Until Berta and Ernst Scharrer established the concept of neurosecreti

Question

Until Berta and Ernst Scharrer established the concept of neurosecretion in 1928, scientists believed that  either cells secreted hormones, which made them  endocrine cells and thus part of the endocrine system, or conducted electrical impulses, in which case they were nerve cells and thus part of the nervous system.

a) either cells secreted hormones, which made them

b) either cells secreted hormones, making them

c) either cells secreted hormones and were

d) cells either secreted hormones, in which case they were

e) cells either secreted hormones, which made them

Although I know when to use the construction of "either...or", however, this particular sentence confused me. Can anybody show me how to tackle this? thanks

tarek99 · Accepted Answer

the OA is D. Here is why, take a look at option D: d) cells either secreted hormones, in which case they were the part that i've highlighted in bold is also parallel with the second part of the original sentence. i know, you missed that

that is why it is important to completely read the whole sentence of the original text in order to be more accurate with your selection. something that i constantly mess up with as well, but i'm learning. what this question tries to do is testing whether you've read the whole sentence. if you haven't read the whole sentence, then you're likely to choose option e because it seems more concise. however, the original sentence indicates that it's important to choose option d to keep the whole structure parallel, even though it may sound more wordy than option e. so guys, read the whole sentence COMPLETELY, a big lesson that should be learnt from this question.

ashkrs · Answer

A B C are wrong clearly for breaking || ism either and or should follow same noun/verb . In A B C either is followed by noun "cell" and or is followed by verb "conducted"

Between D and E , both are good in || ism as either is followed by secreted and or is followed by conducted.
E is correct here . D is unnecessarily wordy.

x2suresh · Answer

cells either secreted hormones... or conducted electical impulses
It should be between D and E

in which case they were endocrine cells ... || in which case they were nerve cells 
D is correct.

E .. not parallel.

nsp007 · Answer

D for parallelism !

Until Berta and Emst Scharrer established the concept of neurosecretion
in 1928, scientists believed that  cells  either  secreted hormones,   in which case they were endocrine cells    and thus part of the endocrine system,   or   conducted
electrical impulses,    in which case they were nerve cells    and thus part of the
nervous system.

seekmba · Answer

D for me.

E is not parallel and also "which" incorrectly refers to "secreted hormones"

Until Berta and Emst Scharrer ........, scientists believed that cells either  secreted hormones, in which case they were endocrine cells  and thus part of the endocrine system, or  conducted electrical impulses, in which case they were nerve cells  and thus part of the nervous system - parallel. Hence D

adalfu · Answer

i agree with D as well,

but everyone is saying that "in which" modifies the clause the precedes it... I'm not so sure about that.

"in which" (just like "which") is a relative pronoun that modifies the noun that precedes it. or should i think of "in which case" a prepositional phrase?

PTK · Answer

Clearly D,

A, B, C are not parallel so they out.

btw D and E, I was confused what to select, decided to read the sentence till the end, after this I chose D.

zisis · Answer

IMO D
cells must come before either...or and E is eliminated because which is placed next to hormones incorrectly

ChrisLele · Answer

This has been discussed in another forum post, but before I address the pronoun issue, let me give a quick explanation.

Following rules of parallelism, cells either A or B, hence (D) or (E).

Next case of parallelism is 'in which case' - notice that the non-underlined part contains this phrase and to maintain parallelism the answer has to as well.

Now for the pronoun issue. 'They' is only ambiguous if it could reasonably refer to more than one plural subject. To say that scientists were nerve cells or endocrine cells is clearly absurd and thus not reasonable. Therefore, there is no ambiguity in the use of 'they.'

Hope that helps

piealpha · Answer

I was confused between B and D. 
B] ", making them..." could be verb+ing modifier, in which case later phrase has to modify the entire previous clause. Here is modifying only "cells". This makes is a bad choice
D] is good from point of view of parallelism
A and E have wrong use of "which"
C is changing the meaning of sentence.
Thus D prevails.

tarunk31 · Answer

Until Berta and Ernst Scharrer established the concept of neurosecretion in 1928, scientists believed that either cells secreted hormones, which made them endocrine cells and thus part of the endocrine system, or conducted electrical impulses, in which case they were nerve cells and thus part of the nervous system.

a) either cells secreted hormones, which made them 
The idiom is either A or B, A and B should be structurally parallel. Here "cells secreted hormones", a clause, and "conducted electrical impulses", a verb phrase, are not parallel. So to make them parallel cells should be placed before either. Also pronoun them has no clear referrent.
b) either cells secreted hormones, making them 
either...or.... structure violation.

c) either cells secreted hormones and were 
either... or violations. Also "and were" changes the meaning and also grammatically wrong in this sentence.
d) cells either secreted hormones, in which case they were 
Correct. either...or.... structure is fine. Also in which they were is parallel to the structure in the later part of the sentence.
e) cells either secreted hormones, which made them 
either ...or.... structure is fine. "which made them" is not parallel to "in which case they were..." and also changes the meaning. hormones doesn't made them endocrine cells, but they are identified as endocrine cells.

gmat2015p · Answer

The original sentence uses an either..or... construct. 
In the non underlined part, 'or' starts with a verb. So 'either' should also start with a verb. Hence A,B and C are eliminated

(E) 'which' refers to hormones'. This changes the meaning - now it seems hormones made them endocrine cells.

D = correct

thanhphong01 · Answer

Until Berta and Ernst Scharrer established the concept of neurosecretion in 1928, scientists believed that  either cells secreted hormones, which made them  endocrine cells and thus part of the endocrine system, or conducted electrical impulses, in which case they were nerve cells and thus part of the nervous system.

a)  either  cells secreted hormones,  which made  them ==>  Either X or Y do somthing, put either here we find no verb to complete the clause. Moreover, X and Y in the sentence are not parallel.
 
b)  either  cells secreted hormones,  making them  ==>  not parallel, and putting either before cells makes the clause incomplete

c) either cells secreted hormones and were ==>  very incorrect

d)  cells  either secreted hormones,  in which case  they were ==>  Correct. This answer completes the clause, and satisfies the parallelism
 
e) cells either secreted hormones, which made them ==>  not parallel

Parallel makers
And ==> X and Y
 X,Y, and Z
Both==> Both X and Y
Either ==> Either X or Y.
Find more in Chapter 4 Paralellism MGMAT

rsh12 · Answer

Either X Or Y should be parallel

Cells either "secreted hormones, in which case they were" is parallel to "conducted ..., in which case they were...."

LogicGuru1 · Answer

A,B,E  are out because  they all change the meaning of the sentence . 
Does the secretion of hormone made (or Converted) the cells into endocrine cells. Nope . 
The sentence is trying to tell- because the cells secreted hormone, they were CATEGORISED as endocrine cells.

C and E remaining as valid options.

E is parallel and correctly use the idiom "either or" 
EITHER cells either secreted hormones,  in which case they were  blah , blah blah, OR conducted electrical impulse,  in which case they were  nerve cell blah blah blah..

C is wrong because it is not parallel.

ANSWER IS    C

Until Berta and Ernst Scharrer established the concept of neurosecretion in 1928, scientists believed that either cells secreted hormones, which made them endocrine cells and thus part of the endocrine system, or conducted electrical impulses, i n which case they were  nerve cells and thus part of the nervous system.

a) either cells secreted hormones, which made them

b) either cells secreted hormones, making them

c) either cells secreted hormones and were

d) cells either secreted hormones, in which case they were

e) cells either secreted hormones, which made them

ajdse22 · Answer

A lot has already been talked about the answer choices in this thread.
Here is something to think about parallelism. This will sound very mechanical to some folks for sure

When we say either x or y , x and y must be parallel items
1)either  cells secreted  or  cells conducted  --good
2)cells either secreted or conducted -- good
3)either cells secreted or conducted --nope not good.

The construction of #2 is against #3 and in GMAT view, that is wrong.
We can write cells secreted or conducted, but with either or we need to be strict.

Abhishek009 · Answer

Until Berta and Ernst Scharrer established the concept of neurosecretion in 1928, scientists believed that cells  either   secreted hormones ,  in which case they were endocrine cells and thus part of the endocrine system ,  or   conducted electrical impulses ,  in which case they were nerve cells and thus part of the nervous system.  
  
Correct aswer must be (D) for the correct idiomatic usage and Parallelism ...

AmritaSarkar89 · Answer

This is a pure paralyse questions where the two ends of either or needs to be parallel and cells have to come before either to maintain parallelism .

Skywalker18 · Answer

Until Berta and Ernst Scharrer established the concept of neurosecretion in 1928, scientists believed that  either cells secreted hormones, which made them  endocrine cells and thus part of the endocrine system, or conducted electrical impulses, in which case they were nerve cells and thus part of the nervous system.

a) either cells secreted hormones, which made them - Parallelism issue - Either X or Y -- no subject for conducted

b) either cells secreted hormones, making them - same as A

c) either cells secreted hormones and were - same as A

d) cells either secreted hormones, in which case they were - Parallelism

e) cells either secreted hormones, which made them - illogical - The hormones did not make the cells endocrine cells. The fact that the cells produced these hormones shows that the cells are endocrine cells ; parallelism is better in D

Answer D

Until Berta and Ernst Scharrer established the concept of neurosecreti

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Until Berta and Ernst Scharrer established the concept of neurosecreti

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