Byron possessed powers of observation that would have made him a great

Question

Byron possessed powers of observation that would have made him a great anthropologist and that  makes his letters as a group the rival of  the best novels of the time.

(A) makes his letters as a group the rival of

(B) makes his letters as a group one to rival

(C) makes his letters a group rivaling

(D) make his letters as a group the rival of

(E) make his letters a group which is the rival of

egmat · Accepted Answer

Hi Vaibhav & Ankit,

• Byron possessed powers of observation that would have made him a great anthropologist and that  makes his letters as a group the rival of  the best novels of the time.

Since both “that” refer to “powers of observation”, which is a plural entity, singular verb “makes” leads to  SV number agreement error in the first three choices.

Now choosing the correct answer choice between D and E requires  proper understanding of the intended meaning of the sentence . This sentence presents two things about Byron’s “powers of observation”. The first factor is not in the underlined portion of the sentence. So I will not get into the details of this. 
The second bit says that because of his extra-ordinary powers of observation, Byron’s letters, as a group, are the rival of the best novels of that time. The intended meaning is that the letters are the rival of the best novels when they are put together in a group to give them the form of a novel.

Now let’s see what  choice D  is saying:
• Byron possessed powers of observation that would have made him a great anthropologist and that make his letters as a group the rival of the best novels of the time.
This sentence is absolutely correct because the SV agreement error that we found in the original sentence has been taken care of. Also, the sentence communicates the intended meaning. As a group, Byron’s letters are the rival of the best novels of his time.

Now let’s analyze  Choice E: 
• Byron possessed powers of observation that would have made him a great anthropologist and that make his letters a group which is the rival of the best novels of the time.
There is a shift in meaning in this choice. This choice now says that Byron’s powers of observation make the letters a group. This is not correct. Powers of observation does not make the letters a group. The sentence does not mean that. It does not say that letters become a group and then they rival the best novels of the time. The original sentence means that together as a group, the letters become the rival of the best novels of the time.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

SaraiYaseenGMAT · Answer

A quick tip from Sarai at GMAX:

"Which" is relative pronoun that introduces a descriptive relative clause-- additional, dispensable information. So remember the following rule:

"Which" must be preceded by a comma!

So you can eliminate E.

For example:

Frogs  that  are green eat flies. The information in the relative clause is important-- it tells you what kind of frogs eat flies.

v.s.

Frogs,  which  are amphibians, eat insects. The information in the relative clause is not important, as all frogs are amphibians.

If this helped, kindly give Kudos.

To see more on this topic, check out the SC Lesson III on Pronouns at gmaxonline.

TommyWallach · Answer

Hey All,

Tons of great conversation on this, and Sarai's point is well made. But let's just take one total look at it from top to bottom.

Byron possessed powers of observation that would have made him a great anthropologist and that makes his letters as a group the rival of the best novels of the time.

We should notice right away that the split "makes/make" creates a subject-verb agreement split. From there, it's about modifiers.

(A) makes his letters as a group the rival of
PROBLEM: To check subject verb, we have to notice the parallelism marker "and". "that makes" wants to match with "that would have made". The subject of both is the same, "powers of observation", which is plural. We need a plural verb, so no "s".

(B) makes his letters as a group one to rival
PROBLEM: Same as above.The modifier here is probably fine.

(C) makes his letters a group rivaling
PROBLEM: Same as above. The modifier here would probably we fine.

(D) make his letters as a group the rival of
ANSWER: Correct subject-verb agreement. Now the modifier. What we have here is "letters" modified by the prepositional phrase "as a group", which is being compared to "the best novels of the time". Are "letters" comparable with "the best novels"? Yes.

(E) make his letters a group which is the rival of 
PROBLEM: Correct subject-verb agreement. Sarai's point is great, which is that you cannot use "which" without a comma. However, it's still iffy, because we end up comparing "a group" to "the best novels", which is no good.

Hope that helps!

-t

daagh · Answer

d for the right SV agreement powers that make his letters as a group the rival of

VeritasPrepBrian · Answer

I agree with daagh (I think that's a recurring theme on here...), and want to point out that this is a classic example of GMAT Decision Points - scanning the answers you should notice right away that they're testing subject-verb agreement and making you choose between "makes" and "make".

When it's a Subject-Verb problem, the GMAT loves to use multiple nouns to make it a tricky decision for you, so spend some time using the context clues to select the appropriate subject for the verb. Here, the word "that" is a big trigger - because the second "that" comes parallel with the first:

...that would have made him a great anthropologist and that...

The subject of the first "that" must be the subject of the second. What would have made him a great anthropologist? His powers...not "Byron" himself. We know that logically and by using grammatical tools. With S/V agreement, it's often important to eliminate prepositional modifiers like "of observation", which leaves us with:

Byron possessed powers that...

Because "powers" is clearly the subject, we need the word "make" in D and E (of which D is the correct answer as daagh mentioned).

To make yourself a better SC expert, look for the common decision points that arise between answer choices, and know the methods for making those decisions. Verbs in general make great decision points, and when you know that you're looking for Subject-Verb agreement you can eliminate modifiers and use other context clues to ensure that you select the proper subject.

jagdeepsingh1983 · Answer

makes in correct in A, B and C - as makes refer to singular noun, but here noun for that is powers of observations

choice between D and E

narangvaibhav · Answer

Not clear why D is correct. Can someone please explain in detail

ankitbansal85 · Answer

hi,

The Answer should be between D and E. I suppose it should be E as the answer choice D doesnt make sense "make his letters as a group the rival of" whereas E clearly states "make his letters a group which is the rival of" this correctly uses which (refers a thing letter) and rivals the novel.

Regards,
Ankit

commdiver · Answer

D

A, B, and C are incorrect because "makes" is supposed to modify "powers". The correct modifier is "make", since "powers" is plural. This leaves D and E. E is incorrect because it is wordy and awkward.

BangOn · Answer

Make/Makes
Make is correct as we are describing powers
Between D and E....
as a group is better than letters a group
So D.

Kapil1650 · Answer

I was damn confused between D and E, but chose E as a wrong choice for just one reason , it sounded little weird to me !! That’s it, and went with D

Posted from my mobile device

Bambi2021 · Answer

"The rival" makes no sense. As if these letters as a group is the only rival? "A rival" should have been much better.

THE rival? Really?

Posted from my mobile device

JenniferMassey · Answer

I HOPE I AM CORRECT , PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THERE IS ERROR SO I CAN IMPROVE. 
 
 Byron possessed powers of observation that would have made him a great anthropologist and that makes his letters as a group the rival of the best novels of the time.

POWERS (P) COLLEVCTIVE NOUN--->MAKE(P)

(A) makes his letters as a group the rival of -POWERS (P) COLLEVCTIVE NOUN--->MAKE(P)

(B) makes his letters as a group one to rival - POWERS (P) COLLEVCTIVE NOUN--->MAKE(P)

(C) makes his letters a group rivaling - POWERS (P) COLLEVCTIVE NOUN--->MAKE(P)

(D) make his letters as a group the rival of - POWER MAKE (VERB) --AS ( TO COMAPRE VERB)
LETTERS CAN BE RIVAL OF NOVELS

(E) make his letters a group which is the rival of---WHICH IS USED FOR NON ESSESTIAL INFO AND NEEDS A COMMA BEFIRE IT

A GROUP CANNOT BE RIVAL OF NOVELS

VerbalBot · Answer

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Byron possessed powers of observation that would have made him a great

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Byron possessed powers of observation that would have made him a great

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