Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the

[RonPurewal]

Hi Team,

In option C and D, I understand that "which means" is wrong from meaning poiint of view.

Wasp- Singular
Wasps- Plural
My doubt is that which refers to Social wasps which are plural. Therefore plural verb "mean" should be used.

Please advise whether the singular verb "means" is right here or it is wrong.

Thanks in advance.

This is a valid point, although it's not necessarily a good idea to get into such detailed structural analysis of a nonsense construction.

I.e., since "which" doesn't even make sense in this context in the first place, there's not much point in embarking on an exhaustive analysis of the grammar.

[bodhisattwabiswas]

living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized and consists of almost all

still incorrect, because it's impossible for all three items to be parallel.

if you interpret the first and third items as verbs -- "is..." and "consists..." -- then those items are fine, but "organized" spoils the party because it's not a verb.

if you interpret the first and second items as adjectives -- "cooperative" and "organized" -- then those items are fine, but now the last item spoils the party because there's no way it can be parallel to an adjective(s).

thanks for explaining...
My humble question is --- if it were "living in a society that is highly cooperative and organized, and consists of almost all", then would it be correct? If not, why so?
I am a bit confused about the 'comma' between 'organized' and 'and' in the above sentence, Is the usage correct? Or is it necessary?

[RonPurewal]

My humble question is --- if it were "living in a society that is highly cooperative and organized, and consists of almost all", then would it be correct? If not, why so?

Extremely valuable piece of advice #1 -- Don't try to edit GMAC's sentences.
In my experience, at least 99% of attempted "edits" of GMAC sentences by forum users have issues. Worse, the vast majority of those issues are things the GMAT doesn't even test, forcing us to give awkward responses along the lines of "Well, no, but don't worry about it".

It's a good idea to make your own (MUCH SIMPLER) sentences, as illustrations of the principles you learn "” but leave GMAC's sentences alone. Learn from them. Don’t edit them.

--

The version you're asking about would not technically be wrong, but ...
... the comma probably wouldn't be there,
... more importantly, GMAC wouldn't write the sentence that way, because it's unnecessarily hard to read. (Try writing out the whole sentence that way. See whether it's easy to understand in 1 read-though. It won't be.)

Your hands should be full enough with the answer choices that are already there. Don't edit them.

[bodhisattwabiswas]

My humble question is --- if it were "living in a society that is highly cooperative and organized, and consists of almost all", then would it be correct? If not, why so?

Extremely valuable piece of advice #1 -- Don't try to edit GMAC's sentences.
In my experience, at least 99% of attempted "edits" of GMAC sentences by forum users have issues. Worse, the vast majority of those issues are things the GMAT doesn't even test, forcing us to give awkward responses along the lines of "Well, no, but don't worry about it".

It's a good idea to make your own (MUCH SIMPLER) sentences, as illustrations of the principles you learn "” but leave GMAC's sentences alone. Learn from them. Don’t edit them.

--

The version you're asking about would not technically be wrong, but ...
... the comma probably wouldn't be there,
... more importantly, GMAC wouldn't write the sentence that way, because it's unnecessarily hard to read. (Try writing out the whole sentence that way. See whether it's easy to understand in 1 read-though. It won't be.)

Your hands should be full enough with the answer choices that are already there. Don't edit them.

thanks for the explanation...
I will try to make my own sentences for my understanding instead of to edit GMAC's ones...thanks
(by the way, is my use of 'ones' in the sentence is right from GMAT point of view? And is the placement of 'for my understanding' wrong?)

[RonPurewal]

(by the way, is my use of 'ones' in the sentence is right from GMAT point of view? And is the placement of 'for my understanding' wrong?)

"For my understanding" is ok.

That use of "ones" is not ok. (You'd just use "GMAC's" by itself. Similarly, My brother's house is smaller than mine.) This is not something you will have to worry about on the exam.

[rohit.manglik]

Doesn't option B makes it a run-on sentence?

"wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of females"”the queen and her sterile female workers."

[bodhisattwabiswas]

(by the way, is my use of 'ones' in the sentence is right from GMAT point of view? And is the placement of 'for my understanding' wrong?)

"For my understanding" is ok.

That use of "ones" is not ok. (You'd just use "GMAC's" by itself. Similarly, My brother's house is smaller than mine.) This is not something you will have to worry about on the exam.

thanks a lot for the explanation...it really helped

Doesn't option B makes it a run-on sentence?

"wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of females"”the queen and her sterile female workers."

No, because "” if I am not mistaken "” here 'consisting' is modifying the 'society'...so no need of 'comma' before consisting; otherwise 'consisting' would modify the 'wasps' (if there were the 'comma')

[ericyuan0811]

hi experts

in (A)&(B), is there any difference between"wasps living... "&"wasps that live..."

do we need a "which/that+verb" in an appositive phrase to describe the previous noun?

thank u for the help!

[RonPurewal]

Doesn't option B makes it a run-on sentence?

B is the correct answer.

[RonPurewal]

hi experts

in (A)&(B), is there any difference between"wasps living... "&"wasps that live..."

do we need a "which/that+verb" in an appositive phrase to describe the previous noun?

thank u for the help!

"Living" implies that this is happening right now -- or during the timeframe of the sentence, whenever that might be -- but not necessarily at other times.
"That live" implies a general/permanent fact.
This sentence is clearly trying to give a general description of the way wasps live, so "that live" is better.

Similarly, "people jogging in Central Park" means people who are jogging in Central Park right now (or during the timeframe of the sentence, no matter when that might be). "People who jog in Central Park" are people who jog there habitually, though not necessarily right at this very moment.

This will never be the only difference tested in an official problem. If you aren't sure about it, look for something else.

[li.xi811]

Hi Ron,

In the "clause, v-ing" structure, does v-ing always modifies the entire clause indicating either things happen at the same time or results of the clause?

I don't understand why "they" is not a correct subject for "consist" in Choice A. Is it illogical because the author's intended meaning is "the society consists almost entirely of females?"

Thanks in advance.

hi experts

in (A)&(B), is there any difference between"wasps living... "&"wasps that live..."

do we need a "which/that+verb" in an appositive phrase to describe the previous noun?

thank u for the help!

"Living" implies that this is happening right now -- or during the timeframe of the sentence, whenever that might be -- but not necessarily at other times.
"That live" implies a general/permanent fact.
This sentence is clearly trying to give a general description of the way wasps live, so "that live" is better.

Similarly, "people jogging in Central Park" means people who are jogging in Central Park right now (or during the timeframe of the sentence, no matter when that might be). "People who jog in Central Park" are people who jog there habitually, though not necessarily right at this very moment.

This will never be the only difference tested in an official problem. If you aren't sure about it, look for something else.

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron,

In the "clause, v-ing" structure, does v-ing always modifies the entire clause indicating either things happen at the same time or results of the clause?

Those are two of the most common ways in which that kind of modifier is used. There are also others -- for instance, the modifier might give an illustration or explanation of what's in the main clause that it's describing.

Just ask yourself whether the modifier is reasonably a description of the stuff in the main clause (or a description of what's directly and inevitably related to that stuff, such as immediate consequences).
If so, then the modifier is fine.

[li.xi811]

Those are two of the most common ways in which that kind of modifier is used. There are also others -- for instance, the modifier might give an illustration or explanation of what's in the main clause that it's describing.

Just ask yourself whether the modifier is reasonably a description of the stuff in the main clause (or a description of what's directly and inevitably related to that stuff, such as immediate consequences).
If so, then the modifier is fine.

Thanks for the clarification, Ron.
I understand that some structures can be used to describe the preceding clause (e.g., Scientists found xxxx, a discovery that...), but I can't think of any official problems in which "Clause, V-ing" is used to illustrate or explain the stuff in the main clause. Can you please provide an example?

Thanks in advance.

[RonPurewal]

Sure:
for-members-of-the-seventeenth-century-t16247.html

[chetan86]

OG Says:
cooperative, organized, and consisting almost entirely offemales are parallel.

Option B is:
wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of females.

So my question is:
what kind of construction it is?
How these words are parallel?