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cici
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Many scientists believe that abnormalities in brain chemistry 06 Mar 2009, 07:05
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76% (01:20) correct 24% (01:34) wrong based on 551 sessions

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Many scientists believe that abnormalities in brain chemistry cause clinical depression, but they have not established what these abnormalities are or how they lead to illness.

(A) cause clinical depression, but they have not established what these abnormalities are or
(B) cause clinical depression, but they have not established either what these abnormalities are nor
(C) are the cause of clinical depression, but they have neither not established what these abnormalities are or
(D) are the cause of clinical depression, but they have not established either what these abnormalities are nor
(E) causes clinical depression, but they have not established what these abnormalities are nor
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A
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nevergiveup
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Many scientists believe that abnormalities in brain chemistry 06 Mar 2009, 07:15
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cici
Many scientists believe that abnormalities in brain chemistry cause clinical depression, but they have not established what these abnormalities are or how they lead to illness.

A) cause clinical depression, but they have not established what these abnormalities are or
B) cause clinical depression, but they have not established either what these abnormalities are nor
C) are the cause of clinical depression, but they have neither not established what these abnormalities are or
D) are the cause of clinical depression, but they have not established either what these abnormalities are nor
E) causes clinical depression, but they have not established what these abnormalities are nor



Please help... :cry:
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B is wrong. Correct idiom should be either...or
C is wrong. Correct idiom should be neither...nor
D is wrong for the same reason as B
E is wrong. Abnormalities is plural, should use cause instead of causes.

A is correct as it is.
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nitya34
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Many scientists believe that abnormalities in brain chemistry 06 Mar 2009, 10:38
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Basically Idiom issue here
either or
neither nor
cici
Many scientists believe that abnormalities in brain chemistry cause clinical depression, but they have not established what these abnormalities are or how they lead to illness.

A) cause clinical depression, but they have not established what these abnormalities are or
B) cause clinical depression, but they have not established either what these abnormalities are norC) are the cause of clinical depression, but they have neither not established what these abnormalities are or
D) are the cause of clinical depression, but they have not established either what these abnormalities are nor
E) causes clinical depression, but they have not established what these abnormalities are nor



Please help... :cry:
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scthakur
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Many scientists believe that abnormalities in brain chemistry 06 Mar 2009, 11:38
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The sentence does not look worded properly. The same pronoun "they" seems to refer to "scientists" and to "abnormalities". What is the source of the question?
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GMAT TIGER
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Many scientists believe that abnormalities in brain chemistry 06 Mar 2009, 13:26
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scthakur
The sentence does not look worded properly. The same pronoun "they" seems to refer to "scientists" and to "abnormalities". What is the source of the question?
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Agree with you but that problem is in all ACs and the AC with least problem is A.
So A is fine.

cici
Many scientists believe that abnormalities in brain chemistry cause clinical depression, but they have not established what these abnormalities are or how they lead to illness.

A) cause clinical depression, but they have not established what these abnormalities are or
B) cause clinical depression, but they have not established either what these abnormalities are nor
C) are the cause of clinical depression, but they have neither not established what these abnormalities are or
D) are the cause of clinical depression, but they have not established either what these abnormalities are nor
E) causes clinical depression, but they have not established what these abnormalities are nor



Please help... :cry:
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silasaaa2
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Many scientists believe that abnormalities in brain chemistry 13 Jan 2010, 11:46
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(A) cause clinical depression, but they have not established what these abnormalities are or
(B) cause clinical depression, but they have not established either what these abnormalities are nor
(C) are the cause of clinical depression, but they have neither not established what these abnormalities are or
(D) are the cause of clinical depression, but they have not established either what these abnormalities are nor
(E) causes clinical depression, but they have not established what these abnormalities are nor

in this question we have 2 problems

1) subject -verb agreement
2) idiom error

correct idioms are
a) either x or y
b) neither x nor y

choice b , c and d are out due to this idiom error
choice e is out since abnormailities doesn't agree with singluar verb causes

so we are left with only where subject and verb agrees and we don't have any incorrect idioms also

so my choice is A
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Many scientists believe that abnormalities in brain chemistry 19 Jan 2010, 10:24
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As most people said, there's the idiom issue in most of the answer.

Either has to pair with or
Neither has to pair with nor

in (E), there's a subject/verb issue.

Here's my take on the "they" part.

Whenever I see a pronoun, I always ask myself what that pronoun is referring to. Who is "they" in this case? Is it abnormalities or scientists? Or something else? By not being able to answer myself, I cross (A) off in the list. However, once I realize that "they" persists in every single answer, I un-crossed (A) off knowing that this pronoun cannot be the make and break of this question. I completely ignored the "they" part and focused on the idiom error.
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Many scientists believe that abnormalities in brain chemistry 17 Jul 2023, 10:54
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What is the source of this question?
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