SC:Radiocarbon dating of fossils taken from caves

[cesar.rodriguez.blanco]

What are the problems with D and E?

Radiocarbon dating of fossils taken from caves on islands along southeastern Alaska's coast suggest that at least a portion of the area was remaining ice-free during the last ice age.

a. suggest that at least a portion of the area was remaining
b. suggest at least a portion of the area remaining
c. suggests that at least a portion of the area remained
d. suggests at least a portion of the area that had remained
e. suggests at least a portion of the area to have remained.

[mikrodj]

at least a portion of the area that had remained and at least a portion of the area to have remained, are two independent clauses so you need either a coordinator or a subordinator to join them.

Moreover, notice that in the sentence appears "during the last ice age", so the verb tense in this case should be the past remained.

[editor: not really. there's nothing ungrammatical about those choices; rather, (d) and (e) are incorrect for idiom- and meaning-based reasons. see below. tough problem.]

[RonPurewal]

What are the problems with D and E?

Radiocarbon dating of fossils taken from caves on islands along southeastern Alaska's coast suggest that at least a portion of the area was remaining ice-free during the last ice age.

a. suggest that at least a portion of the area was remaining
b. suggest at least a portion of the area remaining
c. suggests that a least a portion of the area remained
d. suggests at least a portion of the area that had remained
e. suggests at least a portion of the area to have remained.

choices (d) and (e) change the meaning of the sentence. according to the original (which ALWAYS determines the meaning, unless it's total nonsense), the radiocarbon dating suggests THE FACT THAT part of the area remained ice-free. it did NOT suggest the location of that area.

if you say "suggests ... a portion of the area", then that would mean that the radiocarbon dating indicates the area itself. that's not what is meant.
in addition, this may be unidiomatic (i'm not quite sure). i know that "indicates" or "points to" would make sense here; i'm not sure whether you're allowed to use "suggests". in any case, though, the meaning is incorrect anyway, so there you go.

(d) also uses an incorrect verb tense. you can't use the past perfect ("had remained") unless there's some other, later past time marker (usually in the simple past tense) to which it refers. there's no second past thing here, so the past perfect is wrong.

[mikrodj]

thank you for the clarification Ron

[RonPurewal]

thank you for the clarification Ron

you're welcome

[agha79]

Is OA for this problem "C"?

[esledge]

The OA has to be C. D and E are wrong for reasons discussed above. A and B have subject-verb disagreement:

(A) dating...suggest = (singular-plural)
(B) dating...suggest = (singular-plural)
(C) dating...suggests = (singular-singular)

[ravi.bamalwa]

Please tell me which of the following are preffered:

suggests vs suggests that
recommends vs recommends that
indicates vs indicates that

Any hard and fast rule regarding such phrases?

Thanks in advance!

[mschwrtz]

Just a warning, the answer I'm going to give is GMAT-specific. Away from the GMAT, there's actually a range of expert opinion on the use of that to introduce subordinate clauses.

Any of these is acceptable on the GMAT, though none is especially likely:

Those clouds suggest rain.
My dentist recommends sugarless gum.
"Sic" indicates an error left uncorrected.

Notice that the italicized sections are all nouns/noun phrases.

The following are not only acceptable, but also much more likely on the GMAT:

Those clouds suggest that it's going to rain.
My dentist recommends that I chew only sugarless gum.
"Sic" indicates that an error has been left uncorrected.

Notice that the italicized sections are all are all clauses, each with its own subject and its own verb. They are in fact subordinate clauses, and one use of that is to introduce subordinate clauses.

[aaron.1choi]

apologies for bringing this topic up from the dead, but Iiwanted to get some clarification on strategy.

when i arrived at this question, i immediately scratched off C because of the spelling typo ("a least a" not "at least a"). Thus if C had been crossed off, I had to go with E, which sounded the best out of the rest.

1) Is that the correct strategy to take? (and specifically in my case, would E be the next best choice? not sure if there is actually an answer to this since "if the answer choice is wrong, it's wrong")
2) How likely is this to happen? (spelling errors on the actual GMAT)

thanks!
aaron

[facadeof_reality]

To above poster:

The correct option that is C says:

C. suggests that at least a portion of the area remained.

It was not written properly by the person who started the thread.

Moreover, you need not to worry about spelling mistakes as GMAT does not check your ability to identify them.

[aaron.1choi]

hmm.. i totally remember spotting answer choice (c)'s typo first thing when I was presented with the question on GMATprep.

in any case, is (e) completely grammatically correct?

is the only error with (e) in missing "that", which changes the meaning of the sentence?
eg. revised (e): suggests *that* at least a portion of the area to have remained. (correct?)
(super tricky.. and still not sure if i 100% understand the subtlety of the inclusion/exclusion of "that" in this sentence)

[RonPurewal]

eg. revised (e): suggests *that* at least a portion of the area to have remained. (correct?)

no, this version is actually ungrammatical. if you have "suggests that...", then that construction must be followed by a clause (i.e. with its own subject and verb), as detailed by michael schwartz (mschwrtz) above.

[vikas.binani]

Hi Ron,
I agree that A and B are out due to Subject-Verb disagreement.

The main verb of the sentence is "suggests" - this expresses an proposal and is thus in subjunctive mood.

Whenever a verb expresses an order, request, demand or proposal - we use "verb" + "that" + "bare infinitive".

Option C follows the rule, but I'm confused about the use of "remained" - which is a past participle. I thought that we should have used a bare infinitive "remain".
Is it because of "during the last ice age", which is in the past tense?

Please clarify.

[RonPurewal]

Option C follows the rule, but I'm confused about the use of "remained" - which is a past participle. I thought that we should have used a bare infinitive "remain".

"remained" is a past-tense verb.

in fact, it's impossible for "remained" to be a past participle. past participles only exist for verbs that have direct objects (isaac wrote a book --> the book written by isaac became a bestseller).