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D for me as well. It uses either ..or and parallelism properly
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abhijit_sen
Genetic engineering sometimes entails plant or animal genes’ getting spliced into other species’ DNA, either to improve crop yields or for warding off insects or disease.

A. plant or animal genes’ getting spliced into other species’ DNA, either to improve crop yields or for warding off
B. plant or animal genes that get spliced into the DNA of other species, either for improving crop yields or the warding off of
C. the splicing of plant or animal genes into other species’ DNA, to either improve crop yields or to ward off
D. splicing plant or animal genes into the DNA of other species, either to improve crop yields or to ward off
E. splicing of plant or animal genes into the DNA of other species, for either the improvement of crop yields or to ward off

Isn't a run-off setnce is created in all answer choices?
please advise /

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For a run-on, you need ideally two independent sentences with two working verbs but those two sentences will not be connected either by a conjunction, or by a right punctuation such as a semicolon or a period.

In the given case, all the choices are single clauses and there is no second sentence. Engineering is the subject and entails is the verb while the rest is all the object

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D

A. warding off is not parallel
B. get spliced (believe GMAT doesn't allow get+passive phrase) and the warding off of is not parallel
D. wordy, and to ward off should be ward off since either is placed after to
E. splicing of is awkward, and to ward off is not parallel.
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Genetic engineering sometimes entails plant or animal genes’ getting spliced into other species’ DNA, either to improve crop yields or for warding off insects or disease.

A. plant or animal genes’ getting spliced into other species’ DNA, either to improve crop yields or for warding off
- Genetic engineering cannot entail the genes' getting splice. Genetic engineering can contain a noun or verb, eq. splicing plant or animals

B. plant or animal genes that get spliced into the DNA of other species, either for improving crop yields or the warding off of
    Genetic engineering cannot entail the genes.
    -Either X or Y parallelism is not correct here.

C. the splicing of plant or animal genes into other species’ DNA, to either improve crop yields or to ward off
-Either X or Y parallelism is not correct here.[/list]

D. splicing plant or animal genes into the DNA of other species, either to improve crop yields or to ward off
CORRECT

E. splicing of plant or animal genes into the DNA of other species, for either the improvement of crop yields or to ward off
Either X or Y parallelism is not correct here.[/list]
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We can get to the answer by looking for parallel structure.

(A) plant or animal genes’ getting spliced into other species’ DNA, either to improve crop yields or for warding off
If we use the infinitive form after “either”, we have to use the infinitive form after “or”. Option A uses both infinitive- "to improve" and gerund- "for warding off" . Option A breaks parallel structure. Eliminate.

(B) plant or animal genes that get spliced into the DNA of other species, either for improving crop yields or the warding off of
The meaning of the sentence is that
genetic engineering sometimes entails splicing plant or animal genes into other species’ DNA…either
to improve…
or to ward off..
B says Genetic engineering sometimes entails plant or animal genes either for improving crop yields or the warding off. This is illogical.
either for improving or the warding off- not parallel. It should have been- either for improving or for warding off.
However, the use of infinitive is preferred as we are talking about intent here.
Eliminate.

(C) the splicing of plant or animal genes into other species’ DNA, to either improve crop yields or to ward off

If “to” precedes “either”, it is common to both the verbs- to either improve or ward off.
Option C repeats “to” after “or”. Eliminate.

(D) splicing plant or animal genes into the DNA of other species, either to improve crop yields or to ward off
Either to improve or to ward off. Correct.

(E) splicing of plant or animal genes into the DNA of other species, for either the improvement of crop yields or to ward off

Breaks parallel structure. Eliminate.

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