Besides the color of its coat, the most notable characteristic of the

buan15



A may be parallel but it has a serious pronoun error and not just an ambiguity. I wouldn't, therefore, reckon it as a contender. In B, there is no parallelism involved. it is just the t passive voice has been used to describe the two features. Use of passive voice may be inferior but cannot be deemed an error. Therefore, I am voting B.

Besides the color of its coat, the most notable characteristic of the snow leopard tends to be its heavily tufted tail, which accounts for 50% of the animal’s length and which has two notable functions: it keeps the animal warm—the leopard will wrap the tail around its head—and it can be used to dispatch small prey.

A)it keeps the animal warm—the leopard will wrap the tail around its head—and it can be used to dispatch small prey

B)the leopard is kept warm by the tail, which can also be used to dispatch small prey
the passive voice construction is not correct and the use of "which" makes the two separate functions less apparent
C)the tail keeps the animal warm by wrapping around the leopard’s head and small prey can be dispatched
this also blends the two separate functions
D)it keeps the animal warm, with the leopard wrapping it around its head, and it can be used in dispatching small prey
"with the leopard wrapping" is awkward and the "it" pronouns are confusing
E)in keeping the animal warm, it will wrap the tail around its head, and it can also be used to dispatch small prey
this makes wrapping the tail around it's head, rather than keeping the animal warm, the first function

we need to present 2 functions:
1. keeps the animal warm
2. is used to dispatch small prey

intention is needed to be stated with "to"+verb
A might look like a run-on sentence, but the hyphens play the role of the comma, so A is correct as is.
B - written in passive voice, and gives only 1 function, while the other one is given in a subordinate clause introduced by the noun modifier which. so no.
C - it seems that something else is dispatching the prey. since the original meaning is distorted, it can't be the answer.
D - as mentioned many times by mikemcgarry - preposition+noun+participle - never ever correct on gmat. D is out.
E - who will wrap? ambiguous "it" twice used..

A it is.

'it' and 'its' in A does not have the same antecedent.

Is that acceptable?

No, such usage is strictly forbidden. The OA appears to be wrong. The author probably considers the segment "—the leopard will wrap the tail around its head—" a different sentence altogether, but like you, I beg to differ.

Hi Sayantan,

Additionally, one its is used to refer leopard and one its is used to refer to tail creating ambiguity. I read somewhere this kind of usage is not preferred.

Please advise.

Thanks
Arijit

Since there is a divergence in the pronoun reference between 'it' and 'its', all choices containing 'its' are grammatically wrong. This leaves us with only B and C.
The colon is required to portray the two features stated in the earlier clause and B does it adequately, although in a passive voice. C can be faulted for the disconnect of the second clause after 'and' from the core theme of the topic.

What is the correct answer then? A or B? A is parallel structure with pronoun ambiguity & B conveys the meaning properly without parallelism.
I think A sounds better.
Please advise.

Hi daagh sir,

IMO ,B is distorting the meaning ..
original sentence says that tail has two notable function ,
Besides the color of its coat, the most notable characteristic of the snow leopard tends to be its heavily tufted tail, which accounts for 50% of the animal’s length and which has two notable functions: it keeps the animal warm—the leopard will wrap the tail around its head—and it can be used to dispatch small prey.

but in B : B)the leopard is kept warm by the tail, which can also be used to dispatch small prey---"which" makes the other function kind of fluff ...so it contain only one function altogether , hence wrong ..

Please correct me , if wrong .

sobby
Hi
Maybe you are right if you get into nuance, but to differentiate between the relative weight of two functions is not the intent of the topic.
Maybe B is only the best of the lot and not the best of the world but if you miss it, you might end up in the wrong territory by opting for less tenable choices

Thank you sir for clarifying the doubts.
Can you please update the OA?
Thanks...

Hi

Could you explain more about point D, preposition + noun + participle never correct on the GMAT, thanks.

No major grammar issues than parallelism (2 functions), meaning and awkward -> A is the best.

Hi GMATNinja GMATNinjatwo,

Is the usage of "will" correct in A. Please advise.

Official Explanation Magoosh:

Usual suspects

Change in meaning

The leopard wraps the tail around its head. Any answer choice that implies that the tail wraps itself around the leopard’s head—as though it were its own entity—changes the meaning and is therefore wrong. Eliminate (C) and (E).

Parallelism

See “unusual suspect”

Unusual suspect

The non-underlined part talks about “two notable functions”. Therefore, the correct answer should have function X AND function Y. And these two parts should be parallel.

This specific error, “two notable functions”, is rare, but the larger class of errors that can loosely be described as take-the-entire-sentence-into-account is common at the higher levels. In other words, answers choices that are grammatically 100% fine but are not the answer because they clash with the context provided by the non-underlined part.

(A) correctly follows the function X AND function Y structure with the parallel “it keeps….it can be”. The Answer.

(B) is grammatically correct but does not adhere to the function X AND function Y structure.

(C) change in meaning, “tail…wrapping around leopard’s head”

(D) The “with the leopard wrapping” structure is wrong here. This is a case of "with" + [noun] + [participle] where you have an action performed by a different actor. The tail is an actor performing an action in the main clause, but the leopard is another actor doing something different inside the "with" structure. See this article for more details.

(E) The first “it” is presumably the tail. Since that is the case, the “tail will wrap the tail around its head” is absurd.

FAQ: Isn't it problematic that in the correct answer choice (A) the "it" refers to the tail and the "its" refers to the leopard?

The reason why "its" can refer to the "leopard" is because the phrase "the leopard will wrap the tail around its head" is a complete sentence clearly set off from the rest of the sentence by the two em dashes ( -- ). This creates what's called a "parenthetical". And within this separated, self-contained sentence, we can distinguish that the antecedent of "its" is the leopard.

Since the parenthetical is just extra information that can be removed, the original sentence without the parenthetical will still make sense:

it keeps the animal warm, and it can be used to dispatch small prey

And from what precedes the colon in the rest of the sentence, it is clear that "it" refers to the tail here.

Besides the color of its coat, the most notable characteristic of the snow leopard tends to be its heavily tufted tail, which accounts for 50% of the animal’s length and which has two notable functions: it keeps the animal warm—the leopard will wrap the tail around its head—and it can be used to dispatch small prey.

Key idea: what follows the colon must be a function that the tail performs. the most perfect option should have a pronoun (that refers to the ''tail'') appear right after the colon.

A)it keeps the animal warm—the leopard will wrap the tail around its head—and it can be used to dispatch small prey - has no error. Hence, (A) is the right answer choice.

B)the leopard is kept warm by the tail, which can also be used to dispatch small prey - (B) introduces the following structure:
"The leopard's heavily tufted tail has two notable functions: the leopard is kept warm by the tail... " as you can see here, the clause that follows the colon does not describe a ''notable function''; instead, this clause is a mere statement of a fact.


C)the tail keeps the animal warm by wrapping around the leopard’s head and small prey can be dispatched - introduces ambiguity by not clarifying ''which'' animal is kept warm by the tail: is it the leopard or some other animal?

D)it keeps the animal warm, with the leopard wrapping it around its head, and it can be used in dispatching small prey - has the same error as described in (C)

E)in keeping the animal warm, it will wrap the tail around its head, and it can also be used to dispatch small prey - what follows the colon is not a ''notable'' feature, but a prepositional phrase.

Besides the color of its coat, the most notable characteristic of the snow leopard tends to be its heavily tufted tail, which accounts for 50% of the animal’s length and which has two notable functions: it keeps the animal warm—the leopard will wrap the tail around its head—and it can be used to dispatch small prey.

First of all, don't be scared of the dashes in GMAT


A)it keeps the animal warm—the leopard will wrap the tail around its head—and it can be used to dispatch small prey

This option is correct, but let's see why the other ones are wrong.

B)the leopard is kept warm by the tail, which can also be used to dispatch small prey

"The leopard is kept warm by the tail" Why this passive structure? No need, also we have a better choice in A

C)the tail keeps the animal warm by wrapping around the leopard’s head and small prey can be dispatched

The tail is capable of wrapping around the leopard's head? Some mythical leopard we are talking about here

D)it keeps the animal warm, with the leopard wrapping it around its head, and it can be used in dispatching small prey

We are using only one pronoun "IT" to refer to both leopard and its tail. Makes it very very confusing and ambiguous

E)in keeping the animal warm, it will wrap the tail around its head, and it can also be used to dispatch small prey

Damn, this is a crazy one. Won't you eliminate it already?