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Abhi077
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The voice box has been a subject of considerable investigation among 03 Feb 2020, 09:38
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75% (01:30) correct 25% (01:34) wrong based on 250 sessions

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The voice box has been a subject of considerable investigation among researchers studying the origins of language because they have believed for a long time that if humans did not have a low larynx, the use of vocal language was always impossible.

A. if humans did not have a low larynx, the use of vocal language was always impossible

B. without a low larynx humans would never have been able to use vocal language

C. their use of vocal language was not ever possible for humans if they did not have a low larynx

D. without that low larynx, humans could not ever be able to use vocal language

E. never could humans use vocal language if they were not having that low larynx

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The voice box has been a subject of considerable investigation among 03 Feb 2020, 10:51
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A - if then is a conditional clause. no condition present hence incorrect
B - correct
C - what does "their" refer to? is it the researchers? or languages? awkward construction, hence incorrect
D - "that larynx" is incorrect because the statement is talking about human larynx in general. also "humans could not ever be able to use" sounds incorrect.
E - incorrect, does not sound right.
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The voice box has been a subject of considerable investigation among 04 Feb 2020, 17:20
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B is more concise and clear. I believe that B is answer, not A.

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The voice box has been a subject of considerable investigation among researchers studying the origins of language because they have believed for a long time that if humans did not have a low larynx, the use of vocal language was always impossible.

A. if humans did not have a low larynx, the use of vocal language was always impossible

B. without a low larynx humans would never have been able to use vocal language

C. their use of vocal language was not ever possible for humans if they did not have a low larynx

D. without that low larynx, humans could not ever be able to use vocal language

E. never could humans use vocal language if they were not having that low larynx

Source - Ready4Gmat
Verb-Tense Series
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GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
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The voice box has been a subject of considerable investigation among 04 Feb 2020, 22:44
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This question appears to be based on this official question.
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The voice box has been a subject of considerable investigation among 05 Feb 2020, 22:09
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OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

After we read through this sentence once, we know that the first half is just a distraction; we can answer this question by focusing exclusively on the clause beginning with "they." The original sentence doesn't sound too bad in terms of phrasing, but as we near the end, the tense of the word "was" stands out. It doesn't match with the sentence; since this clause uses "if," we need a conditional tense ("would" or "could") to indicate that this action is occurring under specific conditions.
This narrows the choices down to (B), (D), and (E); Choice (B) is the simplest and clearest, so we will choose it. Choices (D) and (E) use convoluted phrasing, particularly including the word "that" where there's no reason to use it.

The correct answer is Choice (B).
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The voice box has been a subject of considerable investigation among 06 Feb 2020, 08:02
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Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Abhi077
The voice box has been a subject of considerable investigation among researchers studying the origins of language because they have believed for a long time that if humans did not have a low larynx, the use of vocal language was always impossible.

A. if humans did not have a low larynx, the use of vocal language was always impossible

B. without a low larynx humans would never have been able to use vocal language

C. their use of vocal language was not ever possible for humans if they did not have a low larynx

D. without that low larynx, humans could not ever be able to use vocal language

E. never could humans use vocal language if they were not having that low larynx
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Choice A: This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple past tense, rather than the conditional tense, alongside the word "if". Additionally, this answer choice features a redundancy in its use of both of the words "always" and "impossible"; both these words convey a sense of perpetuity. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice B: This answer choice maintains proper tense and pronoun use throughout the sentence and is quite concise. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

Choice C: This answer choice incorrectly uses the pronoun "they" to refer to both "researchers" and "humans". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice D: This answer choice uses the pronoun phrase "that low larynx", which does not have a clear antecedent. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice E: This answer choice has a very odd construction. This answer choice also repeats the pronoun phrase error seen in Option D. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Avoiding Pronoun Ambiguity on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
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The voice box has been a subject of considerable investigation among 06 Feb 2020, 08:33
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CONDITIONALS, TENSES


A. if humans did not have a low larynx, the use of vocal language was always impossible ----------- SIMPLE PAST "Was" does not make sense, since it restricts the effects of "the use of vocal language" to the past.


B. without a low larynx humans would never have been able to use vocal language --------- CORRECT


C. their use of vocal language was not ever possible for humans if they did not have a low larynx -------- Incorrect pronoun usage. "Their" is trying to refer to "humans", but the antecedent should have been present before placing the pronoun.


D. without that low larynx, humans could not ever be able to use vocal language ----------- "that low larynx" is incorrectly using the demonstrative pronoun THAT. It implies that the "larynx" was already mentioned.


E. never could humans use vocal language if they were not having that low larynx --------- Use of the progressive/continues tense (not having) is incorrect. We are not talking here about an event that overlapped others.
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The voice box has been a subject of considerable investigation among 27 Sep 2023, 09:28
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Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

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