Until Antoine Lavoisier proved otherwise...

[poojakrishnamurthy1]

Question

Until Antoine Lavoisier proved otherwise in the eighteenth century, many scientists had believed that combustion released phlogiston, an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood.

1) many scientists had believed that combustion released phlogiston, an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood
2) many scientists believed that phlogiston was an imaginary substance released by combustion and its properties were not fully understood
3) phlogiston was an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood and which many scientists had believed was released by combustion
4) phlogiston, an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood, was believed by scientists to be released by combustion
5) many scientists had believed that phlogiston was released by combustion and was an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood

My Doubt:

I encountered this question in CAT 1. The Original Answer is 1 but I marked 5. I was successfully able to eliminate 2,3, and 4, but was stuck between 1 and 5. I eliminated 1 because it says "phlogiston, an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood". Choice 1 basically means that "many scientists had believed that combustion released phlogiston" only. If a phrase "an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood" comes after "phlogiston" and is seperated by a comma, it essentially means that the information in necessary but not critical to the understanding of the sentence (this is there in OG). However, applying OG's Logical Prediction method, the sentence clearly intends to say that many scientists not only believed that combustion released phlogiston, but also believed that it was an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood.

Thus, I feel that the answer should be 5, which correctly suggests that "many scientists had believed that phlogiston was released... and was an imaginary...".

Please advise.

[Hanumayamma]

Sentence has modifier issues:

1. "Until Antoine Lavoisier proved otherwise in the eighteenth century" modifies "scientists" - so eliminate 3 and 4
2. Among 1,2 and 5: 2 - 5 employs passive construction

And most importantly 1 is concise and conveys whatever by 5.

[poojakrishnamurthy1]

Just because it is passive voice, the sentence cannot be eliminated. Because the last leg of Option a is set off in commas, it necessarily means that it can be dropped from the sentence without changing the meaning. But the meaning changes.

Anyways, I would want someone from the Manhattan Verbal faculty to comment on it.

Thanks

[abhishek]

Till they dont -

The sentence tries to convey that "many scientists had believed that combustion released phlogiston, (which was thought to be )an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood "

And you are right "an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood " is not what the sentence says the scientists believed, it only describes philogin.

Passive voice does not make 5 incorrect, but helps in choosing 1 in this case.

Also, I am not sure if 5 is entirely parallel... 5 would perhaps make more sense if it said "...that P was released by combustion and that it was an imaginary.... I Tthink 'it' is required here ? One can drop 'that' but not 'it'.

[StaceyKoprince]

Hey, guys - Apologies that we haven't gotten to this in so long. Again, we're providing this as a free service and we're not, unfortunately, privately wealthy such that we can afford to spend all day, every day, working for free! :) We do our best to answer every question asked, but expect to wait a while for answers this time of year...

Take a look at this post from Ron and see if it addresses your concerns: http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/cat-sc-t3561.html