Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appear

VeritasPrepKarishma, mikemcgarry
Could you guys please help resolve the issue between B & E..

According to me, the Issue with E is

Of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent have vanished.

We use Present Perfect to denote an Action/Event that started in Past and is still there in Present or its Effect is still there in Present. So, wouldn't the Sentence fragment - species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth - mean that those species appeared on Earth in past and new ones are still appearing. Here, present perfect cannot mean the other thing because sentence further says that - Nearly 99% of those species have vanished.

I do not see a problem with E; rather option E seems better than B:
The species appeared in the past and are still continuing to appear - till date five hundred million species have appeared. Hence past perfect is better than simple past.

A more detailed explanation can be found here:
five-hundred-million-different-species-of-living-creatures-16579-60.html#p773666

Yes, that is what the posts convey. Here is an alternative take on this:

Case 1. A species X no longer lives:

1.1 A species X appeared and have vanished. (Here the appearance has no effect in the present since it has already vanished - the effect of vanishing is though still there.)

1.2 A species appeared and vanished. (Here the appearance has no effect in the present since it has already vanished - the effect of vanishing is also not there.)

Case 2. A species Y still lives:

2.1 A species Y has appeared. (Here the appearance has effect in the present since the species still lives.)

Now out of all the species, some appeared and have vanished (OR vanished), and the others have appeared and are still living - in this case since at least some effect of the appearance is there (because at least some species are still living), present perfect would be appropriate:

Out of all the species that HAVE appeared, some have vanished (or vanished). (The others are still living.)

Explanation as to why E is preferred over C?

Two problems:

1. The passive construction X is vanished implies that the act of vanishing was performed on X by someone else - this usage is not correct. The creatures vanished, not that they are vanished (by someone else).

2. Starting a sentence with a verb is not a standard practice. Option C has a more standard construction: starting with a prepositional phrase modifier, then the subject and finally the verb.

16. Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them vanishing.

The essence o the nature of evolution is that it is an ongoing and eternal affair.


A. Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them vanishing --- modification is unclear. With comma + vanishing modifying the action of five hundred million species, appearing.-It looks incongruous.

B. Nearly 99 percent of five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared on Earth have vanished. -- that appeared is incongruous
C. Vanished are nearly 99 percent of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared on Earth. -- that appeared is incongruous as explained at the top

D. Of five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them have vanished. Correct

E. Of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent have vanished. -- One cannot put a cap the number of species in evolution. There are so many that are evolving silently without our knowledge; hence, the use of 'the ', a factor that denotes an entirety is inappropriate
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Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them vanishing.

(A) Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them vanishing. - WRONG. Pronoun ambiguity. 'Them' refers to what species or living creatures.

(B) Nearly 99 percent of five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared on Earth have vanished. - WRONG. Initially looked nothing wrong as such but 'that' should have been followed by 'have' since in its present form the choice suggests that in present there is no species left that appeared recently - all appeared in the past OR at once. Also we have better choices available later.

(C) Vanished are nearly 99 percent of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared on Earth. - WRONG. Makes a similar meaning error as that in B. Also in passive voice.

(D) Of five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them have vanished. - WRONG. Nothing looks wrong until we reach 'them' usage of which make the choice redundant. Of fie hundred million different species = them.

(E) Of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent have vanished. - CORRECT. Style wise its better to communicate the fact to leave an impact.

IMO Answer E.
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How would you correct the original sentence if you left the structure as-is?

What about:
Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appeared on Earth, and nearly 99 percent of them have vanished.
or
Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appeared on Earth, with nearly 99 percent of them having vanished.

Good question, costcosized. I see no problem with the first sentence above in isolation—if it were an option, I would still choose (E)—although I would prefer the conjunction but instead of and to better convey that almost all the species no longer exist. Why might I still prefer (E)? Because the amended sentence above still suggests, until you finish reading the sentence, that these species could have appeared at a specific point in time, even with with present perfect have appeared. That is, I anticipate a since [some time period] prior to the comma, and I have to go back to figure out the intended meaning. Choice (E) presents a clearer picture by launching into a prepositional phrase from the beginning, and the since... could just as easily fit in at the end of the sentence (or not appear at all, as written). As for the second sentence you proposed, I would never opt for that construct over either of the other two. If a better, clearer option exists, then why resort to a mealymouthed sentence?

- Andrew
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Can someone please explain to me the use of present perfect in this question?

I understand it's used to indicate an action that happened in the past and continuing into the present/future. But in this question, we used "have vanished" - I thought one can vanish once?!

In another official question: "killed" was preferred to "have killed" - this makes sense to me, as killing only happens once.
"Avalanches at Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park killed more than 200 people between 1885 and 1910, but such avalanches..." https://gmatclub.com/forum/avalanches-a ... 05826.html

Hi Victorz, continuing into the present/future depends more on the context.

For example:

I have met Mother Teresa.
- It means that I met Mother Teresa at some unspecified time in the past.

I have loved chocolates since my childhood.
- It means that I started loving chocolates when I was a child, and my love for chocolates still continues into the present.


Present Perfect implies that something happened at some point in our lives, before now. So, in the most vanilla case of present perfect, the time frame of reference starts now can continues infinitely into the past.

However, when the sentence states between 1885 and 1910, the time frame of reference clearly does not start now (but in 1910 and then goes back). So, Present perfect is not an appropriate usage in this scenario.

You can watch our video on Present Perfect.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses Present perfect tense, its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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Thanks a lot, EducationAisle! Sounds like for Usage 1: unspecified time before now, it's okay to use either "have vanished" or "vanished."

Strictly speaking, for unspecified time before now, simple past would not be a great tense to use.

I have finished my breakfast.
-Correct (unspecified time, so we use present perfect)

I finished my breakfast 3 hours back.
-Correct (specified time, so we use simple past)

I have finished my breakfast 3 hours back.
-Not a great construct (specified time, so we should ideally not be using present perfect)).
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In A: one of the error is: PROBLEM: First off "nearly 99 percent..." appears to be modifying "Earth," when we want it to modify "five hundred million different species."


D has the same modifier; E also has the same modifier
How can i make it more clear that "nearly 99 percent of them have vanished" is modifying five hundred million different species?
by inserting "of them" i remove ambiguity to an extend. them can't refer to earth any more.
So with this line of thought i rejected E over D .

Please correct me w.r.t. A thought process.


Andrew sir MentorTutoring EducationAisle TommyWallach GMATGuruNY

Hello again, imSKR. I think TommyWallach has addressed your concerns in the Most Helpful Expert Reply, but I will add a bit of my own thoughts below.

I would also say that vanishing can be interpreted as a description of the type of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, and that would be something, wouldn't it? I mean, vanishing creatures would be interesting to see... or not see, you know what I mean?


The of at the beginning of the sentence already removes the ambiguity. If you do a little rearranging, you will see exactly what I mean (and why of them in (D) is redundant):

(E) Nearly 99 percent of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth have vanished.

I have not changed any words in the sentence above, only the order in which the pieces appear. Does that make sense now?

- Andrew
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Incorrect:
Of the marbles in the jar, three of them are green.
Here, the red modifier is redundant with the blue modifier.
Conveyed meaning:
Three of the marbles in the jar of them are green.
Correct:
Of the marbles in the jar, three are green.



Here -- as in the marble example given above -- the red modifier is redundant with the blue modifier.
Eliminate D.
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Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down our options quickly so we know how to answer questions like this when they pop up on the GMAT! To begin, let's take a quick look at the question and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them vanishing.

(A) Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them vanishing.

(B) Nearly 99 percent of five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared on Earth have vanished.

(C) Vanished are nearly 99 percent of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared on Earth.

(D) Of five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them have vanished.

(E) Of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent have vanished.

After a quick glance over the options, we have a few key differences we can focus on:

1. have appeared / appeared (Verb Tense & Meaning)
2. vanishing / have vanished / vanished (Verb Tense & Meaning)
3. Where the phrase “nearly 99 percent” is located (Construction)

Whenever you see the entire sentence is underlined, that should be a hint that we’re dealing with a “big picture” grammatical issue like modifiers, construction, organization, etc. While this makes things more difficult overall, we do have some places we can start to eliminate options before looking at “big picture” issues.

One of the key differences we can focus on to eliminate some options is #2: vanishing / have vanished / vanished. The intended meaning here is that 500 million species of living creatures have been here, and that the 99 percent that vanished have been doing so since the beginning, and are still vanishing today. Therefore, we need to use the present perfect “have vanished” to indicate that this action started in the past, yet it’s still going on today:

(A) Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them vanishing.

(B) Nearly 99 percent of five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared on Earth have vanished.

(C) Vanished are nearly 99 percent of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared on Earth.

(D) Of five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them have vanished.

(E) Of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent have vanished.

We can eliminate options A & C because “vanishing” and “vanished” don’t convey the correct meaning we’re going for here. Both of these options are also incredibly awkward, so they’re easy to rule out anyway.

Now that we have it narrowed down a little bit, let’s take a closer look at the overall construction of each option, making sure they convey a logical, clear meaning. While we highlighted the placement of “nearly 99 percent” in our initial glance over the options, we need to look at each sentence as a whole to determine which has the clearest and most logical meaning:

(B) Nearly 99 percent of five hundred million different species of living creatures that appeared on Earth have vanished.
This is INCORRECT for a couple reasons. First, the phrase “of five hundred million different species” is misleading. This is saying that there may be MORE than 500 million creatures on Earth, and not that 500 million is the total number of ALL creatures. Second, the past tense “appeared” suggests that these 500 million creatures appeared ALL AT THE SAME TIME, which is also misleading. They have appeared over time, and 99% of them have vanished over time.

(D) Of five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them have vanished.
This is INCORRECT because the phrase “of five hundred millions different species” is misleading. It suggests that 500 million is only SOME of the creatures on Earth, and not ALL of them.

(E) Of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent have vanished.
This is CORRECT! Saying “Of the five hundred million different species” makes it clearer that 500 million creatures is ALL of them. The verbs “have appeared” and “have vanished” also convey the correct meaning - that the creatures both appeared and vanished starting in the past, and have continued to do so in the present.

There you have it - option E is our winner! By finding anything you can, no matter how small, to eliminate options, you can spend more time focusing on bigger, more complex issues.

Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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This question is based on Construction.

Option A has the participle form ‘vanishing’, which is inappropriate in this sentence. As the sentence conveys a time frame from some time in the past to the present, the present perfect tense would make more sense. So, Option A can be ruled out.

The article ‘the’ is missing in Option B. The correct phrase would be “Nearly 99 percent of the five hundred million different species” since the five hundred million species is a specific group that the sentence discusses. The simple past tense ‘appeared’ is also inappropriate. The present perfect tense would be more appropriate for reasons stated above. So, Option B can also be ruled out.

The construction of Option C is clumsy as the sentence is in inverted order. The simple past tense ‘appeared’ is also inappropriate. So, Option C can also be ruled out.

Option D has a redundant pronoun ‘them’. Since the subject “five hundred million different species of living creatures” is mentioned, there is no need for the pronoun. The article ‘the’ is missing in this option also. So, Option D can also be ruled out.

Option E corrects all the errors in the other options. It contains the article ‘the’ and has the appropriate present perfect tense ‘have appeared’ and ‘have vanished’.
Therefore, E is the most appropriate of all the options.

Jayanthi Kumar.
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Another question:

(D'-dash) Of five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of them have vanished.

(E) Of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent have vanished.

In D' without " the" it means it can be more than 500M different species? in E , it refers to total 500M what have appeared, 99% of them have vanished?
Would by adding " the' , the meaning is changed so much?

Experts, please confirm .
EMPOWERgmatVerbal CrackVerbalGMAT GMATGuruNY

Hi imSKR,

Yes, the definite article 'the' is important. It conveys the difference in meaning between the entire group and a smaller group within a larger group.

The phrase "the five hundred million different species....Earth" implies the entire group of different species that have appeared on Earth.

However, "five hundred million....Earth" implies that one group has been selected from a larger group, which contains more than five hundred million.

Of course, with this question, the redundant pronoun 'them' gives you another reason to rule out Option D.

I hope this answers your question:)

Jayanthi Kumar.
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