the vast constellation of small islands

[ankurbansal84]

All, I tried the question below and opted for option B. The logic I used was that the sentence before the comma has a singular subject while the second part is talking of islands. Hence used plural verb

The OA is A

4. Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world’s 6,000 or so languages
a. Same
b. Pacific has a population of only a few million people, they are
c. Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is
d. Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless
e. Pacific, populated by only a few million people, yet they are

[agha79]

Please underline your question. It will be much appreciated if you provided the answer at the bottom after stating the question and answer choices instead of at the very top.

[ankurbansal84]

4. Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world’s 6,000 or so languages
a. Same
b. Pacific has a population of only a few million people, they are
c. Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is
d. Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless
e. Pacific, populated by only a few million people, yet they are

[nitin_prakash_khanna]

Thanks for posting it neatly. Makes it much better to read and as we all are trying to learn and test ourselves , always better to post OA after question & the answer choices. So agree with "agha79" on those points.

Now in my view the question is testing two things one as you pointed out S-V agreement. And the main subject is the "The constellation ".
Also i have noticed that GMAT uses Although for 2 main purposes , one to introduce a subordinate clause so as a subordinate conjuction and second for contrast.

A. Although.....(sub clause) , it....(Main clause). Also the contrast is very clear.
B. They doesnt agree with main subject
C. The comman & AND is wrong, we need two independent clauses if we want to use a coordinate conjuction
D. Awkard, for me if you remove the -ing modifier, its a fragement (other people might have better explanation for this choice so lets see if we get more inputs)
E. Although and Yet both show contrast so redundant and They doesnt agree with main subject.

[agha79]

Thanks ankurbansal84 for updating the question.
B & E are out because of Subject verb agreement. For "C" as Nitan described I don’t see any other issue other than coordinate conjunction.

[RonPurewal]

All, I tried the question below and opted for option B. The logic I used was that the sentence before the comma has a singular subject while the second part is talking of islands. Hence used plural verb

The OA is A

4. Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world’s 6,000 or so languages
a. Same
b. Pacific has a population of only a few million people, they are
c. Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is
d. Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless
e. Pacific, populated by only a few million people, yet they are

(b) has a weird subject shift - the subject suddenly changes from "constellation" to "islands" - but it doesn't really seem "wrong enough" to be a wrong answer on a real question.

[mehravikas]

Hi Ron,

This is a GMAT Prep question. I got it on Practice test 2. To be honest, I don't see a problem with "they are" in B. Can you explain any other reason to eliminate B please?

Thanks,
Vikas

All, I tried the question below and opted for option B. The logic I used was that the sentence before the comma has a singular subject while the second part is talking of islands. Hence used plural verb

The OA is A

4. Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world’s 6,000 or so languages
a. Same
b. Pacific has a population of only a few million people, they are
c. Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is
d. Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless
e. Pacific, populated by only a few million people, yet they are

(b) has a weird subject shift - the subject suddenly changes from "constellation" to "islands" - but it doesn't really seem "wrong enough" to be a wrong answer on a real question.

i noticed that this is probably not a GMATPREP question. you definitely didn't get it from GMATPREP, because it says "4." in front of it.

what's the actual source of the question?
if you don't say, we'll delete this thread in a couple of weeks.

[devneeetbajaj]

B is wrong as "they are" assumes the subject is the people. But the constellation is the subject as it is "the home to ..." and not the people.

[RonPurewal]

B is wrong as "they are" assumes the subject is the people. But the constellation is the subject as it is "the home to ..." and not the people.

yeah, but:

* it doesn't say "THE home to...", it just says "home to..."
(this actually doesn't make any difference here; i'm just pointing it out)

* it's perfectly possible for several islands (or several of something else) to be "home to" something. i.e., if you have "X is/are home to...", then there is no guarantee that X is singular.
for instance:
these row houses, which were once home to the city's elite, are now home to a fearsome street gang.

so - as i stated above, the only thing wrong with this aspect of (b) is the weird subject shift that takes place.
i.e.
you can totally say that the constellation of islands is home to X people, but you can also say that the islands (themselves) are home to X people.
the former is only better in that "the constellation..." is already the subject of the preceding clause, so that the sentence "flows" better.

--

on the other hand, the pronoun in (a) ("it") is also better than the pronoun in (b) ("they").

in (a), "it" is technically ambiguous between "vast constellation" and "South Pacific", but there is GRAMMATICAL PARALLELISM between "it" and "vast constellation" because each of these is the subject of its respective clause. (click here for more details on this "acceptable pronoun ambiguity".)

in (b), "they" is also technically ambiguous, between "small islands" and "a few million people". however, in this instance, neither of these words is grammatically parallel to the pronoun: the pronoun is the subject of its clause, but neither of these possible antecedents is the subject of its own clause. so this is not as good.

[eggpain24]

Hi，Ron

the correct choice here is definitely A

but I got a doubt

“has a population of only a few million people” seems to be a little awkward

would “ has a population of a few million" or " has a few million people" a better construction ?

because I think population already has the meaning of "people" involved~

Please clarify, thanks!

[douyang]

B is wrong as "they are" assumes the subject is the people. But the constellation is the subject as it is "the home to ..." and not the people.

yeah, but:

* it doesn't say "THE home to...", it just says "home to..."
(this actually doesn't make any difference here; i'm just pointing it out)

* it's perfectly possible for several islands (or several of something else) to be "home to" something. i.e., if you have "X is/are home to...", then there is no guarantee that X is singular.
for instance:
these row houses, which were once home to the city's elite, are now home to a fearsome street gang.

so - as i stated above, the only thing wrong with this aspect of (b) is the weird subject shift that takes place.
i.e.
you can totally say that the constellation of islands is home to X people, but you can also say that the islands (themselves) are home to X people.
the former is only better in that "the constellation..." is already the subject of the preceding clause, so that the sentence "flows" better.

--

on the other hand, the pronoun in (a) ("it") is also better than the pronoun in (b) ("they").

in (a), "it" is technically ambiguous between "vast constellation" and "South Pacific", but there is GRAMMATICAL PARALLELISM between "it" and "vast constellation" because each of these is the subject of its respective clause. (click here for more details on this "acceptable pronoun ambiguity".)

in (b), "they" is also technically ambiguous, between "small islands" and "a few million people". however, in this instance, neither of these words is grammatically parallel to the pronoun: the pronoun is the subject of its clause, but neither of these possible antecedents is the subject of its own clause. so this is not as good.

As for the pronoun "they" vs. "it", can we eliminate the wrong answer based on the agreement? Specifically,

A: "has" agrees with "it" --> this is ok
B: "has“ does not agree with "they" --> wrong
C: "is" agrees with "it" --> this is ok
D: does not have pronoun --> ok
E: there is no agreement issue there --> ok/move on

[douyang]

B is wrong as "they are" assumes the subject is the people. But the constellation is the subject as it is "the home to ..." and not the people.

yeah, but:

* it doesn't say "THE home to...", it just says "home to..."
(this actually doesn't make any difference here; i'm just pointing it out)

* it's perfectly possible for several islands (or several of something else) to be "home to" something. i.e., if you have "X is/are home to...", then there is no guarantee that X is singular.
for instance:
these row houses, which were once home to the city's elite, are now home to a fearsome street gang.

so - as i stated above, the only thing wrong with this aspect of (b) is the weird subject shift that takes place.
i.e.
you can totally say that the constellation of islands is home to X people, but you can also say that the islands (themselves) are home to X people.
the former is only better in that "the constellation..." is already the subject of the preceding clause, so that the sentence "flows" better.

--

on the other hand, the pronoun in (a) ("it") is also better than the pronoun in (b) ("they").

in (a), "it" is technically ambiguous between "vast constellation" and "South Pacific", but there is GRAMMATICAL PARALLELISM between "it" and "vast constellation" because each of these is the subject of its respective clause. (click here for more details on this "acceptable pronoun ambiguity".)

in (b), "they" is also technically ambiguous, between "small islands" and "a few million people". however, in this instance, neither of these words is grammatically parallel to the pronoun: the pronoun is the subject of its clause, but neither of these possible antecedents is the subject of its own clause. so this is not as good.

As for the pronoun "they" vs. "it", can we eliminate the wrong answer based on the agreement? Specifically,

A: "has" agrees with "it" --> this is ok
B: "has“ does not agree with "they" --> wrong
C: "is" agrees with "it" --> this is ok
D: does not have pronoun --> ok
E: there is no agreement issue there --> ok/move on

[750plus]

Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.
(A) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is
(B) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, they are
(C) Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is
(D) Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless
(E) Pacific, populated by only a few million people, yet they are

Dear Team,

Can you please explain what is wrong with the choice D above ?

If I try to remove the fluff , having a population of only a few million people , that is modifying South Pacific, option D looks like

Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific is nonetheless home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

I see that there is something INCOMPLETE here.
The construction with Subordinating Conjunction is [Subordinator] Dependent Clause, Independent Clause. I don't see that here.

I think the CONTRAST is missing ?

Please if you can help me with this.

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

i can't really tell you anything about the terminology, because i don't know / don't remember any of it.

the problem with choice D, simply put, is that choice D is not a sentence.

consider:

Although my brother likes cold weather, he lives in the tropics.
this is a complete sentence.

Although my brother likes cold weather.
this is not a complete sentence.

the overall structure of choice D is like the second of these examples.
look at your 'condensed' version again (the one you got by removing the modifier). it has a ton of words, but, structurally, it's identical to Although my brother likes cold weather.
thus, it is only a piece of a sentence (regardless of whether a contrast is present and/or correctly placed).

[750plus]

i can't really tell you anything about the terminology, because i don't know / don't remember any of it.

the problem with choice D, simply put, is that choice D is not a sentence.

consider:

Although my brother likes cold weather, he lives in the tropics.
this is a complete sentence.

Although my brother likes cold weather.
this is not a complete sentence.

the overall structure of choice D is like the second of these examples.
look at your 'condensed' version again (the one you got by removing the modifier). it has a ton of words, but, structurally, it's identical to Although my brother likes cold weather.
thus, it is only a piece of a sentence (regardless of whether a contrast is present and/or correctly placed).

Perfect. Thanks for the confirmation Mr. Purewal.

This helps.

Warm Regards
Rajat Gugnani