Fraternal Twins GMAT Verbal Question

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Fraternal Twins GMAT Verbal Question

Student: I can’t figure out how to think through this question. Can you please help, GMATPill?

QUESTION: The fact of some fraternal twins resembling each other greatly and others looking quite dissimilar highlights an interesting and often overlooked feature of fraternal-twin pairs, namely they vary considerably on a spectrum of genetic relatedness.

(A) The fact of some fraternal twins resembling each other greatly and others looking quite dissimilar highlights an interesting and often overlooked feature of fraternal-twin pairs, namely they vary considerably

(B) That some fraternal twins resemble each other greatly while others look quite dissimilar highlights an interesting and often overlooked feature of fraternal-twin pairs, namely that they vary considerably

(C) With some fraternal twins resembling each other greatly and others looking quite dissimilar, it highlights an interesting and often overlooked feature of fraternal-twin pairs, namely considerable variation

(D) With some fraternal twins resembling each other greatly and others looking quite dissimilar, it is a fact that highlights an interesting and often overlooked feature of fraternal-twin pairs, namely a considerable variation

(E) Because some fraternal twins resemble each other greatly and others look quite dissimilar, this fact highlights an interesting and often overlooked feature of fraternal-twin pairs, namely they vary considerably

GMATPill Response To This GMAT Verbal Question:

I surprisingly arrived at answer (B) fairly quickly without looking at (C), (D), or (E).

“The fact of some fraternal twins resembling” is definitely wrong.
You cannot say “the fact of”—it has to be “the fact that XYZ resemble each other”

I looked at the first few words of all the answer choices and none of them had “the fact that.” But I was sure (A) was wrong. Therefore, I looked at (B).

Most people would think that since the sentence begins with “That the”—then it’s automatically wrong. But since I’ve seen lots of questions I know it’s not common in spoken language, but on the GMAT this format is correct.
I read it as:
“That [this fact] highlights an interesting and often overlooked…”

It’s common for people to say “That highlights an interesting point.”
What is “that” referring to?
In this case, “that” is referring to: “That some fraternal twins resemble each other greatly while others look quite dissimilar.”

So (B) looks like the right answer.

So continue reading the sentence and you’ll see there’s nothing wrong with it. So I’m pretty confident (B) is the answer without even reading through (C), (D), and (E).

But now looking at (C) and (D) I see “With…”
For phrases that begin with “with”–you need to ask yourself WHO or WHAT is WITH something?
The answer is: the subject of what’s after the COMMA.
In both cases, the subject is “it highlights” in (C) and “it is a fact” in (D).

Neither makes sense. We don’t know what “it” is.

The logic in (E) aslo does not make sense.

So based on the initial gut that the answer was (B) along with some quick analysis of (C), (D), and (E)—-we conclude the answer as (B).

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