In the jungles of Central Africa scientists has discovered a new group

Question

In the jungles of Central Africa,  scientists has discovered a new group of ferociously giant apes strengthening a surprisingly simple vegetarian fare and exhibiting  a tendency for solitude.

(a) scientists has discovered a new group of ferociously giant apes strengthening a surprisingly simple vegetarian fare and exhibiting

(b) scientists have discovered a new group of ferociously giant apes strengthened by a surprising simple vegetarian fare and exhibiting

(c) scientists have discovered a new group of ferocious giant apes that eat a surprisingly simple vegetarian fare and exhibit

(d) a scientist have discovered a new group of ferocious giant apes strengthened by a surprising simple vegetarian fare and exhibiting

(e) scientists have discovered a new group of ferocious giant apes strengthened by a surprisingly simple vegetarian fare and exhibiting

Kurtosis · Answer

(a) scientists has discovered a new group of ferociously giant apes strengthening a surprisingly simple vegetarian fare and exhibiting - Incorrect - Subject Verb error

(b) scientists have discovered a new group of ferociously giant apes strengthened by a surprising simple vegetarian fare and exhibiting - Incorrect - Meaning error. 'surprisingly' is required here.

(c) scientists have discovered a new group of ferocious giant apes that eat a surprisingly simple vegetarian fare and exhibit - Incorrect - Changes the meaning.

(d) a scientist have discovered a new group of ferocious giant apes strengthened by a surprising simple vegetarian fare and exhibiting - Incorrect - Subject Verb error

(e) scientists have discovered a new group of ferocious giant apes strengthened by a surprisingly simple vegetarian fare and exhibiting - Correct - 'strengthened' and 'exhibiting' are parallel and modify the apes.

Answer: E

paidlukkha · Answer

Vyshak  How is C changing the meaning?

Kurtosis · Answer

Hi,

The original statement states that the apes were strengthened by a vegetarian diet. Option C just states that apes eat a vegetarian diet and eliminates the 'strength' aspect.

Also the strength contributed by the vegetarian diet is surprising. Its not surprising that apes eat vegetarian diet.

rishabhshreyas14 · Answer

How does E maintain parallelism here? Strengthened and exhibiting don't look parallel.  daagh

daagh · Answer

rishab  wrote

You are obviously looking at strengthened and feeling it is some kind of a finite verb, while, exhibiting is a substantially different form of verb+ing, probable either a present participle or a kind of gerund.

Please note that it is 'strengthened by' and not simply 'strengthened'. It is a past participle and a modifier modifying apes. Similarly, the present participle ' exhibiting' is also a modifier modifying apes.

The foundation of participle modification is that on both sides of the conjunction one should use participles, to arrive at the intended meaning. There are umpteen examples of such usage in the GMAT official questions

You may google the following links to verify the veracity of such participle modification.

1. Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth

2. First discovered more than 30 years ago, Lina's sunbird, a four-and-a-half-inch animal

3. The growth of the railroads led to the abolition of local times, which was

HTH!

P.S: This is a poor copycat of offical questions

jrk23 · Answer

Can anyone please explain in detail why "e" is correct and if in "b" it was surprisinly... would it be a correct answer?

RastogiSarthak99 · Answer

I can see why people are confused between C and E. The answer lies in what modified what. The vegetarian diet of ferocious apes is surprising! and the fact that they are strengthened by it, is part of the sentence construct.

aayush.works · Answer

although i selected C by mistake, i now realize my answer...

between C and E, E is correct.

C : We have a SV error. The subject is "group" ..... and the prepositional phrase after of in : "of ferocious giant apes that" is not the main subject. So the verb following this should be singular
eats ... so C is out... (those who agree please reply back and confirm)

E is the better answer.

RastogiSarthak99 · Answer

Yes i Agree. "Group" must follow the SV form and so C is out. Nice catch!

In the jungles of Central Africa scientists has discovered a new group

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

In the jungles of Central Africa scientists has discovered a new group

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards