due to poaching and increased cultivation

[RonPurewal]

in choice D, and similarly in choic B, we have pattern"

"there are fewe than 100 leopards, making them many more times as reae as ..."

because "comma+making them..." must modifier the previous clause and its subject grammartically, we find that there is no logic subject for "making them". the subject in previous clause is "there are", which is not logic to be subject of "making them"

is this point correct?

Yes.

[benjamindian]

mostly correct. here are some things, though.

b.
a modifier gives additional information, this one is incorrect

this one is incorrect because it mis-uses a COMMA -ING modifier. those modifiers must:
* modify the entire preceding clause;
* apply to the subject of that clause.
that doesn't happen here.

Hi Ron,

can you clarify what you mean by "must apply to the subject of that clause"? Does "apply to the subject of preceding clause" mean that the subject of the preceding clause has to be the logical subject of the -Ving in the "comma, Ving" form? Or does that mean that the Ving just has to be related to the subject of the preceding clause?

because the following correct sentence from Prep:
Unlike crested wheatgrass, an alien species from Siberia that forms only shallow roots and produces tall above-ground shoots, native North American grasses develop an extensive root system, allowing for greater enrichment of the soil, but do not grow to be very tall.

the "allowing for ..." part, which i think is a verb modifier that modifies the verb "develop" and explains why they do so. However, we can't say "north american grasses allow for greater enrichment of the soil." Can you clarify the sentence here? Thanks.

[RonPurewal]

the "allowing for ..." part, which i think is a verb modifier that modifies the verb "develop" and explains why they do so.

right, but you can't "modify a verb" in isolation; a verb has no meaning at all without taking its subject into account.

we can't say "north american grasses allow for greater enrichment of the soil."

this is, essentially, correct.
however, if i asked you "which noun, in this sentence, is most responsible for the enrichment of the soil?", you would, beyond any doubt, respond with "north american grasses".

[RonPurewal]

by the way, that's the whole point of the comma + __ing modifier:
• the subject didn't directly do the __ing
• but, the subject is the one most responsible for the __ing.

this type of thing comes up a lot in real life:
I dropped the bags onto the floor, scaring the dogs.
i didn't personally scare the dogs, but my action did.

[RonPurewal]

this pair of sentences will illustrate more directly how the subject is involved:

Tyler was slapped by a girl at recess, infuriating his father.
--> tyler's dad was mad at his son for letting a girl slap him. he wasn't necessarily mad at the girl.

A girl slapped Tyler at recess, infuriating his father.
--> tyler's dad was mad at the girl for slapping his son. he wasn't necessarily mad at his son.

[benjamindian]

"compared to" isn't incorrect by itself; it's incorrect because it's REDUNDANT.

if you use more/less/as much as/etc., then you can't ALSO say "compared to/with".

the correct way to use "compared to/with" is to just cite the numbers.
e.g.,
the unemployment rate was 5.4 percent in october, compared to 4.9 percent in september.

Hi Ron, thanks a lot for the clarification! The usage of "comma, Ving" is very clear now.

I just encountered another sentence that combines "compared to" with "less" though that's not a split. But since you mentioned that that usage was wrong here, I just wanted to point it out.

"Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride."

OK... just found out that you answered that question in the following post:
minivans-carry-as-many-as-seven-passengers-t6094-45.html

Thanks!

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.

THANK YOU for actually searching the forum and finding the things you're asking about!

[benjamindian]

Hi Ron,

Another question regarding choice E:
because of poaching and increased cultivation in their
native habitats

poaching here is a simple gerund
cultivation is an action noun

BUT there is a rule saying that only complex gerund can be parallel to an action noun .

Though that's not a split here in the question, I still want to know your opinion. Thanks!

[RonPurewal]

i don't have any idea what those terms mean, so i'll politely ignore them.

the point is that "poaching" is the only noun form for "poach". i.e., there's no such thing as "poachment", or "poachage", or "poachation", or anything else of that sort.
so, this is the best possible parallelism. end of story.

[XiangL237]

Can someone explain correct and incorrect answers.

Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers have dertermined that there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, and that these leopards are thus many times as rare as China's giant panda.

a. same

b. due to poaching and increased cultivation in their natvie habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, researchers have determined, making them many times more rare than

c. There are fewer than 100 Arabian leopoard left in the wild du to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers have determined, which makes the leopards many times more rare compared to

d. Researchers have determined that, because of being poached and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, thus making them many more times as rare as

e. Researchers have determined that, because of poaching and increased cultivation in thier native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, and that these leopards are thus many times more rare than

first of all, let it be said that i don't like the mathematical illiteracy of this question: what does 'many times as/more rare' mean? i daresay that's meaningless, although 'many times as/more common' would of course make sense. (as an analogy, 'twice as long' makes perfect sense, but 'twice as short' is nonsense.) i guess the people who write the math questions don't moonlight in verbal...

yikes, i can find errors in all of the choices. i'm guessing that the oa is probably 'e', but they're all bad:

ALL choices:
- plural 'leopards' is not parallel to singular 'panda'
- 'x times as/more rare than' is meaningless, per above comments

choice a
- the modifier that begins the sentence ostensibly refers to researchers, creating the absurd interpretation that poaching and cultivation are occurring in the researchers' habitats.

choice b
- the pronoun 'them' is ambiguous (leopards / researchers)

choice c
- 'compared to' is unidiomatic
- 'which' is used incorrectly (the antecedent of 'which' must be a noun or noun phrase; it can't stand for the idea of the preceding clause, as it tries to here)

choice d
- 'them' and 'their' are both ambiguous
- 'many more times as rare as' is just ... terrible

choice e
- 'their' is ambiguous

i guess 'e' is the best of the lot, but they're all terrible. this is without a doubt the worst gmatprep question i have ever seen.

Ron: Is it better to say "rarer" than to say "more rare"?

[aflaamM589]

Hi Ron,

How to justify usage of because of Verbing in E(OA)?

e. Researchers have determined that, because of poaching and increased cultivation in thier native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, and that these leopards are thus many times more rare than

[RonPurewal]

some verbs have separate noun forms (e.g., cultivate —> cultivation).

other verbs don't. for these verbs, the noun form is just the form ending with __ing (e.g., poaching).

[aflaamM589]

Thanks for the reply,
D, however, can be crossed because of incorrect usage of because of Ving, right Ron?
d. Researchers have determined that, because of being poached and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, thus making them many more times as rare a

Thanks
Have a nice day

[RonPurewal]

yes.