For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with

The structure of this sentence took me a moment to digest, so I went with the simple pronoun split first ("cows" versus " cow").

The first "them" is not underlined, so we must be looking for a plural subject--lose B and D.

Examining the remaining choices shows us two more splits -- the progressive tense verb ("are producing" ) versus the future tense ("will produce"), and the type of modifier (-ing versus past participle).

Whenever I see a list of things, I tend to check for parallelism right away--the items in the list should be parallel OR the nonparallel items should be subordinate/have a clear-in-meaning reason for being structurally different from the rest of the items in the list. Parallelism is good not because of any intrinsic value, but because the clarity of a sentence's meaning is served by that parallel structure. If the meaning doesn't warrant parallelism, don't force the issue.

If we look at choice A, then "providing them.....regularly" would have to be considered a subordinate clause ("providing" is not parallel to "cool" because "providing" refers back to the farmer rather than the cows, so it cannot be part of a properly parallel list).

The structure of A would then seem to be--
For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool,
(1) providing them with high-energy feed,
(2) and milking them regularly
Holstein cows....

The structure is still a little awkward because we have not one but TWO additional -ing modifiers that are subordinate before we reach the subject of the sentence (the cows). Are these two additional modifiers, separated by a comma (which would seem to suggest a list of 3+ items), of same "weight" and both less important than the fact that the cows are kept cool?

Whereas in E, the meaning is clear, and clearly supported by parallel structure--

For the farmer who takes care to keep them
(1) cool,
(2) provided with high-energy feed,*
(3) and milked regularly,*
Holstein cows....

Choice C is a mix of A and E (provided/milking) so can be considered neither a proper subordinate clause nor a proper parallel list-- lose C.

E has clean parallelism and avoids that unnecessary usage of the present progressive (are providing) in A that the above poster mentioned.


*note: remember that past participles can serve as adjectives!

Hi Akash,

For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.

Well, this question is certainly confusing and not written in the best possible manner. However let’s get into the logic of this sentence. The sentence is saying that for the farmers who takes care of the Holstein cows in certain ways, these cows produce an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year. Now here comes the tricky part. The ways in which the farmers takes care of these cows is that he takes care:
a. to keep them cool,
b. to keep them provided with high-energy feed, and
c. to keep them milked regularly.



1. From the original sentence, it is clear that the entities in the list are not parallel. While “cool” is an adjective, “providing…” and “milking…” are working as gerunds (nouns) in this sentence.
2. In case, if you could not figure out the correct parallel list to rectify it, look at the problem this way. “providing…” and “milking…” are the verb-ing modifiers preceded by comma. This means that they are modifying the preceding clause. However, it does not make sense to say that the farmer keeps the cows cool by providing them good feed and by milking them. So these modifiers do not fit here.
3. Also notice the inconsistent verb tenses. This sentence is providing general information about the Holstein cows. Using present continuous tense “are producing” does not make sense here.

POE:

a. providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing: Incorrect for the reasons stated above.

b. providing them with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces: Incorrect.
1. The verb-ing modifier “providing…” does not make sense as in choice A.
2. The entities in the list are still not parallel.
3. The singular antecedent “the Holstein cow” does not agree in number with plural pronoun “them”.

c. provided with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing: Incorrect.
1. Verb-ing modifier “milking…” does not make sense.
2. The entities in the list are still not parallel.
3. Use of “are producing” is incorrect.

d. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces: Incorrect. The singular antecedent “the Holstein cow” does not agree in number with plural pronoun “them”.

e. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce: Correct. The use of future “will produce” is correct because we have a causal relationship here. If the farmers take care of the cows in certain ways, then the cows produce certain amount of milk. The cause is written in the simple present. Hence, the effect can be written in either simple present tense or simple future tense.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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I think E might be appealing to you because by itself, the underlined part sounds good. This sentence would be OK:

Provided with high-energy feed and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.
(Structure: Modifier [provided and milked], Subject [H. cows] Verb [will produce] Object [an average of ....])

Note the parallelism between provided and milked. Also note that there is no comma between them, as there are just two actions that must be done for the cows. For lists of two things, we see "X and Y" with no comma. For lists of three or more things, we see "X, Y, and Z" and the GMAT puts a comma between each list item, including one before the final "and."

So, my question on (E) is where's the third list item that justifies the comma before "and milked"? I suppose it might be "cool," and we are supposed to think of provided and milked as descriptions of the cows rather than actions done for the cows. That is,

(1) For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool,
(2) For the farmer who takes care to keep them provided with high-energy feed,
(3) For the farmer who takes care to keep them milked regularly,
.....Holstein cows will produce ...

But looking at the other choices the same way (what three things are parallel?), you can't eliminate 4 choices for bad parallelism. There's a second judgement call about verb tense, and I'm not sure the question gives you enough context to rule out one tense in favor of another. What's the source of the question?

We continued this discussion via private message, but here's a summary for the benefit of others.

I agree, the generality of this statement is key. By using the future tense, (E) makes a prediction or statement of expectations.

I think the parallelism of (A) is still incorrect, and punctuation has something to do with it. Here's (A), with color-coding of what might be parallel:

For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.

Note that "producing" cannot be parallel to the other -ing words!! "Providing" and "milking" act as modifiers, whereas "are producing" is a tensed verb. Also, if "producing" were in our list of three things, the "and" would be in front of the third item, not the second.

There's no -ing word before the first comma to parallel "providing" and "milking," so this is just a list of two things and there's no reason to have a comma in front of "and milking" at all.

Finally, even if we took the comma out, it doesn't make sense for "providing" and "milking" to be used as adverbial modifiers of "takes care to keep them cool." Providing food and milking them aren't ways to keep cows cool, unless there's something important about cow tending that I am unaware of (quite likely!). The structure of (A) could be OK, if we solved both the comma problem and the meaning problem:

For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with adequate water and air-conditioning their shelters in the summer, Holstein cows are producing (better, as discussed above: will produce) an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.

I've come around to (E) on this one; I have to admit I wasn't thrilled with it and probably would have answered this incorrectly under timed circumstances!


You don't have to repeat them for the sake of either parallelism or clarity. You DO have to have the plural Holstein cows as the subject (not the singular the Holstein cow), to serve as the referent for any plural them's in the modifier.

Here's another example, similar to (E):

For the handler who keeps them fit, well trained and intellectually stimulated, German Shepards will be loyal and competent companions.

See how the parallel structure comes after them? It's as if them gets used three times: keeps them fit, keeps them trained, keeps them stimulated.

At first, none of the answers looks right - this is certainly a high level question. B) and D) cannot be correct, as mentioned above, because the sentence has a plural number of cows ('them') at the beginning of the sentence, and a singular number of cows at the end. A) doesn't look at all promising, because, if you interpret 'takes care', 'providing' and 'milking' to be a list of actions performed by the farmer, you expect parallelism; that is, you expect it to read: "takes care to keep them cool, provides them with high energy feed, and milks them regularly..." Unfortunately none of the answers is parallel in this sense, *so we can't interpret the underlined passage as part of a sequence of actions performed by the farmer*. The underlined passage isn't attached to the beginning of the sentence at all, in fact; it's attached to the end of the sentence. If we simply reorder the words, using what should be the correct answer (that's E), I assume), the meaning should become clear:

Provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year for the farmer who takes care to keep them cool.

Try to do the same rearrangement with answer A) and you'll see there's a problem.
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Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-



Choice A: In Option A, "providing" and "milking" appear to be functioning as modifiers for "take care to keep them cool"; however, within the context of this sentence this modification makes no logical sense. Thus, Option A is incorrect.

Choice B: Option B repeats the error Option A makes, regarding the word "providing". Additionally, this option uses "them" to refer to the singular "Holstein Cow". Thus, Option B is incorrect.

Choice C: Option C repeats the error Option A makes, regarding the word "milking". Furthermore, this answer choice utilizes an incorrect verb tense, present continuous, in the verb phrase "are producing". Thus, Option C is incorrect.

Choice D: Option D repeats the same pronoun error that Option B displays. Thus, Option D is incorrect.

Choice E: Option E conveys the intended meaning of the sentence that if a farmer takes care of Holstein cows in certain ways, the cows will provide a certain quantity of milk. Moreover, this answer choice also uses one of the two tenses that can be used to portray a causal relationship, simple present or simple future. Thus, Option E is correct.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of “Simple tenses on GMAT”, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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This one was very tricky. I was trying to find an option where all the actions are in parallel (normal practice for sentences with a list of actions). But the answer options were not as per my logic.
The only option that makes sense is if the sentence is describing a conditional out come. If A is provided with X and Y it will produce B.

Only option E makes sense. D comes close but looses out to E because "produces" fails to convey the idea of conditional outcome.

Answer: E

tricky indeed....was so close going for B

*to keep them cool* therefre the subject is plural
B,D eliminated
GMAT never uses present continuous (BE -ing) to describe a habit, fact, future etc......
therefore A, C eliminated, with E the only option

This one was very tricky. First I chose B but after giving it a closer look I chose E.
takes acre to keep them cool implies that it should be COWS.
SO A, C and E are left
For Farmers who takes .... means its a conditional sentence. So the outcome of the condition has to be in future.
SO clearly E

Good question

hi Mohan,

First thing first :

1.I checked the non underlined portion : Found THEM .................. what them refers to = COWS thus PLURAL
2. Verical scan to find any clue ========= VOILA B & D speaks of singular COW = Eliminated
3. Left with A / C / E
4. Rereading the stem : To get the intent/ meaning

Infinitives always suggest INTENT : To draw an analogy ,

If Mohan cares TO KEEP up the hard work , Mohan ..................... fetch a 750 on GMAT

Just from sheer logic & our daily usage, what can you insert in the blank ( Forget all Grammar & IF / THEN construction / Hypo subjunctives everything) ........................... Guess nothing but WILL

5. Checked A n C :
If Gmat aspirants care TO KEEP up the hard work ,............. they are fetching 750 on GMAT ( Does it make sense? ) = Eliminated

Thus leading to E.

1.I checked the non underlined portion : Found THEM .................. what them refers to = COWS thus PLURAL
2. Verical scan to find any clue ========= VOILA B & D speaks of singular COW = Eliminated
3. Left with A / C / E
4. Rereading the stem : To get the intent/ meaning

Infinitives always suggest INTENT : To draw an analogy ,

If Mohan cares TO KEEP up the hard work , Mohan ..................... fetch a 750 on GMAT

Just from sheer logic & our daily usage, what can you insert in the blank ( Forget all Grammar & IF / THEN construction / Hypo subjunctives everything) ........................... Guess nothing but WILL

5. Checked A n C :
If Gmat aspirants care TO KEEP up the hard work ,............. they are fetching 750 on GMAT ( Does it make sense? ) = Eliminated

Thus leading to E.

A. providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing - This gives a the meaning that all the three actions are done simultaneously. however, that is not the case. The last action should be a result of the first two.
B. providing them with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cows produces - Not parallel. "Cows" is plural and cannot "produces" Eliminate.
C. provided with high-energy feed, and milking them reglarlym Holstein cows are producing - Not parallel . Eliminate.
D. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces- Them cannot refer to a single cow. Eliminate.
E. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce - As a result of the first two actions, Holstein cows will produce xyz gallons of milk each per year !

Answer

The non-underlined part contains a plural pronoun – them-; so, the subject should be a plural one namely cows and not cow. So, B and D are out. The let’s look into //ism.

A. providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows is producing--- This is trap of pseudo-//ism. Providing and milking are present participles, modifying the noun Holstein cows. Are progressing is wholesome verb; there is no need to look into parallelisms between these two different parts of speech. So A is out’


B. providing them with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces --- subject- pronoun mismatch

C. provided with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing ---provided with and milking --- unparallel.

D. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces --= pronoun –subject mismatch

E. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce --- correct parallelism of past participles.
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The prepositional phrase ‘ for the former ------ to keep them cool-, is no more than an inconsequential piece of additional info, not interfering with the main clause that comes after it. The real portion that matters is--- providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2,275
gallons of milk each per year. Viewed from this perspective, the picture is clear now.

The participial modifier --- providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly modifies the noun Holstein cows. This is essentially meaningless, since you don’t expect the cows to provide themselves with high energy feed. So, A and B are out at the first shot.

In C, one can see the lack of //ism in ‘provided with -----and milking them’.

In D, the singular Holstein Cow doesn't chime with the plural pronoun ‘them’ in the non-underlined part.

E is the final choice with no //ism or subject –pronoun mismatch

It is too trivial to muse whether -are producing- or –produces- or -will produce- is the right diction, given the larger issues in the context.
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1. providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Hobstein cows are producing Wrong - nonsensical to use present progressive tense (present progressive indicates action is taking place)

2. providing them with high-energy feed, and milked them regularly, the Hobstein cow produces Wrong - "them" modifier requires a plural referent

3. provided with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Hobstein cows are producing Wrong - nonsensical to use present progressive tense (present progressive indicates action is taking place)

4. provided with high-energy feed, and milked them regularly, the Hobstein cow produces Wrong - "them" modifier requires a plural referent

5. provided with high-energy feed, and milked them regularly, Hobstein cows will produce Best choice among not good answer choices - "will produce" not as good as "produce", but it is better than present progressive "are producing"

IMO E

Hi E-GMAT,

Sentence structute for this sentence ,

My analysis ,

For the farmer (SUB) ..Clause 1

who takes care to keep them cool, SUB Clause

providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Contuning the Clause 1.

Holstein cows are producing an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.Clause 2.

Now Dependent Clause 1 seems to have no verb.

and Clause 2 is just a fact and it is not linked with dependent clause 1.

Now my only question is how come "will produce" mention in the option E is correct. Can't it be a simple verb tense.


Thanks

Hi Nitinaka19,
Thank you for the query.

Although the construction of this sentence is not similar to an “if…then…” construction, it represents a similar type of cause and effect relationship.
• For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.

The sentence indicates that if a farmer takes care to fulfill these three conditions:
1. Keep the cows cool
2. Keep the cows provided with high-energy feed
3. And keep them milked regularly

Holstein cows will produce an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.

Since the conditions in the first part are written in the simple present tense, the effect is correctly represented in the simple future tense (will produce).


Hope this helps!
Regards,
Deepak
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For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.

A. providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
Wrong. Cows should be provided with high-energy feed and milked regularly.

B. providing them with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
Wrong. "providing" is wrong. "the Holstein cow" does not agree with "them" (in the non-underlined part)

C. provided with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
Wrong. "milking" is wrong.

D. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
Wrong. "the Holstein cow" does not agree with "them" (in the non-underlined part)

E. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce
Correct. Provided & milked modify Holstein cows correctly.


Regards,