During biological processes such as photosynthesis when living organi

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During biological processes such as photosynthesis, when living organisms take carbon from the environment to make the various components of their cells,  preferentially taking up the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts  more easily.

A) preferentially taking up the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts

B) they preferentially are taking up the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacting

C) they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts

D) they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope having slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts

E) they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope with slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacting

generis · Answer

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sumitkrocks · Answer

I choose (C)

A) No main clause

B)Present continuous tense is giving a sense that living organisms in the subject are in action currently; however, the intention is to express the trait- Simple present is needed 
Parallelism is flawed 
 
C) All good

D) Lost parallelism

E) Lost parallelism: Clause and gerund can't be parallel

swim2109 · Answer

IMO C is the answer.

Pre-thinking error: the sentence needs to have a subject.

A) preferentially taking up the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts-----> discard on error mentioned above

B) they preferentially are taking up the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacting----> The placement of preferentially is also weird. Simple presence tense is preferred to the continuous.

C) they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts---->Correct as simple presence tense used with 'they' as a subject

D) they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope having slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts---->therefore reacts is not parallel

E) they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope with slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacting----> again parallelism issue

Archit3110 · Answer

we have verb modifier which is modifying the process photosynthesis 
 such as photosynthesis, when living organisms  ( subject organism & verb living) 
for plural subject organisms we need a plural pronoun they option A is eliminated
 
below option are wrong 
D)  they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope having slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts  : this has verbing error

E)  they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope with slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacting  parallelism error slightly and reacting also with a preposition which is wrong as it should followed by noun ; also meaning issue

B) they preferentially are taking up the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacting  , which is correct as it modifies carbon isotope but reacting ( verb ing ) usage is not required

C)  they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts  correct option

OPTION C is correct

harshtandel838 · Answer

This is a challenging question

Let’s see how the sentence is structured 
 “During ... photosynthesis”   is prepositional phrase
 “when living ... cells”  seems to be adverbial modifier
Okay, but where’s the subject..? A subject or pronoun acting as subject must follow!

A  is out for reasons above

B   “when living organisms take .... they are preferentially taking ...”   This doesn’t make sense! Usage of continuous tense shows that both actions are happening at same time!

C  This version has subject and  “which”  clearly refers to  “lighter carbon isotope”  Also, the meaning conveyed is clear. Let’s keep this one.

D  We know that the pronoun  “they”  refers to  “living organisms”  so, here the  “and therefore reacts more easily”  what reacts more easily? Here it illogically refers to  “living organisms”  we can eliminate this choice.

E  The usage of with might be okay  ” with slightly weaker chemical bonds”   but what about the later part  “and therefore reacting”  this one too introduces same error as mentioned in D. We can eliminate this one!

Therefore,  C  is the correct choice!

Posted from my mobile device

winterschool · Answer

During biological processes such as photosynthesis, when living organisms take carbon from the environment to make the various components of their cells, preferentially taking up the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts more easily.

A)  preferentially taking up the lighter carbon isotope , which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts  Incorrect

who preferentially taking up the lighter carbon isotope? subject missing

B) they preferentially  are taking  up the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore  reacting   Incorrect

present continuous tense wrong - .....are taking ..........reacting ..

C)  they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts   Correct

D) they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope  having  slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts  Incorrect

having uses wrong

E) they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope  with  slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore  reacting   Incorrect

it changes intended meaning and reacting uses wrong

ItsTym · Answer

A) preferentially taking up the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts
In this  During biological processes  such as photosynthesis modifies preferentially. Seems wrong.

B) they preferentially  are taking up  the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacting
 During biological processes such as photosynthesis   correctly modifies They (living organisms)  , which   correctly modifies Carbon isotopes .  Therefore reacting  is not proper clause, seems wrong.
Are taking Up== wrong tense

C) they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope, which has slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts
 During biological processes such as photosynthesis   correctly modifies They (living organisms)  , which   correctly modifies Carbon isotopes.   Therefore reacts is proper clause, seems correct.

D) they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope having slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacts
During biological processes such as photosynthesis correctly modifies They (living organisms),  Having modifies they (incorrect) .

E) they preferentially take up the lighter carbon isotope with slightly weaker chemical bonds and therefore reacting
 Wrong as Therefore reacting is not proper clause. 
 IMO C

agarwal1993 · Answer

IMO, the answer should be (C) . The original sentence is not a complete sentence, it is a run on. When living organisms take carbon from the environment, (an independent clause must follow). But, in the original sentence, 'preferentially taking up the lighter carbon isotope' is just a phrase and lacks a subject and a verb. Hence, we can clearly reject A, B answer choices. Now, let's move on to tougher answer choices. To eliminate D, E we will have to dive into the meaning aspect of the answer choices. Let's focus on 'lighter carbon isotope having slightly weaker chemical bonds' in choice D- From this phrase, we can infer that from a pool of several 'lighter carbon isotopes' that has a variety of 'carbon isotopes', living organisms choose to 'take' those isotopes that have weaker chemical bonds. Saying this is illogical. The author intends to say that living organisms choose to take lighter carbon isotopes and these lighter isotopes have weaker chemical bonds. Hence, reject D. (I understand, that it is tough to reject this answer choice. And, believe me, it is much tougher to explain why this choice is incorrect.

I hope I am able to convey my point.) We can reject choice E on similar grounds. The answer is C.

During biological processes such as photosynthesis when living organi

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

During biological processes such as photosynthesis when living organi

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