Although they are crucially important, a person's total calorie intake

Question

Although  they are crucially important, a person's total calorie intake is only one of the many factors that determine if their weight will increase or decrease.

(A) they are crucially important, a person's total calorie intake is only one of the many factors that determine if their weight will increase or decrease

(B) it is crucially important, a person's total calorie intake is only one of the many factors that determine whether his or her weight will increase or decrease

(C) it is a crucially important factor, a person's total calorie intake is the only one of many that determines whether his or her weight will increase or decrease

(D) crucially important, a person's total calorie intake is only one of the many factors that determines the increase or decrease in their weight

(E) it is crucially important, a person's total calorie intake is the only one of many factors that determines the increase or decrease in his or her weight

dreamsatgmat · Accepted Answer

B,
the structure "One of the" is key here.
Since for the form ("one of the" + plural noun + that +Verb) , the verb has to be plural, hence determine is the right verb. 
So we can omit C,D,E
in option 1, its wrongly using "their" .

D3N0 · Answer

(A)  they  are crucially important,  a person's total calorie intake is  only one of the many factors that determine if  their  weight will increase or decrease

(B) it is crucially important, a person's total calorie intake is only one of the many factors that determine whether his or her weight will increase or decrease
His or her = singular for a person correct, determine= plural for factors correct
 I am just confused if we can write "(clause) It is .......important, (clause) a person's calorie intake.................".

(C) it is a crucially important factor, a person's total calorie intake is the only one of  many that determines  whether his or her weight will increase or decrease

(D) crucially important, a person's total calorie intake is only one of the many  factors that determines  the increase or decrease in  their  weight

(E) it is crucially important,  a person's  total calorie intake is the only  one of many factors that determines  the increase or decrease in his or her weight

u1983 · Answer

I completely agree with the solution....... but my query is ........... to which noun the pronoun his/her is referring to ? I mean the antecedent ....

GMATNinja · Answer

Take another look at (B): Although it is crucially important, a  person's  total calorie intake is only one of the many factors that determine whether  his or her  weight will increase or decrease.

We know that "his or her" has to refer to a singular antecedent and that this antecedent should be a person. The only viable option here is, conveniently enough, "person's."

I hope that helps!

saurabh9gupta · Answer

GMATNinja   daagh

could you please explain how to reject C and E

Helium · Answer

My 2 cents :

Although  they are crucially important, a person's total calorie intake is only one of the many factors that determine if their weight will increase or decrease.

(E) it is crucially important, a person's total calorie intake is   the only   one of many factors that determines the increase or decrease in his or her weight

Let's take E first.    the only   -This changes meaning.

What we want is - "Although......important .....but only one of many factors......."

What we have here is - "Although.....important.....is the ONLY of many factors....."

(C) it is a crucially important factor, a person's total calorie intake is   the only  one of many that  determines whether his or her weight will increase or decrease

Same as E.

(B)  it is crucially important, a person's total calorie intake is  only one of  the many factors that determine whether his or her weight will increase or decrease

Hope this helps!!

saurabh9gupta · Answer

so even if anyone does not know the rule - one of the XYZ, this question can be done.

notice the part ---> many factors that determines --> in this sentence, the word "that" refers to factors (which is plural) and so DETERMINE will be the right word.

CDE will be out straight away.

The word "they" in A has no referent.

Thus B

daagh   chetan2u   GMATNinja   Bunuel  -- hope this explanation is correct

daagh · Answer

Saurab
I am afraid not. 
You see, C, and to a large extent, E are perfectly grammatical sentences. Please look more carefully-- "one of the factors" and "the only one of the factors" are not the same and substantially differ in their subject-verb agreement. When you say "the only one of the factors that determines," the subject is the singular -the only one of the factors'-. Hence, you do require a singular verb such as "determines." 
On the contrary, when you say just -only of the factors that determine--, the subject is the plural --only of the factors--, and so you then require a plural verb such as "determine." 
Therefore, grammatically there is nothing wrong about the subject-verb agreement in choices C and E. However, both of them substantially vary from the intended meaning, by meaning that it is the only factor. 
The intended meaning is to say that although calorie intake is a crucial one, it is but only one of the many factors. 
Per Se, B not only is Fidel to the original in meaning but also is grammatically correct and hence the right choice.

Hope this helps.

saurabh9gupta · Answer

daagh  sir... makes a lot of sense now

Posted from my mobile device

rnn · Answer

I am confused.

B Says "one of the many factors that determine"

If "one" is singular, then should it not be determines instead of determine?

GMATNinja · Answer

Check out  this thread  for a discussion of how to figure out what "that" modifies. If that doesn't help, let us know.

AbRathod · Answer

Although they are crucially important, a person's total calorie intake is only one of the many factors that determine if their weight will increase or decrease.

Prethinking - Find out the antecedent (SVA) and Conciseness.
Antecedent is Total Calorie Intake, A person's - adjective modifying TCI, hence Subject is singular.

(A)  they  are crucially important, a person's total calorie intake is only one of the many factors that determine if their weight will increase or decrease -

(B)  it is  crucially important, a person's total calorie intake  is only one  of the many factors that determine whether his or her weight will increase or decrease - Correct and Concise.

(C) it is a  crucially important factor , a person's total calorie intake is the  only one of many  that determines whether his or her weight will increase or decrease - Many lacks noun.

(D)  crucially important , a person's total calorie intake is only one of the many factors that determines the increase or decrease in their weight. - Lack of antecedent in subordinate clause.

(E) it is crucially important, a person's total calorie intake is the only one of many factors that determines  the increase or decrease in his or her weight  - Redundant.

rsvelc · Answer

Hi  GMATNinja , thanks for the explanation,
Here antecedent is a possessive noun and isn't acting like an exact noun in the sentence to be referenced by his/her. It would have more sense to add the actual noun i.e; person in the sentence
Something like -
(B): Although it is crucially important, a  person's  total calorie intake is only one of the many factors that determine whether  person's  weight will increase or decrease.

Please share your thoughts

IndEmBeeAy · Answer

Hi can anyone tell me, is it perfectly grammatical to have a pronoun before the noun? Eg in almost all options here except D, "it" or "they" come before the noun they refer to - "a person's calorie intake"

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  HarvardCallingMe ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, yes; there is nothing ungrammatical in a pronoun preceding its referent.

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

GMATNinja · Answer

There aren't many reliable grammar "rules" that we can apply universally on the GMAT, and this certainly isn't one of them.

"A   man's   blood pressure is a key indicator of   his   heart health."

Is "his"  wrong  here because it doesn't refer to a specific person? Probably not -- and even if this isn't an ideal construction, it's not a strong enough reason to eliminate something on the GMAT. The same idea applies to "his or her" in choice (B).

Pronouns are certainly important on the GMAT, so you should absolutely continue to think about each pronoun and whether its referent is logical. But if it's a gray area, your best bet is to be conservative and look for other decision points rather than trying to rely on shaky grammar rules.

For a deeper dive on GMAT pronouns, check out  this video  or  this sequel .

I hope that helps!

Although they are crucially important, a person's total calorie intake

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Although they are crucially important, a person's total calorie intake

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