V11-20

Question

While scorpion sting can cause moderate damage to an adult human,  it can be potentially devastating to infants or elderly humans – the toxins act by binding to sodium channels, inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– for whom it may even cause death.

A. it can be potentially devastating to infants or elderly humans – the toxins act by binding to sodium channels, inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– for whom it may even cause death.
B. it can potentially be devastating for infants or elderly humans– the toxins acting by binding to sodium channels, inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– who may even die.
C. it can devastate infants or elderly humans– the toxins bind to sodium channels, which inhibit the inactivation of activated channels and block neuronal transmission– causing even death. 
D. it could be potentially devastating for infants or elderly humans– the toxins binding to sodium channels, thereby inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– for whom it can even be lethal.
E. it is potentially devastating for infants or elderly humans– the toxins act by binding to sodium channels, inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– to whom it can even be lethal.

sayantanc2k · Accepted Answer

"Whom" is the object form of the pronoun "who". Please take a look at the following groups:
 
Person - Who (subject), whose (possessive), whom (object). 
Example: 
The person, who came here, is my uncle. ( subject  who )
The person, whose car is parked outside, is my uncle. (possessive  whose )
The person, whom you saw, is my uncle. (object  whom )

Thing - Which (subject), whose (possessive), which (object). 
The book, which is lying on the table, is mine. (subject  which )
The book, whose pages are all torn, is mine. (possesssive  whose )
The book, which you are reading, is mine. (object  which )

In option E, the object form (whom is used)

It can be lethal to infants or elderly humans. (the infants or elderly humans = object of preposition "to")
Hence the object form "whom" is used.
 ....to whom it can be lethal.

souvik101990 · Answer

Official Solution:

While scorpion sting can cause moderate damage to an adult human,  it can be potentially devastating to infants or elderly humans – the toxins act by binding to sodium channels, inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– for whom it may even cause death.

A. it can be potentially devastating to infants or elderly humans – the toxins act by binding to sodium channels, inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– for whom it may even cause death.
B. it can potentially be devastating for infants or elderly humans– the toxins acting by binding to sodium channels, inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– who may even die.
C. it can devastate infants or elderly humans– the toxins bind to sodium channels, which inhibit the inactivation of activated channels and block neuronal transmission– causing even death. 
D. it could be potentially devastating for infants or elderly humans– the toxins binding to sodium channels, thereby inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– for whom it can even be lethal.
E. it is potentially devastating for infants or elderly humans– the toxins act by binding to sodium channels, inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– to whom it can even be lethal.

A. Redundancy – “can be potentially”
 
B. Redundancy – “can potentially be”
 
C. The modifier “which inhibit….” wrongly refers to sodium channels.
 
D. Redundancy – “could be potentially”
 
E.  Correct.  Corrects all the errors above.

Answer: E

MbaRacer · Answer

Can you please elaborate how "Can be potential"is redundant ?

sayantanc2k · Answer

The sting  can be  devastating = the sting  is potentially  devastating. (i.e. The sting has the potential to cause devastation, whether it would cause or not is not known - it can cause, just that much is known)

Thus "can be potentially" is redundant.

akshatrustagi · Answer

Hi,

Can you please elaborate the usage of 'whom' in this sentence?

Also please give details on the usage of whom - Is 'whom' a possessive form for things as well, like 'whose' is?

anje29 · Answer

In the last phrase to whom is correct or for whom ?

vishalkumar4mba · Answer

Does some one notices Death and lethal ?? It changes the meaning completely. Like most of the questions GmatClub SC explanations are not clear .

gmathopeful19 · Answer

Death = Lethal

Does not change the meaning at all.

tinyinthedesert · Answer

IMO E should use "devastating TO...."FOR whom" and not "devastating FOR....TO whom"

Especially because the earlier section has used "TO an adult", so using FOR is not parallel

VodkaHelps · Answer

Hi experts,

What part of a sentence does "to whom it can even be lethal" plays in answer D? Is it a modifier?

it is potentially devastating for infants or elderly humans– the toxins act by binding to sodium channels, inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission–  to whom it can even be lethal.

BoundMan · Answer

Hello  generis  , I am struggling with this type of question.
Option E
While scorpion sting can cause moderate damage to an adult human, it is potentially devastating for infants or elderly humans–  the toxins act by binding to sodium channels , inhibiting the inactivation of activated channels and blocking neuronal transmission– to whom it can even be lethal.

Isn't this an example of a run on or something in similar line? I thought we need an absolute modifier after humans-?
I am sure I am missing a lot here.

PAVANKUMARR123 · Answer

Is the expression '' for whom it may even ...'' correct in option A

pinklemonhat · Answer

it isn't.

can use the inverted sentence trick for prep-whom (to whom, for whom, etc)

"infants or elderly   for whom it may even cause death" -->
"it may even cause death for infants or elderly" --> doesnt make sense

"infants or elderly   to whom it may even cause death" -->
"it may even cause death to infants or elderly" --> makes sense

hope that made sense!

Harsh2111s · Answer

souvik101990   MentorTutoring 
Is the function of hyphen is same as comma ?
I choose option B, thinking who refers to" human" before hyphen in sentence.

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  Harsh2111s . The dashes in the original sentence, to my eye, appear to be what are called  en dashes , perhaps in place of  em dashes . Since the latter are more commonly used in tandem in place of double commas, I will base my discussion on em dashes. To be clear, I am talking about the following symbol: —. It appears as a long dash and is sometimes commonly called a hyphen. A pair of em dashes surround information that can be removed from the sentence without disturbing the main clause.

The lottery winner—John Doe—decided to donate a portion of his winnings to charity.

You will notice that the shell of the sentence we are examining is as follows (with the correct answer inserted):

While scorpion sting can cause moderate damage to an adult human, it is potentially devastating for infants or elderly humans, to whom it can even be lethal.

Em dashes can also be used in place of colons to add emphasis to a word, phrase, or clause, so they have plenty of uses, but to keep matters simple, the one we see here is just as a replacement for commas, perhaps because the internal punctuation might make the aside about the toxins less clear within the context of the entire sentence.

As for the answer choices here, if you can spot the redundancy in can/could   + potentially, then you can arrive at a 50/50 proposition between (C) and (E), and devastating people does not make sense in the former. Thank you for calling my attention to the question. Happy studies.

- Andrew

priyanshu14 · Answer

Dear  sayantanc2k ,
Thanks for the explanation.
I need clarity for my understanding whether "to whom" or "for whom" makes any difference in the meaning of sentence and grammatical point of view?

GMATNinja   generis   bb   Bunuel   VeritasKarishma   egmat

Thanks in advance

KarishmaB · Answer

"lethal to" is more common but "lethal for" is also used sometimes. I wouldn't pick based on that. 
(A), (B) and (D) have redundancy errors and (C) has a modifier problem: "the toxins bind to sodium channels, which inhibit the inactivation of activated channels and block neuronal transmission"
It looks like "which" is referring to "sodium channels". How can sodium channels inhibit inactivation of activated channels? It is the "binding with toxins" that inhibits inactivation. Option (E) uses the cause-effect present participle "inhibiting". So (E) is correct.

bumpbot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club BumpBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

V11-20

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards