The Diary of Anne Frank tells the true story of a young girl and her family that were hidden during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands by a gentile Dutch couple, though they were eventually discovered.

A) that were hidden during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands by a gentile Dutch couple, though they were eventually discovered

B) that were hidden by a gentile Dutch couple during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, though they were eventually discovered

C) whom a gentile Dutch couple hid during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands but were eventually discovered

D) who were hidden by a gentile Dutch couple during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands but were eventually discovered

E) who were hidden by a gentile Dutch couple during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands even though they were eventually discovered

I understand why a,b, and e are incorrect and I also understand why C doesn't make sense since whom makes the young girl and her family the object. However, I also am confused as to why D is correct since it is in in the passive voice. "young girl and her family were hidden by..." Why is this the correct answer? Why is D a better answer than C?

It is not imperative that all sentences in passive voice are incorrect. All the options other than "D" are incorrect. Remember, GMAT always considers the best answer amongst all choices even if certain rules are bend.

The issue with C is that "a young girl and her family" first appears as the object of the verb "hid," but then "a young girl and her family" is the intended subject of "were eventually discovered." Instead, option C suggests that the couple was eventually discovered, not the correct meaning.

Regarding D, passive voice is grammatically correct. The only time to avoid it is if you are given a grammatically correct active voice option. Here you are not, so you have no choice but to use passive voice.

The correct answer is

The Diary of Anne Frank tells the true story of a young girl and her family who were hidden by a gentile Dutch couple during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands but were eventually discovered

My question is the subject of the pronoun "who" is acting as the subject of the both the clauses (who were hidden ......but were .....)

Is it acceptable / preferable / a grammar rule (wtih respect to GMAT) to state the subject only once when using with coordinating conjunctions ?

Yep, this is perfectly fine. Remember that "who" indicates a noun modifier and is supposed to be placed next to the noun it modifies. So we've got "family, who..." which is the correct usage.

If we repeat who again for the second bit, the "who" is now separated from "family" - the GMAT doesn't like this as much as just having a compound verb ("who were hidden...but were discovered..."). Now it's very clear that the second "who" (just implied in this case) is tied to the "family."

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Stacey Koprince
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ManhattanGMAT

Why is E incorrect?
Thanks

The "they" is ambiguous: does it refer to the girl and her family, or to the couple?

I can not understand, " a gentile young couple" is singular. so "they" can not be ambiguous.
Is it correct?

thanks

@ shimashouri---------



Couple -It can take both singular or plural forms depending on the usage.
When used in the sense of two people, this collective noun takes plural verbs and pronouns:

eg: A/The couple are expecting twins.
eg: A/The couple are in a disagreement. -- The stress is on individuals.

In the sense of a single unit, use a singular verb:

eg: The winning couple has one week to collect the prize.
eg: The couple is nice. -- You see them as a single unit.

Hence both usages are grammatically correct albeit the distinction depends on the frame of reference.

@JonathanSchneider--

Although I do agree that D is the best answer choice here, for what concrete(other than the ambiguousness) reason can we negate E as pronoun ambiguity is not an absolute rule for negation on the GMAT?

I am asking this question because I too negated answer choices based on ambiguous pronouns until I read an article by Ron (that has been posted on several topics) which states that ambiguity is NOT a reliable criterion on which to eliminate.

Furthermore, it is clearly evident that "they" could refer to either of the options but I just want to know whether there is anything else in E?

PS: IMO the usage of "even though" changes the meaning of the original sentence and that should be the stronger reason for negating E compared to the ambiguousness.

I’m not convinced the “they” is ambiguous here, because I think shimashouri is right that “a couple” must be singular in this context. Gokul has a point to some extent about “couple” being singular or plural, but the examples given do not exactly tell the whole story. It all depends on whether “couple” is being used to describe a relationship or the number two:

“A couple of people are in the park.” This is like saying “two random people are in the park.” On the other hand, “a couple is in the park” means that we are very considering the couple as a single unit. The best predictor here is probably the “of”. In this sentence, “couple” definitely does not mean “two random people” but instead refers to a husband-wife unit. E of course is wrong for other reasons than the pronoun issue..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Thanks, Tim :)

my pleasure..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

[quote="prerakb"]The Diary of Anne Frank tells the true story of a young girl and her family that were hidden during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands by a gentile Dutch couple, though they were eventually discovered.

A) that were hidden during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands by a gentile Dutch couple, though they were eventually discovered

B) that were hidden by a gentile Dutch couple during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, though they were eventually discovered

C) whom a gentile Dutch couple hid during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands but were eventually discovered

D) who were hidden by a gentile Dutch couple during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands but were eventually discovered

E) who were hidden by a gentile Dutch couple during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands even though they were eventually discovered

Let's look at the problems in the original sentence

Looking at the answer choices we can directly see that there is a pronoun split to start with (that, whom,who)
Remember- that refers to things or groups and who refers to people.

Subject- The Diary is the subject
Verb- tells

the true story of a young girl and her family(Compound group , conjunction used is and)
though they were- they seems to be modifying the Dutch couple. By moving the Dutch Couple before "during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands" we can avoid this ambiguity.
Though- is milder than but.... but.. is also used in the opposite of the given situation. But it kind of changes the meaning a bit. if you had a statement that said "I went to party tonight, though it was raining" it makes more sense.

E- even though distorts the meaning

D corrects all these mistakes.

Please let me know if my explanation is correct or I missed something.

Rajan,

1: Good

2: This is fine for post-mortem, but be careful not to do this level of analysis during the exam, or while practicing for the exam.

3: You don't say much about C. See Rey's note above for an account of why C is wrong.

Can "that" be used to address the "young girl and her family"?
This is present in wrong choices but still wants to confirm.

Also one more fundamental question regarding "that" usage. Can "that" refer to plural things or is it hard and fast rule to use "that" only for singular entities?