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705-805 (Hard)|   Pronouns|      
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NewKid123
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 07 Oct 2013, 10:19
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Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

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95% (hard)

Question Stats:

27% (01:15) correct 73% (01:21) wrong based on 595 sessions

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Geologists in California have discovered a fault near the famous San Andreas Fault, one that they believe to be a trigger for major quakes on the San Andreas.

(A) one that they believe to be a trigger for
(B) one they believe to be a trigger for
(C) one that they believe triggers
(D) that they believe to be a trigger for
(E) one they believe acts as a trigger for

Source: Nova GMAT
Difficulty Level: 750
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B
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blueseas
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 07 Oct 2013, 13:47
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NewKid123
Geologists in California have discovered a fault near the famous San Andreas Fault, one that they believe to be a trigger for major quakes on the San Andreas.
(A) one that they believe to be a trigger for
(B) one they believe to be a trigger for
(C) one that they believe triggers
(D) that they believe to be a trigger for
(E) one they believe acts as a trigger for
Show more

BELIEVE AS ==> UNIDOMATIC.
CORRECT IDIOMATIC USAGE : BELIEVE ..TO BE

MOREOVER ONE and THAT is acting as a pronoun ==> both are refering to same thing hence use of ONE and THAT together is redundant.
basing this OPTION B is correct answer.
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amitbharadwaj7
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 11 Oct 2013, 03:36
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blueseas
NewKid123
Geologists in California have discovered a fault near the famous San Andreas Fault, one that they believe to be a trigger for major quakes on the San Andreas.
(A) one that they believe to be a trigger for
(B) one they believe to be a trigger for
(C) one that they believe triggers
(D) that they believe to be a trigger for
(E) one they believe acts as a trigger for

BELIEVE AS ==> UNIDOMATIC.
CORRECT IDIOMATIC USAGE : BELIEVE ..TO BE

MOREOVER ONE and THAT is acting as a pronoun ==> both are refering to same thing hence use of ONE and THAT together is redundant.
basing this OPTION B is correct answer.
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I agree with your submission, but what is wrong with option D
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blueseas
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 11 Oct 2013, 06:52
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amitbharadwaj7
blueseas
NewKid123
Geologists in California have discovered a fault near the famous San Andreas Fault, one that they believe to be a trigger for major quakes on the San Andreas.
(A) one that they believe to be a trigger for
(B) one they believe to be a trigger for
(C) one that they believe triggers
(D) that they believe to be a trigger for
(E) one they believe acts as a trigger for

BELIEVE AS ==> UNIDOMATIC.
CORRECT IDIOMATIC USAGE : BELIEVE ..TO BE

MOREOVER ONE and THAT is acting as a pronoun ==> both are refering to same thing hence use of ONE and THAT together is redundant.
basing this OPTION B is correct answer.

I agree with your submission, but what is wrong with option D
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firstly you will probably never see COMMA before that in right option.
moreover THAT is incorrectly ambiguously refering to San Andreas Fault INSTEAD OF other fault.

hope it helps :)
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gauravkaushik8591
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 08 Mar 2014, 14:02
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blueseas
NewKid123
Geologists in California have discovered a fault near the famous San Andreas Fault, one that they believe to be a trigger for major quakes on the San Andreas.
(A) one that they believe to be a trigger for
(B) one they believe to be a trigger for
(C) one that they believe triggers
(D) that they believe to be a trigger for
(E) one they believe acts as a trigger for

BELIEVE AS ==> UNIDOMATIC.
CORRECT IDIOMATIC USAGE : BELIEVE ..TO BE

MOREOVER ONE and THAT is acting as a pronoun ==> both are refering to same thing hence use of ONE and THAT together is redundant.
basing this OPTION B is correct answer.
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Impossible! I've read this 'one that' phrase in new yorker and it did strike my eye.

And for everyone's reference. This is a question statement from OG13.
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 09 Mar 2015, 00:23
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Didn't really understand why B
the way i have done this since the pronoun is singular the verb needs to be triggers and hence chose C
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MadaraU
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 03 Aug 2017, 11:50
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Well I feel every answer choice is wrong

Geologists.....have discovered a fault (This is your independent clause) so what comes after it should be a noun clause and noun clauses don't have verbs in it while all the answer choices have verbs

(A) one that they believe to be a trigger for
(B) one they believe to be a trigger for
(C) one that they believe triggers
(D) that they believe to be a trigger for
(E) one they believe acts as a trigger for
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 03 Aug 2017, 14:23
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Can an expert please give a detailed explanation on why B is the OA?
GMATNinja, what are your thoughts on this one?
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rekhabishop
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 03 Aug 2017, 20:01
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Isn't A fine? Not sure what is wrong with A. :(
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Yoohanna
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 07 Aug 2017, 11:33
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Would you please explain what's wrong with C ?
Thanks in advance
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 18 Aug 2017, 17:31
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Yoohanna
Would you please explain what's wrong with C ?
Thanks in advance
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I also feel like C could be right. It's grammatically correct, and it's the most active choice in my opinion.
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 29 Aug 2017, 06:32
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NewKid123
Geologists in California have discovered a fault near the famous San Andreas Fault, one that they believe to be a trigger for major quakes on the San Andreas.
(A) one that they believe to be a trigger for
(B) one they believe to be a trigger for
(C) one that they believe triggers
(D) that they believe to be a trigger for
(E) one they believe acts as a trigger for
Show more


whats wrong with C, it looks better than B. Can you specify the source and its OA.
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 29 Aug 2017, 09:01
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goforgmat
NewKid123
Geologists in California have discovered a fault near the famous San Andreas Fault, one that they believe to be a trigger for major quakes on the San Andreas.
(A) one that they believe to be a trigger for
(B) one they believe to be a trigger for
(C) one that they believe triggers
(D) that they believe to be a trigger for
(E) one they believe acts as a trigger for


whats wrong with C, it looks better than B. Can you specify the source and its OA.
Show more


Two Independent clauses need to be connected with either ; or ,FANBOYS otherwise the sentence is fragmented

As in C. Geologist...have discovered ...., one .... triggers

Hope this make sense.


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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 29 Aug 2017, 09:02
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NicoleJaneway
Yoohanna
Would you please explain what's wrong with C ?
Thanks in advance

I also feel like C could be right. It's grammatically correct, and it's the most active choice in my opinion.
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Please referred to my comment below


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Geologists in California have discovered a fault Updated on: 16 Apr 2019, 11:05
Originally posted by DmitryFarberMPrep on 30 Aug 2017, 02:35.
Last edited by DmitryFarberMPrep on 16 Apr 2019, 11:05, edited 1 time in total.
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polpanumas, I'm afraid that isn't quite right. The second part of the sentence is not an independent clause. Everything after "one" is a modifier, so there's no actual verb for "one." Compare it to this: "One movie that I think is really great." We have nouns and verbs ("I think" that "the movie is really great"), but the way the clause is structured, we still need a main verb: "One movie that I think is really great IS _____."

A quick Google search turns up the original source and explanation for this question. The authors felt that "one that" is redundant, but I don't think that would be sufficient grounds for elimination on a real GMAT question.
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 15 Apr 2019, 13:41
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darn
Can an expert please give a detailed explanation on why B is the OA?
GMATNinja, what are your thoughts on this one?
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Can someone please explain in detail?
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 15 Aug 2022, 23:00
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Can an expert please review the answer choices? I am unable to figure out why C is wrong
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 16 Aug 2022, 10:55
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DmitryFarber
polpanumas, I'm afraid that isn't quite right. The second part of the sentence is not an independent clause. Everything after "one" is a modifier, so there's no actual verb for "one." Compare it to this: "One movie that I think is really great." We have nouns and verbs ("I think" that "the movie is really great"), but the way the clause is structured, we still need a main verb: "One movie that I think is really great IS _____."

A quick Google search turns up the original source and explanation for this question. The authors felt that "one that" is redundant, but I don't think that would be sufficient grounds for elimination on a real GMAT question.
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DmitryFarber hello expert, thanks for your confirmation, and would you like to further explain why C is wrong? Much thanks.
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 16 Aug 2022, 20:00
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault near the famous San Andreas Fault, one that they believe to be a trigger for major quakes on the San Andreas.

(A) one that they believe to be a trigger for
(B) one they believe to be a trigger for
(C) one that they believe triggers
(D) that they believe to be a trigger for
(E) one they believe acts as a trigger for

Reason why I believe 'C' is wrong:

While the given sentence says that the fault the Geologists have discovered could be a trigger -One of the triggers probably-, option C more confidently says that the fault triggers major quakes. Now, that is a distortion of the meaning according to me and hence, an incorrect choice.
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Geologists in California have discovered a fault 17 Aug 2022, 09:09
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aryamaagarwal
Can an expert please review the answer choices? I am unable to figure out why C is wrong
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Choice C is totally fine. (Stylistically, C is better than the answer that's marked as correct.)



By the way—In choice C, "they believe" is an example a structure that's quite common for reported speech or beliefs. Sometimes, as in this example, the attribution is not comma-blocked. In other uses (e.g., The updated tax forms, the agency's press release states, will be issued during the first two weeks of September.)

For another illustration, please check out this OG problem:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-world-wi ... 03470.html
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