GMATprep SC question

[Bhaskar]

As a result of a supernova explosion, every human being on Earth was bombarded on February 23, 1987, by about 100 billion neutrinos; fortunately, neutrinos are harmless elementary particles that are produced in nuclear reactions and that interact very weakly with matter.

(a) neutrinos are harmless elementary particles that are produced in nuclear reactions and that
(b) neutrinos, which are harmless, are elementary particles produced in nuclear reactions and which
(c) neutrinos are harmless elementary particles produced in nuclear reactions and which
(d) these harmless elementary particles are produced in nuclear reactions, and neutrinos
(e) these elementary particles, harmless products of nuclear reactions, are neutrinos that


Not sure if my reasonings are ok. Please explain
(a) no grammatical error
(b)&(c) "and which" is incorrectly referring to nuclear reactions
(d) changing the meaning of the sentence
(e) not very sure but is probably changing the authors intent

Please explain

[RonPurewal]

is this really a gmatprep question?

i'd agree that (a) is the best (or, more accurately, the least bad) of the answer choices presented here; however, from the standpoint of rhetorical effectiveness, it's still horribly written.
specifically, the fact that neutrinos are produced in nuclear reactions is totally irrelevant to the main idea of this sentence - the idea that the neutrinos don't pose a threat. (note that 'harmless elementary particles' and 'interact very weakly with matter', by contrast, are quite relevant to this theme).

that idea, then, would be much more properly placed in a modifier:
neutrinos, elementary particles produced in nuclear reactions, interact very weakly with matter and are harmless.

if this is really a gmaprep question, i am sorely disappointed in the test writers.

--

(b)
bad parallelism: are elementary particles... and which interact...

(c)
bad parallelism: are harmless elementary particles... and which interact...

(d)
illogical to place 'neutrinos' AFTER 'these ... particles' in the same sentence
(this doesn't really change the meaning of the sentence; it's just an illogical pronoun reference)

(e)
same deal with interchanging 'these ... particles' and 'neutrinos'

[Bhaskar]

Ron Thanks a lot for the great explanation. Yes this indeed a GMATprep question. I just took the GMATprep test on last friday and got this question. Bhaskar

[rfernandez]

We're glad it was helpful.

[punstar38]

could you tell me for the sentence above doesn't 'that' refer to particles and not 'neutrinos'

[RonPurewal]

could you tell me for the sentence above doesn't 'that' refer to particles and not 'neutrinos'

yes.

[muralik.abm]

Ron.

Please correct me if i am wrong on my below analogy.

I starghtly eliminate B,D&E for the reason that i need to descibe the fortunate thing (neutrinos are harmless elementary particles ) immediately after the keyword "Fortunately" - a non-underlined word - in the senetence

left with A & C

C is wrong for its bad ||ism
and i think the usage of "which" after "and" - as did in this option - is not preffered.

A - Correct

neutrinos are harmless elementary particles
that are produced in nuclear reactions
and
that interact

Regards,
Murali.

is this really a gmatprep question?

i'd agree that (a) is the best (or, more accurately, the least bad) of the answer choices presented here; however, from the standpoint of rhetorical effectiveness, it's still horribly written.
specifically, the fact that neutrinos are produced in nuclear reactions is totally irrelevant to the main idea of this sentence - the idea that the neutrinos don't pose a threat. (note that 'harmless elementary particles' and 'interact very weakly with matter', by contrast, are quite relevant to this theme).

that idea, then, would be much more properly placed in a modifier:
neutrinos, elementary particles produced in nuclear reactions, interact very weakly with matter and are harmless.

if this is really a gmaprep question, i am sorely disappointed in the test writers.

--

(b)
bad parallelism: are elementary particles... and which interact...

(c)
bad parallelism: are harmless elementary particles... and which interact...

(d)
illogical to place 'neutrinos' AFTER 'these ... particles' in the same sentence
(this doesn't really change the meaning of the sentence; it's just an illogical pronoun reference)

(e)
same deal with interchanging 'these ... particles' and 'neutrinos'

[RonPurewal]

Ron.

Please correct me if i am wrong on my below analogy.

I starghtly eliminate B,D&E for the reason that i need to descibe the fortunate thing (neutrinos are harmless elementary particles ) immediately after the keyword "Fortunately" - a non-underlined word - in the senetence

left with A & C

C is wrong for its bad ||ism
and i think the usage of "which" after "and" - as did in this option - is not preffered.

A - Correct

neutrinos are harmless elementary particles
that are produced in nuclear reactions
and
that interact

Regards,
Murali.

that looks good.

in choice (c), the "and which..." is actually incorrect, not just "not preferred"; note that there is nothing in the left-hand part of the sentence that can be placed properly in parallel with the "which..." part.

[martelena]

I have a question about correct choice A.
I didn't like A actually because of parallelism:

neutrinos are harmless elementary particles
that are produced in nuclear reactions
and
that interact very weakly with matter.

I thought that in this case the second "that" was redundant and there is a more concise way to say it:
II) neutrinos are harmless elementary particles that are produced in nuclear reactions and interact very weakly with matter.
So, would that (II) sentence be correct?

And a general question:
In all questions that I remember GMAT used "that ... that" parallel structure only with clauses (contain a subject and a working verb).

For example,
Our teacher says that we should come to class earlier and that we need to work harder.

Thus, above question is the first time when I saw "that ... that" structure being used with just two verbs (meaning obviously that such use is OK too).
Still, in general, when we can/cannot use "that ... that"?

thanks

[tim]

in general, what you want to do is to look at the way parallelism is presented in each answer choice and make a decision about whether that particular presentation can be considered correct. In many cases, this means that a "that" can be repeated or not at the author's discretion. For this reason, the fact that you've presented an alternative to answer choice A definitely does not make A wrong. Please keep this in mind with SC questions; your job is not actually to correct anything at all, but rather to find outright grammar mistakes and eliminate incorrect choices based on those mistakes..

[vijay19839]

Ron

For Options D & E, I didn't get why These Particles is an illogical pronoun reference to 'Neutrinos'?

Thanks
Vijay

(d)
illogical to place 'neutrinos' AFTER 'these ... particles' in the same sentence
(this doesn't really change the meaning of the sentence; it's just an illogical pronoun reference)

(e)
same deal with interchanging 'these ... particles' and 'neutrinos'

is this really a gmatprep question?

i'd agree that (a) is the best (or, more accurately, the least bad) of the answer choices presented here; however, from the standpoint of rhetorical effectiveness, it's still horribly written.
specifically, the fact that neutrinos are produced in nuclear reactions is totally irrelevant to the main idea of this sentence - the idea that the neutrinos don't pose a threat. (note that 'harmless elementary particles' and 'interact very weakly with matter', by contrast, are quite relevant to this theme).

that idea, then, would be much more properly placed in a modifier:
neutrinos, elementary particles produced in nuclear reactions, interact very weakly with matter and are harmless.

if this is really a gmaprep question, i am sorely disappointed in the test writers.

--

(b)
bad parallelism: are elementary particles... and which interact...

(c)
bad parallelism: are harmless elementary particles... and which interact...

(d)
illogical to place 'neutrinos' AFTER 'these ... particles' in the same sentence
(this doesn't really change the meaning of the sentence; it's just an illogical pronoun reference)

(e)
same deal with interchanging 'these ... particles' and 'neutrinos'

[jlucero]

Ron

For Options D & E, I didn't get why These Particles is an illogical pronoun reference to 'Neutrinos'?

Thanks
Vijay

(d)
illogical to place 'neutrinos' AFTER 'these ... particles' in the same sentence
(this doesn't really change the meaning of the sentence; it's just an illogical pronoun reference)

(e)
same deal with interchanging 'these ... particles' and 'neutrinos'

Because "these particles" doesn't refer to just any neutrinos, but the 100 billion neutrinos that bombarded the Earth in 1987.

Yesterday I made a dozen chocolate chip cookies; these (the dozen chocolate chip cookies that I made yesterday and no other cookies) are my favorite snack.

[vijay19839]

Joe

Thanks a lot. Now it is very clear to me on why 'these neutrinos' are incorrect in D & E.

Thanks
Vijay

Ron

For Options D & E, I didn't get why These Particles is an illogical pronoun reference to 'Neutrinos'?

Thanks
Vijay

(d)
illogical to place 'neutrinos' AFTER 'these ... particles' in the same sentence
(this doesn't really change the meaning of the sentence; it's just an illogical pronoun reference)

(e)
same deal with interchanging 'these ... particles' and 'neutrinos'

Because "these particles" doesn't refer to just any neutrinos, but the 100 billion neutrinos that bombarded the Earth in 1987.

Yesterday I made a dozen chocolate chip cookies; these (the dozen chocolate chip cookies that I made yesterday and no other cookies) are my favorite snack.

[tim]

:)

[aditya8062]

Ron
you have said that "and which.." is not just wrong but is also "not preferred" .can you please elaborate this
is it because if we use "and which" then we will be violating the much needed "comma+which" construction ,which you have stressed many times

also please give me a structure in which "and which" can become parallel .honestly i feel that this structure can be parallel ,though that construction will be some thing like below structure

blah blah .....,which XYZ AND which ABC


other than the above mentioned construction ,i feel , "and which" can never be parallel