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555-605 Level|   Grammatical/Rhetorical Construction|   Pronouns|                        
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daagh GMATNinja carcass Sorry for tagging.
Can anyone tell me how option D is correct? The correct idiom is "consider A B". But it uses consider A to be B!

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No need to apologize for the tagging! As long as you're being reasonable about it, it's a totally legit way to get our attention. :)

Here comes some heresy: I don't ever really see idioms as absolute rules. (A long, unpopular rant about idioms can be found here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 41848.html) Sure, there are a few (older) official questions that feature "considered" without the "to be" -- but I'm not shocked that a counterexample appeared in OG 2017. Outside of the GMAT, I'm not sure that you'll find many grammar experts or editors who actually believe that "considered to be" is always wrong.

More importantly: you have no choice at all. "Considered... to be" appears in all five answer choices. So they've clearly made it a non-issue, and you definitely need to focus on other things, like the pronouns and the "due to", for example.

I'll let you enjoy the question from here, but let us know if you have more questions about this one!
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pikolo2510
Hey GMATNinja egmat

I eliminated A,C and E because we need a plural verb for the word "struggles"

But I was torn between B and C because of the word "its" in the non-underlined part. Isn't "its" referring back to the "ants"?
Can you help me understand the usage of "its" (in this sentence) in the non-underlined part?
Ooh, interesting question. The tricky thing here is that "species" can be plural or singular -- and in this case ("...spread of this species in its native Argentina"), we know that "species" is singular, since it's preceded by the singular article "this." So "its" just refers back to "species." No problem there at all.

Quote:
(B) due to its being so genetically similar the ant considers all its fellows to be a close relative and thus does not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limit

But for whatever it's worth, there are plenty of other problems with (B), if that was the answer choice that tempted you. "Due to" can only modify a noun, not a verb -- and in (B), it looks like "due to its being so genetically similar" is trying to modify the verb phrase "the ant considers". And that doesn't work.

Also, it's awfully awkward to say "its being." "Being" is apparently a gerund here, and it is preceded by the possessive pronoun "its." I don't understand how it makes sense for something ("the ant", presumably) to possess "being." (More on the use of "being" in this long rant.) And we also don't know what, exactly, the ant is genetically similar to. And it doesn't make sense to say that "all of its fellows [plural!] are a close relative [singular!]."

So even if you weren't super-certain about the "its native Argentina" in (D), the hope is that you'd hesitate -- for plenty of other reasons -- before picking (B).

I hope this helps!
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Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
jerrywu
In California, a lack of genetic variation in the Argentine ant has allowed the species to spread widely; due to their being so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be a close relative and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limits the spread of this species in its native Argentina.

(A) due to their being so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be a close relative and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limits

(B) due to its being so genetically similar the ant considers all its fellows to be a close relative and thus does not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limit

(C) because it is so genetically similar, the ant considers all its fellows to be a close relative and thus does not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limits

(D) because they are so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be close relatives and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limit

(E) because of being so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be a close relative and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limits


Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended core meaning of this sentence is that because Argentine ants are so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be close relatives and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limit the spread of this species in its native Argentina.

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Meaning + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

A: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural verb "struggles" with the singular verb "limits". Further, Option A alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "consider all their fellows to be a close relative"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that the Argentine ants consider all their fellows to collectively be a singular close relative; the intended meaning is that the Argentine ants consider each of their fellows an individual close relation. Additionally, Option A is awkward and needlessly wordy due to its use of the word "being"; please remember, “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

B: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the clause "the ant considers all its fellows to be a close relative"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the species the Argentine Ant considers all its fellows a singular close relative; the intended meaning is that all individual Argentine ants consider all their fellows an individual close relation. Additionally, Option B is awkward and needlessly wordy due to its use of the word "being"; please remember, “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

C: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural verb "struggles" with the singular verb "limits". Further, Option C alters the meaning of the sentence through the clause "the ant considers all its fellows to be a close relative"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the species the Argentine Ant considers all its fellows a singular close relative; the intended meaning is that all individual Argentine ants consider all their fellows an individual close relation.

D: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the plural verb "struggles" with the plural verb "limit". Further, Option D uses the clause "the ants consider all their fellows to be close relatives", conveying the intended meaning - that all individual Argentine ants consider all their fellows an individual close relation. Additionally, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

E: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural verb "struggles" with the singular verb "limits". Further, Option E alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "consider all their fellows to be a close relative"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that the Argentine ants consider all their fellows to collectively be a singular close relative; the intended meaning is that the Argentine ants consider each of their fellows an individual close relation. Additionally, Option E is awkward and needlessly wordy due to its use of the word "being"; please remember, “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

To understand the use of "Being" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
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Clear D.
A) due to their being so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be a close relative and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limits - SV agreement. stuggles - that limits , to be (not good on the GMAT)
B) due to its being so genetically similar the ant considers all its fellows to be a close relative and thus does not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limit - genetically simillar to what?
C) because it is so genetically similar, the ant considers all its fellows to be a close relative and thus does not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limits - genetically simillar to what?
D) because they are so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be close relatives and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limit - CORRECT : genetically similar to one another, they - the ants, struggles - that limit
E) because of being so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be a close relative and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limits - WRONG. S-V agreement : fellows - close relative, to be (not good on the GMAT)
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This is a good question, because one can learn the psyche of GMAT through this. Is this a GPREP question? If it is so, it seals any doubt that we have regarding the use of ‘consider to be’ as an authenticated idiom. If GPREP prefers to use ‘consider to be’ in all the five choices or even in its OA, then we must take it. However, who can confirm, that this is indeed a GPREP or official question? ‘Outside GMAT domain, ‘consider to be’ is accepted all over the world, but that may be irrelevant to us in GMAT.

Therefore, D springs to life once again. In B, the version drops out the phrase ‘to one another’ which is essential to point out that the comparison is extended to all the ants in Argentina and not limited to two of them or two species of them.

This wobbly question changes track often from singular in the beginning to plural in the middle and then back to singular in the end. If it is a genuine GPREP or official question, it is a beautiful one. If not, it is a dubious one.
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Because vs Because of

The key to understanding grammar is patience. So bear with me on this one.

Because is a subordinating conjunction.
What is a subordinating conjunction? It is used to introduce a subordinating clause.
What is a subordinating clause? A complete statement with a subject and a verb - subordinating because it is not the main idea of the statement.
So, because is to be followed up with a complete statement.
And yes, some statements may start with because, as long as they have a complete statement attached to it.
Because I think I am a genius, I wrote this comment.

Because of is a compound preposition.
Grammar Alert! Prepositions were conceived by mankind to follow ONLY NOUNS.
Because of knowledge, man dropped out from paradise.

Due to is often interchangeably used with Because of. However, I found this post that helps out on due to v/s because of. Thanks to guys Magoosh.

https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-idiom ... nsequence/
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Q) Whether "consider to be" is correct; also whether "consider X Y/ X consider Y etc" where consider doesn't follow any preposition/infinitive, is ALWAYS correct?

If answer to first question is YES, please elaborate it with few examples.

1. I consider you my friend. (consider X Y)...... correct
2. I consider you to be my friend. (consider X to be Y)... suspect (I have seen at least one official example in which this usage was in the correct option - if I find it, I shall post it here.)
3. The employer did not consider his application. (X consider Y).... correct
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However, I selected the right choice. I just want to know the reason of rejecting choice B.

It seems that usage of "being" is incorrect in choice b. Correct me if I am wrong.

1. If a choice were below, would it be correct? In other words, usage of singular form of the ANT will be correct in this sentence?

because it is so genetically similar to one another,the ant considers all its fellows to be a close relative and thus does not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limit


2. What is the use of "being" other than in passive voice of continuous tense?
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AR15J
However, I selected the right choice. I just want to know the reason of rejecting choice B.

It seems that usage of "being" is incorrect in choice b. Correct me if I am wrong.

1. If a choice were below, would it be correct? In other words, usage of singular form of the ANT will be correct in this sentence?

because it is so genetically similar to one another,the ant considers all its fellows to be a close relative and thus does not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limit


2. What is the use of "being" other than in passive voice of continuous tense?

The use of "due to" in option B is wrong. "Due to" may refer to a noun, not a verb - here "due to" wrongly refers to verb "considers".

1. Yes, it would be correct. "The ant" would then mean the species as a whole.

2. "Being" is the verb+ing form of the verb "to be". So, like all other verb+ing forms, it can be used as a present participle, a gerund or continuous form of the verb.

"Because of" / "due to" followed by a gerund is considered awkward - hence " Because of being.." and "due to being" are wrong.
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daagh GMATNinja carcass Sorry for tagging.
Can anyone tell me how option D is correct? The correct idiom is "consider A B". But it uses consider A to be B!

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daagh GMATNinja carcass Sorry for tagging.
Can anyone tell me how option D is correct? The correct idiom is "consider A B". But it uses consider A to be B!

***************
Plz give kudos!


Hello rma26,

I will be glad to help you out with this one. :-)

A good look at all the answer choices and we see that consider/s X to be Y has been used in all the answer choices.

Moreover, since the correct answer choice uses this idiom, we must make a note of the this fact that the idiom consider/s X to be Y is NOT incorrect. Hence, we must not reject any answer choice ONLY because of the presence of this idiom because here is an official sentence that uses this idiom in the correct answer choice.


Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
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rma26
daagh GMATNinja carcass Sorry for tagging.
Can anyone tell me how option D is correct? The correct idiom is "consider A B". But it uses consider A to be B!

***************
Plz give kudos!
No need to apologize for the tagging! As long as you're being reasonable about it, it's a totally legit way to get our attention. :)

Here comes some heresy: I don't ever really see idioms as absolute rules. (A long, unpopular rant about idioms can be found here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 41848.html) Sure, there are a few (older) official questions that feature "considered" without the "to be" -- but I'm not shocked that a counterexample appeared in OG 2017. Outside of the GMAT, I'm not sure that you'll find many grammar experts or editors who actually believe that "considered to be" is always wrong.

More importantly: you have no choice at all. "Considered... to be" appears in all five answer choices. So they've clearly made it a non-issue, and you definitely need to focus on other things, like the pronouns and the "due to", for example.

I'll let you enjoy the question from here, but let us know if you have more questions about this one!


I know there is no other correct option, but just out of curiosity I asked that. I checked mgmat book again and found that it listed consider ..to be.. as suspect ,not incorrect. Thanks!
btw, is there any rule or norm regarding the antecedent of pronoun after semicolon? Or after semicolon, pronoun can refer back to the other clause's noun?
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btw, is there any rule or norm regarding the antecedent of pronoun after semicolon? Or after semicolon, pronoun can refer back to the other clause's noun?
Nope! It's completely fine for a pronoun to refer to an antecedent in the previous clause, even if there's a semicolon separating the two clauses. The semicolon doesn't really do anything to change the fundamental pronoun rules.
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Hey GMATNinja egmat

I eliminated A,C and E because we need a plural verb for the word "struggles"

But I was torn between B and C because of the word "its" in the non-underlined part. Isn't "its" referring back to the "ants"?
Can you help me understand the usage of "its" (in this sentence) in the non-underlined part?
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option D uses "because they are so genetically similar to one another". Shouldnt the pronoun be singular than plural (they) as we are mentioning about species??
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option D uses "because they are so genetically similar to one another". Shouldnt the pronoun be singular than plural (they) as we are mentioning about species??

kartzcool,

You have a point about 'species' and 'they', but let's analyze a little further.

In California, a lack of genetic variation in the Argentine ant has allowed the species to spread widely; due to their being so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be a close relative and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limits the spread of this species in its native Argentina.

-- Please note the semicolon, highlighted in blue. This indicates that the second part of the sentence is either an independent clause or a list. Given the context, the semicolon is clearly acting as a break between two independent clauses. This means that the semicolon is acting as a period, of sorts, which means it is attempting to join two closely related topics.
https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/Semicolons.html
-- Given this, the first part of the sentence is referring to the species itself. Now, after the semicolon, the focus shifts to the ants themselves, which are plural.

D) because they are so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be close relatives and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limit

Does this help?
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I get confused with whether a plural verb should be used or a singular in these kind of sentences.
Here "limit" has been used for "the kind of fierce intercolony struggles". But should'nt "limits" be used as the noun is "the kind of fierce...", which is singular? Here "fierce intercolony struggles" have been bundled into a single entity which has been refered to using "the kind of fierce..."

Can you please explain with some examples?
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