Whereas pure science is mainly concerned with the discovery

Question

Whereas pure science is mainly concerned with the discovery of new truths and makes few, if any, attempts to discern the  best options between their potential uses , applied science involves the application of existing truths to concrete problems.

A) best options between their potential uses
B) best options between its potential uses
C) best of the options among their potential uses
D) best options among its potential uses
E) best options among their potential uses

TommyWallach · Accepted Answer

Hey All, I'm happy to weigh in on this one, though it's definitely tricky. First of all, who put this in a category called "Verb Tense"? The splits here are idiomatic (between/among) and pronoun based (its/their). There aren't even any verbs in the answer choices!

Either way, "its" and "their" are both possessive pronouns, so we have to ask ourselves exactly WHAT is being possessed. In this case, what has "potential uses". Is it science? No, because the science could be applied both pragmatically and merely "for the discovery of new truths". Is it "discovery"? No, because you can't use a discovery to do anything. It has to be "new truths". Why? Remember that "discovery" does not stand alone. Imagine for a moment that they had used the word "techniques" instead of "truths". Now, there'd be no question in your mind. "Techniques" can be used, but "the discovery of new techniques" cannot. The same applies here. "Truths" can have uses far more logically than "the discovery of new truths" can. This means we need "their", and we obviously need "among" (for three or more choices, not just two), so the answer is E. Hope that helps! Tommy Wallach Whereas pure science is mainly concerned with the discovery of new truths and makes few, if any, attempts to discern the best options between their potential uses, applied science involves the application of existing truths to concrete problems. best options between their potential uses best options between its potential uses best of the options among their potential uses best options among its potential uses best options among their potential uses

taekyuchoi · Answer

Whereas pure science is mainly concerned with the discovery of new truths and makes few, if any, attempts to discern the best options between their potential uses, applied science involves the application of existing truths to concrete problems.

best options  between  their potential uses  'between' is wrong, not comparing two things   "their" is not science 
best options  between  its potential uses  same as A 
best of the options among  their  potential uses  "their" is science?? 
best options among its potential uses  correct 
best options among  their  potential uses  "their" is science???

aditya8062 · Answer

my take wud be E

the fact is that we need to use "among" ------> i presume using this fact u must have eliminated A and B

now by logic it sud be E and not D  -----> reasoning : here  their  is referring to  "new truths"  so we need a plural thing !!
also if u see the second clause----> "applied science  involves  the application of  existing truths  to concrete problems"------>the logic is if in the  second clause  the  "the involvement of the application of the existing truth is done"  then in the  previous clause  " the discerning of new truths"  sud be used !!

make sense ?

doe007 · Answer

Whereas pure science is mainly concerned with the discovery of new truths and makes few, if any, attempts to discern the  best options between their potential uses , applied science involves the application of existing truths to concrete problems.

A. best options  between  their potential uses
B. best options  between its  potential uses
C. best of the options among  their  potential uses
D. best options among its potential uses
E. best options among  their  potential uses

When we are talking about "potential uses", we need to use "among". "Between" can be used for 2 items only. Options A and B are out.

By narrowing down the sentence, we get the structure as " ... pure science makes few attempts to discern the best options among  its/their  potential uses ...". Clearly, subject is "pure science" which is singular. So "their" is incorrect here. Options A, C, and E are out.

Option D is correct.

Note: The sentence disguises the subject of "potential uses" by creating distance. But, when "something"  makes  attempts, this "something" must be singular, and this indicates the subject "something" (subject of "potential uses") to be singular.

doe007 · Answer

If we use "new truths" as subject for potential uses, the sentence construction would be as follows:

Whereas pure science is mainly concerned with the discovery of new truths and new truths makes few, if any, attempts to discern the best options between their potential uses, applied science involves the application of existing truths to concrete problems.

This construction of the sentence is grammatically incorrect and does not make sense. 
Firstly, "new truths" is plural and "makes" needs singular subject -- Subject-Verb disagreement. 
Secondly, Truths cannot make attempts to do something -- this does not make sense. 
Thirdly, both "pure science" and "applied science" are the subjects and both are singular. There is no way to see how "new truths" can be subject in the first part of the sentence.
Lastly, even if new truths were to make attempt to discern the best options, presence of "and (new truths) makes few, if any, attempts to discern the best options between their potential uses" in the sentence does not make any sense. This is because aim of the sentence is to compare between pure science and applied science.

daagh · Answer

The sentence when paraphrased with the eligible referents of the pronoun will be as follows. 
Whereas pure science is mainly concerned with the discovery of new truths and makes few, if any, attempts to discern the best options among( their) the new truths’ potential uses, applied science involves the application of existing truths to concrete problems.
Whereas pure science is mainly concerned with the discovery of new truths and makes few, if any, attempts to discern the best options among (its) the pure science’s potential uses, applied science involves the application of existing truths to concrete problems.

It might be remembered that that is a contrasting comparison and the word ‘whereas’ is the comparison marker. Now, the question is as to what are being compared? Is the comparison between pure science and applied science or is it the manner in which the pure science is concerned with something and the way in which applied science is involved in something? Or is trying to compare new truths with existing truths? It is as crystal clear that this is subjective case comparison and that of all the choices, the comparison between new truths and the existing truths is the least possibility. IMHO, the comparison falls between pure science and applied science . The central core of the passage is about pure science’s discovery and not the pure science’s potential uses. Good or bad. I hope one can get the large picture from this. 
But more worrisome is the undue reliance on a factor of pronoun ambiguity in this thread, which GMAT deems rather not critical.

aditya8062 · Answer

there is a problem in this interpretation .although this question is about comparison but  parallelism of thought process  does get disturbed by this interpretation .the second clause talks about--->   applied science   involves  the application of  existing truths    so logical parallelism demands that in the first clause we sud have something like this ---->   pure science  attempts to  discern  the best options among  new truth's  potential uses

daagh · Answer

I was commenting upon the comparison. Parallelism wise, even E is unparallel, since the first arm is passive, while the second arm is active. But then they are not underlined. So we need to bother little about it just now. With this kind of excessive details, it can be blamed of out-of-scope analysis and too much mechanical jargoning. This is no way to solve a question on the d-day.

warriorguy · Answer

Whereas pure science is mainly concerned with the discovery of new truths and makes few, if any,   attempts to discern the best options among their potential uses  , applied science involves the application of existing truths to concrete problems.

If we remove the fluff, then the sentence depicts actual contrast

Whereas pure science is mainly concerned with the discovery of new truths and makes few, applied science involves the application of existing truths to concrete problems.

Pure Science --> Discovery of new truths.
Applied Science --> Application of existing truths.

Now the phrase --> attempts to discern the best options among their potential uses

Keeping the crux of the sentence, what is this phrase trying to achieve? Who attempts to discern something? What is this part trying to convey?

Also, given the structure of the sentence, is this acting as a non-restrictive clause? If yes, (going by the explanation), it provides information about new truths, then -->  and makes few , if any,  --> makes it confusing.

Please explain.

neetis5 · Answer

Hi warriorguy, I see where the problem is. What has happened is that you have taken away a very key section of the sentence in your attempt to get rid of the fluff. Essentially, this what you have done: Whereas pure science is mainly concerned with the discovery of new truths and makes few, if any, attempts to discern the best options among their potential uses , applied science involves the application of existing truths to concrete problems However, in order for you to get a logical meaning from the sentence, you need to break it at relevant points and then decide the actual fluff in it. So, here's what you should arrive at: Whereas pure science is mainly concerned with the discovery of new truths and makes few , if any, attempts to discern the best options among their potential uses , applied science involves the application of existing truths to concrete problems When you look at the above break-up, you will realize that makes is the second verb in the list for the subject pure science . And the only fluff that you canpossibly get rid of is the disclaimer "if any". Once you do so, you will understand the whole meaning conveyed by the sentence properly.

Do let me know if you stuck somewhere. Cheers!

GMATStudyStudent · Answer

VeritasKarishma   daagh

Is  best options  allowed, since the best can only be one option.

ravigupta2912 · Answer

Can anyone clarify why option C is wrong here? I understand the rest of the arguments which is why I was able to narrow it down to C and E. "best of the options" seemed like a better way to say best of all options.

KarishmaB · Answer

It is similar to 'one of the cheapest plans'. 
The top spot could be occupied by multiple people/things.

Bambi2021 · Answer

Similar doubts here. I dont see how C can be ruled out. It depends on the intention of the author.

"The best of the options among the truths' potential uses". Makes perfectly sense if we are only looking for one best option.

Posted from my mobile device

Rahulbasu007 · Answer

Analysis:
Eliminate A and B straightaway because of the incorrect usage
of between.
there can be more than 2 uses. So among would make more sense here. 
Eliminate C because of the awkward construction.
Subject = Pure science.

".... options among ___(?) potential uses..."
what is the pronoun referring to?
It's "pure science".
Now here is where I initially made a mistake as I thought that the pronoun refers to the 'options', but that's not the case.
The correct usage can be found out by replacing the pronoun with the antecedent.

So, in a similar way, we can eliminate E as well.
Let me know if it helped!

Correct: D

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Whereas pure science is mainly concerned with the discovery

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Whereas pure science is mainly concerned with the discovery

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