V07-25

Question

Menlo University‘s range of graduate programmes  have been developed to fulfil your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever  your background is.

A. have been developed to fulfil your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever 
B. has been developed to fulfil your needs if you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, or whatever
C. have been developed for fulfilling your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever 
D. has been developed to fulfil your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever 
E. has been developed to fulfil your needs whether one intends to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, or whatever

sayantanc2k · Accepted Answer

There are two uses of "whether".

1. Whether X or Y. (the use that you have mentioned): Your victory does not depend on whether you practice hard or you cheat.
2. Whether X or (not X). In such usages the latter part is omitted in GMAT since it is redundant. 
Right: Your victory does not depend on whether you practice. ( or not  is omitted)

The subject question is of type 2. The  or not  part has been omitted. The element X here is a combination of two events that must be satisfied simultaneously, hence the conjunction "and". Consider the following simpler example which is similar in structure to the subject question:

Your victory depends on  whether you practice hard  AND  you don't lose your nerve during battle .
The red highlighted and the blue highlighted portions must be satisfied simultaneously in order to win.

souvik101990 · Answer

Official Solution:

Menlo University‘s range of graduate programmes  have been developed to fulfil your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever  your background is.

A. have been developed to fulfil your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever 
B. has been developed to fulfil your needs if you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, or whatever
C. have been developed for fulfilling your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever 
D. has been developed to fulfil your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever 
E. has been developed to fulfil your needs whether one intends to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, or whatever

A - Singular 'Range' will take singular 'has' and not plural 'have'. B - the usage of 'if' is incorrect since 'if' should be used only while making a conditional statement and 'whether' should be used to evaluate alternatives. The usage of 'or' is also incorrect since the two events are mutually exclusive, hence we need 'and' to make the meaning clear. C - Singular 'Range' will take singular 'has' and not plural 'have'. 'For fulfilling' is unidiomatic E - 'your' needs is not parallel with ‗one‘ intends. The usage of 'or' is also incorrect.

Answer: D

kamalakarthi · Answer

I think this the explanation isn't clear enough, please elaborate. Hi, I could not understand the last part "and whatever your background" . Can you help me understand what this is?

dmaze01 · Answer

I also am having trouble understanding how "and your needs" is the correct use.

vipinmenon93 · Answer

When we use the 'whether' shouldnt it we for the conjunction 'OR' instead of 'And' 
"Whether this or that" isn't that the way to use whether.

vipinmenon93 · Answer

Oh alright! That was helpful. Thanks!

sahilmalhotra01 · Answer

Hi Expert,

Though i got this question correct, but i got one doubt in sentence.

Substituting correct answer choice D in the original sentence.

Menlo University‘s range of graduate programmes  has been developed to fulfil your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever  your background.

Breaking down the above sentence into clauses and marking the Subject Verb pairs
Above sentence got three clauses as below
 Range  has been  developed 
 You  intend  to pursue  
 whatever  your background

I understand the verb is missing the third clause

the clause should be " whatever  is  your background"

Experts kindly comments.
Thanks 
Sahil

sayantanc2k · Answer

I have seen the word "whatever" used to introduce a clause as well as a phrase.

Correct: Whatever the case, I shall go there tomorrow. (phrase)
Correct: Whatever is the case, I shall go there tomorrow. (clause)

Programmes have been developed to fulfill your needs, whatever your background.... this construction is alright.

However it would be better if a clause were used since in the construction X AND Y, X and Y should be parallel.

Programmes have been developed to fulfill your needs,  whether you intend to pursue .
Programmes have been developed to fulfill your needs,  whatever your background (is) .

Joining the above two:
Programmes have been developed to fulfill your needs,  whether you intend to pursue  AND  whatever your background (is) .

imsids · Answer

I think this is a  high-quality  question and the explanation isn't clear enough, please elaborate.

Rudranket · Answer

Hello  sayantanc2k ,

I got correct answer by eliminating the incorrect option choices. 
However I have one doubt about the comma before and in the correct answer choice- 
 Menlo University‘s range of graduate programs has been developed to fulfil your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia ,  and whatever your background.

Can you please elaborate the correct usage of comma before AND 
as per my understanding, we use comma, AND mainly in two scenarios 
1. IC, (FANBOYS) IC
2. list with more than two items X, Y, and Z (in this case before the last item in the list we don't use comma) 
and NO COMMA - when we have only two items in the list : X and Y

Aswini03 · Answer

Range is singular hence verb should be has,use whether for alternatives or choices and 
Answer D

E has pronoun error one intends and your background .is wrong

Posted from my mobile device

iscbruc14 · Answer

has been developed to fulfil your needs  whether  you intend to pursue a career  in industry, business, government, NGOs    or   academia, and whatever

- I've read that the closed parallel marker, Whether/Or, can only be used to compare two elements; however, this examples appears to list 4. Can you elaborate.

sanpreetsingh · Answer

A. have been developed to fulfil your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever 
B. has been developed to fulfil your needs if you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, or whatever
C. have been developed for fulfilling your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever 
D. has been developed to fulfil your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever 
E. has been developed to fulfil your needs whether one intends to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, or whatever

A,C - Subject verb agreement "Range" singular with plural verb "have"
B - Usage of conditional "if" is wrong. It should be "whether"
E - Pronoun issue --> "your" and "one" 2 separate pronoun used.

Hence, D is the answer.

SUNNYRHODE002 · Answer

Official Solution:

Menlo University‘s range of graduate programmes  have been developed to fulfil your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever  your background is.

A. have been developed to fulfil your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever 
B. has been developed to fulfil your needs if you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, or whatever
C. have been developed for fulfilling your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever 
D. has been developed to fulfil your needs whether you intend to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, and whatever 
E. has been developed to fulfil your needs whether one intends to pursue a career in industry, business, government, NGOs or academia, or whatever

A - Singular 'Range' will take singular 'has' and not plural 'have'. B - the usage of 'if' is incorrect since 'if' should be used only while making a conditional statement and 'whether' should be used to evaluate alternatives. The usage of 'or' is also incorrect since the two events are mutually exclusive, hence we need 'and' to make the meaning clear. C - Singular 'Range' will take singular 'has' and not plural 'have'. 'For fulfilling' is unidiomatic E - 'your' needs is not parallel with ‗one‘ intends. The usage of 'or' is also incorrect.

Answer: D The usage of 'or' is also incorrect since the two events are mutually exclusive, hence we need 'and' to make the meaning clear."

Need some more clarity on this part.

Russ19 · Answer

I am making an effort to answer your query.

Two events are mutually exclusive means you have to consider joining two clauses to make a sentence.

Event-1

you intend to pursue a career in industry

Event-2

whatever your background is.

To join both the events, we have to use 'and'.  For example:

you intend to pursue a career in industry,.... and whatever your background is.

Full-sentence pattern patten

................has been developed to fulfil your needs  whether  (or not) you intend to pursue a career in industry, and whatever your background is.

Thank you.

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