Extraordinary fish seeding efforts coupled with elaborate surveillance

Question

Extraordinary fish seeding efforts coupled with elaborate surveillance measures against illegal fishing have led to the resurgence of the endangered red trout in the national bay reserve;  the Red trout was so much in abundance last season that  most fishermen caught their full legal limit before 9 in the morning.

A. the Red trout was so much in abundance last season that
B. the abundance of Red trout was such last season in which
C. last season was observed an abundance of Red trout such that
D. so abundant were the Red trout last season that
E. the abundance last season of Red trout were such that

globaldesi · Answer

IMO D
" so abundant were the Red trout last season that"
Red trut although defines the species but I think we can say since there were many "were" is the correct usage

OhMy · Answer

In my opinion,
D and E can be eliminated, since the sentence treats  the red trout  as a singular collective noun.
The use of  were  would create a Subject-Verb-Agreement-Error.
 D . so abundant  were  the Red trout last season that
 E . the abundance last season of Red trout  were  such that

B introduces the word  such , which needs an something it can refer to.  in which  is not going to satisfy that.
 B . the abundance of Red trout was  such  last season in which

A vs. C 
Im not so sure on this on. Though,  A  sounds more concise and on the point, compared to  C .
 last season was observed  sounds really awkward.
  A  . the Red trout was so much in abundance last season that
 C .  last season was observed  an abundance of Red trout such that

I may be wrong on some aspect, feel free to correct me.

ShankSouljaBoi · Answer

daagh  sir, problem with A the red trout was - SV error 
And the red trout can be counted right ? 1 RT 2 RT so many should be used since RT is a countable noun.

Can you please enlighten . I'm really struggling with countable non countable questions.

Regards

Posted from my mobile device

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

The key point here is that “the Red trout” is a  class  and therefore treated as a  singular  noun. Rules that apply to collective nouns apply here too.

With this in mind we can eliminate D and E. Option D is tempting because of its conciseness. Had it been “so abundant  was  the Red trout” it would have been the best option to pick—hands down!

But since the Subject-verb Agreement is incorrect, we can safely look at the remaining options. 
It is not idiomatic to write “was such … in which”. We know that the idiomatic expression is “ such that ”. Therefore we can eliminate B.

Option C is a passive construction with an unnecessarily complicated sentence structure. It raises the question: “who observed?” Further, it is logically incorrect.

We are left with A which adheres to SVA and uses the idiomatic expression “such that”

daagh · Answer

Dear Shank,

As I see it, we take the term 'the red trout' together with the definite article to denote the species as a singular group and hence is singular. This is the case in A. However when you drop the definite article, then it refers to all the fish of all the red trout and hence is plural, as is the case in fish or furniture. Contrary to the vibe, in D, the use of the plural verb 'were' along with the word 'the trout" is particularly incorrect. 
C is so warped with the use of the passive voice that it is out of the reckoning.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

Extraordinary fish seeding efforts coupled with elaborate surveillance

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Extraordinary fish seeding efforts coupled with elaborate surveillance

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards