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555-605 Level|   Grammatical/Rhetorical Construction|                  
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Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy 17 Feb 2017, 03:35
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In the independent clause 'The VLP, an online version....', VLP encourages visitors To Touch. This Touching results into activation of the animated functions of the piece. If it were present [, + present participle] it would be correct too.

But, I made mistake and didn't select option D. I thought Activate was in plural. Generally, after Thereby in an SC Question we see [, + present participle], so here I got confused and thought that activate is in plural form.

Can you explain the structure of Thereby Activate?
If we are to show Result of the clause, is [Thereby + Plural Verb] correct?
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"Activate" is not a verb but an infinitive - "activate" is parallel to "touch". "To" is outside the parallel structure and hence covers both "touch" and "activate". The structure is as follows:

.. encourage visitiors TO touch and thereby activate....

The structure is similar to the following:

The school does not allow the children TO go out or play during the class.
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Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy 30 Mar 2017, 05:58
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Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy, where the models are encased in glass or operated only by staff members, the Virtual Leonardo Project, an online version of the museum, encourages visitors to “touch” each exhibit, which thereby activates the animated functions of the piece.

A. exhibit, which thereby activates
B. exhibit, in turn an activation of
C. exhibit, and it will activate
D. exhibit and thereby activate
E. exhibit which, as a result, activates


in option A) which is referring to exhibit because there is no other noun preceding it.which should refer to "touch".
I understand that "to touch" is an infinitive,an action and not a noun.
I want to know that if we use infinitives as subject can we refer to them with "which" or "it"(pronouns)
eg. 1)To err is human. can we now use any pronoun to refer to "to err".
2)to swim is good for health.


Also want to know that if infinitives can be verbs or nouns or play some other role.
eg In the official question "to touch" refers to an action. so can i call it a verb ?
In the 2nd sentence "To err" is the subject. can i call it a noun ??

i think that both the questions are interrelated.
please help.

please help.


Hi Sid,

Thanks for posting your doubt here. :-)

You do ask a very interesting question. Let me try to clarify your doubts without creating any further confusions.

The "to verb" or "the infinitive" (for those who prefer jargon" is an action phrase that grammatically acts as a noun. This is the reason why we can use "to err" or for that matter several other "to verb" phrases as the Subject of a sentence. However, they are not the conventional noun, just like the verb-ing" nouns or "gerunds", as they also present some action. Only their grammatical form is Noun but essentially they are action words. This is the reason why we CANNOT use any pronoun, be it the regular pronouns or the Relative Pronouns. to refer to "to verbs". The regular pronouns and the Relative Pronouns ONLY refer to regular conventional noun entities.

So yes, you can call them nouns but just for the grammar sake. In functionality, they are actually action words. However, we cannot call the "to verbs" regular Verbs because they CANNOT have any tense. They are used in the same form in sentences written in past, perfect, or future tense. Again, grammatically they cannot be called Verbs because they are already classified as nouns. And an entity can only perform one grammatical function.

Now, is this knowledge vital for solving SC questions? IMHO, it's not. This is more of a grammar detail that is good to know but not something that will help solve SC problems correctly.

Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
SJ
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Can you please help me understand why activate is correct and activates is incorrect ?
what is it referring to ?

Thank you.
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Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy 30 Mar 2017, 07:02
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Can you please help me understand why activate is correct and activates is incorrect ?
what is it referring to ?
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Hi sumanainampudi! The correct answer uses "activate" instead of "activates" because it is the infinitive form ("to activate", not "to activates"); however, in this case, the "to" is implied and does not need to be written. For example, you could say, "I asked my friend to go to the store and (to) buy milk.", but you cannot say, "I asked my friend to go to the store and buys milk." Who is going to the store? "my friend". Who is buying milk? also "my friend". Similarly, in the OG example, the "visitors" are responsible for both actions, touching and activating. Since the infinitive "to touch" is used for the first action, the infinitive form "(to) activate" must also be used; this makes it clear that the visitors are responsible for both actions.

I hope that helps!
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Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy 09 Jan 2018, 22:47
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Can someone help me with this question. I think the answer A is correct because Exhibit which is singular and so we need a singular activates and so options D and C are out. Why is this logic incorrect . Help me. Thank you
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Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy 09 Jan 2018, 23:48
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Can someone help me with this question. I think the answer A is correct because Exhibit which is singular and so we need a singular activates and so options D and C are out. Why is this logic incorrect . Help me. Thank you
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Hi longhaul123, in A which is modifying exhibit, thereby suggesting that exhibit activates the animated functions of the piece.

The intended meaning is that the touch activates the animated functions of the piece.
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Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy 29 May 2020, 12:57
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In (D), which is correct, shouldn't "activates" go with with a singular "activates", since "touch" being a singular activates the animated series?
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Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy 30 May 2020, 12:07
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In (D), which is correct, shouldn't "activates" go with with a singular "activates", since "touch" being a singular activates the animated series?
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Hi Lakshya

The parallelism construct used here is as follows:

"...an online version of the museum, encourages visitors to (“touch” each exhibit and thereby activate) the animated..."

Expanding the parentheses, the relevant portion actually reads as follows:

"...an online version of the museum, encourages visitors to “touch” each exhibit and to thereby activate the animated..."

As you can see, both "touch" and "activate" use the infinitive form of the verbs. As you are aware, an infinitive (to + verb) form always uses the base form of the verb irrespective of tense and count, and therefore, "activate" is the correct usage in this sentence.

Hope this helps.
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Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy, where the models are encased in glass or operated only by staff members, the Virtual Leonardo Project, an online version of the museum, encourages visitors to “touch” each exhibit, which thereby activates the animated functions of the piece.

(A) exhibit, which thereby activates
(B) exhibit, in turn an activation of
(C) exhibit, and it will activate
(D) exhibit and thereby activate
(E) exhibit which, as a result, activates
Show more

Hi Experts GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo AjiteshArun

Please explain why "it" in choice C is incorrect.

My understanding:
"it" can refer to "touch" as the touch will activate the functions.

Or is it because "touch" is used as a verb here, and "it" can only refer to nouns. Hence "it" cannot refer to "touch"
Is there right reason to eliminate choice C or I am missing?
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thereisaFire
Hi Experts GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo AjiteshArun

Please explain why "it" in choice C is incorrect.

My understanding:
"it" can refer to "touch" as the touch will activate the functions.

Or is it because "touch" is used as a verb here, and "it" can only refer to nouns. Hence "it" cannot refer to "touch"
Is there right reason to eliminate choice C or I am missing?
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Hi thereisaFire,

There are a couple of things we should look at here:
1. It's usually not a good idea to use pronouns like it to refer to things other than nouns, at least on the GMAT.

2. "Visitors to 'touch' each exhibit and thereby activate {something}" means that the act of touching is what leads to the activation of {something}. Option C, on the other hand, says that visitors will touch something and that it (something) will activate something else. At a minimum, this is ambiguous, because there seems to be no logical antecedent for that it.

I think that perhaps you read touch as the touch. If the sentence had used "the touch", touch would have been a noun. However, the sentence uses touch as part of the infinitive to touch (infinitives are verb forms).
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Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy 22 Jun 2021, 00:22
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thereisaFire
Hi Experts GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo AjiteshArun

Please explain why "it" in choice C is incorrect.

My understanding:
"it" can refer to "touch" as the touch will activate the functions.

Or is it because "touch" is used as a verb here, and "it" can only refer to nouns. Hence "it" cannot refer to "touch"
Is there right reason to eliminate choice C or I am missing?
Hi thereisaFire,

There are a couple of things we should look at here:
1. It's usually not a good idea to use pronouns like it to refer to things other than nouns, at least on the GMAT.

2. "Visitors to 'touch' each exhibit and thereby activate {something}" means that the act of touching is what leads to the activation of {something}. Option C, on the other hand, says that visitors will touch something and that it (something) will activate something else. At a minimum, this is ambiguous, because there seems to be no logical antecedent for that it.

I think that perhaps you read touch as the touch. If the sentence had used "the touch", touch would have been a noun. However, the sentence uses touch as part of the infinitive to touch (infinitives are verb forms).
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Thanks for responding.

Yes, I thought "touch" as a noun, whereas it is used as a verb (to + verb from).

I actually thought thattouch is a noun since it was quoted inside inverted commas.

Hence, I would like to understand the significance of inverted comma here. What difference does it make to have/omit the inverted comma from the word touch?
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thereisaFire
Hence, I would like to understand the significance of inverted comma here. What difference does it make to have/omit the inverted comma from the word touch?
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Good question.

They've written touch like that to emphasise that visitors to the Virtual Leonardo Project don't actually (physically) touch the exhibits.

1. ... the Virtual Leonardo Project... encourages visitors to “touch” each exhibit and thereby activate the animated functions...

So in the original National Museum of Science and Technology the models are encased in glass or operated only by staff members. The Virtual Leonardo Project, on the other hand, is probably a website that asks visitors to "touch" an exhibit, which sounds more like mousing over and/or clicking on a representation of the exhibit. This "touch" then activates the animated functions of the exhibit(s).

Here's another (similar) official question.
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Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy 11 Oct 2022, 05:52
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Quote:
Can you please help me understand why activate is correct and activates is incorrect ?
what is it referring to ?

Hi sumanainampudi! The correct answer uses "activate" instead of "activates" because it is the infinitive form ("to activate", not "to activates"); however, in this case, the "to" is implied and does not need to be written. For example, you could say, "I asked my friend to go to the store and (to) buy milk.", but you cannot say, "I asked my friend to go to the store and buys milk." Who is going to the store? "my friend". Who is buying milk? also "my friend". Similarly, in the OG example, the "visitors" are responsible for both actions, touching and activating. Since the infinitive "to touch" is used for the first action, the infinitive form "(to) activate" must also be used; this makes it clear that the visitors are responsible for both actions.

I hope that helps!
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I discounted the correct answer thinking these are not parallel .... I was confused by "thereby" and thought "touch" and "thereby activate" are not parallel. What am I missing here?
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Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy 16 Jul 2023, 04:47
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AjiteshArun EducationAisle thansk for the explanations, however in the correct choice it is not clear what is activating the animated functions- the touch or the visitors? Ideally the intended meaning is the touch but the way it is written, it seems to convey that visitors activate it which makes no sense
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Elite097
the way it is written, it seems to convey that visitors activate it which makes no sense
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Well, to me, it does make sense to say (imply) that visitors activate <the animated functions of the exhibit> by touching the exhibit. :) .

What say?
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AjiteshArun EducationAisle thansk for the explanations, however in the correct choice it is not clear what is activating the animated functions- the touch or the visitors? Ideally the intended meaning is the touch but the way it is written, it seems to convey that visitors activate it which makes no sense
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Hi Elite097,

That's a good question. You've identified one of the weaknesses of and: the logical connection between the elements joined by and isn't always clear or easy to identify.

1. He will run the race in under 9 seconds and become the fastest person on Earth. ← Readers have to make the connection between these two thoughts (that the running and the becoming aren't independent of each other) on their own.

This is where adverbs like thereby and therefore come in. They help readers understand what kind of connection exists between the elements.

2a. They will touch X and activate Y.

2b. They will touch X and thereby activate Y.

Even though (2b) is longer than (2a), it is clearer. The thereby makes it absolutely clear that the touching of X is what will activate Y.
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