CHIRANJEEV SINGH
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Question

Recent interdisciplinary studies advance the argument that emotions, including those deemed personal or private is a social phenomenon, though one inseparable from bodily response.

Option A
Option B
Option C
Option D
Option E

(This question is from Official Guide. Therefore, because of copyrights, the complete question cannot be copied here. The question can be accessed at GMAT Club)

Solution

Sentence Analysis

  • Recent interdisciplinary studies advance the argument (Main Clause. Subject – “studies”; Verb – “advance”)
    • that emotions, (“That” Clause modifying ‘argument’. Subject – “emotions”)
      • including those deemed personal or private (additional info about “emotions”)
    • is a social phenomenon, though one inseparable from bodily response. (Verb of “that” clause – “is”)

The sentence talks about the argument proposed by some studies. The argument is that emotions are social phenomena but are inseparable from bodily response.

The sentence has the following two errors:

  1. The singular verb “is” doesn’t agree with the plural subject “emotions”.
  2. The phrase “including…private” has a beginning comma but not the ending comma. A comma needs to be inserted after “private”.

Option Analysis

(A) Incorrect. For the errors mentioned above.

(B) Correct. Both the errors of the original sentence have been rectified. 

(C) Incorrect. For the following reasons:

  1. Error no. 2 of the original sentence.
  2. “those” doesn’t refer to anything. The structure in this option is “emotions are not those inseparable from bodily response”.

(D) Incorrect. For the following reasons:

  1. The dash after “private” would have been correct if the dash had preceded “including”. However, since a comma precedes “including”, a comma is needed after “private”.
  2. The structure would be better if the verb “are” is repeated after “but” i.e. “are social phenomena but are not separable”.

(E) Incorrect. For the following reasons:

  1. “or also as private emotions” is wrong since “or also” doesn’t make sense and also since “as private emotions” is not parallel to “personal”.
  2. “not inseparable” is opposite to the given “inseparable”.
  3. The meaning is more clearly communicated by saying “social phenomena that are inseparable from…” than by saying “social phenomena inseparable from…”.

Join the Conversation

3 Comments

  1. CJ – Thank you for helping out numerous students like me by collating all the practice questions in one place and posting the solutions.
    My question is:
    Correct Choice B: private, are social phenomena that are inseparable
    can “that” jump over and refer to Emotions!?
    As I understand, that is a relative modifier and should refer to the closest noun it is modifying. If I apply this understanding then that should refer to social phenomenon – in this case the sentence seems to lose its meaning. please advise

    1. Hi Raghu,

      “that” refers to social phenomena in option B. However, in other cases, “that” can jump over other modifiers. Kindly refer to this article.

      Also, I do not believe that the correct option needs to match the original sentence. As long as the option communicates a logical meaning, it can be correct.

  2. Hi CJ,

    In option C, the word ‘phenomenon’ is also an error, instead it should be ‘phenomena’. Please correct me if I am wrong.

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