It has traditionally been thought that all biological functions declin

Question

Project SC Butler: Day 173: Sentence Correction (SC1) 
 For SC butler Questions  Click Here

It has traditionally been thought that all biological functions decline with age, but according to the National Institute on Aging, certain important capabilities, such as  the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor , remain essentially unchanged.

A) the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor

B) the heart’s output under stress and intellectual vigor

C) intellectual vigor and the output of the heart under stress

D) intellectual vigor and the effect of stress on the heart’s output

E) the effect of stress on the heart’s output and intellectual vigor

generis · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION Project SC Butler: Day 173: Sentence Correction (SC1) It has traditionally been thought that all biological functions decline with age, but according to the National Institute on Aging, certain important capabilities, such as the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor , remain essentially unchanged. A) the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor B) the heart’s output under stress and intellectual vigor C) intellectual vigor and the output of the heart under stress D) intellectual vigor and the effect of stress on the heart’s output E) the effect of stress on the heart’s output and intellectual vigor • Meaning? Some important physical capabilities of human beings do not decline with age. One capability that does not decline is the output of the heart when the heart is under stress. The other capability is intellectual vigor. • Split #1 - a capability is not an effect Options D and E mention "the effect of stress on the heart's output." An effect is not a capability. Eliminate D and E. If you are tempted to post and insist that an effect can be a capability, explain to me first why option D or E is better than the OA.

• Split #2: Modifiers In options A and B, the modifiers are misplaced or confusing. Option A could mean the output of both the heart and intellectual vigor. -- output is followed by the preposition OF, and OF takes an object—but OF could take TWO objects ( output and vigor ). -- hold A, but look for a better answer In option B, under stress seems to modify output , not heart . Alternatively, because both are a bit fuzzy, it looks as if options A and B say the same thing: output of the heart vs. heart's output. eakabuah , your instincts are good. If two options seem nearly identical, typically neither one is the answer. Most importantly, compare A and B to C. Option C places the modifiers correctly and avoids all confusion by placing "intellectual vigor" first. Eliminate A and B. The answer is C COMMENTS In my opinion, if you caught that an effect is not a capability, and scanned down quickly through A, B, and C, comparison would help you rapidly eliminate A and B. You would notice that (C) places intellectual vigor first. I hope that you would notice no grammar errors in (C). At that point you are on notice to look carefully at the first noun in A and B. mykrasovski I am going to guess "yes" on this one.

Kudos today go to correct answers that are explained well. "pronoun error" and "modifier error" and "meaning error" and "verb tense error" are not explanations. They are labels. Don't get me wrong—it's good to be able to label the issues. But you all get kudos from me frequently . And I announce quite frequently (and monotonously) that assertion is not explanation. Labeling is assertion. By way of example, suppose that I write a comment about two different sentences with different syntactic emphases: "Syntactic emphasis is wrong." You might not know what the h*ll I am talking about. (99% of you shouldn't know what I am talking about.) If I handed the sentences and my comments to a fellow editor or fellow writer, 90 percent of them would understand my comments in a heartbeat. Remember what it is like not to know the rules. People who follow gain confidence when they gain understanding.

Kudos today go to those who got the correct answer and explained.

Ashokshiva · Answer

IMO C

It has traditionally been thought that all biological functions decline with age, but according to the National Institute on Aging, certain important capabilities, such as the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor, remain essentially unchanged.

A)  the output  of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor
 Sentence also means - Output of heart under stress and output of heart under intellectual vigor

B) the  heart’s output  under stress and intellectual vigor
 sentence also means - hearts output under stress and hearts output under intellectual vigor

C) intellectual vigor and the output of the heart under stress
 Looks ok

D) intellectual vigor and the  effect of stress  on the heart’s output
 Meaning error - Effect of stress is not a biological function whereas output of heart is a biological function

E)  the effect of stress  on the heart’s output and intellectual vigor
 Meaning error - Effect of stress is not a biological function whereas output of heart is a biological function

chaitralirr · Answer

It has traditionally been thought that all biological functions decline with age, but according to the National Institute on Aging, certain important capabilities, such as  the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor,  remain essentially unchanged.

A) the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor

B) the heart’s output under stress and intellectual vigor

C)  intellectual vigor and the output of the heart under stress

D) intellectual vigor and the effect of stress on the heart’s output

E) the effect of stress on the heart’s output and intellectual vigor

Such as X and Y if we read the meaning it implies that the output of the heart.... and output of intellectual vigor in the original sentence. So we need to change the order of the sentence. Based on this eliminated options A, B and E. From options C and D if we look the effect of stress on heart's output rather the output of heat under stress conveys a better and concise meaning.

IMO C

Doer01 · Answer

Hi,
 IMO B.
Author intends to list certain capabilities. Hence, usage of such as is justified. Now, what follows such as must be noun, looking at one of the two capabilities- intellectual vigor. Both capabilities must be noun and parallel. 
D & E could easily be rejected because they change the meaning. The effect of .....
Rest of the choices are prepositional phrases.
To choose the best amongst A,B & C, I looked for the most concise answer choice. 
B is BETTER than A & C.

Posted from my mobile device

devangpandey007 · Answer

My answer is C.

The most important thing that popped out to me was the order of two capabilities mentioned in the argument.

"the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor" makes it sound like the output of the heart is a variable of both "stress" and "intellectual vigor" which I don't believe the author is trying to communicate here. A more logically structured statement should remove this ambiguity and therefore, I eliminated any answer choices which follow this order. Hence, A, B and E are out as per my opinion.

E is again confusing - making it sound like intellectual vigor is dependent on stress. Doesn't sound right to me.

Maybe I am getting bogged down by the kind of relationship that I feel should be present in the sentence.

ccheryn · Answer

It has traditionally been thought that all biological functions decline with age, but according to the National Institute on Aging, certain important capabilities, such  as the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor , remain essentially unchanged.

A) the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor ( parallelism ambiguity, output of heart and intellectual is wrong )

B) the heart’s output under stress and intellectual vigor ( parallelism ambiguity hearts output under intellectual vigor. is wrong )

C) intellectual vigor and the output of the heart under stress ( required intended meaning without parallelism error. correct choice)

D) intellectual vigor and the effect of stress on the heart’s output ( meaning error, effect of stress remain unchanged is wrong )

E) the effect of stress on the heart’s output and intellectual vigor ( parallelism ambiguity, effect of stress on intellectual is wrong )

Raxit85 · Answer

Imo. C

It has traditionally been thought that all biological functions decline with age, but according to the National Institute on Aging, certain important capabilities, such as  the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor , remain essentially unchanged.

A) the output  of the heart under stress  and intellectual vigor - Modifier error, idiom;such x and y, here under stress is applicable to common for both capabilities. So incorrect.

B) the  heart’s output under stress  and intellectual vigor - Modifier error & possessive noun is awkward

C) intellectual vigor and the output of the heart under stress - ok

D) intellectual vigor and  the effect of stress on the heart’s output  - Meaning error

E)  the effect of stress on the heart’s output  and intellectual vigor - Meaning error

mykrasovski · Answer

It has traditionally been thought that all biological functions decline with age, but according to the National Institute on Aging, certain important capabilities, such as the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor, remain essentially unchanged.

This is a pretty easy question as long as you understand the meaning quickly. I did not manage to understand it, so I picked A...

A) the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor
- Incorrect. Parallelism issue output of the heard under intellectual vigor does not make sense...

B) the heart’s output under stress and intellectual vigor
- Incorrect. This is essentially the same as A, and the heart’s output is a possessive version of the output of the heart.

C) intellectual vigor and the output of the heart under stress
- Correct. The error that was in A is fixed, i.e. such as A and B. How about the meaning? Both intellectual vigor and the output of the heart can be capabilities.

D) intellectual vigor and the effect of stress on the heart’s output
- Incorrect. Meaning is broken.

E) the effect of stress on the heart’s output and intellectual vigor
- Incorrect. Can the effect be a capability?.... hm... not really. Eliminate E.

P.S. Am I the only one who spent at least 20 seconds wondering about the existence of such organization as the National Institute of Aging? ... In the United States, the National Institute on Aging is a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland.

eakabuah · Answer

Options A and B essentially have the same meaning.  the output of the heart  and  the heart's output  have the same meaning. So in my view, A cannot be correct while B is incorrect and vice versa, I stand to be corrected though, perhaps there is a ground where either  output of the heart  or  the heart's output  is better, perhaps on the grounds of concision, I just don't know and can't tell.
However, there is indeed an ambiguity in meaning in options A and B in terms of parallelism. It can either be  the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor , which is the intended meaning or   the output of the heart under    stress and intellectual vigor  in which case the focus is only on the output of the heart. In the latter case, intellectual vigor is not considered on its own as linked to the functions of the body. On this ground, we can eliminate A and B.

Options E and D can be eliminated on the grounds of logical meaning.  effects of stress on the heart's output  cannot be a biological function. A function can be defined in terms of an output given some inputs, and not the effects associated with the output. Option E, however, has the added issue of ambiguity in terms of parallelism. It can either be   the effects of stress    on the heart's output and intellectual vigor  or  the effects of stress on the heart's output  and  intellectual vigor .

Option C is the right answer. It removes the parallelism ambiguities in A and B by stating the  intellectual vigor  first before  the output of the heart under stress . The meaning is intact and logical when the entire sentence is considered.

zhanbo · Answer

It took me 2 minutes 4 seconds to decide on my choice  (C) . I spent most of time between A and C. They are essentially the same.

(A) While this option is not really poorly constructed, there is slight possibility of misunderstanding: The output of "the heart under stress and intellectual vigor". 
(B) It is the heart that is under stress, not "the heart's output" that is under stress.
(D) "the effect of stress on the heart’s output" is too wordy.
(E) Same as above.

udaypratapsingh99 · Answer

It has traditionally been thought that all biological functions decline with age, but according to the National Institute on Aging, certain important capabilities, such as the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor, remain essentially unchanged.

Issue With The Statement -   1)It is unclear that if sentence is considering output of heart, under both stress and intellectual vigor, or just considering output of heart and intellectual vigor as 2 separate.

A) the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor _ wrong

B) the heart’s output under stress and intellectual vigor  - Same as A

C) intellectual vigor and the output of the heart under stress -  CORRECT

D) intellectual vigor and the effect of stress on the heart’s output  - It changes the message of the sentence - from a specific, in stress condition, to effect of variation of stress.
 
E) the effect of stress on the heart’s output and intellectual vigor  - Same as D

CORRECT ANSWER is C

generis · Answer

I have posted the official explanation  HERE

TheNightKing · Answer

Let's trim down the sentence: It has traditionally been thought that all biological functions decline with age, certain important capabilities , such as the output of the heart under stress and intellectual vigor , remain essentially unchanged. These 2 options straight up means the output of the heart under stress and under intellectual vigor. So we can eliminate. Just completely changes the meaning. Now let's focus on what are the important capabilities? the effect of stress is not an important capability. the output of the heart is. C is the winner.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

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.

It has traditionally been thought that all biological functions declin

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

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

It has traditionally been thought that all biological functions declin

Prep Toolkit

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