fixes the "hopefully" problem in option D, and uses a parallel comparison.


There you have it - option D is the correct choice!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.