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CRACKGMATNUT
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Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appear 09 Apr 2021, 02:00
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EducationAisle Hi,

1) Can you help explain why "The" is necessary in option D.

2) If in option D "them" is not present, do we still need to include 'The" ?

for eg: if the sentence was : (D) Of five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent have vanished. Do we need 'The' here?
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Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appear 09 Apr 2021, 02:47
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Mayank221133
EducationAisle Hi,

1) Can you help explain why "The" is necessary in option D.

2) If in option D "them" is not present, do we still need to include 'The" ?

for eg: if the sentence was : (D) Of five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent have vanished. Do we need 'The' here?
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I really would not bother about the Mayank; GMAT doesn't test on the usage of articles (a/an/the). In other words, articles would never be the only differentiating factor between two options. So, would always suggest that you look for other splits between options.
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Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appear 17 Apr 2021, 08:07
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nocilis
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.


SC16020.02
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Hello experts,

I have a few doubts in this question.

1. What is the role of "vanishing" in option A? Is it acting as a verb or a modifier? And why is A wrong because of vanishing?

2. What is wrong with option B? I was stuck between B and E.

ChiranjeevSingh GMATNinja VeritasKarishma AndrewN Skywalker18 AjiteshArun

Thank you in advance!
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Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appear 17 Apr 2021, 09:50
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ashmit99
nocilis
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.


SC16020.02


Hello experts,

I have a few doubts in this question.

1. What is the role of "vanishing" in option A? Is it acting as a verb or a modifier? And why is A wrong because of vanishing?

2. What is wrong with option B? I was stuck between B and E.

ChiranjeevSingh GMATNinja VeritasKarishma AndrewN Skywalker18 AjiteshArun

Thank you in advance!
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Hello, ashmit99. It looks as if I have gotten to this query early enough not to be third in line. (I would still respond if I felt I had something new to add, other than to say that the other Experts had already done a fine job.) In (A), vanishing is indeed a problem. It seems to be filling the role of a verb, particularly if you examine the other answer choices. However, we cannot ignore the missing helping verb in to have or to be to make that interpretation stronger: nearly 99 percent of them are vanishing, for instance, leaves no room for interpretation. But, of course, that is not what we are dealing with. It seems that the word is instead modifying them, which itself refers to species, or, if you prefer the fuller version, different species of living creatures. A new issue arises when you consider what, exactly, vanishing may be modifying. Are the species vanishing from the face of the Earth, as the other sentences seem to imply in their own way, or are the species highly developed in the camouflage department, such that they can make themselves vanish (and be described as vanishing species of creatures)? Because the earlier usage of have appeared leads us to believe that some of these species may not exist in the present, we expect have vanished, an actual verb, to follow up on that idea. Vanishing as a modifier simply does not work in the sentence.

As for (B), the meaning of the sentence is open to interpretation because appeared within the embedded clause at the end—not have appeared—does not present a clear timeline. Are we commenting only on species from the past? (Choice (E), by contrast, extends into the present.) Did all five hundred million different species of living creatures co-exist? Were dinosaurs walking around with dodos and woolly mammoths? I know this sounds silly, but the simple past conjugation of the verb suggests as much, or at least we cannot argue that it does not. Choice (E) is a safer bet, in terms of the meaning it conveys.

I hope that helps clear your doubts. Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew
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Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appear 27 Jul 2021, 20:37
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can somebody help me out? Plz

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

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


option D has "of them" in the dependent clause ", nearly 99 percent of them have vanished." Is this also problemetic?

p.s. is this grammer similar to ", some of which...(clause)" and ", some of them...(phrase)"?

Thanks in advance! :heart
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Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appear 28 Jul 2021, 16:55
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irisjojojo
can somebody help me out? Plz

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

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


option D has "of them" in the dependent clause ", nearly 99 percent of them have vanished." Is this also problemetic?

p.s. is this grammer similar to ", some of which...(clause)" and ", some of them...(phrase)"?

Thanks in advance! :heart
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Hello, irisjojojo. Your postscript tells me that you have a keen eye for some of the finer points of grammar, namely that some of which does indeed set up a dependent clause, and some of them can be followed by a phrase similar to the one we see in the first sentence above. The part I have highlighted above, though, is incorrect: of them is incorporated into an independent clause in (D). The subject of that clause is 99 percent, and have is the verb that marks the beginning of the predicate. In sum, the latter part of (D) is a standalone sentence (non-essential components in brackets): [nearly] 99 percent [of them] have vanished.

The problem with of them in (D) is that, as I have explained earlier in the thread, it creates a redundancy, since we cannot ignore what them refers to, and we cannot ignore the two instances of of:

D.2) Of five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth, nearly 99 percent of [the species] have vanished.

Why would we need to mention the species twice? The of at the head of the introductory phrase already cues us in on the potential subset that will follow. In a shorter sentence, it would be similar to saying, Out of five cars, two of [the cars] were red. We would more concisely say, Out of five cars, two were red. Put another way, if you straighten the sentence out, you should get, Two out of five cars were red, NOT, Two of the cars out of five cars were red.

I hope it makes sense now. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appear 09 Feb 2022, 15:55
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GMATNinja Could you please explain how the use of present perfect tense both for 'appearing' and 'vanishing' works? Doesn't it indicate that the vanishing and appearing are both continuing presently?
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Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appear 10 Feb 2022, 05:24
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Paras0111
GMATNinja Could you please explain how the use of present perfect tense both for 'appearing' and 'vanishing' works? Doesn't it indicate that the vanishing and appearing are both continuing presently?
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Hello Paras0111,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can resolve your doubt.

You seem to have become confused between the present perfect tense and the present perfect continuous tense; the present perfect tense refers to actions that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present and to actions that concluded in the recent past; it is the present perfect continuous tense that refers to actions that began in the past and continue into the present.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appear 16 May 2023, 23:30
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nocilis
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.


SC16020.02
Show more



The sentence is telling us that nearly 99% of the five hundred million different species of living creatures that have appeared on Earth have vanished.

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

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

We need to use ‘the’ before ‘five hundred million different species’ to show that this is the total number of species that have appeared, not a subset of the number of species.

Take a simpler example:
Of the ten friends I have, four are coming tomorrow. (I have total ten friends)
Of ten friends I have, four are coming tomorrow. (Awkward! I may have more than ten friends but I am talking about ten only.)

Hence, options (B) and (D) are not correct.

(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.

The appearance of species is not complete. Many species appeared and more keep appearing. We are talking about the 500 million species that have already appeared on Earth as of now. Hence, the use of ‘appeared’ would be incorrect. It signals that the action happened in the past but is over now. We should use ‘have appeared’ to show that we are talking about the species that have appeared till now. Other species are appearing and will likely continue to appear in the future i.e. the time period is not over (discussed in ‘Simple Past vs Present Perfect’ section of the Tenses module). By the same logic, ‘have vanished’ would be correct since the period of vanishing is not over but many species have vanished (their vanishing is complete)

To take a simpler example,

I met him many times.
(means I don’t meet him anymore. I met him before he moved to another city etc.)

I have met him many times.
(means I have met him in the past and continue to do so in the present too)

Hence, options (A), (B) and (C) are not correct.
Option (A) uses present participle ‘vanishing’ as a modifier for the 99% of the five hundred million species which makes no sense. They have already vanished so we should use the verb ‘have vanished.’
Option (C) inverts the subject and verb. Though useful sometimes, this is not done routinely.

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

Option (D) is incorrect also because it repeats ‘of them.’

Note with an example that we can write it correctly in one of two ways:

Of the ten friends I have, four are coming tomorrow.
Four of the ten friends I have are coming tomorrow.

Can we say ‘Of the ten friends I have, four of them are coming tomorrow’? No. We should not repeat ‘of what.’ If we start with it as a prepositional phrase, we should not mention it afterwards again.

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

All good.

Answer (E)
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Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appear 13 Sep 2023, 23:36
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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.

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.

OA: E


Ack! Please Explain.

Why can't B be the answer?


Here's my take -

The key is the use of the article "The" and the use of present perfect tense in choice E.

Choice B leaves open the possibility that more than 500 million diff species may have appeared on earth. E make is specific - only 500 mill diff species have appeared and 99% of these have vanished.
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Hi,I still confused about "the " usage. " Choice B leaves open the possibility that more than 500 million diff species may have appeared on earth" Why the is so important here? I think no difference here with or without "the". What's the special usage? Can an expert elaborate it and give more examples please? It makes no sense to a non-native person-like me. Need help. Thanks a lot.
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Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appear 24 Sep 2023, 02:11
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nocilis
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.
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:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/five-hundred ... ml#p773666
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sayantanc2k
Quote:
I do not see a problem with E; rather option E seems better than B:
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^^ it means B is still good choice, right? But, if something is appeared in the past how it be vanish in present?
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Five hundred million different species of living creatures have appear 24 Sep 2023, 02:41
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GMATGuruNY
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.

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

Here -- as in the marble example given above -- the red modifier is redundant with the blue modifier.
Eliminate D.
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Thanks for the nice explanation. Sir, can you help us by explaining the article issue ('the') issue in choice E, please?

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