Some consumers who wish to support sustainable agriculture will only b

Question

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC1) 
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Some consumers who wish to support sustainable agriculture will  only buy produce if it is certified and labeled as 100% organic , while others believe that formal regulation can be bypassed by building trust between producers and consumers.

A) only buy produce if it is certified and labeled as 100% organic

B) buy produce only if it was certified and labeled as 100% organic

C) buy produce only if it would be labeled as 100% organic and certified

D) buy only produce if it were labeled as 100% organic and certified

E) buy produce if it would only be labeled as 100% organically certified

generis · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC1) THE PROMPT • Issue? Conditional statements. The first part of the sentence contains a conditional. To make understanding easier, I'll reverse the order of the clauses: Only if produce is certified and labeled as 100% organic will certain consumers buy it. IF produce is certified and labeled as 100% organic, certain customers will buy it. We are dealing with a Type 1 conditional. → The main (result) clause is in the nonunderlined portion and is in simple future tense("consumers . . . will") → Out of the five types of conditionals, only Type 1 uses the simple future tense in the result clause. In the conditional or IF clause, a Type 1 conditional uses the simple present tense, and in the result clause, simple future, this way: IF simple present, THEN simple future See the footnote** for a very condensed review of the five types of conditionals. In short, the simple future tense "will buy" in the result clause can only be a Type 1 conditional, which requires the IF clause to be in simple present tense THE OPTIONS • This simple present tense is exactly what we need and I see no errors KEEP • we need "If (simple present)," not "If (simple past) ELIMINATE B • we need "If (simple present)," not "If (future past)" ELIMINATE C • we need "If (simple present)," not "If (simple past)" • The placement of the word only is incorrect and creates a silly sentence → In the other options, only modifies the verb buy , while in this option only modifies the noun produce . → The intended meaning is that some consumers will only buy one type of produce: the certified organic kind. But this sentence states that consumers will buy nothing except produce. Wrong. ELIMINATE D • we need "If (simple present)," not "If (future past)" • "organically" makes the sentence illogical → the adjective organic has been changed into the adverb organically Organic can logically describe the noun produce , but the action certified cannot sensibly be described as being performed organically. (To do something organically is to do that thing in a natural way or to do it without pesticides and such. A person might farm organically—not certify organically.) Eliminate E The best answer is A. COMMENTS I will keep this part short because I accidentally deleted an entire draft of this post.

I am happy to see critical thinking deployed in these answers. Nice work. Kudos of some kind to all. **VERY condensed summary of conditionals Zero conditional : If THIS thing happens, THAT thing happens. -- general truths -- IF simple present, THEN simple present -- situation is real and possible. True now and always. Type 1 : If THIS thing happens, THAT thing will happen -- statements in the present made about the future and about real things -- IF simple present, THEN simple future -- condition is real, outcome ("truth") is very probable Type 2 : If THIS thing happened, then THAT thing would happen -- If you left the house earlier, then you would be on time for the bus. (But you did not leave the house earlier.) Type 2 : If THIS thing happened, then THAT thing would be happening -- If I understood the joke, I would be laughing. (But I don't understand the joke, so I am not laughing.) Type 2 : If THIS thing were to happen, then THAT thing would happen -- If antitrust laws were enforced properly, then oligopolies would not control entire sectors of the economy. -- hypothetical (theoretical) statements NOT based on what is actual. Counterfactual, unreal, imaginary (hypothetical) -- IF simple past, THEN present conditional (or present continuous conditional) -- condition is not real. Time is always Type 3 : If THIS thing had happened, then THAT thing would have happened. (But neither thing happened.) -- IF past perfect, THEN perfect conditional (would + have + verbED) -- If they had cooperated better, then they would have finished their project on time. (But they didn't cooperate, and they didn't finish on time.) -- statements about the unreal past and probable result (often statements of regret or missed opportunity) -- unreal past condition, probable result in the past that is also unreal (the result did not happen) Mixed conditional : If THIS thing had happened, then THAT thing would happen -- IF is in the past, THEN is in the present (present result of a past action) -- If past perfect, THEN present conditional (just as in Type 2) -- time is an event in the past, result is ongoing -- If I had taken the Series 7, I would be a stockbroker. (But I didn't take the tests and I am not a stockbroker.) (Mixed conditionals have many variations. I've just listed what seems to be the most common type.)

Sumi1010 · Answer

The correct IF condition tested here is : 
 If X happens, Y will happen. = Y will happen, if X happens (simple present).  
i.e. With  Simple future , the tense in IF case should be  Simple present.

Removing the middleman modifiers - 
Some consumers  who wish to support sustainable agriculture   will only buy produce if it is certified and labeled as 100% organic.
Some consumers will only buy produce IF it is certified and labeled as 100% organic.

This is correct sentence. 
All other choices have either past tense, conditional or hypothetical subjunctive.

IMO  A

zhanbo · Answer

I came up with option (A) after 1 minute and 14 seconds. It turns out to be rather straightforward.

First, "only buy produce if ..." or "buy produce only if..." should both be all right. However, "buy only produce" (D) or "buy produce if it only" (E) do not make sense. We can eliminate (D) and (E).

Second, the difference between (A), (B), and (C) is actually the verb tense. There is no reason to use "was" (as if the certification occurred in the past and may no longer be the case now) or "would be" (as if the certification is pending or possible but may in actuality lacking).

So, we pick (A).

amit2100 · Answer

Some consumers who wish to support sustainable agriculture will only buy produce if it is certified and labeled as 100% organic, while others believe that formal regulation can be bypassed by building trust between producers and consumers.

A) only buy produce if it is certified and labeled as 100% organic

B) buy produce only if it was certified and labeled as 100% organic -use of 'was' is incorrect

C) buy produce only if it would be labeled as 100% organic and certified -while the sentence is conditional, using would creates a mismatch in the sentence

D) buy only produce if it were labeled as 100% organic and certified wrong placement of only

E) buy produce if it would only be labeled as 100% organically certified use of would is incorrect

) will only buy ( Main Verb ) produce if it is certified and labeled as 100% organic, ( If clause. S-> "it" (refer to the "produce" logically ) , V -> "is" ) while ( Dependent clause ) others believe ( SV pair of DC) that formal regulation can be bypassed by building trust between producers and consumers. ( Clause informing us what other folks believe. ) Clauses structure (rearranging) : If clause, then Main Clause, while Clause that Clause. We have then part is in future tense and is non underlined -> so is fixed. Now going back to rules: If X , Y clauses-> If X ( present tense ), Y ( present or future tense) -> in case of Real/ habitual or future certain scenarios. For details of such tenses construction refer to : So logically and tense wise -> A seems fine and clear in meaning. Hold B) buy produce only if it was certified and labeled as 100% organic Placement of "only" now leads to meaning getting messy. "only produce" means Some consumers will buy produce only and nothing else. No milk and animal products

Unfair -> slight shift in meaning. But the bigger issue is the use of past tense in "if Clause" -> why would we want to talk about the "if" clause in past tense for the certain condition (fact/truth) happening in future. If we use past tense in IF clause we need to use Past tense in then clause to present past certain conditions/fact -> Eliminate. C) buy produce only if it would be labeled as 100% organic and certified "would" is used for hypothetical/uncertain/unreal condition. and "would" usage here is not correct in IF clause since then clause is in future certain condition. Placement of "only" similar issue like B. Other minor issue: "Labelled as certified" -> second part of the list is not as clear as A. Eliminate D) buy only produce if it were labeled as 100% organic and certified "were" is used in IF sentence (For technical folks : Past Subjunctive) so we need to use "would /could" in then clause. For hypothetical scenario we cannot use future fact/truth tense in "then" clause. Same issue "Labelled as certified" -> in list as in C. Eliminate E) buy produce if it would only be labeled as 100% organically certified "would" usage is wrong like option C. placement of "only" distort meaning compared to option A. I would not think too much about usage of "100% organically certified here." Eliminate. Learning : IF X, Y -> IF Y is in future tense, X must be in simple present tense to present certain conditions for events to occur. Real conditional tense.

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  here .

s1804singh · Answer

Some consumers who wish to support sustainable agriculture will only buy produce if it is certified and labeled as 100% organic, while others believe that formal regulation can be bypassed by building trust between producers and consumers.

A)  only buy produce if it is certified and labeled as 100% organic

B) buy produce only if it  was  certified and labeled as 100% organic - use of 'was' is incorrect

C) buy produce only if it  would be  labeled as 100% organic and certified - while the sentence is conditional, using would creates a mismatch in the sentence

D)  buy only produce  if it were labeled as 100% organic and certified  wrong placement of only

E) buy produce  if it would only be  labeled as 100% organically certified  use of would is incorrect

Some consumers who wish to support sustainable agriculture will only b

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Some consumers who wish to support sustainable agriculture will only b

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