Thorny ballooning

[poonamchiK]

Like the thorny ballooning of a frightened pufferfish or the sudden appearance of angry sapphire hoops for which the blue-ringed octopus is named, so the California newt's display of its red underbelly is a clear warning that predators ignore at their peril.

(A) so the California newt's display of its red underbelly is a clear warning that predators ignore at their peril

(B) so it is at their peril that predators ignore the California newt's display of its red underbelly, a clear warning

(C) the California newt's displaying its red underbelly is a clear warning for predators, so they ignore it at their peril

(D) the California newt's display of its red underbelly is a clear warning that predators ignore at their peril

(E) it is at their peril that predators ignore the California newt's display of its red underbelly, a clear warning


OA is d. I got it right but some explanation and reasoning will be grt.
:-)

Thx

[singh.181]

The sentence intends to compare the signs displayed by various creatures, when they sense danger. Since, we are using "Like", which compares two noun or a noun phrases.

In this sentence, since we have a noun phrase after the "Like". So, we a noun phrase in the second part of the sentence.

so, D is best choice.

Note: In C, "the California newt's displaying" is awkward. possessive +verbing is awkward.

[RonPurewal]

@ original poster --

OA is d. I got it right but some explanation and reasoning will be grt.

please ask a specific question(s) about the problem; please don't just post an entire problem and say "explain".

what do you already understand? what don't you understand?

thanks.

[sidhant]

Like the thorny ballooning of a frightened pufferfish or the sudden appearance of angry sapphire hoops for which the blue-ringed octopus is named, so the California newt's display of its red underbelly is a clear warning that predators ignore at their peril.

(A) so the California newt's display of its red underbelly is a clear warning that predators ignore at their peril

(B) so it is at their peril that predators ignore the California newt's display of its red underbelly, a clear warning

(C) the California newt's displaying its red underbelly is a clear warning for predators, so they ignore it at their peril

(D) the California newt's display of its red underbelly is a clear warning that predators ignore at their peril

(E) it is at their peril that predators ignore the California newt's display of its red underbelly, a clear warning

Between C & D, I chose D because I felt that the "so they ignore.." in C was weird. It just didn't fit in. Also, D had the more parallel "display of its red" that I thought was parallel to "thorny ballooning of a frightened".

Can you please tell me if my reasoning is correct?

[RonPurewal]

Between C & D, I chose D because I felt that the "so they ignore.." in C was weird. It just didn't fit in.

i would agree with that assessment.

there's also the notion that
possessive + verbING + object
isn't correct, and that the correct version is
possessive + verbING + OF + object

for instance,
i don't understand russell's constant washing his hands is not an ok sentence.
i don't understand russell's constant washing of his hands is ok.

i don't know whether this is really a rule, but in thinking about it for a while i couldn't come up with any substantive exceptions.