Question
The English physician Edward Jenner found that if experimental subjects were deliberately infected with cowpox, which caused only a mild illness, they are immune from smallpox.
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
- The English physician Edward Jenner found (Main Subject: Edward Jenner; Main Verb: found)
- that if experimental subjects were deliberately infected with cowpox, (Dependent clause, an object to the verb ‘found’ – “If” clause within dependent clause – Subject: experimental subjects; Verb: were infected)
- which caused only a mild illness, (Dependent clause modifying ‘cowpox’ – Subject: which, Verb: caused)
- they are immune from (Subject of ‘that clause’: they – referring to ‘experimental subjects’; Verb of ‘that clause’: are)
- that if experimental subjects were deliberately infected with cowpox, (Dependent clause, an object to the verb ‘found’ – “If” clause within dependent clause – Subject: experimental subjects; Verb: were infected)
The sentence talks about what Edward Jenner found. He found that by deliberately infecting, experimental subjects can be made immune to smallpox. This finding is presented using a hypothetical construction.
The sentence has the following problems:
- Simple present verb tense ‘are’ is incorrect. Since the presented construction is hypothetical (were infected), we need to use ‘would+verb’ construction.
- ‘immune from a disease’ is incorrect. ‘immune to a disease’ is the correct version.
However, ‘immune from’ is not always incorrect; rather, it is used quite frequently in other contexts. Read this article to know more about the different between ‘immune from’ and ‘immune to’. In a gist: If you’re immune from something, it cannot reach you. If you’re immune to something, it will not affect you. Since a disease can generally always reach you, you are immune to a disease, not immune from a disease.
Option Analysis
(A) Incorrect. For the errors mentioned above.
(B) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- The use of comma+verbing ‘causing only a mild illness’ indicates that this ‘causing a mild illness’ is a consequence of deliberately infecting the subjects. In this way, the sentence keeps open a possibility that infection with cowpox in other scenarios (when we are not deliberately infecting) can lead to strong illness too. However, this meaning doesn’t seem as logical as saying that cowpox always leads to mild illness.
- Simple present verb tense ‘become’ is incorrect. Since the presented construction is hypothetical (were infected), we need to use ‘would+verb’ construction.
- Error no. 2 of the original sentence.
(C) Incorrect. Error no. 1 of the original sentence.
(D) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- Problem no. 1 of option B
- Error no. 2 of the original sentence
- The use of the simple past tense verb ‘became’ indicates a general rule. Did Edward Jenner find a general rule or a possibility? Finding a possibility seems more logical.
(E) Correct.
If you have any doubts regarding any part of this solution, please feel free to ask in the comments section.
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Hi CJ,
Is usage of past sentence justified? here-
“cowpox, which caused only a mild illness” ,
I am under the impression that as the which clause describes the general characteristic of cowpox, it should be in present tense.
Please clarify me.
Hey CJ, In your solution for another OG SC question, you mentioned that if/then should have active-active or passive-passive voice (for X and Y). But here, X is passive while Y is active. Could you please share reasoning
Having both the structures in the same voice is a preference, not a grammatical rule. Thus, I cannot reject an option solely for the reason that the voices are different.
In this case, though, the ‘then’ part in option E is neither active nor passive. Option E has a linking verb ‘become’ in the ‘then’ part.
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