A new genetically engineered papaya was produced not

[sheetal]

Source : GmatPrep Test 1

A new genetically engineered papaya was produced not by seed companies who have been motivated by profit, which was the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but university and United States Department of Agriculture researchers who allowed growers to use it free of charge.

A) produced not by seed companies who have been motivated by profit, which was the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but

B) produced not by profit-motivated seed companies, the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but

C) produced not by profit-motivated seed companies, as was the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but by

D) not produced by profit-motivated seed companies, which was the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but was produced by

E) not produced by seed companies who have been motivated by profit, the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but by


I could eliminate A, B and E because in
A) not by X, but Y are not parallel
B) same issue as above
E) not produced by X, but Y are not parallel

Why is C a better construct than D ? Is there a quick way to identify the difference between C & D?

[rschunti]

In Choice "C" Not "X" but "Y" both X="by profit-motivated seed companies......" and Y="by........" are parallel.
C) produced not by profit-motivated seed companies, as was the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but by

In Choice "D" this parallelism is violated as X="produces by...." but Y="was produces by..."
D) not produced by profit-motivated seed companies, which was the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but was produced by

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

the major reason for eliminating choice d is its improper use of the word 'which'.

the gmat follows a hard and fast rule about the use of relative pronouns (such as which) when set off by commas: they must have a noun referent, which must be located immediately prior to the comma. the gmat does not allow 'which' to refer to an entire clause (as it attempts to do here), much to the chagrin of common english speakers who use 'which' in this way on a regular basis.**

in other words: the gmat's rules for 'which' would require it to stand for 'seed companies' in choice d. not only is that logically absurd, but it doesn't even exhibit proper subject-verb agreement ('companies' doesn't agree with 'was').

note by contrast, that the word 'as' is properly used with entire clauses, as is done in choice c.

--

there's also the more minor, but by no means negligible, issue of wordiness: choice c ('not by X but by Y') makes the parallel construction much more concise than does choice d ('was not produced by X but was produced by Y').

--

**nb: the gmat violates this rule several times in its discussion of problems, but never violates it in the problems themselves. if you look, you'll notice that the discussion sections seem to be held to much lower standards of grammar than the actual problems; therefore, only pay attention to the gmat's rules of grammar as exhibited in actual problems, not in peripheral discussion.

[shakira.mei.xi]

Source : GmatPrep Test 1

A new genetically engineered papaya was produced not by seed companies who have been motivated by profit, which was the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but university and United States Department of Agriculture researchers who allowed growers to use it free of charge.

A) produced not by seed companies who have been motivated by profit, which was the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but

B) produced not by profit-motivated seed companies, the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but

C) produced not by profit-motivated seed companies, as was the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but by

D) not produced by profit-motivated seed companies, which was the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but was produced by

E) not produced by seed companies who have been motivated by profit, the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but by


I could eliminate A, B and E because in
A) not by X, but Y are not parallel
B) same issue as above
E) not produced by X, but Y are not parallel

Why is C a better construct than D ? Is there a quick way to identify the difference between C & D?

I think you are wrong with E. it is paralell. but the problem should be that companies can't be modified by who, and also C is more precise compared with E.

[RonPurewal]

I think you are wrong with E. it is paralell. but the problem should be that companies can't be modified by who, and also C is more precise compared with E.

nope -- (e) is not parallel. "produced by xxxxx" and "by xxxxx" are not parallel constructions.
note that the correct answer puts the construction not xxxxx but xxxxx after the word "produced", so as to create a properly parallel construction involving two prepositional phrases with "by".

you are correct, however, that "who" may not be used to modify an impersonal entity such as a company.

[shakira.mei.xi]

I think you are wrong with E. it is paralell. but the problem should be that companies can't be modified by who, and also C is more precise compared with E.

nope -- (e) is not parallel. "produced by xxxxx" and "by xxxxx" are not parallel constructions.
note that the correct answer puts the construction not xxxxx but xxxxx after the word "produced", so as to create a properly parallel construction involving two prepositional phrases with "by".

you are correct, however, that "who" may not be used to modify an impersonal entity such as a company.

Ron, Thank you very much.

[RonPurewal]

sure.

[thanghnvn]

Manhantan experts, members, pls, help

in which case... (a clause)

as the case with (something)

are correct when the two phrase go after a clause.

I see two above phrases in gmatprep questions.

is my thinking correct?

anyone can give me an example for each phrase?

thank all of you.

[tim]

of course i won't give you examples! if you "see [sic] two above phrases in gmatprep questions" that means you already have examples! am i missing something here? i'm actually counting on you to provide examples so i can help you assess whether your thinking is correct on this problem..

[FanPurewal]

Source : GmatPrep Test 1

A new genetically engineered papaya was produced not by seed companies who have been motivated by profit, which was the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but university and United States Department of Agriculture researchers who allowed growers to use it free of charge.

A) produced not by seed companies who have been motivated by profit, which was the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but

B) produced not by profit-motivated seed companies, the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but

C) produced not by profit-motivated seed companies, as was the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but by

D) not produced by profit-motivated seed companies, which was the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but was produced by

E) not produced by seed companies who have been motivated by profit, the case with most genetically modified crops previously approved for commercial use, but by

hi instructors
i know that the *who* must modify people.

i want to ask whether the *who* in E is right.

thanks in advance!

[tim]

This is never what you should do on SC. If you ever find yourself asking whether something is *right*, you're going about it backwards. SC is *always* about process of elimination, so you should only be looking for mistakes and *never* looking for the right answer or asking whether something is right. If you can't be sure that something is a mistake, leave that answer choice around for the moment. Find some other issue you can potentially identify a mistake in.

[FanPurewal]

This is never what you should do on SC. If you ever find yourself asking whether something is *right*, you're going about it backwards. SC is *always* about process of elimination, so you should only be looking for mistakes and *never* looking for the right answer or asking whether something is right. If you can't be sure that something is a mistake, leave that answer choice around for the moment. Find some other issue you can potentially identify a mistake in.

sorry tim, i am not a native speaker.
i think i did not make my question clearly, and what i am confusing is can i eliminate E because of the wrong usage of *who* in it ?

if i meet this usage in another sc question, without any issue i can find, i will be not sure.

btw:i think it is not enough to learn some points or grammar rules that i already know in a sc question, so i always want to find every error in every wrong choice. only in this way, i can tell myself i really really understand this question and learn something new from it, and i think this process is meaningful to we non-native speaker who take this exam. please kindly correct me if i am wrong. :）

many thanks.

[jnelson0612]

FanPurewal, correct. You can eliminate E because of the incorrect use of "who". As Ron states in his message above:

"you are correct, however, that "who" may not be used to modify an impersonal entity such as a company."

[samwong]

Can I eliminate B and E because "the case with most ..." is an abstract appositive without anything to modify? Thank you.

[RonPurewal]

^^ i suppose so.

however, in this particular instance, you shouldn't be thinking about that at all, because both of those choices contain very plain non-parallelism. ("not ____ but ____"; in both of those choices, the two blanks are mismatched.) if, while solving this problem, you allowed this issue to distract you from the parallelism, that's a major blunder.
see here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... ml#p113615

on the other hand, if you DID see the parallelism problem--and you're just asking about this issue as part of a thorough review--then that's ok.
just make sure to maintain your priorities!