Unlike other arachnids, which have their nerve cells evenly distribute

Hi All,

Unlike other arachnids, which have their nerve cells evenly distributed along their bodies, the scorpion’s nerve cells are clustered in its head, like a mammal’s.



Error Ananlysis:

This sentence presents contrast between two illogical entities – “arachnids” and “the scorpion’s nerve cell”. Since “arachnids” is in the non-underlined portion of the sentence, it should be contrasted with the “scorpion” itself and not with its nerve cells.

POE:

Choice A: bodies, the scorpion’s nerve cells are clustered in its head, like a mammal’s: Incorrect for the reason stated above.

Choice B: bodies, the scorpion’s head had a cluster of nerve cells, as a mammal does: Incorrect. Here the “arachnids” have been illogically contrasted with the “head” of the scorpion.

Choice C: body, the scorpion has a cluster of nerve cells in its head, as a mammal does: Correct. This choice presents the logical contrast between “arachnids” and “scorpion”.

Choice D: body, nerve cells are clustered in the scorpion’s head, like a mammal’s: Incorrect. Here the “arachnids” have been illogically contrasted with the “nerve cells” of the scorpion.

Choice E: body, a cluster of nerve cells is in the scorpion’s head, like a mammal’s: Incorrect. Here the “arachnids” have been illogically contrasted with the “a cluster of nerve cells”.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

You do not say " the mamals have two eyes in their heads". You say " the mamals have two eyes in their head" ,

Look at the comparison and you'll see the right answer in 20 seconds.

I did not know that GMAT can place such trap. Thanks.

Can you please let me know if the option with " like " is considered as incorrect in GMAT ? If this is the case then we can eliminate 3 options , if not , please let me know when to use " like " .

parallel is the only issue here.
Like + X, Y.... (X and Y must be nouns and subjects)
As A do, Y do...

I got the correct answer (C) and I know why it is correct. But is 'body' correct considering that 'arachnids' is plural? Shouldn't it be 'bodies'?

Unlike other arachnids, which have their nerve cells evenly distributed along their bodies, the scorpion’s nerve cells are clustered in its head, like a mammal’s.


Unlike [ other arachnids ] , {which have their nerve cells evenly distributed along their bodies}, [ "here the comparison should be something that can be compared with arachnids"].
In A arachnids are compared with nerve cells, wrong.

arachnids compared with scorpion's head . wrong.

arachnids compared with scorpion. Clean comparison.

same reason as B.

arachnids compared with cluster of nerve cells. wrong.

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