One complaint about recently developed “care” robots – robots designed

Question

One complaint about recently developed “care” robots – robots designed to help care for elderly or sick patients in their home –  is that they do not have the capacity for listening, expressing emotion, and tricking patients to think they can is unethical.

A. is that they do not have the capacity for listening, expressing emotion, and tricking patients to think they can is unethical
B. is that they do not have the capacity to listen, to express emotion, and to trick patients to think they can is unethical
C. is that they do not have the capacity for listening or expressing emotion, and tricking patients to think they can is unethical
D. is that they do not have the capacity to listen or express emotion, and tricking patients to think they can is unethical
E. is that they do not have the capacity to listen or express emotion, and tricking patients that they are doing this is unethical

pqhai · Accepted Answer

Meaning is key to solve this question. If you just apply grammar rules, you may get trapped.

If you read the question carefully, there are  two parts in a long sentence 
 (1) One complain about developed "care" robots is that they do not have capacity to listen or express emotion
(2) tricking patients to think those robots can listen or express emotion is unethical.

One complaint about recently developed “care” robots – robots designed to help care for elderly or sick patients in their home –  is that they do not have the capacity for listening, expressing emotion, and tricking patients to think they can is unethical.

A) is that they do not have the capacity for  listening, expressing  emotion, and  tricking  patients to think they can is unethical
 Wrong.  A seems to convey that Robots do have capacity for listening, expressing emotion and tricking patients  ==>   The robots do not have capacity to trick patients?  Does not make any sense!

B) is that they do not have the capacity  to listen, to express  emotion,  and to trick patients  to think they can is unethical
 Wrong.  Same error as in A. B seems to say that Robots do have capacity to listen, to express emotion and to trick patients  ==>   The robots do not have capacity to trick patients?  Does not make any sense!

C) is that they do not have the capacity  for listening or expressing  emotion,  and tricking patients  to think they can is unethical
 Wrong.  Same error as in A. C seems to convey that Robots do have capacity for listening or expressing emotion and tricking patients  ==>  The robots do not have capacity to trick patients?  Does not make any sense!

D) is that they do not have the capacity to listen or express emotion, and tricking patients to think they can is unethical
  Correct.   As explained above.

E) is that they do not have the capacity to listen or express emotion, and tricking patients that they are  doing this  is unethical 
 Wrong.  "this" refers to what? to listen or to express emotion or both? We don't know.

Hope it helps.

ankurgupta03 · Answer

One complaint about recently developed “care” robots – robots designed to help care for elderly or sick patients in their home – is that they do not have the capacity for listening, expressing emotion, and tricking patients to think they can is unethical.

is that they do not have the capacity for listening, expressing emotion, and tricking patients to think they can is unethical
 for listening is incorrect, we need to seperate it from the verb-tricking 
is that they do not have the capacity to listen, to express emotion, and to trick patients to think they can is unethical
 listen, express should be in the same form and trick should be in other form, as they are not pointing to the same thing. 
is that they do not have the capacity for listening or expressing emotion, and tricking patients to think they can is unethical
 for listening is incorrect, we need to seperate it from the verb-tricking 
is that they do not have the capacity to listen or express emotion, and tricking patients to think they can is unethical
 Correct 
is that they do not have the capacity to listen or express emotion, and tricking patients that they are doing this is unethical
 incorrect meaning, it says that they are doing where as we are talking about the ability of the robots, that is why they can.

KanupriyaS · Answer

It took me a while to figure this one out. I did it by elimination.

A. Incorrect. I feel "capacity to" is better suited here, gives a meaning that tricking is a part of complaint 
B. Incorrect. Conveys that 'Complaint is that robot cannot trick', which is not right. 
C. Incorrect. Same reason as A
D.  Correct.  Seems the most logical choice. 
E. Incorrect. Wordy and awkward. 'that they are doing' is unnecessary.

Any feedback is appreciated. Although I got the correct answer still want to make sure I got it through the right logic.

Nevernevergiveup · Answer

Well pqhai nails it above. Here is the OE by Veritas prep

OE
Answer choices (A) and (B) contain the easiest errors – both relating to sentence construction. The second part of the clause following the dash is not a series in relation to “listening, expressing emotion” in (A) or “to listen, to express” in (B) The robots lack the capacity to/for these two things and then separately the sentence is saying that “tricking patients to think that they” can do these things is unethical. (C), (D) and (E) properly separate off the second part of the clause with a comma and “and” but only (D) has the proper structure to follow the infinitive “to listen or express”. When auxiliary verbs such as “can” are used to replace full verbs (here “listen or express”), they must be able to be logically followed by the structure that precedes it. In (C) it is incorrect to use “listening or expressing” and then say “tricking patients that they can LISTENING OR EXPRESSING is unethical” In (D), you have the proper “tricking patients that they can LISTEN OR EXPRESS emotion is unethical” For (E), you likewise cannot say that “they are doing LISTEN or EXPRESS emotion” Only (D) matches up the correct structures and is thus the correct answer.

keats · Answer

Can any instructor/member explain how the meaning is incorrectly conveyed in option A (original sentence). I understand that the complaints w.r.t robots are two
- they do not have the capacity to listen or express emotion
and
- tricking the patients to think that these robots can listen or express is unethical
It'd be great if someone can talk about how this meaning is lost in option A and B.

sayantanc2k · Answer

The second point you mentioned, tricking the patients is not a complaint about the robots, but a complaint about the people who promote these robots.

Options A and B imply that the robots do not have the capacity to trick the patients (listen, express and trick are in parallel)... this meaning is not intended.
Moreover in option A, the usage "capacity for..." is wrong.

vsvikas · Answer

==========
i like D..but just get stuck with parallel structure..why not "to listen or  TO  express emotion

sayantanc2k · Answer

"To" is  outside  the parallel structure, hence it covers both - I presume you are aware of the "once out, twice in" thumb-rule. 
(In this case "to listen or to express" would also be correct - in that case "to" would be  inside  the parallel structure.)

ManSab · Answer

Isn't this sentence confusing? It begins with one complain and then lists two:
1)capacity to listen or express emotion
2)tricking patients to think they can is unethical...

very odd structure - haven't seen such sentences in official GMAT examples..

Valhalla · Answer

This is my approach,
Eliminate A, and B because the sentence contains 2 clauses/ separate ideas connected by 'and'- this is based on meaning - ie. 
1. Complaint
2. Tricking

Eliminate E 
Doing - progressive tense -meaning that they are currently doing something ie when you look at them they are doing the action

Decision point C and D
C capacity for 
D capacity to

1. General rule to X is better than for X.
2. Try substitute "capacity" with "ability"
a. ability to = can - definite definition and appear numerous time in idiom from Manhattan Prep
b. ability for - may sounds right but it is not as good as ability to

ANS: D

torto · Answer

Is there any parallelism here?

sayantanc2k · Answer

Whenever there is an "or" or an "and", there is parallelism. In option D, you would probably find the paralleism for the "or"s yourself. As for the "and", the parallelism is between two clauses:
Clause 1: "One complaint...is..."
AND
Clause 2: "Tricking... is..."
(For clarity, above I have mentioned only the main subjects and the main verbs of the 2 parallel clauses.)

itisSheldon · Answer

Veritas Prep  OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Answer choices (A) and (B) contain the easiest errors – both relating to sentence construction. The second part of the clause following the dash is not a series in relation to “listening, expressing emotion” in (A) or “to listen, to express” in (B) The robots lack the capacity to/for these two things and then separately the sentence is saying that “tricking patients to think that they” can do these things is unethical. (C), (D) and (E) properly separate off the second part of the clause with a comma and “and” but only (D) has the proper structure to follow the infinitive “to listen or express”. When auxiliary verbs such as “can” are used to replace full verbs (here “listen or express”), they must be able to be logically followed by the structure that precedes it. In (C) it is incorrect to use “listening or expressing” and then say “tricking patients that they can LISTENING OR EXPRESSING is unethical” In (D), you have the proper “tricking patients that they can LISTEN OR EXPRESS emotion is unethical” For (E), you likewise cannot say that “they are doing LISTEN or EXPRESS emotion” Only (D) matches up the correct structures and is thus the correct answer.

VerbalBot · Answer

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One complaint about recently developed “care” robots – robots designed

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One complaint about recently developed “care” robots – robots designed

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