Video game enthusiasts emphasize that a handful of deaths from extende

Question

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2) 
 For SC butler Questions  Click Here

Video game enthusiasts emphasize that a handful of deaths from extended gaming are an inadequate means of predicting long-term effects of video gaming and underscore that experts remain divided  over whether the overall health of gamers will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society.

A) over whether the overall health of gamers will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society.

B) over whether compromised health will be suffered by gamers in the long term and what impact society would feel.

C) over if gamers’ health will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society.

D) over whether gamers will become not as healthy and the impact of their compromised health would have on society.

E) as to whether fewer gamers will be healthy and the impact their health would have on society if they were.

generis · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2)

THE PROMPT  
Video game enthusiasts emphasize that a handful of deaths from extended gaming are an inadequate means of predicting long-term effects of video gaming and underscore that experts remain divided  over whether the overall health of gamers will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society.  
• ISSUES?

→ track on meaning; one option is absolute nonsense but the latter is easy to miss because phrasing seems innocuous

→ passive voice issues: on easy to medium-hard questions, the use of passive voice either (1) will not be a decision point because all options will contain passive voice, or (2) will be fairly obviously wrong or right for other reasons

THE OPTIONS  
 
• I do not see any issues
The sentence is grammatical and clear.

• I discuss the use of will and would  in this post,  here .
KEEP A 
Note: our lives just got easier because we have a yardstick by which to assess the options to follow.

• GMAC does not like mid-sentence switching from passive voice ( will be suffered by gamers ) to active voice ( what impact society would feel )
→ GMAC does not like this switching at all.

• not all passive constructions are bad. This one is. Compare to (A)
→ (A) over whether the overall health of gamers will suffer in the long term
→ (B) over whether compromised health will be suffered by gamers in the long term
Option A is better.  Health will suffer  (active voice) is much more forceful than  compromised health will be suffered by ABCs  (passive voice)
ELIMINATE B
 
• IF is used for conditional or hypothetical statements

• although GMAC considers  whether  or not   redundant, you can use the phrase to help you remember that 
→ you use whether to choose between alternate possibilities:  whether  gamers health will suffer in the long run  or not .

This post  discusses if and whether.
ELIMINATE C
 
• "will become not AS healthy" -- as whom? 
Failure to include the other part of a comparison signaled by "as  " is ungrammatical.

•  will become not AS healthy  is really awkward English.

• this option is nonsensical
→ illogical phrasing:  the impact OF their compromised health on society would have  
OF should be THAT
This clause literally does not mean anything.
ELIMINATE D

•  whether fewer gamers will be healthy  is weird and does not suggest what the other options seem to be suggesting.

• illogical:  were  should be  weren't 
→ Why would experts be divided over the impact that healthy people have on society? Ridiculous. Illogical.
ELIMINATE E

The best answer is A

COMMENTS

Most of these answers are very good.

As always, aspirants: you have an open invitation to post.
Be brave!

Kudos to those who explained well.

Anuragsharma93 · Answer

The Answer should be  A  - Concise/succinct

B & D - Meaning error
C- Whether is preferred over if and redundancy error in this sentence.
E - as to whether - Redundant

zhanbo · Answer

My answer is  (A) . I feel that it is a tough one and spent 3 minutes solving this question.

(A) I did choose (A) eventually, but I do have an issue with this choice: At first, experts are not sure if gamers will suffer in the future. After that, however, experts remain divided what impact their compromised health would have, which, to me, indicates that the answer to the previous question is positive. Well, it does use subjunctive mood for the second question. Maybe it is okay then. 
(B) Passive voice ("will be suffered") is not as effective as active voice. Eliminate B.
(C) In formal writing, "if" should be used to introduce a conditional subordinate clause. Do not replace "whether" with "if".
(D) If I see "as healthy”, I expect to see another "as (non-gamers)"; 
Moreover, 
 Experts remain divided over  the impact of their compromised health would have on society . 
is grammatically wrong:  the impact of their compromised health would have on society  is almost a complete sentence, which cannot serve as object of "over". 
(E) I think "as to" is ok. 
Dropping "in the long term" is a bit problematic, though I now realize that ”long-term effects“ was already mentioned earlier. Still, "whether fewer gamers will be healthy" is a bit unclear. 
Dropping "compromised" in "the impact their health would have on society" also makes the meaning a bit unclear. 
Last, "if they were" seems to mean "if gamers were healthy"? If so, it is totally wrong.

TarunKumar1234 · Answer

Video game enthusiasts emphasize that a handful of deaths from extended gaming are an inadequate means of predicting long-term effects of video gaming and underscore that experts remain divided over whether the overall health of gamers will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society.

A) over whether the overall health of gamers will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society. Correct

B) over whether compromised health will be suffered by gamers in the long term and what impact society would feel. Incorrect

meaning change - impact of what society feel?

C) over if gamers’ health will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society. Incorrect

if uses wrong - there is no condition

D) over whether gamers will become not as healthy and the impact of their compromised health would have on society. Incorrect

meaning change - gamers will become not as healthy

E) as to whether fewer gamers will be healthy and the impact their health would have on society if they were. Incorrect

as to uses wrong
meaning change

carouselambra · Answer

IMO A

Video game enthusiasts emphasize that a handful of deaths from extended gaming are an inadequate means of predicting long-term effects of video gaming and underscore that experts remain divided over whether the overall health of gamers will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society.

A) over  whether  the overall health of gamers will suffer in the long term  and  what impact their compromised health would have on society.

B) over whether  compromised health will be suffered by gamers  in the long term and what impact society would  feel .

C) over  if gamers’ health will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society.

D) over whether gamers will become  not as healthy  and the  impact of their compromised health would have on society.

E)  as to whether fewer gamers  will be healthy and the impact their health would have on society  if they were.

akadiyan · Answer

Ans  A

A) over whether the overall health of gamers will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society.  CORRECT

B) over whether compromised health will be suffered by gamers in the long term and what impact society would feel.-  INCORRECT 
This usage of 'will be suffered' by gamers is not recommended.

C) over if gamers’ health will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society.-  INCORRECT 
If is a conditional statement and in this statement usage of 'if' is incorrect.

D) over whether gamers will become not as healthy and the impact of their compromised health would have on society.-  INCORRECT 
"not as healthy" is incorrect , the proper usage is "not as healthy as"

E) as to whether fewer gamers will be healthy and the impact their health would have on society if they were.-  INCORRECT 
The usage of "few gamers were healthy" gives us a bit of unclear structure and 'if they were' refers to 'few gamers' which is not clear.

callmeDP · Answer

I think the "divided" should not be in the underlined part and was done by mistake. however, only  generis  can clarify better on this.

Video game enthusiasts emphasize that a handful of deaths from extended gaming are an inadequate means of predicting long-term effects of video gaming and underscore that experts remain  divided over whether the overall health of gamers will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society.

emphasize that.... and underscore that ... are nice and // 
But that's not asked.

A) over whether the overall health of gamers will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society.

B) over whether  compromised health will be suffered  by gamers in the long term and what impact society would feel. - compromised health is incorrect I guess.

C) over  if  gamers’ health will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society. - If is to be used in the condition, here whether is preferred for uncertainty

D) over whether gamers will become  not as healthy  and the impact of their compromised health would have on society. - awkward

E) as to whether fewer  gamers will be healthy  and the  impact their health  would have on society if they were. - meaning distortion.

IMO A , as it is the best choice.

winterschool · Answer

Video game enthusiasts emphasize that a handful of deaths from extended gaming are an inadequate means of predicting long-term effects of video gaming and underscore that experts remain divided over whether the overall health of gamers will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society.

A)  over whether the overall health of gamers will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society.   Correct

B) over whether compromised health will be suffered by gamers in the long term and  what impact society would feel .  Incorrect

meaning change - impact of what society feel?
 
C) over  if  gamers’ health will suffer in the long term and what impact their compromised health would have on society.  Incorrect

if uses wrong - there is no condition

D) over whether gamers  will become not as healthy  and the impact of their compromised health would have on society.  Incorrect

meaning change - gamers will become not as healthy

E) as to whether  fewer gamers will be healthy  and the impact their health would have on society  if they were .  Incorrect

as to uses wrong
meaning change

generis · Answer

zhanbo  , this analysis demonstrates good critical thinking!

I agree with the thrust of your argument. I might amend the option slightly. First, though, I would consider a convention in English that allows this construction to stand as is.

With my editor or writer hat on, I might make one idea explicit and rewrite the option this way:

... experts remain divided over whether the overall health of gamers will suffer in the long term  and if so,  what impact their compromised health would have on society.

That said, even in formal written English, the tacit "if so" logic of this option would stand, precisely because the second noun clause ("what impact . . .") uses  would .

The first sentence is a binary: Will the gamers' health suffer or not? Some experts believe that the answer is "yes," while others believe that the answer is "no."

The second noun clause leans more towards a contingency or permutation that happens  in the context of the first issue  because the clause uses "would," a usage that confirms that not all experts think that gamers' health will suffer (otherwise, this option would use "will").

Among the group of experts who believe that the gamers' health  will  suffer, some or all of the experts are also not sure what effect, if any, the gamers' decrepitude might (would) have on society.

We are allowed to write about speculation that pertains to sequential events as long as we use verbs that signal the logical sequence.

Finally, remember that we are not looking for a perfect sentence but rather the one that remains after we eliminate the four worst answers. (I know that you and many others strive for excellence and ask sensible questions about the "best" answer. You solved the issue yourself. I just have to remind everyone to remember to stay focused on eliminating four options.) Nice work.

Posted from my mobile device

generis · Answer

callmeDP  , nice catch! Edited. Thank you.

Posted from my mobile device

zhanbo · Answer

Thank you  generis  for addressing my question! I learnt quite a lot from your reasoning.

Happy holidays!

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  here .

Video game enthusiasts emphasize that a handful of deaths from extende

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

Video game enthusiasts emphasize that a handful of deaths from extende

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