Question: A majority of the international journalists surveyed view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present but that they will, or could, be made sufficiently safe in the future.
(A) that they will, or could,
(B) that they would, or could,
(C) they will be or could
(D) think that they will be or could
(E) think the power stations would or could
“A majority of the international journalists surveyed view nuclear power” - is a GMAT sentence correction question. These GMAT sentence correction questions possess grammatical errors in the underlined portion of the sentence. The GMAT sentence correction section analyses the grammatical skills of the candidates. The candidates have to determine the grammatical errors and have to judge the options correctly. The candidates need to go through complex and lengthy sentences rigorously in order to solve the question. GMAT sentence correction is part of GMAT verbal.
Answer: D
Explanation: The adjustment asked in the sentence needs to be explained with the guidelines shown below:
- Parallelism
- Pronoun
- Conjunction
- Meaning
- Tense
- Redundancy/Awkwardness
The structure of the sentence is as follows:
A majority of the international journalists surveyed consider nuclear power stations unsafe at present. But they believe that they will be or could be made safe in the near future.
Option A: Incorrect
The statement in this answer choice is not structurally parallel. There exist no parallelism between “view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present” and “that they will, or could, be made sufficiently safe in the future”. It is important to remember the fact that any elements when linked by a conjunction “but” in the sentence must be parallel. Moreover, option A also have no parallelism between “will” or “could”. It is required to keep in mind that any elements connected by the conjunction “or” ought to be parallel. Therefore, Option A gets eliminated.
Option B: Incorrect
The statement in this option consists of a parallelism issue. It fails to sustain parallelism between “view nuclear … at present” and “that they would, or could, be …in the future”. The conjunction “but” mainly connects two independent clauses. But there is a dependent clause present after the conjunction “but” that does not link the initial independent clause. Moreover, the option does not maintain the parallelism between “would” and “could be”. The conjunction “or” that connects two elements in the sentence must be parallel. Therefore, option B is incorrect and thereby gets out of scope.
Option C: Incorrect
The statement in this option states “... they will be or could…” is incorrect. The pronoun “they” is used as the subject of the second independent clause. In this sentence “a majority of the international journalists surveyed” refer to the subject of the first independent clause. The pronoun “they” is placed in such a way that it considers the subject of the first independent clause. Therefore, it makes the meaning of the sentence illogical. Therefore, option C gets eliminated.
Option D: Correct
The statement in this option support parallelism between “view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present” and “they will be or could be made sufficiently safe in the future”. Therefore, this answer choice is correct as it satisfies the rules of grammar.
Option E: Incorrect
Option E suggests “think the power stations would or could” is irrelevant since it makes the meaning of the sentence illogical. The application of “would” is inaccurate in this sentence. If the reported speech appears to be in the present tense then the verb in the future tense should be “will” in the statement. “Would” can only be used when the reported speech appears in the past tense. In this option, the reported speech “think” is in the present tense. Therefore, the verb “would” should not be used here instead the verb “will” should be significant to use. Thus, option E is incorrect.
Suggested GMAT Sentence Correction Samples
- Reporting that One of its Many Problems had been the Recent Extended GMAT Sentence Correction
- Heavy Commitment by an Executive to a Course of Action GMAT Sentence Correction
- Without Adequate Amounts of Sleep, People's Newly Acquired Skills GMAT Sentence Correction
- More Than Fifty Years after the Second World War, A Number of African American Soldiers were Awarded GMAT Sentence Correction
- The walls of the subway have been plastered with light yellow GMAT Sentence Correction
- Is Police Singular or Plural? GMAT Sentence Correction
- When Working with Overseas Clients, an Understanding of Cultural Norms GMAT Sentence Correction
- Although When a Hagfish is Threatened, it Will Secrete Slime that is Small in Quantity GMAT Sentence Correction
- The Man to who I Sold my House was a Cheat GMAT Sentence Correction
- Turtles, like Other Reptiles, can Endure Long Fasts, in their Ability to Survive on Weekly GMAT Sentence Correction
- Studying the Fruit Fly, a Household Nuisance but a Time-Honored Experimental Subject GMAT Sentence Correction
- Five Fledgling Sea Eagles Left Their Nests in Western Scotland This Summer GMAT Sentence Correction
- Unlike a Typical Automobile Loan, Which Requires a Fifteen- to Twenty-Percent Down Payment GMAT Sentence Correction
- Popular Child Psychologists Have Advocated That Parents Discipline Male Children GMAT Sentence Correction
- One Legacy of Madison Avenue’s Recent Campaign to Appeal to People Fifty Years Old GMAT Sentence Correction
- He Finished His Novel _________I Was Getting Ready ________ Office GMAT Sentence Correction
- According To a Survey of Graduating Medical Students Conducted by Association GMAT Sentence Correction
- If the Books have been Cataloged Last Week, Why haven’t They been Placed on the Shelf? GMAT Sentence Correction
- Few of the Corporate Contributions to the Earthquake Relief Fund GMAT Sentence Correction
- Some People Are Of The Opinion That The Police Is Incapable Of Curbing GMAT Sentence Correction
Comments