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BillyZ
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There is little doubt that the ongoing cycle of eviction and relocatio 28 Mar 2017, 06:53
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D
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25% (medium)

Question Stats:

64% (01:03) correct 36% (01:29) wrong based on 582 sessions

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There is little doubt that the ongoing cycle of eviction and relocation of immigrant families poses a significant obstacle to education and the tool that is most likely to enable those families to break that cycle.

A. poses a significant obstacle to education and the tool that is
B. pose significant obstacles to education, the tool that is
C. pose a significant obstacle to education, the tool
D. poses a significant obstacle to education, the tool
E. pose significant obstacles to education and to the tool that is
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D
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There is little doubt that the ongoing cycle of eviction and relocatio 28 Mar 2017, 06:55
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There is little doubt that the ongoing cycle of eviction and relocation of immigrant families poses a significant obstacle to education and the tool that is most likely to enable those families to break that cycle.

A. poses a significant obstacle to education and the tool that is
B. pose significant obstacles to education, the tool that is
C. pose a significant obstacle to education, the tool
D. poses a significant obstacle to education, the tool
E. pose significant obstacles to education and to the tool that is
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OFFICIAL SOLUTION



From your initial scan of the problem, this one should scream "Subject-Verb Agreement" at you with the first decision point being "pose" vs. "poses." What is the subject of that verb? It's "cycle" ("of eviction and relocation of immigrant families" just tells you more about the cycle). That means that you need the singular verb "poses," and that limits you to A vs. D.

Between A and D, choice D uses the modifier "the tool" to describe "education" - a logical modifier and clear meaning to the sentence. In chioce A, "and the tool" is at best ambiguous (does "and" connect "obstacle" and "tool" as two things that the cycle poses? Or "education" and "the tool" as two separate things that are facing obstacles?) and at worst illogical (the logical meaning is that education is the tool, not that education and this vague "tool that is most likely..." are two separate things). Therefore, answer choice D is correct.
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santorasantu
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There is little doubt that the ongoing cycle of eviction and relocatio 03 Oct 2018, 16:01
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In this question, with Answer D, isn't a comma splice? Two independent clauses are joined by a , without any coordinator(FANBOYS).
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LauraOrion
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There is little doubt that the ongoing cycle of eviction and relocatio 03 Oct 2018, 16:29
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You're close in thinking that it's a comma splice!

But take another look at the reconstructed sentence: "There is little doubt that the ongoing cycle of eviction and relocation of immigrant families poses a significant obstacle to education, the tool most likely to enable those families to break that cycle." Remember that in order for a clause to be a complete sentence, it needs to have a subject and a main verb. Because "the tool most likely to enable those families to break that cycle" doesn't have a main verb (it is a noun with a descriptive phrase after it), it can't be a complete sentence.

So instead of a comma splice, what you have here is a modifier. "The tool most likely to enable those families to break that cycle" modifies the word "education," the word before the comma.
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There is little doubt that the ongoing cycle of eviction and relocatio 03 Oct 2018, 16:51
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LauraOrion
You're close in thinking that it's a comma splice!

But take another look at the reconstructed sentence: "There is little doubt that the ongoing cycle of eviction and relocation of immigrant families poses a significant obstacle to education, the tool most likely to enable those families to break that cycle." Remember that in order for a clause to be a complete sentence, it needs to have a subject and a main verb. Because "the tool most likely to enable those families to break that cycle" doesn't have a main verb (it is a noun with a descriptive phrase after it), it can't be a complete sentence.

So instead of a comma splice, what you have here is a modifier. "The tool most likely to enable those families to break that cycle" modifies the word "education," the word before the comma.
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Got it, Thanks for the explanation
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There is little doubt that the ongoing cycle of eviction and relocatio 31 Oct 2020, 06:20
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Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

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