Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers have determined that there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, and that these leopards are thus many times as rare as China's giant pandas.

A Quick Fix


A. Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers have determined that there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, and that these leopards are thus many times as rare as -- modification problem. Th researchers seem to be suffering from poaching and cultivation in their own habitats

B. Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, researchers have determined, making them many times more rare than -- looks as though the many times being more rare is caused by researchers and their determination.

C. There are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers have determined, which makes the leopards many times more rare compared to --- which has no referent at all in the visibility

D. Researchers have determined that, because of being poached and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, thus making them many more times as rare as-- many times should be accompanied by 'than', not 'as'

E. Researchers have determined that, because of poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, and that these leopards are thus many times more rare than -- The only one left
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Original sentence has "many times as rare as" which is the wrong usage. "as rare as" would be used to compare the rarity of 2 species. "many times" will be used to say one specie is more rare than other. "many times" and "as rare as" can't be used together.

A. wrong for above reason.
B. "Researchers have determined" comes very late in the sentence and the entire structure of the sentence is messed up
C. "many times more rare compared to " - wrong usage.
D. "being poached" and "increased cultivation" are not parallel.
E. correct.

The best way of checking the difference between “due to” and “because of” is by replacing the former with the phrase “cause by” and then rechecking. If the sentence makes sense, the usage is fine. If it doesn’t, then the answer choice is the one which contains “because of”.

For example :-

The dog was barking due to the night -> The dog was barking caused by the night. -> Makes no sense
The dog’s barking was due to the night -> The dog’s barking was caused by the night. -> Makes sense

In this question you can use the same process to get to the answer. However, the sentence contains other errors as well, because of which you will have to be wary of those as well.

A,B, C are straight out because of the use of “due to”

Between, D & E –> D uses “being” and them is “ambiguous”, "Because of" is immediately followed "by poaching" which still holds onto the structure.
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For me Each sentence has some or the other issue and E seems best out of bunch...!!

I agree... there MIGHT be some pronoun ambiguity here as "their" can refer to both researchers and leopards.

The thing is, when you use a pronoun to start a sentence (e.g., some intro modifying clause), usually the antecedent SHOULD be the first approprirate candidate noun.

For example,
Because she likes sports, Kelly is always seen playing tennis with Mary.

She refers to Kelly and not Mary (usually)...

Still, it's probably best to just redraft the sentence so there's no ambiguity.

Researchers cannot have native habitats. So it should be leopards.

IMO : E

A and D say that researchers are poached ..so wrong...
B is wrong as after the "Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats," the subject must be present. Here it says there are..so B is wrong.

Idiom: more ..than ..is correct usage
In C it says "more rare compared to.." no than ..so wrong..

So E is correct.

Whats wrong with B ...could not understand .........E also looks fine i am unable to choose the better .....

Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats,
researchers have determined that there are fewer than 100 Arabian
leopards left in the wild, and that these leopards are thus many times as
rare as China's giant pandas.

A. Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers
have determined that there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild,
and that these leopards are thus many times as rare as
modifier applies to researchers

B. Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are
fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, researchers have determined,
making them many times more rare than
modifier incorrectly used

C. There are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild due to poaching and
increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers have determined,
which makes the leopards many times more rare compared to
awkward creation

D. Researchers have determined that, because of being poached and increased
cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards
left in the wild, thus making them many more times as rare as
"determined that because - awkward construction & use of being"

E. Researchers have determined that, because of poaching and increased
cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards
left in the wild, and that these leopards are thus many times more rare than

OA is E. My issue is that "their", as per my understanding, refers to "researchers", not to "leopards".
Could anybody clarify?
Thanks[/quote]

Solution: IMO E..

E for me.

Researchers have determined that, because of poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, and that these leopards are thus many times more rare than China's giant pandas.

All other options are bad.

A - Modifies researchers wrong.
B - Don't know what it modifies. Ambiguity wrong
C - Construction error - Researchers have determined is in the middle of the sentence
D- being poached Wrong
E - correct. Their habitat cannot refer to researchers.

Hi daagh

Is the usage 'many times rare than' right? Shouldn't it be rarer than and not rare?
I felt that is awkward and hence eliminated E.

True. But 'rarer than' is not given in any of the options. E seems to be the best of the bad boys.
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Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers have determined that there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, and that these leopards are thus many times as rare as China's giant pandas.

A. Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers have determined that there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, and that these leopards are thus many times as rare as - Idiom error many times as rare as ; also the sentence means that researchers are due to poaching and increased cultivation in their habitats
B. Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, researchers have determined, making them many times more rare than- researchers have determined usage at the end is incomplete; also we can't join 2 independent clause using, only
C. There are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers have determined, which makes the leopards many times more rare compared to - Pronoun which has no referent
D. Researchers have determined that, because of being poached and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, thus making them many more times as rare as - Idiom error many more times as rare as
E. Researchers have determined that, because of poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, and that these leopards are thus many times more rare than - Correct

Answer E
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Split 1 - replace "due to" with caused by and see if the sentence makes sense
--> eliminate (A), (B) and (C)

Split 2 - "as rare as" vs "many times more rare than"
As rare as = the same level of rarity
more rare than = greater rarity e.g. X is 100x more Rare than Y; therefore X = 101Y and 101Y > Y
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Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats,
researchers have determined that there are fewer than 100 Arabian
leopards left in the wild, and that these leopards are thus many times as
rare as China's giant pandas.

A. Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers
have determined that there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild,
and that these leopards are thus many times as rare as
modifier applies to researchers

B. Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are
fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, researchers have determined,
making them many times more rare than
modifier incorrectly used

C. There are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild due to poaching and
increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers have determined,
which makes the leopards many times more rare compared to
awkward creation

D. Researchers have determined that, because of being poached and increased
cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards
left in the wild, thus making them many more times as rare as
"determined that because - awkward construction & use of being"

E. Researchers have determined that, because of poaching and increased
cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards
left in the wild, and that these leopards are thus many times more rare than

Solution: IMO E.

look at choice e.

normally, we see that "because of doing" is wrong. in this wrong case, doing refers to subject of the main clause. "because of" , a preposition , can not stand before a participle as some preposition.

in choice e, "poaching" work as a noun/gerund, which dose not refers to any noun/subject in the main clause. "because of" can stand before a noun, and so, choice e is correct.

Hi,
May I say there is a comma splice in (B) and (C)？

(B) Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, researchers have determined, making them many times more rare than

(C) There are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers have determined, which makes the leopards many times more rare compared to

Dear GMATNinja EMPOWERgmatVerbal

I have concern over the use of "many times as rare as" and "many times more rare than". I hope you could help enlighten me.

As far as I know, it's okay to say "this road is three times as long as that road". Thus I think it's also okay to say "leopards are many times as rare as pandas".
So either "many times more rare than" or "many times as rare as" is grammartically correct. Is my thinking correct?

Thank you
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Hi Tracy95!

You are correct that using the phrases "as rare as" or "as long as" are grammatically correct.

However, they are not ALWAYS correct. It depends on what the meaning you're trying to convey.

The phrases "as rare as" or "as long as" are ONLY used to say that the 2 items are the same. If you're trying to say the 2 items are different, you cannot us "as many as" or "as long as."

So for this question, here is what we're dealing with:

"many times as rare as" = WRONG (The phrase "as rare as" would mean the 2 items are the same, but we start with "many times," which is a clue that the 2 items are not the same level of rare.)

"many times more rare than" = CORRECT (The phrase "more rare than" makes it clear to readers that the 2 items are different - one of them is many times MORE rare than the other.)

As for your other example:

As far as I know, it's okay to say "this road is three times as long as that road".

NO, this is not grammatically correct. If you say that there is a 3x difference between the two roads, you CANNOT use "as long as." Remember - "as X as Y" only works if the 2 items are the same - and these two roads are different lengths. You must say "This road is three times longer than that road."

I hope that helps clear things up!
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