jonnysunn Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 As a result of the ground-breaking work of Barbara McClintock, many scientists now believe that all of the information encoded in 50.000 to 100.000 of the different genes found in a human cell are contained in merely three percent of the cell's DNA. 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in a human cell are contained in merely 50,000 to 100,000 of the human cell's different genes are contained in a mere the 50,000 to 100,000 different genes found in human cells are contained in merely 50,000 to 100,000 of human cells' different genes is contained in merely the 50,000 to 100,000 different genes found in a human cell is contained in a mere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarsAlien Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 i choose E the information is contained -- "is" is present only in 4 & 5. 4 does not sound okay because of its construction "human cells' different genes". apostrophe s is used for living things. In a sense, "human cells" are living but they do not speak :). 5 sounds the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandeep_142 Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 Absolutely E "the information" is singular "is" should be used. 1,2,3 are out 4- "human cells' different genes" - awkward construction IMO 5 MarsAlien, where did u read, apostrophe is used for non-living things. Apostrophe is used to create possesive form, plural or contraction. For example : My shirt's button is broken. - possesive form and shirt is non-living :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
check.stone Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 C. E has prob w/agreement Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catchamogh Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 i m with E.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnysunn Posted February 12, 2007 Author Share Posted February 12, 2007 well, the correct ans is 4, i think; i thibnk that in 5 there is a change of meaning: "50,000 to 100,000 of..." does not mean the same that "the 50,000 to 100,000 different". What do you think? On the other hand I agree that possesives x´s should be used for living things but a plant does not talk and it is alive for sure...Anyone could plz explain if thre is a GMAT rule for that?? :hmm: :hmm: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meghago Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Imho E. ...mere (adjective) three persent....is correct. Between B and E, B swaps genes with cells. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saurabhvijayvergia Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 IMHO E whats the OA? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tweety32 Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 i will go with E. information... is Also 50,000 to 100,000 refers to the different genes in a single human cell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
check.stone Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 As a result of the ground-breaking work of Barbara McClintock, many scientists now believe that all of the information encoded in 50.000 to 100.000 of the different genes found in a human cell are contained in merely three percent of the cell's DNA. 50,000 to 100,000 of the different genes found in a human cell are contained in merely 50,000 to 100,000 of the human cell's different genes are contained in a mere the 50,000 to 100,000 different genes found in human cells are contained in merely 50,000 to 100,000 of human cells' different genes is contained in merely the 50,000 to 100,000 different genes found in a human cell is contained in a mere 1, 2, and 4 have the range of numbers 50k to 100k as the subject. 5 says "genes...is" and therefore wrong. C is correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarsAlien Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 Sandeep, to your question about usage of apostrophe s. In case of non-living things, usage of "of" is preferred over the usage of apostrophe "s" -- "The button of my shirt is broken." instead of "my shirt's button is broken" Two more examples, "It's written clearly at the page's top." is INCORRECT. "It's written clearly at the top of the page." is CORRECT "I really like the colour of the eyes of Caroline." is INCORRECT "I really like the colour of Caroline's eyes." is CORRECT At least this is what I have been taught. After you asked this question, I searched on the internet and found these pages which mentioned about this rule: http://www.llrx.com/columns/grammar8.htm http://forum.wordreference.com/archive/index.php/t-10237.html Of course, there are some exceptions to this rule too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjafferi Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 IMO D information (Singular) ...... A. ....are (plural- SV agreement) B. .....are (plural - SV agreement) C. ....are (plural - SV agreement) D. .....is E.......is...in a mere (dont know why is it wrong but doesn't sound right). I think it has something to do with mere not being an adjective Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunilsm28 Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 " 3 and 5 " are incorrect because "the" is replaced and it changes the meaning of sentence. Subject " Information " seems to be singular and "D" explains the senetnce properly. So "D" for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarsAlien Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 can somebody post the OA please ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandeep_142 Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Thanks MarsAlien for that explanation and links... I am still trying to digest it :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbawannabe Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 'All of the information' is singular so we need ‘is’. A, B, and C are out. Between D & E. E is better. Note: All can be singular or plural depending on the context. It is singular here because of the information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
check.stone Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Thought "genes" was the subject of dependent clause for some reason. The singular "all" is the subject as mbawannabe has pointed out, so I'm with E as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnysunn Posted February 20, 2007 Author Share Posted February 20, 2007 OA is D.... but still between D and E: ones seems to change the meaning (including that damn "the" in the beggining) and the other one seems to incorrectly use "merely" when modifying a noun ("three percent") Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarsAlien Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 do we have the official explanation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnysunn Posted February 21, 2007 Author Share Posted February 21, 2007 :( no official explanation; just the correct ans... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
check.stone Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 Sucks being wrong twice on one question. Good thing you can only get dinged once for changing from a wrong ans to another wrong ans. Clearly the reason here is that merely is correctly modifying three, whereas a mere is not considered to be modifying three but rather percent. So D conveys the intended meaning of the sentence and E does not. Never thought of it that way but guess that must be it. Easy to fall into it since we mostly think of 3% as being one whole as opposed to two parts with 3 modifying %. Whoever wrote this could've cleared this up by using only or just instead. Wonder why he/she didn't? Keep on trucking GMATers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catchamogh Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 i still think E is correct............. 'merely' is adverb which shd modify verb or anything other than noun..... 'percent' is noun hence 'mere' is best suited Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange08 Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 OA is E. "merely" is an adverb that modifies a verb and not a noun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
check.stone Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 Merely is an adverb describing the adjective 3. 50k to 100k genes are in "merely" 3 percent of the cell's DNA. The emphasis is on "three." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
800Bob Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 The best response is E. D is wrong, but not really because of the possessive construction used with an inanimate object. Here are a few very common examples of such a construction: New Year's Day a month's salary the water's edge today's newspaper In this particular SC the possessive form is awkward, but that alone is not enough to eliminate D. The clincher is that D distorts the intended meaning by changing the singular "cell" into the plural "cells." The sentence speaks of the 50,000 to 100,000 genes in one cell. To be accurate D would have to read: "50,000 to 100,000 of a human cell's different genes is contained in merely..." D is problematic. Nothing wrong with E. So the best response is E. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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