Hello Everyone!
It looks like there have been some great discussions on this question already! Let's break things down even further to determine which option is the best one. Before we get started, here is the original question with the most important differences between each option highlighted in
orange:
Unlike the automobile
company, whose research was based on crashes involving sport utility vehicles, the research conducted by the insurance company took into account such factors as a driver's age, sex, and previous driving record.
(A)
company, whose research was based on
(B)
company, which researched
(C)
company, in its research of
(D)
company's research, having been based on
(E)
company's research on
After a quick glance over the question and 5 options, it's clear that this is an example of a
COMPARISON sentence.
Whenever we see comparison questions on the GMAT, the first thing we should look at is parallelism!This sentence uses the structure "Unlike X, Y..." to indicate this is a comparison. Both X and Y need to be parallel for this to be correct. Let's look at each sentence with the option added in to see how each answer stacks up:
(A) Unlike
the automobile company, whose research was based on crashes involving sport utility vehicles,
the research conducted by the insurance company took into account such factors as a driver's age, sex, and previous driving record.
This is
NOT PARALLEL because it's trying to compare the automobile company to research, which are not parallel in nature.
(B) Unlike
the automobile company, which researched crashes involving sport utility vehicles,
the research conducted by the insurance company took into account such factors as a driver's age, sex, and previous driving record.
This is
NOT PARALLEL for the same reason as option A: it's attempting to compare a company to research, which are two completely different things.
(C) Unlike
the automobile company, in its research of crashes involving sport utility vehicles,
the research conducted by the insurance company took into account such factors as a driver's age, sex, and previous driving record.
Again, this is
NOT PARALLEL because it's trying to compare a company to research, which aren't parallel in kind.
(D) Unlike
the automobile company's research, having been based on crashes involving sport utility vehicles,
the research conducted by the insurance company took into account such factors as a driver's age, sex, and previous driving record.
This is
PARALLEL because it is comparing two things of the same type: the automobile company's
research and the insurance company's
research!
(E) Unlike
the automobile company's research on crashes involving sport utility vehicles,
the research conducted by the insurance company took into account such factors as a driver's age, sex, and previous driving record.
This is
PARALLEL because it is comparing two things of the same type: the automobile company's
research and the insurance company's
research!
We can eliminate options A, B, and C because they don't use parallel structure to create a proper comparison!Now that we're left with only options D & E, let's take a closer look to find which one is the better option:
(D) Unlike the automobile
company's research, having been based on crashes involving sport utility vehicles, the research conducted by the insurance company took into account such factors as a driver's age, sex, and previous driving record.
This option is
INCORRECT because it's overly wordy and slightly misleading. There is no reason to say "having been based on" when simply saying "on" means the same thing. It also subtly suggests that we should be comparing what both sets of research
are based on, rather than just saying that both studies are about sport utility vehicle crashes that cover different topics.
(E) Unlike the automobile
company's research on crashes involving sport utility vehicles, the research conducted by the insurance company took into account such factors as a driver's age, sex, and previous driving record.
This option is
CORRECT because it's clear and concise! It's clear that both studies are about sport utility vehicle crashes, but that they each cover different factors. It's also much easier to say "on" rather than "having been based on."
There you go - option E is the correct answer because it's clear, concise, and uses parallel structure to show a comparison!Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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