While many of the dinosaur fossils found recently in northeast China s

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation of this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of the crucial part of this sentence is that at this stage the wealth of enigmatic fossils seems more likely to inflame debates over the origin of birds than to settle them.

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Pronouns + Parallelism + Redundancy/Awkwardness

• Any elements linked by a conjunction (“than” in this case) must be parallel.

A: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun “wealth” with the plural verb “seem”. Further, Option A incorrectly refers to the singular noun “wealth” with the plural pronoun “they”. Additionally, Option A alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “seem more likely at this stage that they will”; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that at this stage, the wealth of enigmatic fossils seems more likely to inflame debates over the origin of birds than to settle them. Besides, Option A uses the needlessly wordy phrase “rather than”, leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

B: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun “wealth” with the plural verb “seem”. Further, Option B alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “seem more likely that it will”; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that at this stage, the wealth of enigmatic fossils seems more likely to inflame debates over the origin of birds than to settle them.

C: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between “to inflame…at this stage” and “settle them”; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction (“rather than” in this case) must be parallel. Further, Option C uses the needlessly wordy phrase “rather than”, leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

D: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the singular noun “wealth” with the singular verb "seems". Moreover, Option D avoids the pronoun error seen in Option A, as it employs no pronouns. Further, Option D uses the phrase “more likely…to inflame debates”, conveying the intended meaning – that at this stage, the wealth of enigmatic fossils seems more likely to inflame debates over the origin of birds than to settle them. Additionally, Option D maintains parallelism between “to inflame debates...birds” and “to settle them”. Besides, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

E: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “seems more likely that it will”; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that at this stage, the wealth of enigmatic fossils seems more likely to inflame debates over the origin of birds than to settle them. Further, Option E fails to maintain parallelism between “that it will inflame debates on the origin of birds at this stage” and “to settle them”; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction (“than” in this case) must be parallel.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Shouldn't the underline start from the second "seem"?

The wealth (singular) needs "seems" to properly modify it. Use of "seem" is incorrect. So (A) and (B) are wrong.

In (C), "more likely to X rather than Y" is incorrect usage. Also, "birds at this stage" is incorrect. The stage is not about birds.

(D) correctly uses "seems". It also has the right usage of "more likely to X than to Y". Additionally, "at this stage" is correctly placed.

(E) seems more likely that is incorrect here. "more likely that.... than to" is ALSO incorrect.

Hence, (D).

This question is not correctly underlined. Could you please change the underlined portion as stated in the original version:
While many of the dinosaur fossils found recently in northeast China seem to provide evidence of the kinship between dinosaurs and birds, the wealth of enigmatic fossils seem more likely at this stage that they will inflame debates over the origin of birds rather than settle them.

While many of the dinosaur fossils found recently in northeast China seem to provide evidence of the kinship between dinosaurs and birds, the wealth of enigmatic fossils seem more likely at this stage that they will inflame debates over the origin of birds rather than settle them.

(A) seem more likely at this stage that they will inflame debates over the origin of birds rather than

Subject .........wealth (singular ) ............verb .....seem ( plural ) ........should be seems ( singular )


(B) seem more likely that it will inflame debates over the origin of birds at this stage than

Subject .........wealth (singular ) ............verb .....seem ( plural ) ........should be seems ( singular )



(C) seems more likely to inflame debates on the origin of birds at this stage rather than

correct idiom .......MORE ......X...... THAN .....Y ...................... NOT .......... MORE .........RATHER THAN

(D) seems more likely at this stage to inflame debates over the origin of birds than to

CORRECT .............SUBJECT VERB

MORE .......TO INFLAME ( INFINITY VERB ) || THAN TO SETTLE ( INFINITY VERB )

(E) seems more likely that it will inflame debates on the origin of birds at this stage than to



MORE X THAN Y MUST BE PARALLEL

MORE LIKELY ( VERB ) .................THAN TO SETTLE ( INFINITY VERB ) ...........NOT ||



CORRECT ANSWER D

(Edited the question stem.)

"The wealth of something" is singular and therefore needs a singular verb form. This eliminates A and B.

In both C and E the modifier "at this stage" is misplaced as it incorrectly modifies the birds.

Moreover, there are additional errors in C and E:

In C, "more likely to do X RATHER than do Y" is both unidiomatic and not parallel (Infinitive + Working Verb).

In E, "X seems more likely THAT it will do X than to do Y" is both unidiomatic and not parallel (Simple Future + Infinitive)

This leaves D: The verb seems has the correct form, the modifier "at this stage" is placed correctly, "X is more likely to do Y than to do Z" is idiomatic and parallel (Infinitive + Infinitive).

'the wealth' is singular subject and hence requires 'seems'. Option A and B are out.

The idiom must be 'X rather than Y'

More likely TO inflame debates than TO settle them. C is out.

E is wordy.

Hence D is the answer

While many of the dinosaur fossils found recently in northeast China seem to provide evidence of the kinship between dinosaurs and birds, the wealth of enigmatic fossils seem more likely at this stage that they will inflame debates over the origin of birds rather than settle them.

(A) seem more likely at this stage that they will inflame debates over the origin of birds rather than
(B) seem more likely that it will inflame debates over the oirigin of birds at this stage than
(C) seems more likely to inflame debates on the origin of birds at this stage rather than - Idiom error: miss a "to" in the later half of the sentence for a proper sentence.
(D) seems more likely at this stage to inflame debates over the origin of birds than to
(E) seems more likely that it will inflame debates on the origin of birds at this stage than to

+1 D

A and B are for plural nouns but the wealth of xyz is singular. These two options can be removed

C is not || and birds at this stage changes meaning

D looks good. It is parallel and corrects the error with the placement of at this stage

E is similar to C. not parallel and at this stage modifies birds. Not the intention of the original sentence.

mikemcgarry GMATNinja egmat
Is there a difference between Debate Over and Debate On ? Can someone elaborate on this?

Hello aceGMAT21,

I am not sure if you still have this doubt. Here is the explanation nonetheless.


The word debate is not necessarily followed by a particular preposition. The context of the sentence decides which preposition will appears after debate.

IMHO, in the context of this sentence, both the phrases debates over and debates on work equally fine.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Hi egmat,

Thanks for the reply!

Can you please elaborate more on the context part, on the basis of which we can decide whether to use DEBATE OVER or DEBATE ON? As I am still not clear about that. You can take examples to explain the same.

Thanks,
-Varun

Hello Varun aceGMAT21,


Well, as I have already mentioned, the word debate need not be followed by any particular preposition.


So we can say:

The debate on the Education Bill is attracting a lot of attention. OR The debate over the Education Bill is attracting a lot of attention.



But I certainly do not mean to say that debate over and debate on can be used interchangeably.

The debate on Tuesday will have a lot of participants.

We can never replace on with over in the above-mentioned sentence.


Moreover, I do not think on GMAT SC, such expressions are tested any which way.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

While many of the dinosaur fossils found recently in northeast China seem to provide evidence of the kinship between dinosaurs and birds, the wealth of enigmatic fossils seem more likely at this stage that they will inflame debates over the origin of birds rather than settle them.

(A) seem more likely at this stage that they will inflame debates over the origin of birds rather than - subject verb agreement issue - "the wealth seems to," not "seems that." "They" is also ambiguous
(B) seem more likely that it will inflame debates over the origin of birds at this stage than - Same issues as with A, and "it" is also ambiguous here

(C) seems more likely to inflame debates on the origin of birds at this stage rather than - the modifier "at this stage" seems to indicate that the birds are at a particular stage - illogical. We want to say that it "seems likely at this stage."
(D) seems more likely at this stage to inflame debates over the origin of birds than to - Correct

(E) seems more likely that it will inflame debates on the origin of birds at this stage than to - the construction "the wealth... seems... that it will" is both non-idiomatic and illogical.

Answer D

The sentence presents a contrast using the word ‘while’. It says whereas many recently found dinosaur fossils seem to provide evidence of kinship between dinosaurs and birds, these fossils seem:

more likely to inflame debates over the origin of birds
than settle these debates
There are four errors in the given sentence:

In the main clause, “the wealth of enigmatic fossils” is the subject – ‘the wealth’ is singular – and the verb is “seem”, which is plural. Therefore, there is a subject verb agreement error.
The structure “X seems more likely that X will do something” is incorrect. Either of the below two structures is correct:
It seems more likely that X will do something…
X seems more likely to do something
Given the context of the sentence, “they” should refer to “the wealth of enigmatic fossils”. So, we have a plural pronoun “they” for the singular antecedent.
We are making a comparison using “more” in the sentence. “more” should be followed by “than” and never by “rather than”.

daagh AjiteshArun generis

Can you please brief in E what is the antecedent of "it" ?

Option E is

... the wealth of enigmatic fossils seems more likely that it will inflame debates on the origin of birds at this stage than to...

I suppose that the it refers to the wealth of enigmatic fossils, but the structure (the wealth of enigmatic fossils seems more likely that it) itself is not correct.

V-S spotted:
1. found- (While may of, describes the disnosour fossils) The dinasour fossils, subject= S
2. to provide- infinitives (not a verb)
3. will inflame debates- X (cannot find the subject, ERROR)
4. settle them- X (cannot find the subject, ERROR)

(A) seem more likely at this stage that they will inflame debates over the origin of birds rather than
seem, verb = P
subject= S
S≠V

will inflame debates- X (cannot find the subject, ERROR)

(B) seem more likely that it will inflame debates over the origin of birds at this stage than
seem, verb = P
subject= S
S≠V

it, personal pronoun (S) = the wealth of the enigmatic fossils (S) | ok

(C) seems more likely to inflame debates on the origin of birds at this stage rather than
seems, verb = S
subject= S
S=V

to inflame debates than settle them. infintive vs verb. Error

(D) seems more likely at this stage to inflame debates over the origin of birds than to
seems, verb = S
subject= S
S=V

to inflame debates than to settle them. infintive vs infinitive. OK

(E) seems more likely that it will inflame debates on the origin of birds at this stage than to
seems, verb = S
subject= S
S=V

will inflame debates (P)
it, personal pronoun (S) = the wealth of the enigmatic fossils (S)

V≠PP

Also, will inflame debates vs to settle them. Error in comparsion.