Sentence Correction Question from the GMAT Prep:

[aps_asks]

This Question is from GMAT Prep Software

Researchers agreed that the study of new treatments for heart attack patients was
extremely important but more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty
preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than the
balloon procedure by itself.
A. more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with
ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than
B. more research was needed for determining whether or not balloon angioplasty
preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than is
C. that more research was needed to determine whether balloon angioplasty preceded
by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than
D. that more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded
with ultrasound was any better for heart attack patients than
E. that more research was needed for determining that balloon angioplasty preceded
by ultrasound is or is not any better for heart attack patients than is

The Correct Answer choice is C.

The Tense for the underlined part is was as below
more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with
ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than

My Question is -- Why are we changing the tense in the answer choice?... Will the Choice D) be a better answer?

[RonPurewal]

Will the Choice D) be a better answer?

first --
OFFICIALLY CORRECT ANSWERS ARE CORRECT!
do not question officially correct answers!
far too many students on this forum make the mistake of questioning the correct answers; please note that doing so is a complete waste of your time and effort. i.e., exactly 0% of the time that you spend posting "isn't this official answer wrong?" is productive, and exactly 100% of that time is wasted.

"is this correct?" is NEVER a productive question to ask about one of GMAC's correct answers -- the answer is always yes.
"is this wrong?" / "is this X type of error?" is NEVER a productive question to ask about one of GMAC's correct answers -- the answer is always no.

instead, the questions you should be asking about correct official answers, if you don't understand them, are:
"why is this correct?"
"how does this work?"
"what understanding am i lacking that i need to understand this choice?"

this is a small, but hugely significant, change to your way of thinking -- you will suddenly find it much easier to understand the format, style, and conventions of the official problems if you dispose of the idea that they might be wrong.

--

two things:

(1) the present tense is better. if a statement is generally true -- regardless of the timeframe -- then the present tense is the best way to express that idea.
for instance,
ancient cavemen were unaware that the earth revolves around the sun --> correct.
the past tense is inappropriate, because it's ... well ... the past tense. i.e., it implies that something is no longer the case.
ancient cavemen were unaware that the earth revolved around the sun --> incorrect; this sentence implies (wrongly, of course) that the earth no longer revolves around the sun.

(2) "determine that" is an unacceptable shift in meaning.
from the "was or was not" in the original statement -- even though that's a redundant construction -- it's easy to figure out the intended meaning: there's no bias toward "yes" or "no" on this particular issue.
if you replace "determine whether X is true" with "determine that X is true", then you are now supposing that X is true, and just quibbling about how much data is necessary to establish that for sure.

[aps_asks]

Why is choice b) inferior to choice C) ?

[srjayanthi]

"whether or not" is almost always considered redundant on GMAT.

-SJ

[thanghnvn]

Ron, Manhantan experts, pls, help

I am not easy with the pattern in C

the reseachers agree that .... but that....

I do not see the 2 ideas are parallel

while I am easy with

he said that .... and that....

I see clearly 2 ideas are parallel.

[RonPurewal]

Ron, Manhantan experts, pls, help

I am not easy with the pattern in C

the reseachers agree that .... but that....

I do not see the 2 ideas are parallel

well ... they're parallel. what did you think was the issue?

here's another example:
we agreed that the item was expensive but that its high quality justified the price.

from a grammatical standpoint, this structure is the same as the one that you've mentioned (with "and"). you can't use "and" in the example above, though, because it doesn't make sense; "but" does make sense.

[thanghnvn]

"for determining" is alway considered inferior to " to determine" though "for doing" is not alway wrong and can appert in corect answer in other problems.

I can say thay "for doing" is not absolute error. "for doing" is an error when "for doing" stands besides " to do"

is my thinking correct?

Ron, Tim, Manhantan expert, pls, comment.

[RonPurewal]

"for determining" is alway considered inferior to " to determine" though "for doing" is not alway wrong and can appert in corect answer in other problems.

I can say thay "for doing" is not absolute error. "for doing" is an error when "for doing" stands besides " to do"

is my thinking correct?

Ron, Tim, Manhantan expert, pls, comment.

these are not absolutes; for example, there are rules for determining the winner of a tournament.
if you have to guess, then these are probably high-probability guesses, but they aren't actual rules.

as i wrote on one of your other posts -- it appears that your approach to GMAT SC is to attempt to memorize a huge number of random patterns.
this is pretty much the worst possible approach that you could possibly have; in fact, the head of GMAC test development has actually written on GMAC's blog that the test is specifically designed so that such approaches won't work!
http://www.mba.com/mbacommunity/MBA_com ... -exam.aspx

you should really stop trying to memorize random patterns (which aren't even real patterns anyway!), and you should instead start looking for concepts such as parallelism and agreement issues.

[parakh.rahul]

Will the Choice D) be a better answer?

(2) "determine that" is an unacceptable shift in meaning.
from the "was or was not" in the original statement -- even though that's a redundant construction -- it's easy to figure out the intended meaning: there's no bias toward "yes" or "no" on this particular issue.
if you replace "determine whether X is true" with "determine that X is true", then you are now supposing that X is true, and just quibbling about how much data is necessary to establish that for sure.

Ron,

I dont quite understand the explanation that you have given for "determine that" vs. "determine whether". Could you please explain this further..?

Thanks,
Rahul

[amit1234]

Hi Ron,
isn't verb 'is' required after than to make the 2 half parallel?
....ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than is the
balloon procedure by itself

i always get confused about such construction.

ultrasound is better than balloon procedure --> sounds good

ultrasound is better than is balloon procedure --> as well sounds good..

[thanghnvn]

"determin that " in D is considered "change the original meaning" because in the choice A , the meaning of "whether" is presented by "was or was not"

Is my thinking correct?

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron,
isn't verb 'is' required after than to make the 2 half parallel?

no.
it's not wrong to insert a helping verb there, but such a verb is only necessary if the sentence is ambiguous without it.

for instance:
i have played hockey longer than my brother.
--> this sentence is perfectly fine, as there is no ambiguity -- there is only one thing that the sentence can possibly mean.
i have played hockey longer than my brother has.
i have played hockey longer than has my brother.
--> these are both fine as well, although the extra helping verb is unnecessary.

BUT
i have known sarah longer than tom.
--> this sentence is incorrect, because it's ambiguous. it's impossible to tell which is the intended meaning between (1) i know both sarah and tom, but i met sarah before i met tom, or (2) both tom and i know sarah, but i met sarah before tom did.
in this instance, we need some extra element that will resolve the ambiguity (e.g., i have known sarah longer than tom has).

[RonPurewal]

"determin that " in D is considered "change the original meaning" because in the choice A , the meaning of "whether" is presented by "was or was not"

Is my thinking correct?

correct. "determine whether x" implies that it's uncertain whether x is true; "determine that x", on the other hand, implies that x is (probably or definitely) true.

[Feelaliveisa]

Hi,Ron

Can you tell me the difference between "whether" and "whether or not" in application.

Thanks in advance
Feelaliveisa

[RonPurewal]

Hi,Ron

Can you tell me the difference between "whether" and "whether or not" in application.

Thanks in advance
Feelaliveisa

"whether or not" is redundant, and is thus unacceptable in formal english.