Japanese researchers are producing a series of robots

[freak]

Japanese researchers are producing a series of robots that can identify human facial expressions, to which they will then respond; their goal is primarily creating a robot that will empathize with us.

(A) expressions, to which they will then respond; their goal is primarily creating
(B) expressions, then responding to them; primarily to create
(C) expressions and then respond to them; the researchers' primary goal is to create
(D) expressions as well as giving a response to them; their primary goal is creation of
(E) expressions and responding to them; primarily, the researchers' goal is creating


This is a question from GMAT Prep

OA is C.

i want to ask that in C isn't the use of "to create" unparallel wiht are producing ?

according to me answer should have been E. why isn't it the answer.

[freak]

Japanese researchers are producing a series of robots that can identify human facial expressions, to which they will then respond; their goal is primarily creating a robot that will empathize with us.

(A) expressions, to which they will then respond; their goal is primarily creating
(B) expressions, then responding to them; primarily to create
(C) expressions and then respond to them; the researchers' primary goal is to create
(D) expressions as well as giving a response to them; their primary goal is creation of
(E) expressions and responding to them; primarily, the researchers' goal is creating

[Guest]

Not the researchers, but the robots respond to the facial expressions. E uses 'responding' which is parallel to 'producing', which would mean that the researchers respond. In C, the robots respond to the facial expressions: 'respond' is parallel to 'can identify'.

[RonPurewal]

Not the researchers, but the robots respond to the facial expressions. E uses 'responding' which is parallel to 'producing', which would mean that the researchers respond. In C, the robots respond to the facial expressions: 'respond' is parallel to 'can identify'.

correct.

this is an excellent example of the following general principle:
parallelism must be both LOGICAL and GRAMMATICAL.
in other words, you're going to use grammatical parallelism to figure out the correct answer - but you have to use LOGICAL parallelism to figure out WHICH words must be parallel in the first place.
as the poster above has indicated, you have to use a logical understanding of the sentence to figure out that 'respond' needs to be parallel to 'identify' (NOT 'producing'), because both of those are actions of the robots, not the researchers.

[rohit21384]

Japanese researchers are producing a series of robots that can identify human facial expressions, to which they will then respond; their goal is primarily creating a robot that will empathize with us.
(A) expressions, to which they will then respond; their goal is primarily creating
(B) expressions, then responding to them; primarily to create
(C) expressions and then respond to them; the researchers' primary goal is to create
(D) expressions as well as giving a response to them; their primary goal is creation of
(E) expressions and responding to them; primarily, the researchers' goal is creating

what is wrong with option A. Is there a problem with a pronoun "They" . It can refer to robats as well as researchers....
also I guess there is a idiom problem .
it should be "goal is to ......"


Even in option C, which happens to be official answer, "them" could also refer to researchers in addition to expressions.

Instructors - please clarify

[RonPurewal]

Japanese researchers are producing a series of robots that can identify human facial expressions, to which they will then respond; their goal is primarily creating a robot that will empathize with us.
(A) expressions, to which they will then respond; their goal is primarily creating
(B) expressions, then responding to them; primarily to create
(C) expressions and then respond to them; the researchers' primary goal is to create
(D) expressions as well as giving a response to them; their primary goal is creation of
(E) expressions and responding to them; primarily, the researchers' goal is creating

what is wrong with option A. Is there a problem with a pronoun "They" . It can refer to robats as well as researchers....
also I guess there is a idiom problem .
it should be "goal is to ......"


Even in option C, which happens to be official answer, "them" could also refer to researchers in addition to expressions.

Instructors - please clarify

remember that PRONOUN AMBIGUITY IS NOT AN ABSOLUTE RULE. i.e., there are plenty of examples of technically "ambiguous" pronouns that are still accepted as correct.

for more on this topic, see here:
post30203.html#p30203
post30983.html#p30983

[manish1sinha]

Hi Ron
I was curious to know whether the clause after ';' needs another verb besides empathize?
Is it because of 'that clause' that the independent clause needs a main verb?Could you please explain the concept of restrictive clauses in an independent clause.I generally confuse whether another verb is required or not in an independent clause that has
a that or which clause in it.

Thanks :)

[RonPurewal]

manish --

Hi Ron
I was curious to know whether the clause after ';' needs another verb besides empathize?

if something appears in a correct answer, then it must be correct.

Is it because of 'that clause' that the independent clause needs a main verb?

i don't think i'm understanding your question correctly; please specify more exactly what you mean.
an "independent clause" is the name given to a construction that would be a complete sentence if it were written by itself. therefore, since any sentence must have a main verb, ALL "independent clauses" must have a main verb.

Could you please explain the concept of restrictive clauses in an independent clause.

heh. i actually don't even know what a "restrictive clause" is; i'll have to look that up.
(i'm being serious; i really don't know a lot of this terminology, and, more importantly, concentrating too much on the terminology will actually hurt your studying. you need to be able to recognize whether a construction is correct or incorrect just by looking at it in context; if you have to go through the whole sentence and give systematic names to everything that you see, there is no way you're going to finish the verbal section on time.)

please ask a more specific question than this. if by "concept" you mean an absolutely general explanation of this type of construction, then you are much better off using google to find webpages that explain the construction in considerable detail; those pages will give a much more thorough explanation than i could ever hope to in a single forum post.

I generally confuse whether another verb is required or not in an independent clause that has
a that or which clause in it.

again, i may be misunderstanding your question, but it seems that you're answering your own question here: a "clause" is ALWAYS something that has its own subject and its own verb. therefore, if you have a clause that contains another clause, then, by definition, there must be a separate main verb for each of those clauses.

[jp.jprasanna]

manish --

Hi Ron
I was curious to know whether the clause after ';' needs another verb besides empathize?

if something appears in a correct answer, then it must be correct.

Is it because of 'that clause' that the independent clause needs a main verb?

i don't think i'm understanding your question correctly; please specify more exactly what you mean.
an "independent clause" is the name given to a construction that would be a complete sentence if it were written by itself. therefore, since any sentence must have a main verb, ALL "independent clauses" must have a main verb.

Could you please explain the concept of restrictive clauses in an independent clause.

heh. i actually don't even know what a "restrictive clause" is; i'll have to look that up.
(i'm being serious; i really don't know a lot of this terminology, and, more importantly, concentrating too much on the terminology will actually hurt your studying. you need to be able to recognize whether a construction is correct or incorrect just by looking at it in context; if you have to go through the whole sentence and give systematic names to everything that you see, there is no way you're going to finish the verbal section on time.)

please ask a more specific question than this. if by "concept" you mean an absolutely general explanation of this type of construction, then you are much better off using google to find webpages that explain the construction in considerable detail; those pages will give a much more thorough explanation than i could ever hope to in a single forum post.

I generally confuse whether another verb is required or not in an independent clause that has
a that or which clause in it.

again, i may be misunderstanding your question, but it seems that you're answering your own question here: a "clause" is ALWAYS something that has its own subject and its own verb. therefore, if you have a clause that contains another clause, then, by definition, there must be a separate main verb for each of those clauses.

Hi Ron - even I have a smiliar doubt as the above poster (manish)

Here in option A " robot that will empathize with us" is not a clause right so we need another subject + verb set up as given in option C, the correct answer

the researchers' primary goal is to create a robot that will empathize with us.

For the same reason we can eliminate B right as we need a clause after the semi-colon.

Japanese researchers are producing a series of robots that can identify human facial expressions, to which they will then respond; their goal is primarily creating a robot that will empathize with us.

(A) expressions, to which they will then respond; their goal is primarily creating
(B) expressions, then responding to them; primarily to create
(C) expressions and then respond to them; the researchers' primary goal is to create
(D) expressions as well as giving a response to them; their primary goal is creation of
(E) expressions and responding to them; primarily, the researchers' goal is creating

[RonPurewal]

Here in option A " robot that will empathize with us" is not a clause right so we need another subject + verb set up as given in option C, the correct answer

(a) has a clause after the semicolon. its subject and verb are, respectively, "goal" and "is".

here are a couple of things about (a) that are actually problematic:
* the first "they" could potentially refer either to the robots or to the researchers.
* "their goal is creating" seems to suggest that the goal is actually creating something. i.e., the goal itself is sitting at a desk, doing work.
* most notably, "primarily" is in the wrong place. in choice (a), it appears to describe "creating"; this doesn't make any sense. we're talking about the #1 goal of the researchers, so "primary" should be an adjective in front of "goal".

For the same reason we can eliminate B right as we need a clause after the semi-colon.

yes, that part of (b) is actually a fragment.

[georgepaul0071987]

Here in option A " robot that will empathize with us" is not a clause right so we need another subject + verb set up as given in option C, the correct answer

(a) has a clause after the semicolon. its subject and verb are, respectively, "goal" and "is".

here are a couple of things about (a) that are actually problematic:
* the first "they" could potentially refer either to the robots or to the researchers.
* "their goal is creating" seems to suggest that the goal is actually creating something. i.e., the goal itself is sitting at a desk, doing work.
* most notably, "primarily" is in the wrong place. in choice (a), it appears to describe "creating"; this doesn't make any sense. we're talking about the #1 goal of the researchers, so "primary" should be an adjective in front of "goal".

For the same reason we can eliminate B right as we need a clause after the semi-colon.

yes, that part of (b) is actually a fragment.

Ron ,

As per your first point here , can we see that 'their goal' in option A might be ambiguous because in options (C) and (E) we actually see the noun being repeated ( researchers' goal ) ?

Also I didn't understand why the usage of the adverb 'primarily' to describe 'creating' is incorrect . Could you elaborate on this a bit more ( maybe with examples ? )

[RonPurewal]

As per your first point here , can we see that 'their goal' in option A might be ambiguous because in options (C) and (E) we actually see the noun being repeated ( researchers' goal ) ?

as long as a pronoun actually works (from a grammatical standpoint) and has a clear meaning, "pronoun ambiguity" is a non-issue.

in this sentence, the pronoun works -- "japanese researchers" is plural -- and its meaning is clear, so this isn't a concern.

Also I didn't understand why the usage of the adverb 'primarily' to describe 'creating' is incorrect . Could you elaborate on this a bit more ( maybe with examples ? )

from the context of the sentence, we can figure out that "primary" should describe the noun goal. i.e., the message of the sentence is that creating xxxx is the #1 goal of the researchers.
if, instead, you have "primarily" in front of "creating", then (a) it conveys a meaning that's not the intended message, and (b) it doesn't convey the meaning that is intended.

this is a meaning issue, and is thus a function of the particular context of this sentence; it's not something that can be generalized, unless you were to see a bunch of sentences that all had essentially the same meaning (which you won't).

[charmanineW924]

I think D is wrong in two aspects :
1)“expressions” is not parallel with “giving a response ” . I think “as well as ” is similar to “and” and in this sentence “as well as ” modify the expressions.
2）”goal is creation of ...” creation here is a noun ,and need a “a” in front of the “creation”
Is it correct ？

[RonPurewal]

that's not a good way to think here.

the point is for you to...
• COMPARE the options,

and to note that...
• and then respond is objectively better / more efficient writing,
• as well as giving a response is objectively worse / less efficient writing.

this should be a VERY easy decision to make.
trying to analyze the individual choices on their own merits, on the other hand, is considerably harder.

this is not a coincidence.
if the errors themselves are not easy to explain, then COMPARATIVE decisions will be VERY easy.

read here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... ml#p118104

[RonPurewal]

2）”goal is creation of ...” creation here is a noun ,and need a “a” in front of the “creation”

no, the word would actually be 'the'.

...but this is irrelevant to the GMAT exam.
(the presence/absence of 'a'/'an'/'the' is NEVER tested on this exam. never ever ever.)