The army cutworm moth is a critical source of fat for many of Yellowst

semicolon in B is the problem 'cos each statement should be an independent clause.

E has no antcedent problems and the participle consuming correctly describes the action of the bears.

Also we can remove the "which overturn rocks to find the insects"
to check this

agreed... E looks the best

gerunds with -ing ARE NOT verbs, thus don't create an indep. clause...

THEY in D isn't clear... who is eating THEM??? isn't it the "ARMY OF MOTHS" and not just "MOTHS"

When you mentioned GERUNDS did you refer to option B??

A B and C... those are choices don't have 'modifiers'... and they mean "action"... Consume, overturn, etc... one might mistake those as participle modifier, but there isn't anything after semicolon that modifier could refer to. in addtion, the construction of the second part must me Indep Clause (just as you said)

A. After ";" must go clause. We see correct clause construction (clause has subject, object & verb). Problem with pronouns (they, them - whom do they search for, who searches?)
B. After ";" must go clause. We see phrase.
C. 'Overturning rocks' modifies bears. Thus, it must be connected with bears with 'which' or 'who'
D. Problem with pronouns (they, them - whom do they search for, who searches?)
E. Right connection. (which). All errors are corrected, and no errors are added - right one

Relative pronouns who, which can refer to people/animals.
Relative pronouns that, which can refer to things.

Is the usage of which in OA correct? I suppose 'who' would be a better relative pronoun. Can some one clarify this?

Yeah I knew the usage of who and whom pertaining to human beings, but I was dicey with their usages in context of animals.

Need to brush up finer details before the D-Day.

Thanks.

A. bears; they overturn rocks to find them and consuming as many as
B. bears; overturning rocks to find the insects, consuming up to
C. bears, overturning rocks to find them and they consume as many as
D. bears, and they overturn rocks to find them and consume up to
E. bears, which overturn rocks to find the insects, consuming as many as

Down with B and E

bears; overturning rocks to find the insects, consuming up to - After ; the highlighted part is not an independent clause.

bears, which overturn rocks to find the insects, consuming as many as

Which - Correctly refers to Bears

Consuming - Presents additional information

As many as - Idiomatically correct and correctly used to refer to countable nouns...


Hence E

I understand E is the best option here , but in this option 'which' is modyfying a living thing. Is this usage of 'which' is correct ? . Experts please explain

When you are talking about an animal say a "dog" .
If this dog has a name say Mike then you would refer to him by using "who" (same way as we refer people)
But if the dog does not have a name and we just use "dog" or "dogs" , in this case "which" or "that" has to be used to refer to them.


i hope its clear
kudos please if it helped

How does which refer to a noun (bears). Think should be who instead of which

Which can clearly refer to bears here.
Only in case of humans, I think we should specifically use "who"

Think of animals as objects, you would normally say 'it is a cute puppy'

Not every verb + ing word is a gerund; there are three types of verb + ing words such as 1. A progressive tense word (when used with another helping verb, mostly a 'be' verb, or its derivative) example: is singing/ were singing etc 2. a present participle, mostly acting as part of an adverbial or adjectival modifier example -- singing a song, John walked along the river bank etc, with or without a comma before, and 3. as a gerund to denote an action noun, as in constructing a house is tedious job these days, etc.. Each is used in a specific context of its own.
Overturning is not a gerund but a participle in both B and C.

The army cutworm moth is a critical source of fat for many of Yellowstone National Park's grizzly bears; they overturn rocks to find them and consuming as many as 40,000 apiece in a single day.

A. bears; they overturn rocks to find them and consuming as many as - pronoun them can't refer to moth
B. bears; overturning rocks to find the insects, consuming up to - uses a semicolon incorrectly (the part that comes after the semicolon is a fragment).
C. bears, overturning rocks to find them and they consume as many as - pronoun them can't refer to moth ; uses a COMMA -ING modifier incorrectly; that choice actually implies that the moth itself overturns the rocks.
D. bears, and they overturn rocks to find them and consume up to - pronoun them can't refer to moth
E. bears, which overturn rocks to find the insects, consuming as many as - Correct

Answer E

A. bears; they overturn rocks to find them and consuming as many as

1. "them" antecedent is not present. "moth" is used singularly in the sentence.
2. X and Y, "overturn" is not parallel to "consuming"


B. bears; overturning rocks to find the insects, consuming up to

1. ";" is followed by a modifier. It should be followed by an independent clause
2. Verb-ing post comma modifies the preceding clause and doer of the action is the subject of the preceding clause. Here the subject is "moth" while "bears" are performing the act of "overturning"


C. bears, overturning rocks to find them and they consume as many as

1. Verb-ing post comma modifies the preceding clause and doer of the action is the subject of the preceding clause. Here the subject is "moth" while "bears" are performing the act of "overturning"
2. No clear antecedent for "them"
3. "overturning rocks" is not parallel with "they consume"


D. bears, and they overturn rocks to find them and consume up to

1. "No clear antecedent for "them"
2. That the bears "overturn" rocks to find them and "consume up to" are not independent actions. Usage of "and" is wrong here.


E. bears, which overturn rocks to find the insects, consuming as many as

Looks okay. It correct the errors pointed above.
"Consuming" is modifying the subject of the preceding clause, "which" and "which" refers to "bears"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7kcxfICVhY&list=PL0LGZMx8pP21Jx8Er_L5V-HfbPn9DKY7M&index=14


39:30

Although the discussion of participial modifiers [comma + verbING] is fruitful,
it is probably quicker to use these concept areas to eliminate four incorrect answers

• pronoun disagreement (NOT ambiguity), and
• a semicolon used incorrectly

The sentence means that a certain kind of worm is a critical source of fat for grizzly bears—so critical
that grizzly bears overturn rocks to find and consume thousands of these insects each day.

Split #1: The army cutworm, singular, vs. pronoun THEM, plural

Ignore pronoun ambiguity.
We know what "them" is supposed to mean: the bugs that the bears eat.
Because two options use "the insects," check the pronoun THEM for antecedent disagreement or non-existence.

Options A, C, and D contain pronoun disagreement.

GMAC often tolerates pronoun ambiguity.
Occasionally GMAC tolerates ambiguity even if two forms of a similar pronoun are used.

GMAC never tolerates disagreement between pronoun and antecedent.

In the underlined portion, as usual, GMAC gives a clue about whether
"the critical source of fat" for grizzly bears is singular or plural.

The moth is singular. (The verb that follows the moth is singular: IS.)

Options A, C, and D incorrectly use the plural pronoun them to refer to the bugs that the bears eat.
Eliminate A, C, and D

Split #2: Semicolons must separate two full independent clauses

The RHS of B is not a complete sentence—the RHS is not an independent clause,
because that RHS has neither subject nor verb,
and an independent clause requires both.

RHS of semicolon in B: overturning rocks to find the insects, consuming up to 40,000 apiece in a single day.
-- No subject.
-- No verb. Participial verbals (verbINGs and verbEDs) are not working verbs.
Wrong, no working verb: The leader spreading discontent and hatred.
Correct, contains a working verb: The leader spread discontent and hatred.

Do not worry about whether the verbING can "hop over" the semicolon (it cannot).
The right hand side of the semicolon is not a full sentence. End of story.

The semicolon in B incorrectly contains one clause that is not a full independent clause.
Eliminate B.

By POE, the answer is E

• Check. Does E have errors?

PRONOUN ISSUE?
No. In E, the sentence sensibly uses "the insects" to refer to what the bears eat.

COMMA + WHICH?
Correct. That structure modifies the immediately preceding noun, bears.
Which can always refer to non-human nouns.
-- Which can never refer to people. We use who for people.

COMMA + WHICH = a non-essential modifier set off by a comma
If we remove the non-essential modifier (comma + which), the sentence still makes sense.
We could end the sentence this way and retain the core meaning of the sentence:
The army cutworm moth is a critical source of fat for many of Yellowstone National Park's grizzly bears.

The answer is E