Bunuel wrote:
After comparing lighter and darker stickleback fish and discovering that the Kit lignad gene – which makes a protein that plays a role in controlling pigmentation – is altered in the lighter fish, the same alteration was found by scientists in humans with lighter skin.A. After comparing lighter and darker stickleback fish and discovering that the Kit lignad gene – which makes a protein that plays a role in controlling pigmentation – is altered in the lighter fish, the same alteration was found by scientists in humans with lighter skin.
B. After comparing lighter and darker stickleback fish and discovering that the Kit lignad gene – which makes a protein that plays a role in controlling pigmentation – is altered in the lighter fish, scientists found this same alteration in humans with lighter skin.
C. After comparing lighter and darker stickleback fish and discovering that the Kit lignad gene – which makes a protein that plays a role in controlling pigmentation – is altered in the lighter fish, humans with lighter skin were found to have the same alteration.
D. Scientists, after comparing lighter and darker stickleback fish and discovering that the Kit lignad gene – which make a protein that plays a role in controlling pigmentation – is altered in the lighter fish, found this same alteration in humans with lighter skin.
E. Scientists, after comparing lighter and darker stickleback fish, discovered that the Kit lignad gene – which makes a protein that plays a role in controlling pigmentation – is altered in the lighter fish, found this same alteration in humans with lighter skin.
VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:
Your primary decision point on this problem should likely be the modifier "After comparing..." to start the sentence. This question uses the classic technique of adding plenty of adjectives, modifiers, and other "extras" to distract you from that core structure, but if you strip the sentence structure of choices (A), (B), and (C) down to their basics you're left with:
"After comparing..., _______"
(A) follows the modifier with "that same alteration," which is clearly illogical (the alteration didn't do the comparing). (A) can therefore be eliminated.
(B) follows the modifier with "scientists," a very logical fit for that modifier.
And (C) follows it with "humans with lighter skin" which isn't in and of itself totally illogical, but doesn't fit because that portion goes on to say "were found to have the same alteration." This shows that they were the object of a discovery and not the subject - they weren't the ones doing the comparing - so you can eliminate (C) also.
Choice (D) does not have a modifier problem, but choice (E) does: in choice (E), you can eliminate adjectives and modifiers to streamline the sentence to say "Scientists discovered X, found Y." Whereas other choices used "discovering" as a modifier, choice (E) uses "discovered" as an active verb, and in doing so requires a link (such as "and") between the two equivalent actions "discovered" and "found." Without that link, (E) can be eliminated.
Choice (D) is incorrect for a different reason: inside the dashed modifier is the phrase "which make." What is that modifying? "The gene" which is singular, and therefore calls for the singular verb "makes." So (D) is guilty of a subject-verb agreement error, making choice (B) the correct answer.