Question
Discussion of greenhouse effects have usually had as a focus the possibility of Earth growing warmer and to what extent it might, but climatologists have indicated all along that precipitation, storminess, and temperature extremes are likely to have the greatest impact on people.
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
- Discussion (Subject of First IC – Independent Clause)
- of greenhouse effects (prepositional phrase modifying “discussion”)
- have usually had as a focus (Verb – “have had”)
- the possibility of Earth growing warmer (modifies “focus”)
- and to what extent it might, (In a list with the previous element. Modifies “focus”)
- but climatologists have indicated all along that (Second IC. Subject – “climatologists”; Verb – “have indicated”)
- precipitation, (“That clause” Subject – 1)
- storminess, (“That clause” Subject – 2)
- and temperature extremes (“That clause” Subject – 3)
- are likely to have the greatest impact on people. (“That clause” Verb – “are”)
The sentence says:
Discussion of greenhouse effect has focused on the possibility that Earth may grow warmer and on the extent to which it might. However, climatologists have indicated that other factors are likely to have the greatest impact on people.
The sentence has the following errors:
- The singular subject “discussion” doesn’t agree with the plural verb “have had”.
- The structures “the possibility of Earth growing warmer” and “to what extent it might” are not parallel.
Option Analysis
(A) Incorrect. For the errors described above.
(B) Incorrect. The structure “discussion has had as its focus X and Y” is much less clear than the structure in option C. Also, “to what extent” in option C is clearer and more concise than “what the extent would be” in this option.
This option doesn’t have any significant error. It is wrong just because option C is better qualitatively. We have to choose the best among the given options.
(C) Correct. The verb “has focused” is much clearer in communicating the meaning than the structures used in the previous two options. Also, “whether Earth…” is parallel to “to what extent”. Both are in question form, and both join the sentence at the same place i.e. “focused on whether Earth would grow warmer” and “focused on to what extent”.
(D) Incorrect. This option has the same two errors as option A has.
(E) Incorrect. “the extent that” lacks the clarity as to “extent of what”. Also, the use of simple present “is” is incorrect since the event is hypothetical.
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Does “focus” have to follow a noun or a preposition all the time? Because for option B I read somewhere that:-
“Idiom Error: The current construction requires a noun to follow the word focus.”
Michael has usually maintained personal growth as his focus. (Correct)
Michael has usually maintained as his focus personal growth. (Rephrase: Correct)
Michael has usually maintained as his focus how to improve his personal growth. (Clause: Incorrect)
Similarly, in this sentence, the usage of the clause whether Earth would get… after focus is grammatically incorrect.
In C “Discussion has usually focused”…how can the discussion focus? i was put off by this phrase. can you please elaborate on this? something can be the focus of a discussion, but saying discussion has focused, does it go well?
I understand your problem with this subject-verb pair. However, there are many such pairs people have objections with. For example, this table resembles XYZ. People say, “how can a table do something or the act of resembling?” However, this is how we put it in English. You need to understand that these are acceptable in English.
Hi CJ, at the onset I would like to Thank you for the great explanations.
I have a doubt regarding option C. Though whether earth would become warmer and to what extent phrases are parallel logically (Question phrases) one is a question phrase and other is a prepositional phrase. Are these two parallel gramatically? Request you to kind throw some light on the same.
Thank you for the kind words, Anusha! 🙂
Think about it: “to what extent” is meaningless in itself. Right? The complete idea here is “to what extent the earth would become warmer”, which is a clause. Many words have been skipped since they are understood from the context. Thus, in this case, both the elements are clauses; it’s just that many words have been skipped in the second clause.
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