Sentence correction

[sas.munshi]

Hi,

I Came across this question in GMAT prep and I chose E whereas the correct answer is C.

[redacted]

The answer explanation says the co-ordinating conjunction and requires a main verb consists instead of present participle consisting.
Could you please help me understand this explanation better or if there is an alternate approach to this question.

[RonPurewal]

Hi,

I Came across this question in GMAT prep and I chose E whereas the correct answer is C.

[redacted]

The answer explanation says the co-ordinating conjunction and requires a main verb consists instead of present participle consisting.
Could you please help me understand this explanation better or if there is an alternate approach to this question.

you can also eliminate (e) in two other ways:

* you can use a simpler understanding of "and" -- namely, it creates parallelism, and there aren't parallel structures in (e).
i.e., there is nothing on the left that can possibly be regarded as parallel to "each colony consisting..."

* in fact, the usage of "and" is inappropriate in the first place -- that is, it's nonsense to use "and" here.
"X and Y" implies no necessary relationship between "X" and "Y". that isn't how this sentence actually works: instead, here, the second part of the sentence gives further description of the idea mentioned in the first.
this is exactly why modifiers exist, so the sentence must be written with that information as a modifier, not as "and Y".

[gmatango]

Hi Ron,

Just want to understand whether the modifier in C 'each colony consisting .......' is an absolute phrase. If not then could you please explain what kind of modifier is it.

By absolute phrase I mean one in blue in the sentence below.
Their slender bodies sleek and black against the orange sky, the storks circled high above us.



Many thanks.

[imhimanshujaggi]

Answer choice E can be negated on the ground that in choice E verb is missing since -ing alone can't function as verb. We have sentence structure Clause 1, coordinating conjunction(AND) + Clause 2 . Here clause 2 has a missing verb.
Ofcourse, E also changes the meaning as pointed by Ron.

Now comes my doubt...

Why option B is wrong. Can you explain it. Also, what does Comma + With modifiers suppose to modify. Are they also flexible just as prepositional modifiers are. i.e can they modify both nouns as well as clauses.

Thanks
H

[imhimanshujaggi]

Let me give 2 cents over here..
I doubt, if getting into technical terms can be fruitful. All I know is that in choice C, it is noun + noun modifier.
Noun + Non modifier works in the following ways:

1) It modifies the closest noun.
2) It takes any word from the previous sentence and then modifies or provides description to that word/object. (It is called Resumptive modifier; This modifier is used in the choice C).
However, I would like to say dont go into technical terms, rather learn the usage.
3) Sometimes, it does modify previous clause as well.

Also, you may search for such usage in this forum. Ron has given a detailed reasoning on such patterns.

Thanks
H

Hi Ron,

Just want to understand whether the modifier in C 'each colony consisting .......' is an absolute phrase. If not then could you please explain what kind of modifier is it.

By absolute phrase I mean one in blue in the sentence below.
Their slender bodies sleek and black against the orange sky, the storks circled high above us.



Many thanks.

[gmatango]

Let me give 2 cents over here..
I doubt, if getting into technical terms can be fruitful. All I know is that in choice C, it is noun + noun modifier.
Noun + Non modifier works in the following ways:

1) It modifies the closest noun.
2) It takes any word from the previous sentence and then modifies or provides description to that word/object. (It is called Resumptive modifier; This modifier is used in the choice C).
However, I would like to say dont go into technical terms, rather learn the usage.
3) Sometimes, it does modify previous clause as well.

Thanks Himanshu for the explanation, though I figured it out before your reply. In fact, it is not an absolute phrase. It is indeed what you explained.

Why option B is wrong. Can you explain it. Also, what does Comma + With modifiers suppose to modify. Are they also flexible just as prepositional modifiers are. i.e can they modify both nouns as well as clauses.

Let me try this one. Usually "with + comma" modifies the previous clause and attaches to the subject of the clause i.e. make sense with the subkect. Here it is incorrect because "with each of them consisting of ......" attaches to Naked mole rats (the subject), whereas it should describe "colonies".

Hope it helps.

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron,

Just want to understand whether the modifier in C 'each colony consisting .......' is an absolute phrase. If not then could you please explain what kind of modifier is it.

By absolute phrase I mean one in blue in the sentence below.
Their slender bodies sleek and black against the orange sky, the storks circled high above us.



Many thanks.

hi,
sorry, but i basically don't know any grammar terms, except for the most basic ones. so i can't help you with this.
(if you ever see me explain a particular grammar term, the probability that i just searched that particular term on the internet is pretty much 100 percent.)

[RonPurewal]

Why option B is wrong. Can you explain it.

another issue with (b) is that "each of them" seems to refer to the twenty animals; it's not a good modifier.
to see what i'm saying, temporarily remove the words that follow "each of them":
...colonies of approximately twenty animals, with each of them...
--> when you read this, your first instinct is almost certainly that "them" is the animals, because the sentence has explicitly spelled out that there are a certain number (= twenty) of them.

[gmatango]

gmatango wrote:
Hi Ron,

Just want to understand whether the modifier in C 'each colony consisting .......' is an absolute phrase. If not then could you please explain what kind of modifier is it.

By absolute phrase I mean one in blue in the sentence below.
Their slender bodies sleek and black against the orange sky, the storks circled high above us.


hi,
sorry, but i basically don't know any grammar terms, except for the most basic ones. so i can't help you with this.
(if you ever see me explain a particular grammar term, the probability that i just searched that particular term on the internet is pretty much 100 percent.)

It's ok, Ron. I figured that part. And from next time onwards I won't post grammatical jargons.

another issue with (b) is that "each of them" seems to refer to the twenty animals; it's not a good modifier.
to see what i'm saying, temporarily remove the words that follow "each of them":
...colonies of approximately twenty animals, with each of them...
--> when you read this, your first instinct is almost certainly that "them" is the animals, because the sentence has explicitly spelled out that there are a certain number (= twenty) of them.

Naked mole rats form colonies of approximately twenty animals, with each of them consisting of a single reproductive female and workers that defend her.

Shouldn't "each of them" modify "Naked mole rates" ?

Shouldn't "with each of them ....." attach to the subject of the previous clause. As far as I have read that comma + "with" attaches to the subject of the previous clause and modifies the whole preceding clause. Please correct me where am I wrong .

[tim]

there are several nouns in the first clause, and i would say the focus of the entire first clause is "colonies", so the "with" phrase seems to be modifying "colonies" just fine. keep in mind with SC that you should not eliminate an answer choice because ONE possible interpretation is wrong if there is a correct interpretation. rather, you should eliminate an answer choice if there is NO conceivable way it can be interpreted to be correct..

[parthian7]

Hi Tim,

I have a question about A:

I understand that A is wrong since "each" (placed right after comma), implies that each animal consists of a reproductive female and workers..which doesn't make sense.

However, I was wondering whether A could also be eliminated because it divides two complete sentences using a comma as opposed to a semicolon?

In other words, would GMAT also consider the following wrong?

Naked mole rats form several colonies, each of which consists of a single female and numerous male workers.

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

However, I was wondering whether A could also be eliminated because it divides two complete sentences using a comma as opposed to a semicolon?

it's not two sentences.
"each of which" behaves exactly like "which": it's the start of a modifier, not the subject of a sentence.

try writing a simple sentence whose subject is "which" (or "each of which") and you'll pretty quickly see what's wrong with what you are saying here.

In other words, would GMAT also consider the following wrong?

Naked mole rats form several colonies, each of which consists of a single female and numerous male workers.

Thanks

that version would be fine.

[parthian7]

However, I was wondering whether A could also be eliminated because it divides two complete sentences using a comma as opposed to a semicolon?

it's not two sentences.
"each of which" behaves exactly like "which": it's the start of a modifier, not the subject of a sentence.

try writing a simple sentence whose subject is "which" (or "each of which") and you'll pretty quickly see what's wrong with what you are saying here.

In other words, would GMAT also consider the following wrong?

Naked mole rats form several colonies, each of which consists of a single female and numerous male workers.

Thanks

that version would be fine.

gotcha! merci :)

[tim]

:)

[noor_dalhousie]

Hi Ron

I negated C thinking that its a run on sentence. Please explain as to why "each of colonies consisting of.." is not a run on sentence.

Thank you!