Pack 4 Q2: Prior exploration of the moon and data collected...

Question

Pack 4, Question 2 of 5

Prior exploration of the moon and data collected from probes sent to Mars  have allowed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can develop a lunar outpost concept, and to plan  for future manned missions to Mars.

A. have allowed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can develop a lunar outpost concept, and to plan
B. have allowed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept and to plan
C. have allowed for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept, as well as planning
D. has allowed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept, and they are planning
E. has allowed for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept and to plan

◀ Pack 4, Question 1  
 ▶ Pack 4, Question 3 
 ⏏ Question Pack Home

48 Hour Window To Win An $85 EMPOWERgmat Tuition Credit (1 Month Free!)   
Share your explanation!  The GMAT Club member with the most verified Kudos  in total on the 5 question SC Block 4 question pack will  win an $85 EMPOWERgmat tuition credit , which will entitle the winner to a full month of complete access to the EMPOWERgmat system. Even if you're not sure about your answer or your rationale, share your explanation to help boost your learning and earn a chance to win.

To be eligible, your explanation must:
 be submitted within the 48 hour window after this post was created
should explain your reasoning why the answer you chose is correct, and why the other 4 options are incorrect within 48 hours of this post

The OA and official explanation will be held until the 48 hour window has lapsed.

sampriya · Answer

Prior exploration of the moon and data collected from probes sent to Mars  have allowed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can develop a lunar outpost concept, and to plan  for future manned missions to Mars.

A.  have  allowed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can develop a lunar outpost concept, and  to plan 
B.  have  allowed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept and  to plan 
C.  have   allowed for  the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept,  as well as planning 
D.  has  allowed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept, and  they are planning 
E.  has   allowed for  the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept  and to plan

We can notice two kinds of splits in the options!

1) have vs has
2)to plan vs planning-- possible parallelism error

QUICK POE: (splits always allow for quick POE)

lets examine the first split:
"prior exploration + data collected" we have a plural subject!

therefore we can eliminate options D and E

Lets examine the second split:

A.  have allowed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration   can develop   a lunar outpost concept , and  to plan 
B.  have allowed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration  to develop   a lunar outpost concept  and  to plan 
C. have allowed forthe National Aeronautics and Space Administration   to develop   a lunar outpost concept ,  as well as planning

we can notice that only option B is parallel!!; to develop and to plan!!

option B is correct!

mykrasovski · Answer

sampriya  be careful with splits, quite many medium - hard SC questions do not have obvious splits.

sampriya · Answer

Hi, I agree with you! But "evident" splits allow us for a quick POE in the following cases: 1) subject-verb agreement, pronoun- antecedent agreement (its vs they) 2) parallelism errors( when we notice parallel markers such as and/but/or/notonly-butalso etc 3) comparison markers at the start of the sentence such as like/unlike/as/so etc 4) sometimes idioms (so X that Y, more X than Y, from X to Y, so X as to Y...etc) 5) awkward phrases such as "both X as well as Y" , "For + verb-ing words" Splits help us to "actively" tackle a question. But in every case irrespective of the split we must understand what the statement is trying to communicate. At the end of the day we must be aware of the different errors and how the different errors are tested in the question and the process to tackle them

Posted from my mobile device

muditdadwal · Answer

Prior exploration of the moon and data collected from probes sent to Mars  have allowed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can develop a lunar outpost concept, and to plan  for future manned missions to Mars.

A. have allowed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration  can develop  a lunar outpost concept, and to plan
B. have allowed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration  to develop  a lunar outpost concept and  to plan    
C. have allowed for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept,  as well as planning 
D.  has allowed  the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept, and they are planning
E.  has allowed  for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept and to plan

My Explanation is going to be very simple. Look for subject of verb have allowed- It is "prior exploration and data collected" . Since its a compound subject, it will need plural verb. Thus have allowed s correctly used. Eliminate D and C.

Next you see "and" to plan in the sentence. Think of parallelism. Time to make things parallel.

A- Can develop and to plan not parallel. - OUT
B- to develop and to plan- Parallel- In  
C-to develop as well as planning- Awkward construction- and is better suited. Also For in the starting is wrong construction.

Raxit85 · Answer

Imo. B

Prior exploration of the moon and data collected from probes sent to Mars have allowed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can develop a lunar outpost concept, and to plan for future manned missions to Mars.

Meaning: X and Y have allowed that the NA and SA can develop a lunar outpost concept, and to plan for future endeavour. Here, usage of that and can is redundant and infinitive before develop is required to maintain parallelism.

A. have allowed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration  can develop a lunar outpost concept, and to plan  - Parallelism error, X & Y allowed have someone/something to develop ...and to plan..... Can is also redundant.
B. have allowed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept and to plan - Maintains parallelism and idiomatically correct. No error
C. have  allowed for  the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept,  as well as planning  - Allowed to do x and y is correct idiom. Breaks parallelism rule also as intended in original sentence.
D.  has allowed  the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept, and they are planning - SVA error, X and Y have (not has)
E.  has allowed  for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept and to plan - the same error as option D

bhavya23 · Answer

Prior exploration of the moon and data collected from probes sent to Mars have allowed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can develop a lunar outpost concept, and to plan for future manned missions to Mars.

A. have allowed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration  can develop  a lunar outpost concept, and  to plan ----not parallel
B.  have  allowed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration  to develop  a lunar outpost concept and  to plan ----correct
C. have allowed for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept,  as well as planning --not parallel
D.  has allowed  the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept, and they  are planning ---subject - verb agreement missing and not parallel
E.  has allowed  for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept and to plan---subject - verb agreement missing

snoep · Answer

Prior exploration of the moon and data collected from probes sent to Mars have allowed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can develop a lunar outpost concept, and to plan for future manned missions to Mars.

A.  have   allowed that  the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can  develop  a lunar outpost concept ,  and  to plan 
 Subject of 'Have' is Prior exploration and data collected; which is a plural because two different nouns are separated by and -> Fine
Allowed That -> Suggests that exploration and data allowed administration that they can develop. It appears they are giving permission to administration to develop..Not cool
allowed that administration can develop ad allowed that administration to plan -> are not parallel

B.  have allowed  the National Aeronautics and Space Administration  to develop  a lunar outpost concept and  to plan 
 Subject of 'Have' is Prior exploration and data collected; which is a plural because two different nouns are separated by and -> Fine
in this option, 'allowed administration to develop and to plan' suggests that exploration and data collected made it possible for administration to develop and to plan. looks good with intended meaning and also parallelism at the end with infinitives to develop ..and to plan is good! Keep the answer!

C.  have   allowed for  the National Aeronautics and Space Administration  to develop  a lunar outpost concept,  as well as planning 
 Subject of 'Have' is Prior exploration and data collected; which is a plural because two different nouns are separated by and -> Fine
Allowed for - means to consider for something, so this option can mean- allowed administration to consider to develop and to plan, Nothing greatly wrong to reject the answer choice because of this meaning. but worth noting that it is different from what is suggested in option B as "made it possible"
allowed administration to develop, as well as planning -> not parallel 
allowed administration planning -> planning works as a modifier, which is not needed

D.  has   allowed the  National Aeronautics and Space Administration  to develop  a lunar outpost concept, and  they are planning 
 Subject of 'Has' is Prior exploration and data collected; which is a plural. Has works with singular subjects, hence not ok to use Has
to develop and they are planning -> Infinitive and clause -> are not parallel
Pronoun 'they' does not have a clear refers as it wants to refer to NASA which is singular

E.  has   allowed for  the National Aeronautics and Space Administration  to develop  a lunar outpost concept  and to plan 
 Subject of 'Has' is Prior exploration and data collected; which is a plural. 'Has' is used with singular subjects
Allowed for - means to consider for something, so this option can mean- allowed administration to consider to develop and to plan, Nothing greatly wrong to reject the answer choice because of this meaning. but worth noting that it is different from what is suggested in option B as "made it possible"
To develop and To plan - are parallel

B is the answer!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Official Explanation:

Prior exploration of the moon and data collected from probes sent to Mars  have allowed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can develop a lunar outpost concept, and to plan  for future manned missions to Mars.

A.  have  allowed  that  the National Aeronautics and Space Administration can develop a lunar outpost concept, and  to plan  
 B.  have  allowed  the  National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept and  to plan  
 C.  have  allowed  for  the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept, as well as  planning  
 D.  has  allowed  the  National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept, and they are  planning  
 E.  has  allowed  for  the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a lunar outpost concept and  to plan

A review of our answer choices shows that we have to determine which helping verb (has or have) matches our subject, and the sentence uses “allowed,” which is sometimes part of an idiom (allow for) and when not part of the idiom has a very specific structure. We also have to decide if the infinitive (to plan) or the gerund (planning) is needed.

An easy place to start is whether we need a singular or plural verb. Our subject is “prior exploration of the moon and data collected from probes.” This is a compound subject (two subjects joined by and), and compound subjects require a plural verb. “Has” is singular and “have” is plural. Options D and E cannot be the correct answers.

Next, we’ll consider the idiom “allow for.” Our options for this idiom are “allow X for Y” and “allow for X.” Option C has the “allow for X” structure, but it doesn’t really make sense in this context. How does prior exploration and data collection allow for something? Additionally, this answer option uses “as well as planning,” but this is preceded by “to develop.” For this to be parallel we need two infinitives (to develop/to plan) or two gerunds (developing/planning). Option C cannot be the best answer.

The verb “allow” is always used in a specific way. The options are “allow + object + infinitive” or “allow + gerund.” Option A uses “that” after “allowed.” “That” is a relative pronoun used for an essential relative clause. Relative clauses are not objects and “that” is not a gerund, so this sentence doesn’t follow the structure for “allow.” Additionally, “can develop and to plan” do not make sense together nor are they parallel. Option A cannot be the correct answer.

Option B uses the “allow + object + infinitive” sentence structure and “to develop and to plan” are parallel.  Option B is the best answer.

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done,  sampriya ! You did a great job finding the splits, and figuring out how to narrow down your options from there!

Kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done,  muditdadwal ! You cracked the code on this one!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done,  Raxit85 ! You cracked the code on this question!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done,  bhavya23 ! You cracked the code on this question!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done,  snoep ! Great job showing your explanations for each option, too!

Kudos to you!

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.

Pack 4 Q2: Prior exploration of the moon and data collected...

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

Pack 4 Q2: Prior exploration of the moon and data collected...

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