Gmat

[270699172]

i choose b because i think, a reasonably clear picture of the patterns of ocean currents and their causes have emerged. so "have" is needed but not "has".

[RonPurewal]

i choose b because i think, a reasonably clear picture of the patterns of ocean currents and their causes have emerged. so "have" is needed but not "has".

if that's your interpretation, then you probably rushed through the "understand the intended meaning" part; that's not a logical interpretation.

the intended meaning of the sentence is that a clear picture of 2 things has emerged:
-- the patterns of ocean currents
-- the causes of ocean currents
"clear picture" is not paired with anything else.

[Tadashi]

i'm not questioning the OA.
one doubt.
why gmac wrote: a reasonably clear picture has emerged of the patterns and causes of ocean currents?

gmac put "has emerged" right inside the phrase " picture of". kind of weird.

a reasonably clear picture of the patterns and causes of ocean currents has emerged. why gmac didn't write this version?

Can I write: The construction was completed in 2012 of Tokyo Skytree. PS. skytree is a building located in tokyo.

Is my example correct? need your confirmation.
ARIGATO,
Tadashi.

[RonPurewal]

Tadashi, you're looking at an instance of the kind of reversal that I described here:
post102820.html#p102820
You don't have to decide when this reversal will happen. You just have to know that it's a thing.
I.e., you have to be aware that it's not wrong, so that you don't mistakenly eliminate it on sight. (The same is true for other "weird" constructions"”you won't actually have to judge or manipulate them, but you'll have to know that they are things that exist and so shouldn't necessarily be eliminated.)

[Tadashi]

Thank you very much.

[RonPurewal]

You're welcome.

[lindaliu9273]

Hi instructor,

I choose A according to the imply of "their/them", so I just want to make sure my idea is correct.
B:their is unclear. It could refer to patterns or currents.
C:their and them both refer to currents. But "their patterns and the causes of them" is akward because they're not parallel.
D:them could refer to patterns or currents
E:their is unclear. It could refer to patterns or currents. The tense is wrong.

I'll be appreciated if someone could tell me whether there's some mistake here.

[RonPurewal]

Hi instructor,

I choose A according to the imply of "their/them", so I just want to make sure my idea is correct.
B:their is unclear. It could refer to patterns or currents.
C:their and them both refer to currents. But "their patterns and the causes of them" is akward because they're not parallel.
D:them could refer to patterns or currents
E:their is unclear. It could refer to patterns or currents. The tense is wrong.

I'll be appreciated if someone could tell me whether there's some mistake here.

You have a fair point here"”we could be talking about what causes the currents themselves, or about what causes them to have certain patterns.

There are also other errors, though. ("Pronoun ambiguity" will NEVER be the only thing wrong in a GMAT sentence.) But, yes, this is a valid observation.

[lindaliu9273]

Hi instructor,

I choose A according to the imply of "their/them", so I just want to make sure my idea is correct.
B:their is unclear. It could refer to patterns or currents.
C:their and them both refer to currents. But "their patterns and the causes of them" is akward because they're not parallel.
D:them could refer to patterns or currents
E:their is unclear. It could refer to patterns or currents. The tense is wrong.

I'll be appreciated if someone could tell me whether there's some mistake here.

You have a fair point here"”we could be talking about what causes the currents themselves, or about what causes them to have certain patterns.

There are also other errors, though. ("Pronoun ambiguity" will NEVER be the only thing wrong in a GMAT sentence.) But, yes, this is a valid observation.

Thank you so much! I recently also realized that "Pronoun ambiguity" is not absolute in gmat.

[RonPurewal]

Yep. It's not a thing. You don't have to think about it.

[gmatkiller_24]

Hi, Ron:

I didn't use verb tense to eliminate C. I use pronoun ambiguity and parallelism to pick up A.

in choice C

..... of ocean currents, their patterns and the causes of them

"them" is inferior here for the potential ambiguity referring either to " patterns" or "currents"

also, the parallelism in C is less beautiful than in choice A.

the patterns and causes of ocean currents

parallelism is a beauty contest!

is there something wrong with my elimination thinking?

Thanks you

[RonPurewal]

on this test, pronoun ambiguity is not a thing. so, merely thinking about that is a mistake.

the "beauty contest" thing, on the other hand, is on point.

[ArunP386]

Hello,
I am still not clear why option B is incorrect. I rejected option B because of "have emerged" .The picture being singular ,it should have been has .
Please advise if there are any other reasons.


Thanks

[RonPurewal]

what's "still not clear" about that?

you've found subject-verb disagreement, which is one of the most fundamental errors of all!

[750plus]

Dear Ron,

Please if you can pin point the error(s) in option D. Is 'have emerged' correct? Also, I am not happy to see 'what caused them' in option D. On the other hand, I like how gracefully A is written.

Can you please help by pointing the error(s) in option D.

Thank You