Bumblebees live in colonies of several hundred that often have many qu

A) of several hundred that often have many queens as well as - Correct - 'that' refers to colonies

B) of several hundred, often with many of them being queens as well as having - Incorrect - Awkward

C) having several hundred, and often many of them are queens as well as - Incorrect - Pronoun error - them can refer to colonies or bumblebees

D) that have several hundred of them, often with many queens as well as - Incorrect - Pronoun error

E) with several hundred that often have many queens as well as having - Incorrect - Parallelism error

Answer: A

in D, what does 'often with many queens as well as large number of workers' modify? please explain.

It refer to 'colonies'
The sentence is conveying that
a) The bumblebees live in colonies.
b) Each colony comprises of several hundred bumblebees
and
c) These colonies have queen as well as large number of workers.

Hope this clarifies your doubt!

If you need more practice with this type of question, a vaguely similar sentence appeared in Souvik's magnificent QOTD series last week: https://gmatclub.com/forum/qotd-prairie ... 42439.html

I am still not clear with the usage of "that" in option A...


"That" refers to the Preceding Noun.... so in option A isn't "that" referring to "several hundred (bumblebees)" ??


Please explain !!

"Bumblebees" isn't the nearest noun to the word "that" in (A): "colonies of several hundred" is also a noun, and it's much closer to the modifier. And the phrase "that often have many queens..." certainly could logically modify "colonies of several hundred."

For more on the uses of the word "that" on the GMAT -- especially as a modifier -- check out this article: https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 43686.html.

I hope this helps!

I am unable to understand the error in D) I've read the above explanations but I disagree with the ones saying the usage of often with queens.... is wrong in D).Can anyone tell me any concrete issue here?
Thanks a ton

Them could refer to colonies or bumblebees (because two nouns are appearing before a prououn)
Such a case creates ambiguity. We want to be firm on what "them" refers to

Can someone please explain why B is wrong?

Irising
Okay so being and having are two ing modifiers
The use of having is very specific in GMAT
GMAT uses having in following form:
Having done her homework, Sia went to ice skating
Having a large number of people working for her, She decided to chill

So you see what's having doing here. What follows it is the effect related in someway. The same goes for every Having + verb construction
Therefore the usage of having is wrong in option B


Posted from my mobile device

Here's (B):
There are two main issues to investigate in this answer choice: the pronoun "them" and the parallelism marked by "as well as."

Let's start with the pronoun. There are two plural nouns that could be the antecedent for "them": "Bumblebees" or "colonies." Ambiguity like this isn't an automatic disqualifier on SC questions -- you have to look at the rest of the sentence and see whether at least one of the options works. Here, we can say that "them" must refer to "bumblebees" because of the context in the sentence. It makes sense to say "[...]often with many of the bumblebees being queens," but it doesn't make sense to say "[...]often with many of the colonies being queens." So far, so good.

Now, take a look at the parallelism. Here, "being queens" is parallel to "having a large number of workers." Grammatically, this seems fine (although the GMAT generally frowns on using "being" this way -- check out this article for more info on that topic).

But who, exactly, are described as "being queens" as well as "having a large number of workers"? Here is the parallelism broken out into its separate parts:

"...often with many of them


1) being queens as well as
2) having a large number of workers.

We established earlier that "them" has to refer to "bumblebees." So this sentence describes many bumblebees as "being queens" (fine), as well as many bumblebees "having a large number of workers" (not fine, this doesn't make any sense).

Because "bumblebees" doesn't work for both parallel pieces, this sentence is illogical. Eliminate (B).

I hope that helps!

I was confused about whether colonies should take a singular verb, given it usually represents a collective noun. Or is the rationale that plural forms of collective nouns take plural verbs?

Hello bullishdutta,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, yes: the plural form of a collective noun must take a plural verb.

Singular collective nouns take singular verbs because they refer to multiple things as one collective unit; the plural versions of collective nouns take plural verbs because they refer to multiple instances of those units.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

The colonies are large.
The colony is large.

Although the word ARMY may similarly "feel" plural to some people, it is singular: https://gmatclub.com/forum/rivaling-the ... 67423.html