The five hundred largest manufacturing firms in the United States prod

Hi,

+ 1 E

The question says that out of the 500 Mil species, 99% have vanished & you have to seek this relationship
A,B,C are eliminated since they cannot establish the above relationship

D - "0f 500 million" => that there could be even 1000 Million species & 99% of the 500 Million disappeared which is wrong
E = the adding of the makes it specific thus is correct

Hope this helps

I got stuck between B and E then chose E.

B just didn't convey the meaning the same way E does.

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Choice E is correct one because in choice D "them" is ambiguous.

In choice B, percentage of plural noun + singular verb (S - V agreement)

My 2 cents: B vs E.
In B "creatures that appeared" past tense is not correct, because 500mill species as a group even shares species of present tense also. Therefore, limiting their appearance in the past overall is not good. In option E use of present perfect eliminates that error. Further, this question is not explained properly on any reliable forum by any expert. above mentioned difference is the only thing I managed to figure out.

B. Nearly 99 percent of five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared on Earth have vanished.
E. Of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent have vanished.

A. them - ambiguously refers to living creatures, living creatures that have appeared of the Earth etc.
B. "appeared", "have vanished" - states that the creatures existed. To make it parallel the second clause should also be in past tense.
C. "vanished are", "appeared" - not a parallel construction
D. them - ambiguously refers to living creatures, living creatures that have appeared of the Earth etc.
E. correct answer.


Thanks Anuj!

Clear E.

Only B and E seem to come close to make it as the OA but the missing "the" in front on "five hundred million" in option B makes it incorrect.

So only E remains.

This question is a typical example of choosing the best among the worst.

Original Sentence - Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them vanishing.

Have appeared does not go with vanishing- Tense or parallelism issue

B. Nearly 99 percent of five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared
on Earth have vanished.- The meaning of the sentence is that 99% of 50000000 species just vanished, i.e. they vanished at once in the recent past. The intended meaning is that the 99% of 50000000 species have vanished from the beginning of time till now. - Incorrect


C. Vanished are nearly 99 percent of the five hundred million different species of living
creatures that appeared on Earth. - Poor Structure - Non-necessary passive voice construction

D. Of five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth,
nearly 99 percent of them have vanished- Same meaning issue as in choice B. The meaning of the sentence is that 99% of 50000000 species just vanished, i.e. they vanished at once in the recent past.

E. Of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth,
nearly 99 percent have vanished. - Though the opening clause modifies nearly. This is a bit disconcerting but at least the meaning is clear because have is used properly and is in a parallel form. So E seems to be the best choice

Meaning :
500 Million different Species have appeared on earth and 99% have vanished .( We are among lucky 1 % )

Error In original sentence.
Sentence construction - " them vanishing" Second part does not have verb "vanishing" is not verb.
Two ideas Appeared and vanished are not connected through proper connection word.
Them in second part does not sound proper and illogically refer to 500 million number (not sure if this reason is wrong to eliminate them)

POE
A. Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them vanishing.
Incorrect - Reason explained above

B. Nearly 99 percent of five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared on Earth have vanished.
Caluse 1 - Nearly 99 percent (Fluff) have vanished - Correct
Clause 2 - that (species) appeared on Earth - Species appeared and effect is still on ( we are still on earth). Hence present perfect have appeared is right.

Incorrect

C. Vanished are nearly 99 percent of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared on Earth.
Incorrect structure - Vanished are something. this is not correct. we wanted to say something is vanished.

D. Of five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them have vanished.
clause 1 - Of five hundred million different species of living creatures, nearly 99 percent of them have vanished
Them doesn't not have antecedent.
Incorrect.

E. Of five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent have vanished
Removes the error introduced in option D.
Creatures have appeared - Correct
Of five hundred million different species of living creatures,nearly 99 percent have vanished - correct

Correct answer - E

asaar does it help.

Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them vanishing.

A. Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appeared on Earth nearly 99 percent of them vanishing. ----This choice says that the verb+ing modifier of vanishing is a result of the earlier action of appearance or the impact of it. This is absurd.

B. Nearly 99 percent of five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared on Earth have vanished. --- 'That appeared' implies that all of the five hundred million species appeared at the single time. This is weird. In Evolution, species keep on generating and keep on dying.

C. Vanished are nearly 99 percent of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared on Earth. --- Same problem as in B.

D. Of five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them have vanished. ---- 'of them' is redundant since five million species are already stated. However, the allegation that 'them' ambiguously may refer to either species or creatures may not be sustainable, since the reference is about the different species of living creatures and not about different species dead creatures.


E. Of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent have vanished ... error free.

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