Among other things, chronic inflammation in the digestive tract part

Question

Among other things, chronic inflammation in the digestive tract – particularly the small intestine - may interfere with how the body uses the calories in food, storing more of  them as fat rather than to burn them  for energy.

(A) them as fat rather than to burn them

(B) them as fat rather than burn them

(C) it as fat rather than burning them

(D) it as fat rather than burning it

(E) them as fat rather than burning it

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/science/food-fiber-microbiome-inflammation.html

Inflammation can help fight infections, but if it becomes chronic, it can harm our bodies. Among other things, chronic inflammation may interfere with how the body uses the calories in food, storing more of  it as fat rather than burning it  for energy.

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

Usually, when you find pronoun decision points in a sentence correction problem, you should start by assessing those. However, in this problem that decision point is quite tricky! When assessing “it” versus “them,” you might think that the pronoun should be plural, as it seems to be referring to calories. But if it is singular, it could also refer to food and this too is logical (in fact you don’t really “store calories as fat” but you do “store food as fat”). Since both seem reasonable, look for other decision points. One important consideration is that you cannot mix and match the pronouns – either both need to be singular or both need to be plural. That allows you to definitely eliminate (C) and (E) as they incorrectly mix and match a singular and plural pronoun. The other critical decision point between (A), (B), and (D) is the “burning” versus “to burn” or “burn.” Checking parallelism, you see that this expression needs to be: “STORING more of it as fat rather than BURNING it for energy.” Comparisons such as this require strict parallelism and (A) and (B) both clearly violate that. While you might be a bit perplexed by the singular pronoun choice in (D), it is the only one that avoids concrete errors of agreement and parallelism.  The correct answer is (D).

abhinav2892 · Answer

D clears all the pronoun errors

thinkTheta · Answer

B. calories -> plural, therefore 'them' rather than 'it'. We are left with A and B. the 'to' in A disrupts the parallelism. Hence, B

gvij2017 · Answer

D clear our parallelism error and pronoun error....

So D is winning choice.

Gemelo90 · Answer

Calories are plural, so "them" is the right choice. Moreover, "to" in option A is not needed. Therefore, I go with B.

daagh · Answer

The plural 'calories' and its appropriate pronoun 'them' are the cue words. B is the answer

Hero8888 · Answer

Hi,  daagh

1. We are always taught about parallel construction. Why in this case we have to neglect it? 
2. Here is burn in plural, whereas body is singular. Don't you think that burns is more suitable?

Thank you in advance.

sandman13 · Answer

B. Calories is plural, requires them. I feel B is better than A. To burn implies intention, I think, and that doesn't fit.

Sent from my ONE A2003 using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

SSM700plus · Answer

"them" is used for calories. calories --> Plural. So we will use "them" plural.
"it" is used for singular nouns . Hence eliminate C,D,E.

Parallelism error can be thought of if it is not conveying the meaning. 
A is wrong because of "to burn". It is incorrect. It means with intention of burning. Hence A is incorrect.
But It's general phenomenon. Simple Present should be used. "burn" should be used.

Answer - B

daagh · Answer

Hero
Where is such a choice with burns? Do you want to create a new choice with 'burns'? One shouldn't practice GMAT that way, I feel.

jackspire · Answer

Hello daagh,
Why D can't be the answer.
I went for D considering parallelism between storing and burning.
From plural noun perspective it is also wrong.

Confused between B and D.
Please help.

SSM700plus · Answer

"it" is a singular Pronoun. So it should be used for singular nouns. 
Here Noun is "calories", a plural noun. Hence we need plural pronoun too. "them" is the correct usage.

If you have any doubt about what noun should a pronoun replace. Replace pronoun with noun and check if it makes sense.

In this case - storing more of calories as fat rather than to burn calories for energy. It makes perfect sense.

Hence B is right answer.

daagh · Answer

jack
How do you reconcile plural calories with the singular pronoun 'it' in D?

Hero8888 · Answer

Dear daagh , I'm asking you because I want to understand your expert's logic. I'm confused here, so someone is needed to fix my understanding of the topic, nothing more nothing less

Option B: 1. Why do you concider "burn" correct if body is singular, and by all rules it "burns"? 2. What is the rule/exception that you use to allow non parallel structure in "rather than"? Option E: 3. Is that possible that in choice D author of the text is "it" for "food" and "burn" as a synonym of "to digest", making antecedent "it" legitimate? Thanks.

daagh · Answer

The solution to your problem is not to get stuck with a single person; you must float your questions with people such as Ninja and Mike. They can give you the correct perception.

Hero8888 · Answer

Dear experts,  mikemcgarry   GMATNinja  seemingly you are the last resort for finding ultimate truth here
Can you kindly explain in what cases we can neglect parallelism in "rather than" construction? What option would you choose, thank you!

NidSha · Answer

Bunuel   Ninja   mike ... need some expert help... why would B be a better choice over A? TIA.

Sent from my SM-G935F using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

Funsho84 · Answer

My attempt at explaining how I approached this ?

The intended meaning is key! Here at first glance - chronic inflammation appears to be the main subject. As you continue reading, the author's intention appears to change to focus on burning energy. It's non-sensical to think that chronic inflammation can be used for calories in food or storing them. -

SajjitaKundu · Answer

IMO the answer should be B. Only this option uses 'them' in both cases. Agreed 'storing' is not exactly parallel with 'burn' but that is the best we have got.

Among other things, chronic inflammation in the digestive tract part

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Among other things, chronic inflammation in the digestive tract part

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards