The standard framework of cap and trade is fundamentally conservative,

The standard framework of cap and trade is fundamentally conservative, in which a central body generally establishes a limit on the total amount of pollution that can be produced, allocates a certain number of permits, and then allows market forces to dictate the price a company must pay to pollute.


A. standard framework of cap and trade is fundamentally conservative, in which a central body generally establishes a limit on the total amount of pollution that can be produced, allocates a certain number of permits, and then allows market forces to dictate the price a company must pay to pollute(correct,in which should logically modify framework)

B. standard framework of cap and trade, a central body generally establishes a limit on the total amount of pollution that can be produced, allocates a certain number of permits, and then allows market forces to dictate the price that companies must pay to pollute, is fundamentally conservative( why the clause has been inserted after standard framework of cap and trade)

C. standard framework of cap and trade—a central body generally establishes a limit on the total amount of pollution that can be produced, allocates a certain number of permits, and then allows market forces to dictate the price a company must pay to pollute—is, fundamentally, a conservative one( comma after is incorrect)

D. fundamentally conservative standard framework of cap and trade is: a central body generally establishes a limit on the total amount of pollution that can be produced, allocates a certain number of permits, and then allows market forces to dictate the price that a company must pay to pollute( incomplete sentence,no predicate after verb)

E. fundamentally conservative standard framework of cap and trade, in which a central body generally establishes a limit on the total amount of pollution that can be produced, allocates a certain number of permits, and then allows market forces to dictate the price that companies must pay to pollute( verb is missing,in which should logically modify framework )


Will go with choice A for meaning.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Thanks

GMATNinja AjiteshArun generis VeritasPrepBrian

egmat



What is wrong with option A?? I find it to be correct . Please help.

According to me, "in which" refers to the framework.

_______________________
what is wrong with option e?

Here's the version created via the use of (E).

The fundamentally conservative standard framework of cap and trade, in which a central body generally establishes a limit on the total amount of pollution that can be produced, allocates a certain number of permits, and then allows market forces to dictate the price that companies must pay to pollute.

There are two ways to read that version. One is:

The framework, in which xyz, allocates, and then allows.

When the version is read that way, "framework" is the subject, and the main verb is "allocates, and then allows."

The second way to read it is:

The framework, in which a central body establishes, allocates, and then allows.

When the version is read this second way, it has no main verb. It is composed merely of a noun, "the framework," and a modifier, "in which ..."

Since it makes more sense that the central body would allocate and allow than that the framework would allocate and allow, it makes more sense to read this version in the second way.

Thus, the issue with (E) is that the version created via the use of (E) has no main verb and, therefore, is not a complete sentence.

MartyTargetTestPrep,

I was confused between B and C.

And finally chose B, which is wrong.

Please explain the difference between B & C. It seems that only the punctuation is different. How common is it in GMAT to have splits based only on punctuations?

I am not 100 percent sure that (B) is "wrong."

The complete clause in the middle of the sentence, "a central body generally establishes ... price that companies must pay to pollute," is an appositive that modifies "framework." As such, does it really have to be set off by dashes rather than commas? That the answer to that question seems debatable.

At the same time, dashes do seem to be better than commas for setting off a complete independent clause that appears in the middle of a sentence in the way in which that one does. So, regardless of whether we could debate that (B) is OK, (C) is the better choice.

Regarding how common it is for GMAT SC choices to be the same except for punctuation, the answer is rarely to never, and I strongly doubt that you would ever see a pair of choices like (B) and (C) in this question. What you would more likely see would be two rather different choices, one of the differences between them being the way in which they are punctuated. Also, any flawed use of punctuation would be clearly flawed, not something that language PhDs would debate about.

Official Explanation

1) Take a First Glance (5 seconds)

The long sentence that is almost entirely underlined is a hint to pay attention to shifting Sentence Structure.

2) Read for Meaning

The sentence is fairly dense; slow down as you read it and try to understand each piece. The sentence discusses the standard framework of cap and trade, which is fundamentally conservative. The sentence goes on to describe three things that a central body generally does in a cap-and-trade system: (1) it establishes a limit on the total amount of pollution that can be produced, (2) it allocates a certain number of permits, and (3) it allows market forces to dictate the price a company must pay to pollute.

In the original sentence, the modifier in which … pollute should logically refer to the standard framework of cap and trade, but the placement of this modifier after the words fundamentally conservative makes it sound as though in which … pollute is modifying fundamentally conservative. Eliminate answer choice (A).

3) Find a Starting Point

Start with any difference that seems easiest to you, then move to the next easiest issue, and so on. Stop when you have one answer or you aren’t sure how to address the remaining differences. All errors for each choice are detailed in the next section.

4) Eliminate (and Repeat)

(A) The placement of the modifier in which … pollute after fundamentally conservative makes it sound as though in which … pollute is modifying fundamentally conservative.

(B) In this sentence, the opening noun phrase, the standard framework of cap and trade, is the subject of the standalone sentence the standard framework … is fundamentally conservative. The middle portion, a central body establishes a limit … produced, is also a complete sentence. Essentially, there are two complete sentences mashed together without a connecting conjunction, similar to this faulty sentence: The plane ride, the seats are close together, was uncomfortable. Eliminate this choice for incorrect sentence structure.

(C) CORRECT. The dashes around the modifier a central body … pollute set it off from the rest of the sentence, indicating its role as a modifier. Mentally ignore the modifier and the correct sentence core now reads, the standard framework of cap and trade … is, fundamentally, a conservative one.

(D) The wording that comes before a colon must be able to stand alone, but the fundamentally conservative standard framework of cap and trade is fails this requirement. The verb is requires an object: the framework is…something.

(E) The modifier in which … pollute is now properly placed next to the framework of cap and trade. However, ignore that modifier to find the sentence core: the fundamentally conservative standard framework of cap and trade lacks a verb. This is a sentence fragment.

I understood why option C is correct. However, I'd marked option E.

In option E, isn't 'of cape and trade' a preposition phrase? So in essence, shouldn't 'in which' modify 'standard framework' and not 'of cape and trade'.

Hi ksharayu, there is no rule that which/in which jumps prepositional phrase.

For example:

Michael arrived in his car, which is 20 years old.

Here, which is modifying car, despite car being a part of prepositional phrase in his car.

In any case, modifier issue of in which (if any) is not the real issue with option E.

As per OE, E can be interpreted as:

The fundamentally conservative standard framework of cap and trade, in which a central body generally <does something>

The above is a sentence fragment (not a complete sentence) because there is no main verb in the sentence (there is no verb for the subject fundamentally conservative standard framework of cap and trade)

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses modifier issues of which/that, their application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

Hello MartyTargetTestPrep,
I was wondering whether an independent clause can be an appositive , I have seen nouns, noun phrases ,pronouns but I didn't know that an independent clause (answer choice b) can act as an appositive is it something that I have misunderstood?
could you please verify it

An appositive is basically wording that repeats what other wording says in a different way and, thus, modifies or further describes the other wording.

In this case, the independent clause "a central body generally establishes ... price that companies must pay to pollute" is another way of saying the same thing that "framework" says. So, the clause seems to be an appositive that modifies or further describes "framework."

I'm not 100 percent sure what someone with a PhD in language would call it, but it does seem to function in the manner of an appositive.

GMATNinja How is B different from C? I need more info on how GMAT uses Dash in clause.

Gagan

Hello experts, I am having a parallelism doubt in option c

...., a central body generally establishes..., allocates a certain number of per, and then allows...

Isn't having extra word "then" is violating parallelism here?

Posted from my mobile device

The core list, "establishes," "allocates," and "allows," is parallel. So, the list is correctly constructed.

Hi mdsaddamforgmat,

The then that we see in structures like X and then Y is an adverb. As MartyTargetTestPrep pointed out, it doesn't affect our classification of Y. We ignore it when we check whether X and Y are similar or not.

Hello mdsaddamforgmat,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe that we can help resolve your doubt.

As mentioned by other experts in this thread, the inclusion of "then" does not violate parallelism. When judging parallelism, it is important to take into account what role the concerned elements play in the sentence. Here, "establishes a limit...", "allocates a certain number of permits", and "allows market forces to..." are listed together as the three actions that the "central body" takes; "then" is merely an adverb that helps establish the order of events; in this regard, it is not dissimilar to "generally", which is an adverb that provides extra information about the element "establishes a limit...".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

no concrete idea has been output. Feels said something but actually nothing