HC1993 wrote:
I have one doubt anyone can help with option C
C) include the animal known as the killer whale, growing up to 30 feet long and being
Why growing being verb-ing modifier isn't modifying killer whale?
I chose C as i thought its grammatically correct but now i see it's meaning changed but for my knowledge of modifiers. How can you be sure if the modifier (growing) is modifying killer whale or 32 species or any verb?
Please help.
Relying on grammar "rules" often backfires on GMAT SC, unfortunately. Instead, let's simply compare (slightly shortened versions of) choice (A) and choice (C):
Quote:
(A) "The 32 species {...} are closely related to whales and include the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow to be 30 feet long..."
Here we have a noun modifier ("which...") that logically modifies the noun right before it: "the killer whale" (or "the
animal known as the killer whale" -- it's the same meaning either way).
The reader doesn't really have to think twice here. It's obvious that the "which" clause describes the killer whale, and there's no reason to go all the way back to the beginning of the sentence.
But here's (C):
Quote:
(C) "The 32 species {...} are closely related to whales and include the animal known as the killer whale, growing up to 30 feet long..."
Sure, "-ing" words can describe nouns (as explained in
this article). But if we wanted "growing" to modify "killer whale," why put a comma between them? The comma makes the reader think that the "-ing" modifier describes the entire preceding clause, which doesn't make much sense.
Can you figure out what the author intends here? Sure. But it's awfully confusing, and most readers will have to re-read the sentence to make sense of it.
So, we have one choice where the meaning of the modifier is clear and obvious and another that makes the reader think twice. That gives us a pretty solid reason to choose (A) over (C).
I hope that helps!
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