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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 17 Sep 2019, 10:55
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Hi,

I didn't understand the following:
1. I didn't understand the difference between order to stalk (c)and to stalk(b) them.
2. why are we using them for Caribou... is should be it and not them.
3. what is the problem with option D, as it is talking about two things: to stalk and to kill Caribou and also maintaining the parallelism.
Please help me.
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 28 Sep 2019, 11:07
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shweta5
Hi,

I didn't understand the following:
1. I didn't understand the difference between order to stalk (c)and to stalk(b) them.
2. why are we using them for Caribou... is should be it and not them.
3. what is the problem with option D, as it is talking about two things: to stalk and to kill Caribou and also maintaining the parallelism.
Please help me.
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1. I believe we addressed your first question in this post: "What's the only difference between B and C? Just a couple of extra, unnecessary words ("in order") in C. So B must be the correct answer."

2. The non-underlined portion of the sentence answers this question for us: "Caribou are wary animals..." The use of "are" tells us that "Caribou" is a plural, so we also need to use "them" instead of "it".

3. Choice (D) is out because of the singular pronoun "it".

I hope that helps!
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 30 Sep 2020, 02:46
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(c) so in order to stalk them over the treeless landscape and get close enough to kill one

Is it fine to use 'them' and 'one' in the same sentence to refer to the same thing?
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 30 Sep 2020, 03:41
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sudeshpatodiya
(c) so in order to stalk them over the treeless landscape and get close enough to kill one

Is it fine to use 'them' and 'one' in the same sentence to refer to the same thing?
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Hi sudeshpatodiya, it is reasonable to have such doubts. In such cases, the first thing we need to do, is to look at the various options to see what is on offer.

Notice that options B and C all use similar structure: them and one.

A, D, and E are anyway incorrect because it has no antecedent at all (it can only refer to singular non-person, while Caribou is clearly used as plural in this sentence)!

In short, them/one is an non-issue here.
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 30 Sep 2020, 04:09
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Thanks for the prompt reply.
Had the options been 'them & them' instead of 'them & one', would it make any difference.

I am concerned if this is the write use 'them & one'. Not only for this question, but as a rule.

[quote="EducationAisle"]
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 30 Sep 2020, 04:18
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sudeshpatodiya
I am concerned if this is the write use 'them & one'. Not only for this question, but as a rule.
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Yes, for example, following will be correct:

Peter loves horses and never misses an opportunity to ride one.

By the way, that's another thing to learn in the GMAT journey: Official answers are right.

At least from a GMAT perspective, there is nothing to be gained by questioning the official answer. There are only lessons to be learnt.
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 15 Nov 2020, 23:35
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D,E : uses 'it' for animals
C: 'in order to ' is too wordy
A: them ---> it in the end
Hence B is the answer
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 18 Nov 2020, 08:25
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I am not sure if anyone noticed, but don't we need a ";" after the independent clause - "Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing," ?
Is comma sufficient to join two independent clauses?
If you stick a conjunction ("and", "so", "although", etc.) in front of an independent clause, the clause then becomes dependent. So there's no problem here at all: "caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing" is the independent clause, and the following clause -- beginning with "and" or "so" -- is dependent. A comma is no problem in this situation, and a semicolon would be incorrect.

I hope this helps!
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Hi GMATNinja, this throws me off, everything after the comma starting with 'so...' in choices A, B, and C is an IC so I think that a semi-colon is appropriate, no?
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 23 Nov 2020, 00:39
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over the treeless landscape, getting close enough to kill it with nothing but a handheld lance, as Dorset people did, required exceptional hunting skill.


(A) so stalking them over the treeless landscape, getting close enough to kill it

(B) so to stalk them over the treeless landscape and get close enough to kill one

(C) so in order to stalk them over the treeless landscape and get close enough to kill one

(D) and so in order to stalk it over the treeless landscape, getting close enough to kill it

(E) and so stalking them over the treeless landscape and getting close enough in order to kill it
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This question is based on Construction and Idiomatic Usage.

In Option A, there is an inconsistency in the pronouns. There are two pronouns ‘them’ and ‘it’ in this option. The plural pronoun ‘them’ is consistent with the plural verb ‘are’ that refers to caribou. However, the singular pronoun ‘it’ does not agree with the plural antecedent ‘caribou’. So, Option A can be eliminated.

The phrase ‘in order to’ conveys a purpose, which is not implied by the sentence. So, Option C can be eliminated.

The pronoun ‘it’ cannot refer to caribou as the verb used with the subject is the plural one ‘are. There is also a lack of parallelism between the phrases “in order to stalk it” and “getting close enough to kill it”. So, Option D can be eliminated.

There is an inconsistency in the pronouns in this option just as there is in Option A. So, Option E can also be eliminated.

Option B has the more appropriate phrase “to stalk”. This option also maintains parallelism – to stalk and get. Therefore, B is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 25 Jan 2021, 18:43
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CEdward
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I am not sure if anyone noticed, but don't we need a ";" after the independent clause - "Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing," ?
Is comma sufficient to join two independent clauses?
If you stick a conjunction ("and", "so", "although", etc.) in front of an independent clause, the clause then becomes dependent. So there's no problem here at all: "caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing" is the independent clause, and the following clause -- beginning with "and" or "so" -- is dependent. A comma is no problem in this situation, and a semicolon would be incorrect.

I hope this helps!

Hi GMATNinja, this throws me off, everything after the comma starting with 'so...' in choices A, B, and C is an IC so I think that a semi-colon is appropriate, no?
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You're right that the comma + "so" connects two independent clauses in (A), (B), and (C).

However, that doesn't mean that it is necessary to use a semicolon in those options. Semicolons are generally used to link two independent clauses WITHOUT any conjunction between. For example:

    CORRECT: I really love potatoes; they are splendid vegetables. :-P

The use of a semicolon would be unnecessary if you added in a coordinating conjunction. For example:

    INCORRECT: I really love potatoes; and they are splendid vegetables.

This second example is closest to the official question on this thread -- because "so" is a coordinating conjunction between two independent clauses, we don't need to use a semicolon as well.

There are circumstances in which you can properly use BOTH a coordinating conjunction AND a semicolon. For example, if there are commas embedded in both clauses and the sentence is difficult to interpret without the semicolon, then it may be appropriate to include the semicolon and conjunction. However, since the first clause here is relatively straightforward, a semicolon is not necessary in this sentence.

I hope that helps!
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 15 Feb 2021, 03:39
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I was stuck for a bit with the 'stalking' bit, so perhaps I can help. Below is how I went about it.

On reversing the second clause, we see this : exceptional hunting skills are required.....
and now comparing the two ACs
exceptional hunting skills are required to stalk.. and....to kill
vs
exceptional hunting skills are required for stalking.. and....killing

I prefer the first one ( choice B) because skilled are required for a purpose and hence should take an infinitive (of purpose)

Please let me know what you think.

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I feel that the answer is C. I'm not sure why 'to stalk' is more appropriate than stalking.
Plus in B, I feel that 'to stalk....and get' breaks the parellelism law. It should be 'to stalk.....to get'

I agree with you on the first part, rekhabishop: I'm not sure that there's a clear reason why "to stalk" is fundamentally better than "stalking." In general, I'd be fine with either one of those, and the difference between "to stalk" and "stalking" really isn't the deciding factor, anyway (unless we're worried about the parallelism -- more on that in a moment). The bigger issue is that the pronouns are wrong in A, D, and E, so we're left with two options that feature "to stalk."

But the parallelism is completely fine in B and C: "get" is parallel with "stalk", and there's no reason to repeat the word "to." It might not be wrong, exactly, if we repeated "to", but it certainly isn't necessary.

And even if you want the sentence to say "to get", that's not an option, so it isn't something you should worry about. What's the only difference between B and C? Just a couple of extra, unnecessary words ("in order") in C. So B must be the correct answer.

I hope this helps!
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 12 Feb 2022, 20:04
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I understand the pronoun problem with option A.
However, I'd like to ask that in option B, is "so to stalk them....., required...." a correct usage?
Shouldn't it be "doing something required..." (gerund) or "to do something...., it required..."?
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 13 Feb 2022, 05:08
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rachelphwu

Shouldn't it be "doing something required..." (gerund) or "to do something...., it required..."?
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"doing something required..." would be ok, but let's look at your second suggestion:

"to do something...., it required..."

What does "it" refer to? For example, if we are talking about a "dog", then we can say:

To do somersault, it (dog) required a lot of practice.

However, in the current sentence under consideration, clearly this is not the case. I do believe however, that both the following sentences would work:

i) Performing well in the exam requires a lot of effort.

ii) To perform well in the exam requires a lot of effort.
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 13 Feb 2022, 05:40
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rachelphwu
I understand the pronoun problem with option A.
However, I'd like to ask that in option B, is "so to stalk them....., required...." a correct usage?
Shouldn't it be "doing something required..." (gerund) or "to do something...., it required..."?
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Hello rachelphwu,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the usage "so to stalk them....., required...." is perfectly correct; here, the infinitive verb form "to stalk" refers directly to the act of "stalking"; thus, this phrase simply conveys that the act of stalking the caribou in a certain way required something.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over 13 Feb 2023, 06:53
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