In an area devoid of volcanic activity, a discovery has been

[JbhB682]

Source : GMAT prep

In an area devoid of volcanic activity, a discovery has been made by a team of scientists from the University of California that a fragment of the Swiss Alps seems like it came from a depth as far down as 415 miles.

(A) discovery has been made by a team of scientists from the University of California that a fragment of the Swiss Alps seems like it came from a depth as far down

(B) discovery was made by a team of scientists from the University of California who found a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems like it had come from a depth of as much

(C) team of scientists from the University of California have discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that has seemingly come from a depth of as great

(D) team of scientists from the University of California has discovered a fragment of the Swiss Alps that seems to have come from a depth as great

(E) team of scientists from the University of California has made the discovery of a fragment of the Swiss Alps that had seemingly come from a depth as far

OA - D

[JbhB682]

Screenshot of GMAT prep -

https://imgur.com/a/WLkufJZ

[JbhB682]

Hi Experts - i chose B for this one - Not sure why B is wrong.

I thought B made logical sense from a meaning perspective

-- The scientists were the folks WHO found the fragment
-- Thus it stands to reason that the team made the discovery (because its the scientists on the team THAT made found the fragment to start with)

Thats what i thought the author was hoping to say and it made sense.

Thoughts on where i am maybe going wrong ?

[Whit Garner]

Answer choice (B) has a few grammatical issues.

1st - the placement of the "who" modifier.
The sentence is trying to say that this team of scientists actually found the fragment during THIS discovery. However, the modifier "who" sounds like it is simply describing which scientists, NOT what the scientists found.

A discovery was made by these scientists. Which scientists? The ones who found a fragment of the Swiss Alps. When did they find that? Who knows, at some point.

All of the other answer choices make it more clear that the discovery actually WAS finding the fragment.

2nd - Idiom.

"a depth of as much as" is incorrect.

[ScottD643]

Is the following another point of elimination in version B?

The construction “like it had…” is used to try to speak in the conditional/hypothetical “voice.” (Conditional Subjunctive Mood)

The correct construction should be:

“(The team) found a fragment that seems AS IF it had come from……”

The preposition “like” should not be used to convey such a meaning.

At the very least, following “like” with a clause in this way is a problem.

[Whit Garner]

Nice catch! In informal contexts, "like" is often used interchangeably with "as if" and "as though," but you're correct that in formal usage the word "like" should be used with phrases rather than clauses. So following "like" with "it had come from a depth" is incorrect for the GMAT. You should use the construction "as if" or "as though" in this case!