As the honeybee's stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inser

When you see: CLAUSE + COMMA + PREPOSITION, the prepositional phrase can modify the entire previous clause, the same way an "-ing" modifier could. For example:

"Tim juggled torches to entertain his neighbors, with the result that much of the neighborhood is now on fire."

"With the result that" modifies the previous clause about Tim juggling torches. Makes sense.

As for your question, if we begin the second clause with "therefore," the meaning will be more or less the same, but the grammar is slightly different. For example:

"Tim juggled torches to entertain his neighbors; therefore, much of the neighborhood is now on fire."

Notice that now we need a semicolon to separate the two clauses, since the second clause could stand on its own as a complete sentence, but the idea conveyed is similar to the previous example.

I hope that helps!

As the honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inserted, this results in the
act of stinging causing the bee to sustain a fatal injury.
A. As the honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inserted, this
results in the act of stinging causing
B. As the heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, with the
result that the act of stinging causes
C. The honeybee’s stinger, heavily barbed and staying where it is inserted, results in
the fact that the act of stinging causes
D. The heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, and results
in the act of stinging causing
E. The honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted, with the
result that the act of stinging causes


Answer is (E) - please reference the video explanation here:
https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... stion/2407

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that the honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted and as a result, the act of stinging gives the bee a fatal injury.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Pronouns + Grammatical Construction

• If a list contains only two elements, they must be joined by conjunction; the "comma + and construction" (oxford comma) is used for the last element in a list of three or more elements.
• Information that is vital to the core meaning of the sentence cannot be placed between two commas.

A: This answer choice suffers from a pronoun error, as the pronoun "this" has no referent. Further, Option A incorrectly places information that is vital to the core meaning of the sentence - the fact that the honeybee's stinger stays where it is inserted - between two commas; please remember, information that is vital to the core meaning of the sentence cannot be placed between two commas.

B: This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as both "As the heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted" and "with the result that...injury" are dependent clauses, there is no independent clause for the modifiers to act on.

C: This answer choice incorrectly places information that is vital to the core meaning of the sentence - the fact that the honeybee's stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted - between two commas, illogically implying that the honeybee’s stinger itself results in the act of stinging causing a fatal injury to the bee; the intended meaning is that the honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted and as a result of these qualities, the act of stinging gives the bee a fatal injury; please remember, information that is vital to the core meaning of the sentence cannot be placed between two commas. Additionally, Option C uses the needlessly wordy phrase "the fact that the act of stinging", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

D: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "The heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, and results"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the particular stinger of the honeybee that is heavily barbed stays where it is inserted, and the honeybee’s stinger itself results in the act of stinging causing a fatal injury to the bee; the intended meaning is that the honeybee’s sole stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted and as a result of these qualities, the act of stinging gives the bee a fatal injury. Further, Option D incorrectly uses the "comma + conjunction ("and" in this sentence) construction " to join two elements in a list - the verbs "stays" and "results"; please remember, if If a list contains only two elements, they must be joined by a conjunction.

E: This answer choice avoids the pronoun error seen in Option A, as it provides a clear referent - "stinger" - for the sole pronoun it uses - "it". Further, Option E uses the independent clause "The honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted"; thus, Option E has an appropriate referent for the modifier "with the result...injury", forming a complete sentence. Additionally, Option E uses the clause "The honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed" and the phrase "with the result that", correctly implying that the honeybee’s sole stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted and as a result of these qualities, the act of stinging gives the bee a fatal injury. Moreover, Option E avoids the grammatical construction error seen in Options A and D, as it places no information between two commas. Option E also correctly uses conjunction ("and" in this sentence) to join two elements in a list - the verbs "is" and "stays". Besides, Option E is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Extra Information Between Commas" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

My bet is on D. Here are reasons-
A. As the honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inserted, this
results in the act of stinging causing---this
B. As the heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, with the
result that the act of stinging causes---with the result
C. The honeybee’s stinger, heavily barbed and staying where it is inserted, results in
the fact that the act of stinging causes---results in the fact
D. The heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, and results
in the act of stinging causing---good
E. The honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted, with the
result that the act of stinging causes---with the result

Let me know the OA.

Yes, I've looked up this question in another thread, and the OA is E! I managed to narrow my answer choices to C and E, but I chose C. Here's what I know: present participle + another present participle (stinging causing) is wrong because you don't know whether the first one is modifying the second one or the vise versa. That eliminates answer choices A, B,and D.

Another thing with option B is that the sentence starts with "as" treating the first part of the sentence as a dependant clause, so naturally you would expect to find an independent clause after the comma, but you don't. So it's wrong.

Now the tricky part is between C and E where I was stuck. The part that I should have paid attention in option C is the fact that it essentially says, "The honeybee's stinger results in the fact." So stingers automatically result to a fact??? It's illogical. So option E remains!

Hi Souvik,

Really a good question ... i think took me around 4-5 min to guess the answer (was between A & E).Finally had to look at the OA

I will take a shot at this question (as per my understanding)


(A) As the honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inserted, this results in the act of stinging causing

1)this -- pronoun -- does not have the clear refferent -- should refer to the staying where it is inserted which is a clause and hence cannot be referred to.

(B) As the heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, with the result that the act of stinging causes

1)As the heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted -- Dep. Clause
2)with the result that the act of stinging causes --- Modifier modifying stays
3)Indep. Clause missing ?

(C) The honeybee’s stinger, heavily barbed and staying where it is inserted, results in the fact that the act of stinging causes

1)does not conveys the intended meaning of the sentence....

(D) The heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, and results in the act of stinging causing

1)Seems from the meaning of the sentence that stinger results in the act of stinging whereas it is the act of stinger staying which results in.... (as per my understanding)

(E) The honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted, with the result that the act of stinging causes
Correct option

But what bothers me in this sentence is that this sentence (Option E) defines two characterstics of the Honeybee's stinger whereas the original sentence started with the meaning that
As the honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inserted

it looks as if since the honeybee's stinger is heavily barbed it stays where it is inserted (Pls correct me if i'm misintrepreting the meaaning of the sentence here)


Pls correct me if i'm missing some pt here.

@Ivan: couldn't agree more with you

Thanks
Jatin

This question is mainly based on meaning Clarity.
Evaluation of each option.

In A, the meaning of the sentence is completely distorted.
It is trying to show that action "staying" is subordinate to "heavily barbed". Incorrect.

In B, there is sentence fragment.
There is no verb in the first part and also in the second part.
Option B makes the entire sentence a fragment. Incorrect

In C, the meaning is incorrect.
It shows that the stinger results in the act of stinging. But it is the action of "staying where it is inserted" which results in the act of stinging.

D shows that staying and resulting are two different actions. Incorrect

E - Correct.
In this "with the result" clearly modifies the action "stays where it is inserted".

Thanks

+1E

Hi Debayan,

I do feel that you have gotten the mood right here. However, I still want to add a few things here to make things simpler and easier to apply.
Always remember that the modifiers are just some extra information in the sentence they help us pad up the sentence and make it look “fat” (complex). We should always be able to identify the core of the sentence that is the SV pair.

Look at this sentence with choice C:
The honeybee’s stinger, heavily barbed and staying where it is inserted, results in the fact that the act of stinging causes the bee to sustain a fatal injury.

We can easily eliminate “heavily… inserted” as it the exta padding in the sentence. The core of the sentence reads “The honeybee’s stinger results in…”. This usage is not correct. Just the stinger by itself does not result in anything. It is the action of insertion of the stinger that leads to fatal injury for honeybee’s. There has to be some kind of action associated for the use of “results in”.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

As the honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inserted, this results in the act of stinging causing the bee to sustain a fatal injury.

Lets Break the sentence:
Clause 1: As the honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inserted
Clause 2: this results in the act of stinging causing[/u] the bee to sustain a fatal injury :

Here wrong idiom is used, As X as Y is used for comparison and As + noun used to show the role. Here use of As is wrong.
This and These can not stand alone, they have to be used with a noun.

A. As the honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inserted, this results in the act of stinging causing

B. As the heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, with the result that the act of stinging causes

C. The honeybee’s stinger, heavily barbed and staying where it is inserted, results in the fact that the act of stinging causes - This sentence is grammatically correct but wrong in meaning. The honeybee stinger result in the fact. Under time pressure i also chose this choice wrongly.

D. The heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, and results in the act of stinging causing - Comma + and starts a new clause. In this sentence 'and' clause do not have a subject.

E. The honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted, with the result that the act of stinging causes- This seems to be the best option. However in am confused about with clause here.

As the honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inserted, this results in the act of stinging causing the bee to sustain a fatal injury.
A. As the honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inserted, this results in the act of stinging causing
B. As the heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, with the result that the act of stinging causes
C. The honeybee’s stinger, heavily barbed and staying where it is inserted, results in the fact that the act of stinging causes
D. The heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, and results in the act of stinging causing
E. The honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted, with the result that the act of stinging causes

A - structure: Sub-ordinate clause - Main clause
This -> refers to entire clause which is not correct - Pronoun cannot refer to entire clause.

B - sub-ordinate clause - Main clause
As... and with... both are prepositional phrases and not Main clause. So the option has no Main clause.

C - "The honeybee's stinger... results in the fact" the main clause doesn't represent an complete thought.

D - comma+and => connects 2 IC. The second clause "results in the act of stinging causing the bee to sustain a fatal injury" doesn't have a verb.

E - parallel structure The honeybee's stinger is heavily... & stays where...
prepositional phrase "with the result..." answers the question WHAT happens to honeybee’s stinger. Here the prepositional phrase acts as noun modifier
modifying subject of the main clause.

Also, here we have inverted sentence structure. Prepositional phrase+verb => of stinging causes. So verb "causes" belongs to subject "fatal injury"

If you like "kudo"...

hi,Dear AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , MagooshExpert , GMATGuruNY , VeritasKarishma , ChiranjeevSingh , VeritasPrepBrian , @MartyMurray , daagh , ccooley ,other experts
I have a question,
''My brother is BILLY and teaches the GMAT'',incorrect
but why "The honeybee's stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted, with the result that the act of stinging causes" can be correct .
thank you very much!

Can ''be'' and ''do '' parallel?

Hi wanghewei,

Happy to help! This is definitely tricky. When we have the verb "to be", ambiguities like this can arise. Although it's subtle, the problem with ''My brother is BILLY and teaches the GMAT'' is that we technically have two subjects here, "Billy" and "brother", and it's unclear which of them is the subject of "teaches the GMAT". That creates ambiguity here, which makes the sentence incorrect.

So to correct the ambiguity, we would want to say: ''My brother is BILLY and he teaches the GMAT''.

This issue only arises with the verb "to be" when we have multiple possible subjects. So the following sentence would be correct: "My brother is intelligent and teaches the GMAT". There's only one possible subject here: "brother". This is the same structure that the original sentence in this question follows ("the honeybee's stinger is heavily barbed..."). Since "heavily barbed" is an adjective, not a noun, there's no subject ambiguity, and so the parallelism is correct -- "stinger" is the subject of "is" and of "stays".

I hope that helps!
-Carolyn

Dear Expert,

I am also confused about the use of "with the result that" in option E. What part of speech is it and if it's a modifier, what exactly does it modify?

Or is it just a phrase that replaces "therefore"?

Dear experts,
In this question i was stuck between b and e. Had the option b read... As the heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted,the action causes...
Would it would have been right.
Kindly help me to understand option b.
Thank you.

Posted from my mobile device

Often, when we begin a sentence with "as," it functions like a conjunction, meaning "at the same time" or "because." For example:

"As Tim prepared to make to toast in the bathtub, his wife dialed the paramedics."

Here, "as" seems to convey the notion of "at the same time," and it connects the two clauses.

Now consider the following:

"As Tim prepared to make to toast in the bathtub, with the result that his wife dialed the paramedics."

Notice that both "as" and "with the result" are functioning like connectors here. That's no good - two clauses should only have one connector. We see the exact same problem in (B).

The word "as" doesn't appear in (E). Because we only have a single connector, (E) corrects the problem and is our winner.

I hope that helps!

Hi Experts,

would appreciate some clarity as to how the use of "it" in option E is justified in reference to the honeybee's stinger, which I believe is a possessive noun.

Hi mohitmajok,

The possessive noun is honeybee's, not stinger. The it refers to the whole noun phrase the honeybee's stinger, and not to only the possessive. That said, it is generally not a good idea to rely on the rule for possessive nouns and pronouns anyway.