An international group of more than 2,000 scientists

[CrackTheGmat]

I am confused with the choices D and E. We treat average as a measure. When we use "average global warming" in E, we are treating the whole of the phrase as a measure. Global warming is a noun phrase which should not be used as a measure.
Kindly clarify.

[quote="rschunti"]An international group of more than 2,000 scientists project an average global warming that will be between 1.8 and 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2000.
A. project an average global warming that will be between 1.8 and
B. project an average global warming to be from 1.8 to
C. project global warming that will average between 1.8 and
D. projects global warming to average from 1.8 to
E. projects an average global warming of between 1.8 and

[RonPurewal]

I am confused with the choices D and E. We treat average as a measure. When we use "average global warming" in E, we are treating the whole of the phrase as a measure. Global warming is a noun phrase which should not be used as a measure.

why don't you think global warming can be measured?
height can be measured in feet/inches/meters; volume can be measured in liters; global warming can be measured in degrees. i'm not seeing the difference here.

[KathyL227]

Why does "a group of 2000 scientists" take singular verb form "projects"? I remember what comes after "of prepositional phrase" determines the verb form. If that is correct, in this problem we will use "project" instead of "projects".

Can someone explain?

TIA,
Al

nope.

if you see the form "NOUN + prepositional phrase + VERB", then the singular/plural form of the verb is determined by the NOUN. the prepositional phrase is just an intervening modifier, which has zero effect on the grammar of the noun+verb.

the only exception occurs when the NOUN indicates some sort of proportion or fraction. (see below.)

--

on the other hand, if you see "noun + prepositional phrase + THAT + verb", then the issue is more complicated. but that doesn't happen here -- this is just "group + (of scientists) + VERB". so the subject of the verb is "group".

Hi Ron,

I still don't get it.

e.g.:
The number of children is 60. (Subject is the "the number" )
A number of children are playing on the ground. (a number of ... = many)

So I don't understand why here, the real subject is not scientists. Could you refer to Chapter one of the SC Manhattan textbook?

Many thanks.

Kathy

[KathyL227]

Is "of between" in (E) a valid construct ? Is this a prepositional phrase?

well, d has two problems, at least:
- 'projects X to do Y' is unidiomatic. (you can just say 'projects NOUN', as is done in choice e, or you can say something like 'projects that X will do Y').
- an average is a single data point, so there's no such thing as 'averag[ing] from 1.8 to 6.3'. on the other hand, it's quite possible for a single data point to fall between two given values.

i've seen 'of between' in this sense before - think of the phrase 'between 1.8 and 6.3' as standing for a single number, and parse the sentence accordingly (it reads as if it said 'average g.w. of 5 degrees', for instance) - so, if the original poster has copied the problem correctly, we now know that the gmat accepts that construction.

My understanding is:
D means that the scientists project the global warming to change from 1.8 to 6.3; in other word increase from 1.8 to 6.3. Because "from ... to ..." indicates a direction of change. If it says "global warming ranges from ... to ..." or "global warming has an range from ... to ...", that will be correct
E simple correct express the range of the indicator could be

Not sure if my understanding is correct.

Thanks.

Kathy

[RonPurewal]

this sentence is about the AVERAGE global warming over a certain period. so, any sentence containing "from... to..." would be nonsense.
an average is a single value.

[CrystalSpringston]

Dear Experts,
I want know if "project" is corrected to "projects" in C, would option C be correct and the structure is superior to that of E?
THANK YOU

Corrected C
An international group of more than 2,000 scientists projects global warming that will average between 1.8 and 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2000.

[RonPurewal]

if you do that, there are still several issues—but they are things that the GMAT does not test.

[RonPurewal]

DO NOT 'make your own versions' of GMAC's sentences.
really.
don't do it.

the GMAT only tests 1-2% of the things that can actually go wrong with english sentences (and even that may be an overestimate).
when random users try to 'edit' these sentences, the result is almost always inferior or incorrect—for reasons that the GMAT doesn't test.

making your own examples is good, but they should be...
...1/ your own examples,
...2/ SIMPLE examples, each illustrating only ONE concept (that is actually tested on this exam).

as far as the official problems are concerned, the given answer choices should be challenging enough already.
(:

[RonPurewal]

Dear Experts,
I want know if "project" is corrected to "projects" in C, would option C be correct and the structure is superior to that of E?
THANK YOU

DO NOT question the correct answers!

here's a handy FAQ:

Q: Is the correct answer correct?
A: Yes.

Q: Is the correct answer wrong?
A: No.

Q: I disagree with the correct answer. Who's wrong, me or GMAC?
A: You.

Q: I wrote this other version. Is it better than the correct answer?
A: No.

[SD501]

Hi Ron,

despite the S-V agreement issue in choice A and B and the "from to" issue, is there any other problems? If I change the option A and B to:

A>projects an average global warming that will be between 1.8 and
B>projects an average global warming to be between 1.8 and

which one is better?

I think that the verb "project" is defined as to propose something for the future, so using the future tense is better? But both the "will be" and "to be " indicate future events, so could you suggest is there any changes in meaning or errors in the above two examples?

Thanks