Dear Moderators and friends,

Most of the purported health benefits of tea comes from antioxidants—compounds also found in beta carotene, vitamin E, and vitamin C that inhibit the formation of plaque along the body’s blood vessels.

A. comes from antioxidants—compounds also found in beta carotene, vitamin E, and vitamin C that
B. comes from antioxidants—compounds that are also found in beta carotene, vitamin E, and vitamin C, and they
C. come from antioxidants—compounds also found in beta carotene, vitamin E, and vitamin C, and
D. come from antioxidants—compounds that are also found in beta carotene, vitamin E, and vitamin C and that
E. come from antioxidants—compounds also found in beta carotene, vitamin E, and vitamin C, and they

A & B wrong due to S V error. comes instead of come.
C ... and (empty without that or they) creates run on sentence?

I couldn't decide between D and E.
I chose E. Wrong answer. OA D

Retrospectively, D has better parallelism --- compounds that ... and that.
E --- compounds ... and they (anything wrong with this structure?)

Thanks for your hard work.
Much appreciated.
KH

yes, something is indeed wrong.

at best, 'they' is an ambiguous pronoun that potentially refers either to 'antioxidants'/'compounds' or to 'health benefits'. at worst it refers to 'health benefits', the subject of the preceding sentence, by default. either way, you've got problems.

the other problem is that a single dash of the sort that sets off the descriptor in this problem is akin to a single comma: both set off an appositive phrase, which is NOT allowed to contain independent clauses (such as the one beginning with 'they' in choice e). choice d follows the rules here, as, after the dash, it contains only subordinate clauses.

...all kinds of trouble :(

Thanks Ron
Much appreciated from Sunny singapore.
KH

is the phrase to the right of the dash ("compounds...") a description of antioxidants?

Are these really GMAT prep questions? I was surprised by the single -- as well. Please post only GMAT prep questions here. People who are preparing come to this forum to find authentic questions from a trusted source. Thanks.

You can have either a single long dash or two long dashes - though they're relatively rare, I have seen them on the GMAT. D uses the single dash correctly; E does not.

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Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Is the parallelism in E wrong? "also found" vs. "they inhibit". Thanks

yes, that's bad parallelism.

there's also a pronoun issue with "they". at best it's ambiguous, and at worst it appears to refer to "health benefits", the noun with which it's parallel.

the other problem is that a single dash of the sort that sets off the descriptor in this problem is akin to a single comma: both set off an appositive phrase, which is NOT allowed to contain independent clauses (such as the one beginning with 'they' in choice e). choice d follows the rules here, as, after the dash, it contains only subordinate clauses.

ok can a double dash contain a independent clause and what is the rule of double dash

pls clarify

The long dash is used to indicate an example or an aside - a little bit of extra info that is related to the sentence but is presented outside the core of the sentence.

Only the example or aside goes inside the dash, so that example either has to go all the way to the end of the sentence or we need to "close" the dash at some point by putting a second one in.

Example:
The top winners of the school spelling bee - Jonah, Kari, and Lou - will compete in the regional spelling bee next month.

A good analogy for these two-dash sentences is that dashes = parentheses. As such, typically you will only find examples or other subordinate clauses within them. I don't know for sure whether independent clauses are forbidden within the dashes, but it seems unlikely that a GMAT answer would hinge on that. Note that our complaint with (E) was not just that the phrase after the dash was an independent clause, but that the phrase meandered away from a limited and clear aside about antioxidants. In (D), the phrase after the dash clearly described the antioxidants as compounds (that X and that Y).

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Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT

Hi,
I have some doubts. Tutors kindly educate/correct me.

"Most of the purported health benefits..."
1. I suppose that "benefit" is a countable noun. (1 benefit, 2 benefits, 3 benefits...). Correct?

2. Most ( one among the 5 special Indefinite pronoun - SANAM ) is a plural subject because the object of the "of" construction is "benefits" - plural.
Is the knowledge of count or non-count noun necessary to determine whether we should have a singular or plural noun ?

3. Is there any rule for "quantifier + of + noun"? What exactly determines the verb that should follow ?

yes.

in general, if something appears in a plural form, it's overwhelmingly likely that that thing is countable.



absolutely.

most of the chairs are gone. (countable)
most of the furniture is gone. (mass noun, not countable)



there's no 1 magic rule, unfortunately.

it does follow the countable / not countable distinction pretty closely, although you should think about CONTEXT as well.

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Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes

Ron,
Could please explain the following:
1)the role of single dash--can a single dash have a independent clause or only sub clause is permitted?if there is a dash followed by a comma can the rule of 'both' be applied to it?

2)by "both"--> you meant 2 dashes= 2 commas?

3)In choice 'E' there is a 'comma and' so I thought an independent clause is what is required there.

Thanks a lot in advance : )

if you use a single dash, then the stuff that is set off by the dash must actually continue all the way to the end of the sentence. if you are going to block off a modifier with dashes, then you must use two dashes to block off the modifier.

i.e., there is no such thing as a modifier that is blocked off by a dash on the left, but by a comma on the right. if you have a modifier that does not extend to the end of the sentence, then you must use either two dashes or two commas to set it off.
therefore, your question here ("if there is a dash followed by a comma") actually doesn't make sense, because in any such situation the dash and the comma would be entirely unrelated to each other.



in that context, i meant
COMMA + (modifier that continues until the end of the sentence)
is the same as
DASH + (modifier that continues until the end of the sentence)


incorrect analysis.
i posted the correct analysis of this sort of situation here:
post43518.html#p43518

_________________
Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes