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Even today, lions can be seen ruling the African plains, hunting almost any animal that crosses its path and intimidating all but the most intrepid hunters.

The sentence uses "its", so the subject must be singular. A B C out

(A) lions can be seen ruling the African plains
(B) lions are able to be seen ruling the African plains
(C) lions rule the African plains

Between D and E, D is better: less wordy and more clear. IMO D

(D) the lion rules the African plains
(E) the lion species rules the African plains
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IMO D....."its" th biggest clue in un- underlined portion of the sentence....so "the lion" out of D and E....D wins...

Consider Kudos If my post helps!!!

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Even today, lions can be seen ruling the African plains, hunting almost any animal that crosses its path and intimidating all but the most intrepid hunters.

In second clause "its" is there which requires singular subject in clause 1.

(A) lions can be seen ruling the African plains ---WRONG

(B) lions are able to be seen ruling the African plains--WRONG

(C) lions rule the African plains--WRONG

(D) the lion rules the African plains--CORRECT

(E) the lion species rules the African plains ---"Species do not make much sense here.. making sentence wordy---WRONG"
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From it's in the second clause we can conclude that in the first clause subject should be the lion..So we have now Option D,E left....Option D is simple and grammatical correct. So Answer should be D.
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Even today, lions can be seen ruling the African plains, hunting almost any animal that crosses its path and intimidating all but the most intrepid hunters.

In second clause "its" is there which requires singular subject in clause 1.

(A) lions can be seen ruling the African plains ---WRONG

(B) lions are able to be seen ruling the African plains--WRONG

(C) lions rule the African plains--WRONG

(D) the lion rules the African plains--CORRECT

(E) the lion species rules the African plains ---"Species do not make much sense here.. making sentence wordy---WRONG"
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My answer is D.

First hint --> hunting almost any animal that crosses "its" path . The "Its" tells us that the noun/pronoun will be "Singular".

So count out all the options with "lions".(A,B,C)
D and E are left.

Lion species (I havent heard of lion having a species).So its gotta be D :)
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Even today, lions can be seen ruling the African plains, hunting almost any animal that crosses its path and intimidating all but the most intrepid hunters.

S-V agreement first, "its path" must go with singular subject. We narrow down right away to D and E.
E is wrong because the lion species are plural, not singular as needed.
D is correct.
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Even today, lions can be seen ruling the African plains, hunting almost any animal that crosses its path and intimidating all but the most intrepid hunters.

(A) lions can be seen ruling the African plains

(B) lions are able to be seen ruling the African plains

(C) lions rule the African plains

(D) the lion rules the African plains

(E) the lion species rules the African plains

Official solution from Veritas Prep.



You see a slight twist on the traditional pronoun agreement error. Instead of having to pick the correct pronoun, you have to pick the correct antecedent to match a pronoun. You’re stuck with “its” as the pronoun, so as much as you’d like to use the plural form “lions,” you simply cannot, as the antecedent must be singular. This allows you to eliminate answer choices A, B, and C. Then you must notice the tricky meaning error in answer choice E: the use of “species” creates an illogical meaning with “any animal crossing its path.” Animals don’t cross a species’ path, but rather a particular animal’s path. Answer choice E is wrong because of a subtle meaning error that is easy to miss. The correct answer choice is D.
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Even today, lions can be seen ruling the African plains, hunting almost any animal that crosses its path and intimidating all but the most intrepid hunters.

(A) lions can be seen ruling the African plains

(B) lions are able to be seen ruling the African plains

(C) lions rule the African plains

(D) the lion rules the African plains

(E) the lion species rules the African plains

In choice A,B and C the noun is plural while the verb used to refer to the noun is singular so we eliminate A B and C in choices D and E the usage of Lion Species is wordy so we choose D as the correct answer.

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The key to solve this question is "its" in the non underlined portion. "Its" implies We want a single lion. So, AbB and C are out.

Now, a species cannot rule anything but an animal could. So, E out. Hence, D.
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subject should be singular and verb should be singular in order to agree with 'its' in the non-underlined part of the sentence.

correct option is D
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Even today, lions can be seen ruling the African plains, hunting almost any animal that crosses its path and intimidating all but the most intrepid hunters.

(C) lions rule the African plains

(D) the lion rules the African plains

Immediately narrowed down the answers to C and D. Ultimately chose D because "hunting" implies a singular lion, as does "crosses its path."
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any animal that crosses its path. Lion vs Lions: Lion it is

D is correct
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the pronoun ITS gives us the idea that we need a singular form not plural lions. :)
So answer is D.
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Even today, lions can be seen ruling the African plains, hunting almost any animal that crosses its path and intimidating all but the most intrepid hunters.


(A) lions can be seen ruling the African plains

(B) lions are able to be seen ruling the African plains

(C) lions rule the African plains

(D) the lion rules the African plains

(E) the lion species rules the African plains


Always read the complete sentence before you read other answer choices as non underlined part is always correct. It may help you in reducing the answer choices.

Trick here is that in the non underlined part we have pronoun "its". This means we need singular "the lion" and not "lions".

A,B, C are out.

D is the clear winner over E.
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The sentence uses "its", so the subject must be singular. A B C out.

Between D and E, D is better: less wordy and more clear. IMO D
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Dear experts,
I have a doubt in the use of "verb-ing" in this sentence:

Even today, the lions rule the African plains, hunting ... and intimidating ...
So as per my understanding, "verb-ing" must answer the "how" or "result" of the verb in the previous clause. In this case the verb-ing answers "rule".

The verb-ing definitely does not show the result of lions rule. I am also not convinced that the verb-ing describes the "how" aspect.

Please clarify the usage.
Thank you!
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The official solution rejects E saying that it's illogical to say that an animal would cross a species path. But on similar lines, we can find flaws in D. The lion, would refer to a single lion. Is there some single lion, who has been ruling since time immemorial? This wouldn't make sense. Can some expert help?
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