Sneha2021 wrote:
KarishmaB GMATNinjaButterflies 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?
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.