The world wildlife fund has declared that global warming, a phenomenon

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one issue at a time, and narrow it down to the right choice quickly! To begin, here is the original question with any major differences between the options highlighted in orange:

The World Wildlife Fund has declared that global warming, a phenomenon most scientists agree to be caused by human beings in burning fossil fuels, will create havoc among migratory birds by altering the environment in ways harmful to their habitats.

(A) a phenomenon most scientists agree to be caused by human beings in burning fossil fuels,
(B) a phenomenon most scientists agree that is caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings,
(C) a phenomenon that most scientists agree is caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels,
(D) which most scientists agree on as a phenomenon caused by human beings who burn fossil fuels
(E) which most scientists agree to be a phenomenon caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings

After taking a quick glance over the options, a few key differences popped out:

1. How to start the modifier: "a phenomenon" vs. "which" (Clarity/Meaning)
2. agree to be / agree that is / agree is / agree on (Idiom/Verbs)
3. What is global warming caused by? (Clarity/Meaning)

Let's start with #1 on our list because it will eliminate 2-3 options in one round. This is a matter of clarity.

First, we need to ask ourselves what exactly the scientists are agreeing on in this sentence. Are they agreeing that global warming is a phenomenon? Or do they agree on what causes it? It makes more sense for this sentence to say that scientists agree on what causes the phenomenon! The phrase "a phenomenon" is merely giving us more details about the antecedent "global warming," which is fine. So let's see how our options hold up:

(A) a phenomenon most scientists agree to be caused by human beings in burning fossil fuels,
(B) a phenomenon most scientists agree that is caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings,
(C) a phenomenon that most scientists agree is caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels,
(D) which most scientists agree on as a phenomenon caused by human beings who burn fossil fuels,
(E) which most scientists agree to be a phenomenon caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings,

We can eliminate options D & E because they slightly change the meaning and focus. The phrase should focus on scientists agreeing on what causes global warming, NOT that it's a phenomenon.

Now that we have things narrowed down a bit, let's move on to #2 & #3 on our list: verbs and meaning. We need to make sure that each option is using the correct verb tense (to be caused/is caused) and that it clearly states what scientists believe causes global warming! Let's see how they break down:

(A) a phenomenon most scientists agree to be caused by human beings in burning fossil fuels,

This is INCORRECT for two reasons. First, the verb "to be" implies that scientists will agree on this in the future, and not in the present, which is more likely. Second, it states that global warming is caused by "human beings in burning fossil fuels." This literally means that global warming is caused by human beings who are sitting inside burning fossil fuels. Sounds odd, right? That's because it is! Global warming is caused by burning fossil fuels, not by human beings who are somehow swimming around in burning fossil fuels. So let's rule this out for verb tense and meaning problems.

(B) a phenomenon most scientists agree that is caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings,

While this option does get things mostly right, it is still INCORRECT. The word "that" is misplaced here. It is meant to be used as a modifier for the word "phenomenon," so it needs to be placed before "most scientists agree" and not after it. It also just sounds awkward. So let's eliminate this one because of word placement issues.

(C) a phenomenon that most scientists agree is caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels,

This is CORRECT! Everything is written clearly and concisely. It uses the present tense "is" to convey that scientists currently agree on this, and what they agree on is stated clearly (global warming is caused by the action of humans burning fossil fuels).


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


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

tonebeeze,

I'd take two lessons from this problem.

1. The plural possessive. C refers to the entire collection of human beings and their burning of fossil fuels, so you need to use the plural possessive. Consider some other examples:

"My three brothers' favorite game growing up was making fun of me." --> Here, the game belongs to all three of my brothers.
"Will you please go to the Smiths' house and ask for a cup of sugar?" --> Here, the house belongs to all of the Smiths, so you need that plural possessive.

2. "Sounds awkward" is less reliable then "is grammatically incorrect."

I agree that C) is written in a way that is not ordinary in everyday speech, but when I'm reading and I notice that, I make only a mental note that it might be wrong. I then go to E) and see the incorrect idiom "agree to be" and then unnecessarily passive tense. The problems with E are therefore worse than the "problems" with C even though C isn't the best sentence in the world.

Does that help?

Brett

The World Wildlife Fund has declared that global warming, a phenomenon most scientists agree to be caused by human beings in burning fossil fuels, will create havoc among migratory birds by altering the environment in ways harmful to their habitats.


(A) a phenomenon most scientists agree to be caused by human beings in burning fossil fuels,
Human beings are not IN Burning fossil fuel. This would make the sentence illogical. Eliminate

(B) a phenomenon most scientists agree that is caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings,
What is global warming caused by?
It is caused by- fossil fuels. Eliminate

(C) a phenomenon that most scientists agree is caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels,
a phenomenon that most scientists agree is …. modifies Global warming.
What is global warming caused by?
It is caused by- human beings' burning of fossil fuels. Correct.

(D) which most scientists agree on as a phenomenon caused by human beings who burn fossil fuels,
What is global warming caused by?
It is caused by- Human beings who.. ( more information about human beings) Eliminate

(E) which most scientists agree to be a phenomenon caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings,

What is global warming caused by?
It is caused by- fossil fuels. Eliminate

C is the best choice.


CrackVerbal Prep Team

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of the crucial part of this sentence is that global warming is a phenomenon that most scientists agree is caused by the act of human beings burning fossil fuels.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers

• The infinitive verb form (“to + base form of verb” – “to + be” in this sentence) is the preferred construction for referring to the purpose/intent of an action.

A: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “agree to be caused”; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that global warming is a phenomenon that most scientists agree is caused by the act of human beings burning fossil fuels.

B: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “agree that is”; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that global warming is a phenomenon that most scientists agree is caused by the act of human beings burning fossil fuels. Moreover, Option B further alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “caused by fossil fuels”; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that global warming is a phenomenon caused by the fossil fuels, themselves; the intended meaning is that global warming is a phenomenon caused by the act of burning fossil fuels.

C: Correct. This answer choice uses the phrases ”most scientists agree is” and “caused by…burning of fossil fuels”, conveying the intended meaning – that global warming is a phenomenon caused by the act of burning fossil fuels. Further, Option C is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

D: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “caused by human beings who”; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that global warming is a phenomenon caused by the human beings who burn fossil fuels; the intended meaning is that global warming is a phenomenon caused by the act of burning fossil fuels. Further, Option D uses the needlessly wordy phrase “agree on as a phenomenon”, rendering it awkward and needlessly redundant.

E: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “caused by fossil fuels”; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that global warming is a phenomenon caused by the fossil fuels, themselves; the intended meaning is that global warming is a phenomenon caused by the act of burning fossil fuels.

Hence, C is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

You can all get the answer and explanation from OG, but one thing is not clear to me. I would appreciate if someone can explain:

if you look at the choice c:
C) a phenomenon that most scientists agree is caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels.

'is caused' make this a full clause isn't it?
a phenomenon "that most scientists agree" is caused by human...

If inserted into the main setnese above, it should be connected by the conjuncion because it is a independent clause, otherwise it looks like this:
A World Wilfe fund has declard that global warming, a phenomenon is caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels, will create havoc.....


Obviously, since the answer is C, I suppose i should have interpreted it as
a phenomenon that "most scientists agree" is caused by human...

Then, this will make better sense in main sentense as whole:
A World Wilfe fund has declard that global warming, a phenomenon that is caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels, will create havoc.....

If so, what is the grammatical function(or name) for this, yet another clause "most scientists agree" in between? (another full clause with no conjunction)

I think it's simple, mate
c) a phenomenon that most scientists agree is caused by human beings's burning of fossil fuels -->that here is a relative pronoun modifies for a phenomenon

As if we commonly think, it can be written as: a phenomenon that is caused by human .... where that here modifies for a phenomenon and stands at the subject position of the new clause

But this clause offered by the choice (C) here is written as: a phenomenon that most scientist agree is caused ... where a phenomenon here is still modified by that but it plays a role of an object in the clause modifying for it, and therefore, most scientists will be the subject of such clause
More clearly, we can re-write it as: most scientist agree global warming (a phenomenon) is caused by human being's burning of fossil fuels --> you can see the object role of a phenomenon, or global warming, in this re-written clause
Such structure is still called a clause modifying for a Noun, and they are connected by a relative pronoun, whatsoever the role of such Noun (Subject or Object) in the modifying clause. Maybe I can't remember its official name, but as I mentioned, lets simply call Noun-modifying clause

Thank you for the explanation.

With so many exceptions and special cases, I feel like my basic grammar understanding never seems to apply in SC. When i first started GMAT prep, I thought SC was the easiest section in verbal. While my CR and RC skills have improved a lot since the beginning of study, my SC skills seem to go nowhere. no matter how much I study, i always stumble on yet another new special cases, which I am not familiar with.

(Is it because I am simply a non-english native? or do english natives find SC difficult as much as non-natives do?)

Anyway, this is great forum. Thanks again for the reply.

A) a phenomenon...............caused by human beings in burning fossil fuels = Does this make any sense, Does it not sound similar to : X caused by people in boiling pots ? People IN BURNING FUELS ? : Eliminated

The intent : X was caused by burning of fossil fuels

(B) a phenomenon ...........caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings :

(E) a phenomenon..............caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings,

B n E implies : X was caused by fossil fuels in isolation : Eliminated

Left with C n D ,

(D) a phenomenon.............caused by human beings who burn fossil fuels : Implies X was caused by human beings, the emphasis is missing of 'burning fossil fuels ' , seems to convey some descriptive of what human beings do viz who burn fuels, who enjoys partying, who loves to write gmat etc : Eliminated

C) a phenomenon .............caused by human beings’ burning of fossil fuels : Perfect , human being's burning of fuels givesthe desired emphatic flavour

Leading to C, my take.

Tks mate. I've read the link, but it doesn't get me through my doubt,
my question is about grammar issue (not meaning).

Why bother to put 'that most scientists agree' in C while all we can say is
'a phenomenon (that most scientists agree) is caused by....', most scientists
agree what ?? it's not a complete clause.

Does 'a phenomenon that most scientist agree to be caused by...' make more sense
and grammatically correct ?

Meaning wise, i agree C is the best, but grammatically i doubt about it. What i am missing ?

Choice C is grammatically correct. "that most scientists agree" is a modifier used to describe the phenomenon and it is correctly placed next to the noun it describes.

As the first line of Manhattan Sc says -Ideal answer is not the right answer. We need to pick the best among the options given.

Going by this ideology - clause after "caused by" is correct only in C. Then why bother about the sentence formation before "caused by".

2 points to note here -

1. the sentence structure in C might sound awkward but isn't incorrect
2. we should always follow the rules in order while eliminating answers - Grammar first - then meaning -then concision

concision - third round of elimination is only required if we have more than one choice here

hope this helps.

Thanks yashii9.

Can you articulate what make sentence structure in C sound awkward?

Quote:

2. we should always follow the rules in order while eliminating answers - Grammar first - then meaning -then concision

Don't we go by reverse order, namely - meaning first - then grammar, in this case to make POE and find the answer ?



Also, can you check my previous question, what are the differences among below strutures
and whether all of them are correct:

1. The world wildlife fund has declared that global warming, a phenomenon that most scientsts agree is caused by...
2. The world wildlife fund has declared that global warming, a phenomenon that most scientsts agree to be caused by...
3. The world wildlife fund has declared that global warming, a phenomenon most scientists agree that it is caused by....
4. The world wildlife fund has declared that global warming, a phenomenon most scientsts agree to be caused by...
(original sentence)

I am still not convinced that 'The world wildlife fund has declared that global warming,
a phenomenon that most scientsts agree is caused by...' in C is grammatically correct.

Any comments/explanations from others are appreciated.

Sandeep - you obviously can not work on grammar unless you understand the meaning of the sentence. (logically how will you know which tense to stick to..)

Meaning refers to - checking any changes in the original meaning of the statement. It should not happen that Grammar has been corrected but the original intent of the statement has been altered. You will be able to search several questions on this forum to help clear this point.

I would suggest you go through modifiers chapter from Manhattan SC before solving these questions. That should help.

It's not as difficult a question as it looks.

Let us split it

The world wildlife fund has declared
that global warming,
a phenomenon most scientsts agree to be caused by human beings in burning fossil fuels,
will create havoc among migratory birds by altering the enviroment in ways harmful to their habitats.



error:
a phenomenon(that)most scientsts- that can not be ommited as it is going to work as a subject
to be caused - wrong



a) A phenomenon most scientists agree to be caused by human beings in burning fossil fuels,
b) a phenomenon most scientists agree
that is caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings,
it should be of the format noun+ noun modifier- I can't craete appositive with
verb


c) a phenomenon
that most scientists agree is caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels
noun+noun modfier
d) which most scientists agree on as phenomenon caused by human beings who burn fossil fuels,
meaning modified , its the fossil not human beings, also we non essential which should be avoided here
e) which most scientsts agree to be a phenomenon caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings
meaning modified , its a phenomenon - no issue on that , only scientists differ on reason

A- This sentence is saying that the human beings are in the fossil fuels, and because they are in the fossil fuels global warming occurs.
B- The presence of ‘that’ is unnecessary. It is clear that the phenomenon referred to is global warming. ‘Burned’ is also in the past tense, which is incorrect. Global warming is a current event. It should read either WAS caused with BURNED or IS caused with BURNING (prefereably the later because of the phenomenom exists today)
C- Correct
D- This answer changes the meaning slightly to say that scientists agree that global warming is a phenomenon. The original sentence establishes this as fact, but the debate is around the cause. It also put the emphasis on the specific humans who do the burning which takes away from the intention of the sentence which is to associate the activity of humans with global warming.
E- Again, this sentence suggests that scientists agree that global warming is a phenomenon.

120. The WorldWildlife Fund has declared that global
warming, a phenomenon most scientists agree to be
caused bv human beings in burning fossil fuels, will
create havoc among migratory birds by altering the
environment in ways harmful to their habitats.
(A) a phenomenon most scientists agree to be
caused by human beings in burning fossil fuels,
(B) a phenomenon most scientists agree that is
caused by fossil fuels burned by human beings,
(0 a phenomenon that most scientists agree is
caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels,
(D) which most scientists agree on as a phenomenon
caused by human beings who burn fossil fuels,
(E) which most scientists agree to be a
phenomenon caused by fossil fuels burned by
human beings,

The correct answer is C, however, if we change "human beings' burning" to "burning of human being" will not make sense. The sense here is "burning by human beings". Please clarify.

Hi Anurag,

I clearly understand where your doubt stems from.

You are trying to compare “human beings’ burning” with a general and more common usage such as “John’s house”.
“John’s house” is same as “house of John”.

That’s an interesting observation you have there. Anyway let me try to address your query.

Before that, I want you to observe the difference in the following sentences.

A. Obama’s pictures are frequently used all over the internet. (pictures of Obama)
B. Da Vinci’s painting of the Monalisa is world famous. (painting by Da Vinci)

Do you think it is “painting of” in both the cases? 

From the context, you need to observe if the possessive case (’s) is used to denote the “possession of an object” or if it hints at a “doing of an action or an action already done” (Da Vinci painted… in this case)

Coming back to the question, let me write the entire sentence with Option C.
The World Wild Life Fund has declared that global warming, a phenomenon that most scientists agree is caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels, will create havoc among migratory birds by altering the environment in ways harmful to their habitats.

Observe that the usage in this sentence is similar to the usage in example (B) shown above. It is the burning of fossil fuels which is done by human beings

As a final note, you need to understand from the context what a possessive case denotes in the sentence.

Hope this helps!
Regards,
Krishna Chaitanya

120. The WorldWildlife Fund has declared that global
warming, a phenomenon most scientists agree to be
caused bv human beings in burning fossil fuels, will
create havoc among migratory birds by altering the
environment in ways harmful to their habitats.

(c) a phenomenon that most scientists agree is
caused by human beings' burning of fossil fuels,

The correct answer is c. But I have hard time to understand the structure of the sentence in answer c.

A phenomenon ( that most scientist agree. is caused by - )
.............................(Subject). (Verb / agree) ( verb / is caused )

It seems that there are two verbs in a row in one descriptive sentence. Please explain this.