Manhattan Prep Instructor
Joined: 21 Jan 2010
Affiliations: ManhattanGMAT
Posts: 323
Given Kudos: 11
Location: San Francisco
Concentration: Journalism
Q47 V47 GMAT 2: 770 Q49 V48
Re: A substance from the licorice plant, 50 times sweeter than sucrose, wa
[#permalink]
30 May 2010, 19:42
Hey All,
WHAT IN THE WORLD? I got asked by PM to take this one on. It's ridiculous. Where is this from? None of these answers are grammatically correct. I don't know who wrote it, but there are not any right answers here.
A substance from the licorice plant, 50 times sweeter than sucrose, was recently discovered, is not only a natural sweetener but also prevents tooth decay.
(A) A substance from the licorice plant, 50 times sweeter than sucrose, was recently discovered
PROBLEM: Okay. You can't say "A substance from the licorice plant". You could say, "A substance derived from the licorice plant", but not "A substance from the licorice plant." It's meaningless. Also, we already have a main verb "was", so we can't then say "is" with the same subject.
(B) A substance, which was recently discovered, from the licorice plant, 50 times sweeter than sucrose,
PROBLEM: Same "substance from the licorice plant" issue from above. As for people arguing that this is a legitimate modifier, I don't see why. This is so hideous a way to word the sentence, I refuse to believe GMAC would EVER say it was correct. The placement of 50 times sweeter than sucrose, coming as it does after TWO modifiers (a relative clause beginning with "which" and a prepositional phrase beginning with "from") is totally ugly. TECHNICALLY, yes, the 50 times traces logically to "substance", but the writing is awful.
(C) A substance from the licorice plant, which was recently discovered to be 50 times sweeter than sucrose,
PROBLEM: "Substance from the licorice plant". The discovery is supposed to be the new substance, not the fact that it's 50 times sweeter. Also, "which" is a bit unclear here (it should touch "substance", not "plant").
(D) A substance from the licorice plant, 50 times sweeter than sucrose , which was recently discovered,
PROBLEM: "Substance from the licorice plant". Here the WHICH definitely refers to sucrose, when it should be referring to substance.
(E) A recently discovered substance, 50 times sweeter than sucrose from the licorice plant,
PROBLEM: "Substance from the licorice plant." It's not sweeter than sucrose from the licorice plant. It's the substance from the licorice plant that's sweeter than sucrose.
I'm definitely interested in talking this one out, but I've never seen an answer choice like B on a legitimate test. It's ridiculous, as are all of these answer choices.
To be honest, answer choice C is the closest to grammatically correct (you can make a case for using which to modify a compound noun "The house on the corner, which I love, is on fire." -- "which I love" is clearly modifying "house..." and the "on the corner" is another modifier of "house"), though it changes the meaning of the discovery. Is the OA really B here? If so, this is a WRONG question.
-tommy