British scientists are working on preserving the world’s most threaten

Question

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2) 
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British scientists  are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, their regeneration once they have been in frozen storage, and ways to extract their medicinal properties.

A) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, their regeneration once they have been in frozen storage, and ways to extract their medicinal properties.

B) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerating them after frozen storage, and extracting their medicinal properties.

C) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, to regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties.

D) are working diligent to preserve the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract its medicinal properties.

E) are working to preserve the world’s more threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties.

generis · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2)

THE PROMPT  
 
• parallelism is at issue: the three things that the scientists are doing must have the same grammatical form and serve the same logical function

• no pronoun ambiguity exists
→ we have two theoretical antecedents for  their:   plant species  and  scientists 
→ but only one of those candidates is  logical— namely, plant species
→ as long as only  one  logical antecedent exists for a pronoun such as  their  or  they,  pronoun ambiguity is not present.

• Not parallel
→  preserving  is in the gerund form (the verbING noun form)
→  their regeneration  is a noun
→  ways to extract  is also a noun

To make the option parallel,  preserving  should be  the preservation of 
The correct parallel construction in option A would be:
 " . . . are working on the preservation of . . . ., their regeneration . . . ., and ways to extract 
 parallelism, 
ELIMINATE A

• I see no errors
•  preserving, regenerating,  and  extracting  are parallel
KEEP

• not parallel
→  on preserving  (or if you group "working on," then this item is  preserving ) = gerund (verbING)
→ to regenerate = infinitive form
→   extract = infinitive form

In order to make this sentence parallel,  on preserving  should be  to preserve. 
ELIMINATE C

•  diligent  should be  diligently  
→ the adjective  diligent  should modify a noun but incorrectly modifies the verb  are working 
→ because the verb is involved, we need the  adverb  form:  diligently

• noun/pronoun disagreement
→  them  and  it  are inconsistent.
The antecedent is singular (unlikely, given the context, although species can go either way) or plural.
If the antecedent is singular, use  it  after  regenerate  and  extract . 
If the antecedent is plural, use  them  after those same two words..
Don't use a singular and a plural pronoun to refer to the same thing.
That thing is either singular or plural.

→ the singular pronoun  its  does not match the plural antecedent  most threatened plant species 
ELIMINATE D
 
• the word "more" should be "most"
→ use the "comparative"  more  to compare two items. 
→ use the "superlative"  most  to compare three or more—many—items.
This sentence refers to many different plant species. We need  most .
→ if there were only two species on which the scientists were working, the sentence would say so, because "more" is confusing.
 Correct :  . . . . are working to preserve the world's two most threatened plant species

The correct answer is B.

COMMENTS

ajinkyaB  and  nivi2084  , welcome to SC Butler.

I see lots of creative thinking and analysis in these posts—good!
Sometimes writing posts can feel scary.
This question is a little "mushy"—lots of crisp grammar rules probably won't bail you out on this one.

Nicely done. Kudos to all.

Nipungupta9081 · Answer

A) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, their regeneration once they have been in frozen storage, and ways to extract their medicinal properties. -  Too wordy. ( X )

B) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerating them after frozen storage, and extracting their medicinal properties. -  Looks Fine , let's keep it. -ing is modifying the main clause and Parallelism is fine( ✔ )

C) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, to regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties. -  to regenerate  
 
D) are working diligent to preserve the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract its medicinal properties. -  working diligent to ( X )

E) are working to preserve the world’s more threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties. -  world’s more threatened ( X )

Confused between B and C . 
Will go with B.

AntrikshR · Answer

British scientists are working on 
1) preserving the world’s most threatened plant species,
2)  their  regeneration once they have been in frozen storage, and 
3) ways to extract their medicinal properties.
The list is not parallel.

A) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, their regeneration once they have been in frozen storage, and ways to extract their medicinal properties.--Incorrect

B) Brits are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, (IC)
 regenerating them after frozen storage, and extracting their medicinal properties. (Modifier)
--regenerating them and extracting their are parallel.
--how are they working? by regenerating them after frozen storage and by extracting their medicinal properties (Cause-effect)
--Correct.

C) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species,--IC
 to regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties. ---Infinitive
---IC, infinitive is incorrect, IC must be followed by FANBOYS.
--to regenerate and extract are not parallel

D) are  working diligent  to preserve the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract  its  medicinal properties.
--its is wrong (Subject-Verb error)
--diligent is a noun ....a noun can't modify a verb (are working) IMO...it should have been diligently (adverb)

E) are working  to preserve  the world’s more threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties.
--Meaning error. Brits are not doing three random things i.e. preserving, regenerating and extracting...the cause and effect relationship is lost in this sentence.
--Moreover "Brits are working to preserve" looks incorrect. If it would have been "Brits are working on the preservation" then it might have been correct. Brits are working is already showing an intent of doing something...then again using "to preserve" is incorrect IMO.

Fighter1095 · Answer

A) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, their regeneration once they have been in frozen storage,  and  ways to extract their medicinal properties.

their regeneration and ways to extract are not parallel - Incorrect

B) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerating them after frozen storage, and extracting their medicinal properties

regenerating and preserving are parallel to eachother and looks cool

C) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, to regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties.

to regenerate and extract aren't parallel with eachother - incorrect

D) are working diligent to preserve the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract its medicinal properties.

its - refers to plural noun - plant species . Hence, incorrect

E) are working to preserve the world’s more threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties.

Looks good...wait wait world's more threatened - more ??

more is comparative - used to compare two things

most - superlative - used to compare with whole bunch

hence this is incorrect

ajinkyaB · Answer

I think parallelism needs to be maintained between working and extracting.
British scientists are working on preserving world’s most threatened plant species
British scientists are extracting their(antecedent-world’s most threatened plant species)medicinal properties.
Working on preserving by regenerating them from frozen state. 
Working on preserving by extracting their medicinal properties seems meaningless. Plus there is a comma before extracting. 
To make regenerating and extracting parallel a single ‘and’ would suffice to maintain the required parallelism. 
The comma before extracting is used to separate the modifier regenerating from other part of the sentence.
BTW B seems to be the correct answer.

Posted from my mobile device

monk123 · Answer

British scientists are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, their regeneration once they have been in frozen storage, and ways to extract their medicinal properties.
 
POE:
Stop sign- 'and';look for parallelism. Eliminate (A) & (C)
Eliminate (D) -Subject is plural, we need plural pronoun.
Eliminate (E)- change of meaning
 
A) are working on  preserving  the world’s most threatened plant species,  their regeneration   once they have been in frozen storage, and ways  to extract  their medicinal properties.

B) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerating them after frozen storage, and extracting their medicinal properties. -   correct

C) are working  on preserving  the world’s most threatened plant species,  to regenerate  them after frozen storage, and  extract  their medicinal properties.

D) are working diligent to preserve the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract  its  medicinal properties.

E) are working to preserve the world’s  more  threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties.

ravigupta2912 · Answer

A) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, their regeneration once they have been in frozen storage, and ways to extract their medicinal properties. -- The modifier "their regeneration" appears not as a modifying phrase but as a parallel entity in working on preserving X, regeneration Y, ways to Z (also incorrect parallelism).

B) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerating them after frozen storage, and extracting their medicinal properties. -- Correct. -ing modifier "regenerating" correctly modifies the previous clause "preserving the...", the part after the comma "extracting their" is parallel with "preserving" (Scientists are working on X and Y)

C) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, to regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties. -- Same as A. The modifier "to regenerate" looks less as a modifier but more as an item in the parallel list.

D) are working diligent to preserve the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract its medicinal properties. -- same as A. Also the singular pronoun "its" referring to plural "plant species". Incorrect parallelism.

E) are working to preserve the world’s more threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties. -- same as A.

nivi2084 · Answer

British scientists are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, their regeneration once they have been in frozen storage, and ways to extract their medicinal properties.

The author is trying to explain 3 actions done on the plant species - Preserving ,Regenerating and Extracting. Lets see which option gives all the 3 correctly

A) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, their regeneration once they have been in frozen storage, and ways to extract their medicinal properties.
The actions are put as "working","regeneration" and "extract". And it is breaking the flow of the sentence

B) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerating them after frozen storage, and extracting their medicinal properties.
Bingo ! Aptly put in the parallelism form where all the 3 activities are parallel and make sense.

C) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, to regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties.
First activity - preserving , second activity -" to regenerate " - this is incorrect as with "to" added it shows the intention but in the wrong place and it also breaks the parallelism

D) are working diligent to preserve the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract its medicinal properties.
Working(-ing form ) ,regenerate and extract are in present tense form. Also see that the doer of all these actions is the same " British Scientists " but still the tenses of all the 3 actions is different

E) are working to preserve the world’s more threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties.
Incorrect usage of " more" here and it changes the meaning of the sentence

Hence the correct answer would be "B"

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  here .

Fdambro294 · Answer

Great question testing “parallelism” 👍

I sat there for a bit analyzing B and D because I wanted the author to use “to preserve.” This question was another reminder not to fall in love with what you think the sentence should say.

At the beginning of the question, I truly believed that the use of “working on preserving” was less preferable to the use of “working TO preserve.” Depends on the sentence....

Kudos

Posted from my mobile device

alwaysHP · Answer

British scientists are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, their regeneration once they have been in frozen storage, and ways to extract their medicinal properties.

A) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, their regeneration once they have been in frozen storage, and ways to extract their medicinal properties.
1.Their - can refer to scientists and plant species.

B) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerating them after frozen storage, and extracting their medicinal properties.
1. How aspect is clearly explained in this statement- How did the scientists preserve - By regenerating them after frozen storage, and extracting their medicinal properties. makes perfect sense 
C) are working on preserving the world’s most threatened plant species, to regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties.
1.Here meaning is distorted - They are not reserving to regenerate or extract.

D) are working diligent to preserve the world’s most threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract its medicinal properties.
1. Its - No proper antecedent available 
2. Meaning distortion- Scientists are not working diligently to regenerate but to preserve. Not the intended meaning.

E) are working to preserve the world’s more threatened plant species, regenerate them after frozen storage, and extract their medicinal properties.
1. More - most will do the best for comparison- For comparison of many items.

More is not the right word for comparison, most will work well. 
Regenerate... and extract doesn't make sense parallel to preserve-

British scientists are working on preserving the world’s most threaten

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

British scientists are working on preserving the world’s most threaten

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