Like the grassy fields and old pastures that the upland sandpiper need

Like the grassy fields and old pastures that the upland sandpiper needs for feeding and nesting when it returns in May after wintering in the Argentine Pampas, the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in farming practices.


(A) the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in- Correct comparison Like the grassy fields, the sandpipers - correct answer

(B) the bird itself is vanishing in the northeastern United States as a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in

(C) that the birds themselves are vanishing in the northeastern United States is due to residential and industrial development and changes to

(D) in the northeastern United States, sandpipers' vanishing due to residential and industrial development and to changes in

(E) in the northeastern United States, the sandpipers' vanishing, a result of residential and industrial development and changing

Like the grassy fields and old pastures that the upland sandpiper needs for feeding and nesting when it returns in May after wintering in the Argentine Pampas, S + V
=> "Like" is followed by concrete nouns, so the subject of this sentence must also be a concrete noun or concrete nouns => eliminate C,D,E and A (in A: the subject is not a concrete noun or concrete nouns but is a noun phrase "the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States")

Only B begins with a concrete noun "the bird itself" so B is the correct option.

So, should we consider this question as an exception or expect such questions to appear in the exam.
In another post, a similar question was rejected by the forum.

Q:
Like a protein rich diet that the healthy genes need to produce amino acids, the healthy genes diminishing is due to more and more people adopting an urban lifestyle, in which they tend to cook less, eating more processed food and fast food.

DmitryFarber GMATNinja

Request Expert Reply:
Q1:
How do someone convinced that BOTH are disappearing?
Q2:
What's the reason to use singular 'sandpiper' in the correct choice B? Only one 'sandpiper' is going to be vanished because of ' residential and industrial development and .....'?
Q3:
I don't get the perfect connection in the 'that' part! Won't the passive voice be more preferable than active voice in the 'that part'? Ex.--->
Like the grassy fields and old pastures that is needed by the upland sandpiper for feeding and nesting when it returns in May after wintering in the Argentine Pampas, the bird itself is vanishing in the northeastern United States as a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in farming practices.

Active voice in the THAT part...
Like the grassy fields and old pastures that the upland sandpiper needs for feeding and nesting when it returns in May after wintering in the Argentine Pampas, the bird itself is vanishing in the northeastern United States as a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in farming practices.

Hi

Q1) I'm presuming you mean how do we know that both (the grassy fields and the birds) are vanishing. The sentence begins with "like", which tells us that some kind of similarity is going to be expressed. Subsequently, we see that similarity is being drawn between the grassy fields and the sandpiper, and it is mentioned that the sandpiper is vanishing due to human development. This tells us that the grassy fields are also vanishing due to human development.

Q2) Singular usage of sandpiper indicates that the sentence is referring to sandpipers as a species and not as a number of birds. For example:

The tiger is an endangered animal.

Q3) There is nothing wrong with the usage of active voice in the non-underlined portion because the sentence begins with "like", which must be followed by that entity which is being compared. Hence it is necessary to have the "grassy fields" after "like". Even so, while not quite conventional, there is nothing wrong with this structure.

Hope this clarifies.

Like the grassy fields and old pastures that the upland sandpiper needs for feeding and nesting when it returns in May after wintering in the Argentine Pampas, the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in farming practices.

This is one of the important Qs which tests our patience.

(A) the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in

grassy fields and old pastures compared with the sandpipers , no issue. But there is a meaning issue. The sandpipers ………is a result of. Bang, it can’t be . Eliminate

(B) the bird itself is vanishing in the northeastern United States as a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in
The bird is vanishing as a result of ….no issue

(C) that the birds themselves are vanishing in the northeastern United States is due to residential and industrial development and changes to
That ? Why that is here. Eliminate

(D) in the northeastern United States, sandpipers' vanishing due to residential and industrial development and to changes in

grassy fields and old pastures Compared with vanishing. Eliminate

(E) in the northeastern United States, the sandpipers' vanishing, a result of residential and industrial development and changing
Same error as in D
We reached our answer choice B.

Like my post if u find it useful.


#believeinurself

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egmat,
Hi, it seems that ''vanishing'' has been used as 'present participle' not 'gerund'. Am i missing anything, here?

Like the grassy fields and old pastures that the upland sandpiper needs for feeding and nesting when it returns in May after wintering in the Argentine Pampas, the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in farming practices.

This question is a comparision question, but it is deep comparision question. We need to understand that there is nothing noun equivalent of "grassy field". For example there is nothing in the sentence that is of the structure- "Like grassy fields, Sugarcane fields themselves are doing X" i.e. there is nothing similar to "fields" in meaning terms.

(A) the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in
--How are "grassy fields" common to "sandpiper"?
Kindly note when we use this structure- "Like X, Y". We generally have some characteristics that is common between X and Y.
Example:
Like USA, China is a large country. (both the countries are large)
Like Soccer, Rugby is a intense sport. (both sports are intense)

Are "grassy fields" a result of industrial and residential development? or Are they a result of changes in farming practices? No they are not.
Also, logically can sandpiper (a bird) be a result of industrial and residential development? can sandpiper be a result of chanes in farming practices? No they can not be. The fact they are vanishing is a result of industrial development.

Eliminate option A.

(B) the bird itself is vanishing in the northeastern United States as a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in
--This is correct. The sentence says- "the bird (sandpiper) itself is vanishing. This vanishing is a result of residential/industrial development". This logic is sound and seems correct.
But, how is "the bird" (sandpiper) similar to "grassy field"? Let's look at the shorter version of the sentence- "like grassy field, bird itself is vanishing because of industrial and residential development". (it implies that both are vanishing because of industrial/residential development).
This shorter version is similar to below mentioned structure.
Like USA, China is a large country. (both the countries are large).

(C) that the birds themselves are vanishing in the northeastern United States is due to residential and industrial development and changes to
--There is no noun here. What is "grassy field" similar to? a clause? not possible. Eliminate option C.


(D) in the northeastern United States, sandpipers' vanishing due to residential and industrial development and to changes in
--There is no verb here here. "Vanishing due to X" is not a clause. "is" is required to make it a clause ("Vanishing is due to X"). Eliminate option D.

(E) in the northeastern United States, the sandpipers' vanishing, a result of residential and industrial development and changing
--There is no verb for the subject -"the sandpipers' vanishing". Eliminate option E.

Guys,
In options D and E, had the options said "Sandpiper is vanishing" and "the Sandpiper is vanishing" instead; would "Sandpiper is vanishing" and "the sandpiper is vanishing" be considered noun phrases and therefore, parallel to the noun phrases "the grassy fields" and "old pastures"?


GMATNinja, egmat, MartyTargetTestPrep, KyleWiddison, zhanbo, DmitryFarber, GMATGuruNY

Notice that "sandpiper is vanishing" and "the sandpiper is vanishing" are actually clauses with the subjects "sandpiper" and "the sandpiper" and the verb "is."

So, "sandpiper is vanishing" and "the sandpiper is vanishing" would not be parallel to those noun phrases since a clause is not parallel to a phrase.

Yes, if the sentence read "Like the fields and pastures... the sandpiper is vanishing...", then the comparison is parallel, because "sandpiper", "fields" and "pastures" are all parallel things. It's "sandpiper" alone though that is parallel with the previous nouns, not the entire phrase "the sandpiper is vanishing".

oops, yea, sorry. I meant to ask whether sandpiper in "sandpiper is vanishing" is considered parallel. Which it would be as Ian pointed out in the other post. Thanks

Experts,

Can we consider the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States as a subject of the 2nd part of the sententence? Can we consider participle phrase as subject of a clause?

In that case, 'the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in farming practices' is fine.

such as: Listening to all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies in a row is his idea of a day well spent.
Although here subject is gerund phrase, I did not get an appropriate example.

As mentioned in our original explanation, "vanishing" could be the subject IF “sandpipers” was possessive (i.e. "the sandpipers' vanishing is a result..." or "the vanishing of the sandpipers is a result...").

If "vanishing" is the subject in (A) as written, then we essentially have, "... the [plural noun] [noun/gerund] is...," and that doesn't work.

I hope that helps a bit!

Hi egmat

Below is option (A) of this OG question.
2 questions:

1. I still can't follow why ''Grassy fields & old pastures'' can't be compared to ''the sandpipers vanishing''

2. Will the comparison be okay, if i change the ''The sandpiper vanishing'' to ''Vanishing sandpipers''?

In both cases, vanishing seem to modify sandpiper prettty well..

Like the grassy fields and old pastures that the upland sandpiper needs for feeding and nesting when it returns in May after wintering in the Argentine Pampas, the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in farming practices.


Thanks
Ashutosh

Hi GMATNinja

May be, here i am asking a v stupid question, but i would request you to address the doubt:

Below two are the correct OG questions. In both of these questions, a participle is modifying the subject, and subject is dictating the verb correctly.

OG12 SC12: Rising inventories, if not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, can lead to production cutbacks that would hamper economic growth.

OG11 SC22:: The end of the eighteenth century saw the emergence of prize-stock breeding, with individual bulls and cows receiving awards, fetching unprecedented prices, and exciting enormous interest whenever they were put on show.

Similarly, in the below example, ''VANISHING'' should modify the subject ''THE SANDPIPER'', which is dictating the verb''IS''
That way, ''The Sandpiper'' should be parallel to ''Grassy fields and old pastures''

Like the grassy fields and old pastures that the upland sandpiper needs for feeding and nesting when it returns in May after wintering in the Argentine Pampas, the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in farming practices.

Thanks
ASHUTOSH