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505-555 (Easy)|   Meaning/Logical Predication|   Modifiers|   Modifiers|               
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Butterflies come in more than 17,000 species, displaying a wing patter 11 May 2022, 09:46
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dcoolguy
Hi, MartyTargetTestPrep AndrewN
I almost chose D, which was the best. but
In D each is the subject and displays is the verb, giving us an IC, which needs to be connected with either ; or ,conjuction.

Why grammer is failing here,

note that which is not the subject, if it was, the verb would have been display (which is referring to species-plural). so its not a relative clause!

Wow, What do you say?
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Constructions that begin with "each of which," "most of which," "the remainder of which," etc. are relative clauses and thus can be treated like any other relative clause.
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Butterflies come in more than 17,000 species, displaying a wing patter 02 Nov 2022, 20:38
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ExpertsGlobal5
Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

hazelnut


Butterflies come in more than 17,000 species, displaying a wing pattern unique to each one.

(A) displaying a wing pattern unique to each one
(B) displaying a unique wing pattern in each
(C) each uniquely displaying a wing pattern
(D) each of which displays a unique wing pattern
(E) each of which uniquely displays a wing pattern

Choice A: This answer choice features a subtle example of pronoun ambiguity; "each one" could refer to either "species" or "butterflies". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice B: This answer choice displays the same pronoun ambiguity seen in Option A, due to the use of the phrase "in each". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice C: This answer choice changes the meaning of the sentence by modifying the verb "displaying" with the adverb "uniquely"; the intended meaning of the sentence is that each species of butterfly displays a unique wing pattern, but this answer choice implies that each species displays a wing pattern in a unique way. This answer choice also displays the pronoun ambiguity seen in Options A and B. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice D: This answer choice maintains proper pronoun use and preserves the intended meaning of the sentence. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

Choice E: This answer choice repeats the meaning-related error seen in Option C. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

One important thing to note here is how Options E and D resolve the pronoun ambiguity error by using the word "which"; by employing the phrase "each of which", these answer choices make it clear that the modifying phrases apply to the noun directly before the comma.

To understand the concept of "Avoiding Pronoun Ambiguity on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):


To understand the concept of "Which, Who, Whose, Where on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):


All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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ExpertsGlobal5

Thank you for your helpful reply. To clarify, does "which" serve as a placeholder for "the 17,000 species"?

I was a bit confused in that I needed to add "the" for the meaning to make sense, although "the" does not appear before in the non-underlined portion of the question.

Thank you :)
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Butterflies come in more than 17,000 species, displaying a wing patter 03 Nov 2022, 04:36
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woohoo921
ExpertsGlobal5
Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

hazelnut


Butterflies come in more than 17,000 species, displaying a wing pattern unique to each one.

(A) displaying a wing pattern unique to each one
(B) displaying a unique wing pattern in each
(C) each uniquely displaying a wing pattern
(D) each of which displays a unique wing pattern
(E) each of which uniquely displays a wing pattern

Choice A: This answer choice features a subtle example of pronoun ambiguity; "each one" could refer to either "species" or "butterflies". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice B: This answer choice displays the same pronoun ambiguity seen in Option A, due to the use of the phrase "in each". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice C: This answer choice changes the meaning of the sentence by modifying the verb "displaying" with the adverb "uniquely"; the intended meaning of the sentence is that each species of butterfly displays a unique wing pattern, but this answer choice implies that each species displays a wing pattern in a unique way. This answer choice also displays the pronoun ambiguity seen in Options A and B. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice D: This answer choice maintains proper pronoun use and preserves the intended meaning of the sentence. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

Choice E: This answer choice repeats the meaning-related error seen in Option C. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

One important thing to note here is how Options E and D resolve the pronoun ambiguity error by using the word "which"; by employing the phrase "each of which", these answer choices make it clear that the modifying phrases apply to the noun directly before the comma.

To understand the concept of "Avoiding Pronoun Ambiguity on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):


To understand the concept of "Which, Who, Whose, Where on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):


All the best!
Experts' Global Team

ExpertsGlobal5

Thank you for your helpful reply. To clarify, does "which" serve as a placeholder for "the 17,000 species"?

I was a bit confused in that I needed to add "the" for the meaning to make sense, although "the" does not appear before in the non-underlined portion of the question.

Thank you :)
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Hello woohoo921,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, yes; we can consider "17,000 species" the referent of "which" in this sentence.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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Butterflies come in more than 17,000 species, displaying a wing patter 05 Dec 2022, 10:16
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KarishmaB GMATNinja
Butterflies come in more than 17,000 species, displaying a wing pattern unique to each one.

Why A is incorrect?
Comma + Verb-ing - gives more info or explain "how" aspect. In this sentence, displaying explains how they exist in more than 17k species by displaying unique wing pattern.

Please help to understand reason to reject A. I think in some cases, subject does not necessarily has to make sense with verb-ing. Please share your reasoning.

"each of them" - singular or plural?
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Butterflies come in more than 17,000 species, displaying a wing patter 05 Dec 2022, 21:23
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Sneha2021
KarishmaB GMATNinja
Butterflies come in more than 17,000 species, displaying a wing pattern unique to each one.

Why A is incorrect?
Comma + Verb-ing - gives more info or explain "how" aspect. In this sentence, displaying explains how they exist in more than 17k species by displaying unique wing pattern.

Please help to understand reason to reject A. I think in some cases, subject does not necessarily has to make sense with verb-ing. Please share your reasoning.

"each of them" - singular or plural?
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The meaning of the sentence is that butterflies come in more than 17k species and in each species, they display a different wing pattern. The wing pattern is unique to one species.

Butterflies come in more than 17,000 species, displaying a wing pattern unique to each one.

comma + verb-ing modifies the subject or the verb of the previous clause (i.e. the entire previous clause). It either gives cause-effect or it gives more info about the previous clause.
Here, it will give more info about the previous clause.
'displaying' is talking about 'butterflies.' Who is displaying? Butterflies.
Now, is the wing pattern unique to each butterfly? Could be. But the intent is to say that a wing pattern is unique to a species.
The point is that 'each one' does not connect to 'species' in any way. Using comma + verb-ing at the end of the clause, we cannot modify 'species.'

Take a simpler example:
The dog chased the boy, jumping fences and running at great speed.
'jumping fences and running at great speed' modifies the dog. It tells us how he chased the boy. We cannot modify the boy using this structure.

If we want it to modify the boy, we need to re-write it. We can do it in many ways:

The boy, jumping fences and running at great speed, was chased by the dog.
The dog chased the boy jumping fences and running at great speed.
The dog chased the boy, who was jumping fences and running at great speed.
etc.

Option (E) uses a relative clause 'each of which.' Here, 'which' refers to 'species' and hence is correct.
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Butterflies come in more than 17,000 species, displaying a wing patter 26 Dec 2023, 09:34
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