I just typed this question 2 mins earlier, but then couldn't find this post, so i'm typing it again:

In the mid-1920s the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electic Company was the scene of an intensive series of experiments that would investigate changes in working conditions as to their effects on workers' performance.

a) that would investigate changes in working conditions as to their effects on workers' performance

b) investigating the effects that changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance.

c) for investigating what the effects on workers' performance are that changes in working conditions would cause

d) that investigated changes in working conditions' effects on workers' performance

e) to investigate what the effects changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance



In this problem, I chose D, however, the OA is B. What's wrong with D and why is B the best answer choice?
thanks

They both posted; I deleted the other one. You have to refresh the page - you may have just clicked "back" on your browser, which will only show you the old version of the page.

D says "changes in working conditions' effects"
The changes are in the working conditions, not the effects of the working conditions - this choice changes the original meaning of the sentence. The "effects" apply to what effect the changes (in working conditions) have on workers' performance. B maintains this meaning.

How can experiments investigate on their own? Hawthorne Works of the Western Electic Company investigated the changes by experimentation. Right? If so, how is B correct? Please explain.

The sentence is not saying that the experiments investigated on their own. "experiments investigating," in answer B, is not a subject-verb setup - "investigating" is not a verb. It is a modifer explaining what type of experiments were being done. What type of experiments? Ones that investigated the effects etc.

Words ending in -ing can be verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, participial phrases - they're pretty versatile. Unless you see some form of the verb "to be" immediately preceding the -ing form, it is not functioning as a verb. It's some other part of speech.

Stacey, I understand that 'investigating' here is not a verb. You said: 'What type of experiments? Ones that investigate the effects etc.'

What does 'Ones' refer to? 'Ones' refer to experiments. Correct? Then do you mean: 'Experiments that investigate the effects'?

i think both of you are right. 'investigating' isn't a verb per se, here - it's a participle that's used as an adjective, like stacey said before - but it's used in a sense that's fapp* equivalent to 'experiments that investigate...'.

the final word on issues like this is to throw up our hands and say, 'that's the way the gmat uses the word.' remember that you're learning to speak a second (or third, or ...) language here, called gmat-speak, and that language sometimes uses words in ways that differ from what you're used to.

so: store, in your brain, the fact that the gmat considers this meaning of 'investigate' (i.e., experiments / tests / etc. can 'investigate' topics) to be perfectly ok. by the way, some brief searches on the internet reveal that lots of reputable sources also use the word in the same way (and nothing strikes me as unsavory about the usage, if my personal opinion is worth anything)

* = for all practical purposes

What about E? Looks perfect to me. No grammatical errors

Oh, OK, what the effects.... Wrong!

Looks like you answered your own question... it only took 2 minutes!

Rey