Like ants, termites have an elaborate social structure in which a few

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
Concepts tested here: Tenses + Parallelism

• Statements of universal fact are best conveyed through the simple present tense.
• The simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature.
• All elements in a list must be parallel.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple present continuous tense verb "are serving" to refer to a statement of universal fact; please remember, statements of universal fact are best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature. Further, Option A fails to maintain parallelism among "tending juveniles", "gathering food", "building the nest", and "they battle intruders"; please remember, all elements in a list must be parallel.

B: This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple present continuous tense verb "are serving" to refer to a statement of universal fact; please remember, statements of universal fact are best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature.

C: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism among "tending juveniles", "gathering food", "building the nest", and "by battling intruders"; please remember, all elements in a list must be parallel.

D: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism among "by tending juveniles", "gathering food", "by building the nest", and "by battling intruders"; please remember, all elements in a list must be parallel.

E: Correct. This answer choice correctly uses the simple present tense verb "serve" to refer to a statement of universal fact. Further, Option E correctly maintains parallelism among "tending juveniles", "gathering food", "building the nest", and "battling intruders".

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):



To understand the concept of "Simple Continuous Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

"serve the colony" maintains correct tense. therefore its either c, d or e.

e maintains parallel structure properly.

hence E it is.

Like ants, termites have an elaborate social structure in which a few individuals reproduce and the rest are serving the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or they battle intruders.

A. are serving the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or they battle
B. are serving the colony in that they tend juveniles, gather food, build the nest, or battle
C. serve the colony, tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or by battling
D. serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, by building the nest, or by battling
E. serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or battling

Like ants, termites have an elaborate social structure in which a few individuals reproduce and the rest are serving the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or they battle intruders.

A. are serving the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or they battle
B. are serving the colony in that they tend juveniles, gather food, build the nest, or battle
C. serve the colony, tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or by battling
D. serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, by building the nest, or by battling
E. serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or battling


I understand the answer options and the logic behind correct answer.
Below is my question:

In option B, is use of that correct? are serving the colony in that they tend juveniles, gather food, build the nest, or battle
or use of which correct i.e. are serving the colony in which they tend juveniles, gather food, build the nest, or battle

Experts, please reply

Swati, in that is a conjunction that means inasmuch as; in that has largely gone out of use, and is considered stilted and overly formal.

So, it is safe to assume that any usage of in that would be largely incorrect on GMAT.

p.s. I somehow recollect there used to be an old GMATPrep question where the option that used in that was the right choice. But GMAT keeps evolving and hopefully it will not be in future.

Hi,

If this sentence is written as below then would it be correct?

Like ants, termites have an elaborate social structure in which a few individuals reproduce and the rest are serving the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or they battle intruders.

A. are serving the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or they battle
B. are serving the colony in that they tend juveniles, gather food, build the nest, or battle
C. serve the colony, tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or by battling
D. serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, by building the nest, or by battling
E. serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or battling
F. serve the colony, tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or battling

OPtion F is similar to option E just that instead of 'by' verbi-ing phrases .These phrases describe how termites serve teh colony.

My doubt is whether the usage of 'by' in this sentence is mandatory. Can we avoid using 'by' and insted use verb-ing phrases to describe the 'how' aspect of the preceding clause.

construction should be - FEW DOES X and REST DOES Y - hence "few individuals reproduce and the rest serve" would be correct.
we do not need "by" more than once.

A. are serving the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or they battle
B. are serving the colony in that they tend juveniles, gather food, build the nest, or battle
C. serve the colony, tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or by battling
D. serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, by building the nest, or by battling
E. serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or battling

yes arirux92. by can be omitted. it will be a great example of ing modifier.

A. are serving the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or they battle
There are two issues in this one. First are serving is not parallel to reproduce.
Also, there an issue in the last element of the list. If we remove all of the elements but the last we get the following, which does not work.
are serving the colony ... by they battle

B. are serving the colony in that they tend juveniles, gather food, build the nest, or battle
In this one, the use of in that distorts the meaning, causing the sentence to convey not that certain individuals serve the colony by doing certain things but instead that they can be said to serve the colony because they do certain things.
Also, once again, are serving is not parallel to reproduce.

C. serve the colony, tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or by battling
In the version created using this one, the rest serve the colony, tending, ... incorrectly conveys that the individuals who reproduce do not serve the colony.
Also, prepositional modifier by battling is not parallel to participle or verb-ing modifiers tending, gathering and building.

D. serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, by building the nest, or by battling
gathering is not parallel to by tending, by building and by battling. Alternatively one could say that the use of by before building and battling makes the sentence needlessly wordy.

E. serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or battling
In the version created using this one, the meaning is clearly and correctly conveyed via the use of logically constructed parallel lists.
The correct answer is E.

Like ants, termites have an elaborate social structure in which a few individuals reproduce and the rest are serving the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or they battle intruders.


(A) are serving the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or they battle

(B) are serving the colony in that they tend juveniles, gather food, build the nest, or battle

(C) serve the colony, tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or by battling

(D) serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, by building the nest, or by battling

(E) serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or battling

Option E
Parallel marker or
A, C, D eliminated
in B the meaning is changed. B implies they are serving the colony and in the colony they tend juveniles, gather food, build the nest, or battle - the continuity is lost.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Faults in my reasoning or suggestions to further improve it will be rewarded by Kudos!

Hi Sharddha
I just failed to figure out why option D is incorrect. Would you please help me?

A ,B eliminated : are serving not proper

C,D,E : E is correct as it maintains paralelism

Hi Everyone.
I have a silly question. My doubt is related with a non-underline part of the sentence (I know that this shouldn't matter me!)
"...in which a few individuals reproduce and the rest serve...". For me in this part "a few individuals reproduce" and "the rest serve..." are independent clauses inside a dependent clause ("in which" clause), so my doubt is whether we need a comma before "and the rest serve...".

Clearly, I have a gap in my understanding, so I really appreciate any help to close it!.

Thank you in advance.

Cheers,
Rodrigo.

The most important concept tested in this question is parallelism. Two important markers here are "and" and a list of ways in which the rest serve colony. Once if identify that part, we can quickly zero in on choice E.

Hey I noticed that in some questions we keep the preposition like "to" "by" and in some it is okay to remove it. I am confused. Can somebody please tell me when it is safe to remove the preposition ?

Like ants, termites have an elaborate social structure in which a few individuals reproduce and the rest are serving the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or they battle intruders.

(A) are serving the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or they battle
(B) are serving the colony in that they tend juveniles, gather food, build the nest, or battle
(C) serve the colony, tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or by battling
(D) serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, by building the nest, or by battling
(E) serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or battling

Sentence has double parallelism.
Reproduce - serve
AND
tending, gathering, building and battling

Hence E is correct.

Like ants, termites have an elaborate social structure in which a few individuals reproduce and the rest are serving the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or they battle intruders.


(A) are serving the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or they battle "reproduce" and "are serving" are not parallel. Antecedent of "they" is ambiguous. Eliminate.

(B) are serving the colony in that they tend juveniles, gather food, build the nest, or battle Same parallelism issue as in (A). Usage of "in that" is incorrect. Eliminate.

(C) serve the colony, tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or by battling "tending", "gathering", "building" and "by battling" are not parallel. Also, the comma after colony implies that "serve" is also part of the list, which is incorrect. Eliminate.

(D) serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, by building the nest, or by battling "by tending juveniles", "gathering food", "by building the nest" and "by battling" are not parallel. Eliminate.

(E) serve the colony by tending juveniles, gathering food, building the nest, or battling Correct answer. All parallelism issues are resolved. No new errors are introduced.

Hope this helps.

GMATNinja I am trying to establish the changed meaning when there is a by after comma versus when there is not (as in C). Please help me understand this nuance.

Thanks!