Calculus, a subject offered to high school students planning to attend

Question

Calculus, a subject offered to high school students planning  to attend college involving the study of change, is used in the science and engineering fields, because it focuses on  limits, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series.

(A) to attend college involving the study of change, is used in the science and engineering fields, because it focuses on

(B) to attend college, involves the study of change, and is used in the fields of science and engineering, because it focuses on

(C) to go to college involving the study of change, and is used in science and engineering fields, because it was focusing on

(D) to attend college that involves studying change, and is used in the science and engineering fields, because it focuses on

(E) to attend college involving the study of change, which is now used in the science and engineering fields, focuses on

daagh · Accepted Answer

IMO, this example takes us nowhere. Let us first of all decide whether the participle ‘ involving ’ or the verb ‘ involves ’ refer to Calculus or college. If it means to denote Calculus, then it should be separated from college by setting off parenthetically with commas after college and after change. Otherwise expressions  ‘involving the study of change ’ and ‘ involves the study of change’  become essential participle or verb of the noun ‘ college ’ that is just before them. You will find all choices, A, B, C and D falling into this trap of improper punctuation and misplaced reference. Worse, D directly refers the subordinate verb ‘involves’ to College, a blatant error. E is terrible. 
Nonetheless B is the obvious choice..

suhi · Answer

Is the placement of comma correct in B?

the sentence would be right if it is written as follows:
Calculus, a subject offered to high school students planning to attend college ,  involves the study of change and is used in the fields of science and engineering, because it focuses on limits, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series.

can anyone explain whether the 'comma' is placed correctly in B?

ChrisLele · Answer

I think there is a slight problem with this question. The correct answer (B), should have a comma after 'college.'

Without the comma, we have a rambling fragment, and the subject 'calculus' lacks a verb.

By placing a comma between both 'Calculus' and 'college' we set off the parenthetical phrase, thereby allow the verb 'involves' to correctly modify the subject 'Calculus.' Thus the corrected correct answer should read:

Calculus, a subject offered to high school students planning to attend college, involves the study of change, and is used in the fields of science and engineering, because it focuses on limits, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series.

thorinoakenshield · Answer

Calculus, a subject offered to high school students planning to attend college involving the study of change, is used in the science and engineering fields, because it focuses on limits, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series.

(A)  to attend college involving the study  of change, is used in the science and engineering fields, because it focuses on

Underlined means the college focuses on study of change - Wrong answer. It changes the meaning of sentence.

(B)  to attend college involves the study of change , and is used in the fields of science and engineering, because it focuses on

Underlined does not mean the college focuses on study of change. It seems to modify calculus i.e. a subject that deals with study of change - possible answer - HOLD

(C)  to go to college involving the study of change , and is used in science and engineering fields, because it was focusing on

Underlined means the college focuses on study of change - Wrong answer. It changes the meaning of sentence.

(D)  to attend college that involves studying change , and is used in the science and engineering fields, because it focuses on

Underlined means the college focuses on study of change - Wrong answer. It changes the meaning of sentence.

(E)  to attend college involving the study of change , which is now used in the science and engineering fields, focuses on

Underlined means the college focuses on study of change - Wrong answer. It changes the meaning of sentence.

nks2611 · Answer

hi,
i will be pleased if you share your thought on my doubt .
my doubt is why there is comma before and in option B as , and means there is an independent clause so what is the subject of that ,and after also why we do not have comma before involves ?

please explain
thank you

sayantanc2k · Answer

I agree with you. Ideally there should not be a comma before "and" because here "and" joins two verbs: "involves" and "is used", not two independent clauses.

Moreover as you correctly noticed, there should be a comma before "involves", because "a subject offered to high school students planning to attend college" is a non-essential modifier (for "calculus") that should have been separated by two commas.

daagh · Answer

The thumb rule about the use of the comma in compound sentences is:

When you have two full-fledged ICs and if you want to join them by a fanboy, then do use a comma before the fanboy. However, a comma is not necessary before the conjunction if the independent clause or second sentence does not have a subject

Examples with a comma - The visiting team tried all the tricks on the book, but it still lost the series.

Without a comma: The visiting team tried all the tricks on the book but still lost the series.

Both are okay.

However, look at the textual choice B.

(B) to attend college involves the study of change, and is used in the fields of science and engineering, because it focuses on

you have a comma before the fanboy but the second part has no subject. This is problematic.

Thus, one may see that the use of comma has a subtle role to play in the overall sentence structure.

B. to attend college involves the study of change, and is used in the fields of science and engineering, because it focuses on

nks2611 · Answer

thank you very much Daagh , for the Emphatic explanation .
so finally there should be a comma if two ICs are added with FANBOYS if there is not any subject after FANBOYS then there should not be comma before usually .
am i right ? sir

daagh · Answer

Nks
Hi
That is my conviction, but I am ready to learn more

nks2611 · Answer

thanks Daagh, i appreciate that. nevertheless i have come across another example after showing your post in this regard , https://gmatclub.com/forum/china-s-vast ... 37643.html , in this question i quickly eliminated option C , and chose A , although as NINJA explained it well but i want to know about your conviction , why C is right here not A and what should be the best . looking forward . thanks

daagh · Answer

I would not rather subscribe to the OE. First, I do not think that A is that bad. It still makes a lot of sense to take China's as the referent for the pronoun 'its', both logically and structurally.

I would think that C contains an incomplete thought in that it is not making clear categorically whose interest is waning. It could be China's or it could be any other country's. The intended meaning is simply dangling as far as I see. C may be structurally ok but logically aberrant.

Probably, if choice A says, 'China's' in the place of 'its' or if they included the possessive, 'China's' before the second part in C, then the choices might have been airtight. If you get to the brass tacks, what is the great difference between the two anyway?

The take away is that in GMAT, the best topics should test and teach logic and structure together.

AkshdeepS · Answer

(A) to attend  college involving the study of change,  is used in the science and engineering fields, because it focuses on

(B) to attend college ,  involves the study of change  , and is used in the fields of science and engineering,   because it focuses on

(C) to go to  college involving the study of change , and is used in science and engineering fields, because it was focusing on

(D) to attend  college that involves studying change , and is used in the science and engineering fields, because it focuses on

(E) to attend  college involving the study of change , which is now used in the science and engineering fields, focuses on

B is the best.

AdityaHongunti · Answer

egmat   GMATNinja  @DimitryFarber  chetan2u   daagh   TommyWallach 
The verb-ing modfier "involving " cannot modify the college? accodring to the sentence " calculus is offered to students who wish to attend the college where " study of change " ,a particular field of study, is available in it's curicullum. Where am I wrong in my line of thinking? According to me both answer choices viz., A and B are grammatically correct and carry their own intended meanings. As per Gmat we have to consider the given meaning as the intended one unless it doesnt make sense. Can't a college involve a study of change? is the word involve wrong to modify the noun college? Please help.
I easily got down to A and B. But sticking to the intended meaning I went for A.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

AdityaHongunti There are a few problems with that reasoning. First, there is no reason to assume that A represents the intended meaning. We need to look at all five answer choices to get a feel for that. To be fair, a real GMAT question would probably not attach "involve/involving" to college in four of the choices if that weren't the intended meaning! Second, it doesn't work to say that colleges "involve the study of change." This kind of study may occur in colleges (in fact it does--in calculus class!

), but that's not at all suggested by the verb "involve/involving." Third, the way "college" is used in the sentence, it's not even referring to a particular place. We say "Did you attend college?" to ask if someone took college classes at all, not to ask about one specific college. In that way, "attend college" is similar to "go to school" or even just "study." Because of that, we don't want to use "college" as a noun here at all, so "involving" could really be seen as modifying the verb "attend" here. (We might say "I went to college hoping to learn the secrets of the universe.") Naturally, that makes no sense, so we need to throw this out.

AdityaHongunti · Answer

DmitryFarber  Greetings Sir.
Thank you for your input. I would like you to put some light on the context set by the sentence. I mean the non underlined part says 
"high school students planning to".What I inferred was that the context is specifying a particular group of students who want to attend a college which involves such curriculum . WHere am I wrong in inferring this ? Please guide me. Thank you

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

I see what you mean, but that still goes against my second and third points. Colleges can't "involve" the study of change. They can teach it or encourage it, but it doesn't mean anything to say that they "involve" it, whereas we can logically say that a field of study, such as calculus, involves the study of change. Additionally, when we say "attend college," we're not talking about a particular place. We'd need to say "attend colleges" or "attend a college" if we wanted to use "college" to refer to specific schools where calculus is taught.

Also, if we read the sentence the way you're proposing, we are then saying that calculus is offered specifically to "students wishing to attend college(s) involving the study of change." That's a very strange modifier to tack on. The version in B is more natural. We offer calculus to those wishing to attend college, and calculus is the thing that involves change.

ravigupta2912 · Answer

How is the OA correct in term of subject verb agreement? Subject : Calculus; Verb : and is

How does that make sense?

Posted from my mobile device

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  ravigupta2912 ,

The subject is singular, as is the verb that you identified.

Calculus   involves ... and  is used ...

ravigupta2912 · Answer

Isn't "and is" a separate clause rather than a verb? I am confused here between the FANBOY construction and the subject verb agreement. Request if you can she'd some light there.

Posted from my mobile device

Calculus, a subject offered to high school students planning to attend

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Calculus, a subject offered to high school students planning to attend

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