The reason that certain spicy foods

[merwin.fernando]

Hi,

The reason that certain spicy foods, such as the Habanero pepper, makes some people sweat is because they contain a chemical that stimulates the same nerve endings in the mouth as does a rise in temperature; this stimulation sometimes results in the activation of certain biological cooling mechanisms, one of which is perspiration.

a. The reason that certain spicy foods, such as the Habanero pepper, makes some people sweat is because they contain a chemical that stimulates the same nerve endings in the mouth as does a rise in temperature

b. The reason that certain spicy foods, such as the Habanero pepper, makes some people sweat is that these foods contain a chemical that stimulates the same nerves in the mouth like a rise in temperature

c. Certain spicy foods, such as the Habanero pepper, make some people sweat because they contain a chemical that stimulates the same nerves in the mouth like a rise in temperature does

d. The reason that certain spicy foods, such as the Habanero pepper, make some people sweat is that these foods contain a chemical that stimulates the same nerves in the mouth and on the tongue as does a rise in temperature

e. The reason that certain spicy foods, such as the Habanero pepper, make some people sweat is because they contain a chemical that stimulates the same nerves in the mouth as does a rise in temperature


According to the OA, E is wrong because:
1. 'the reason...because' is redundant. Agreed.
2. The pronoun 'they' has an ambigous referent. Why is that? Doesnt the structure of the sentence clearly indicate that 'they' refers back to 'spicy foods'?

Thanks for your help.

[merwin.fernando]

This question is from the Manhattan CAT tests.

[victorgsiu]

Hi,

The reason that certain spicy foods, such as the Habanero pepper, makes some people sweat is because they contain a chemical that stimulates the same nerve endings in the mouth as does a rise in temperature; this stimulation sometimes results in the activation of certain biological cooling mechanisms, one of which is perspiration.

a. The reason that certain spicy foods, such as the Habanero pepper, makes some people sweat is because they contain a chemical that stimulates the same nerve endings in the mouth as does a rise in temperature

b. The reason that certain spicy foods, such as the Habanero pepper, makes some people sweat is that these foods contain a chemical that stimulates the same nerves in the mouth like a rise in temperature

c. Certain spicy foods, such as the Habanero pepper, make some people sweat because they contain a chemical that stimulates the same nerves in the mouth like a rise in temperature does

d. The reason that certain spicy foods, such as the Habanero pepper, make some people sweat is that these foods contain a chemical that stimulates the same nerves in the mouth and on the tongue as does a rise in temperature

e. The reason that certain spicy foods, such as the Habanero pepper, make some people sweat is because they contain a chemical that stimulates the same nerves in the mouth as does a rise in temperature


According to the OA, E is wrong because:
1. 'the reason...because' is redundant. Agreed.
2. The pronoun 'they' has an ambigous referent. Why is that? Doesnt the structure of the sentence clearly indicate that 'they' refers back to 'spicy foods'?

Thanks for your help.

1. Correct.
2. "They" could also refer to the people who sweat or Habanero peppers and not necessarily spicy foods.

D is correct - "These" foods refer back to the Spicy foods, which contain a chemical that stimulates.

[RonPurewal]

Why is that? Doesnt the structure of the sentence clearly indicate that 'they' refers back to 'spicy foods'?

no, the structure of the sentence doesn't indicate this at all. in fact, if you blindly look at the sentence's structure as a robot would - i.e., with no "common sense" angle whatsoever - then you may actually be more likely to tag "people" as the antecedent of the pronoun, because it's much much closer to the pronoun.

what you're doing here is using "common sense" to determine that spicy foods is the antecedent of the pronoun. that's problematic, because you are NOT allowed to use "common sense" to resolve pronoun issues on the exam.

in any case, pronoun ambiguity is NOT a 100% hard and fast thing on this exam. unlike with other pronoun issues, such as singular/plural agreement (i.e., a singular pronoun can NEVER stand for a plural noun, and vice versa), the official problems sometimes show a certain degree of tolerance for ambiguous pronouns.
therefore:
eliminate on pronoun ambiguity AFTER eliminating on EVERY other problem you can find.

[anoo.anand]

what is the OA for this ?


D ??

[RonPurewal]

what is the OA for this ?


D ??

yes.

[Haaress]

The Foods is the subject of the sentence right? ,however, "the reason" agrees with "makes". Please let me know why either the "Spicy Foods" or " the Reason" can take the subject position of the sentence.

[ppenumarti]

How D can be correct? It introduced a noun 'toungue' in the sentence - which is not part of given sentence.

[tim]

Technically, "reason" is the top level subject for the first half of the sentence. However, keep in mind that there are several subject-verb combinations at work here..

As for introduction of the word "tongue" in D, DO NOT fall for the myth that you cannot introduce a word that is not in the original. SC is about GRAMMAR! If four answers are grammatically incorrect, the one that is left is the right answer even if every single word is different from A and it takes the sentence in a completely different direction!

[rockrock]

I got this question right but when reviewing the answers, I was confused by the explanation in "C".

(C) The pronoun "they" has an ambiguous referent: it could refer either to "foods" or "people." In addition, the clause "a rise in temperature does" should be introduced by "as" rather than "like," which, in this context, should be used to introduce a noun. The correct forms of the idiom are "X behaves like Y," "X behaves as Y does", or "X behaves as does Y."

The latter part confuses me. Can someone provide examples of how the "like/as" idiom would work in this sentence?

[tim]

The answer explanation pretty much gave you your example: just replace the word "like" with "as" in answer choice C and the idiom is used correctly..