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 (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 https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/31/science/birds-that-nest-in-the-grasslands-find-their-habitats-under-siege.html But like the grassy fields and old pastures that the bird needs for feeding and nesting when it returns in May after wintering on the Argentine pampas, the upland sandpiper is vanishing from the Northeast as a result of changes in farming practices, the return of abandoned agricultural land to forest, and residential and industrial development.

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

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

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11 Jan 2019, 10:33

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AsadAbu

egmat

Choice D: in the northeastern United States, sandpipers’ vanishing due to residential and industrial development and to changes in: Incorrect. 1. The modifier “in the northeastern US” should not be at the beginning of the main clause. 2. The comparison is now illogically between the “the grassy fields and old pastures” and “sandpipers’ vanishing”. 3. There is no verb for “sandpipers’ vanishing”. So we have a fragment and not a main clause. 4. We don’t need “to” before “changes in…”.

1. The entities compared in the sentence must be grammatically as well as logically parallel.
2. We must have a subject and a verb to form a clause. Absence of any one makes the sentence a fragment.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Hi egmat,
Could you explain the highlighted part, please?
Thanks__

Hi the authority of egmat,
I've posted this one 42 days back. Did you miss this one?
Thanks__

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Quote:

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

This isn’t a total disaster, but it’s not great, either. “Like the grassy fields and old pastures…, that the birds themselves are vanishing... is due to… development and changes…” In this particular use of “that”, the word basically means “the fact that.” So we’re literally comparing “the grassy fields and old pastures” to “the fact that the birds are vanishing.”

That doesn’t make any sense at all: we could compare the fields and pastures to the birds, and then say that all three of those things are vanishing. But we can’t compare the fields and pastures to the fact that the birds are vanishing.

So we can eliminate (C), too.

Hi GMATNinja,
Can we remove choice C for using an extra verb IS, which is marked as bold, in C?
Thanks__

There's no problem with "is" here. It's basically the equivalent of writing "The fact that birds are vanishing is..." The subject paired with "is" would be "the fact," and "that birds are vanishing" is describing "the fact." A little clunky and confusing? Sure. But not technically a grammatical error.

Moreover, even if "is" were problematic, removing it wouldn't make (C) any more palatable. You'd still have the bizarre comparison between "grassy fields and old pastures" and "that." There's also the problem of "due to," which must modify a noun. What earlier noun could be due to "residential and industrial development and changes?" The birds? That doesn't make any sense. Either of these errors alone is enough to eliminate (C).

I hope that helps!

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The sentence is supposed to compare the ‘grassy fields and old pastures that the upland sandpiper needs’ to sandpiper itself, in that they are both disappearing. Only B conveys that meaning correctly.

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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.

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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.

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Quote:

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.

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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.

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egmat

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In A, is 'sandpipers vanishing' not a gerund? and if yes, it can be parallel to 'grassy fields and old pastures'.

Hi Sachin,

In A, “sandpipers vanishing” is not a gerund. “Vanishing” is a verb-ing modifier that presents a characteristic of sandpipers that they are vanishing. Use of “vanishing” is incorrect here. It has been used to function as a gerund but it is not functioning as one.

“Sandpipers” is parallel to “grassy fields…” but again we have the SV number agreement as well as make sense issue. Look at the structure here:

…, the sandpipers ~~vanishing in the northeastern United States~~is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in farming practices.

Here it does not make sense to say that “sandpipers” is a result of residential… Hence, this choice is incorrect.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

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

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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.

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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"?

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0Lucky0

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.

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0Lucky0

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".

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0Lucky0

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

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GMATNinja

The GMAT usually doesn't get poetic like this, and it’s one of the very few metaphors I’ve ever seen on official SC questions. Like any other GMAT SC question that uses “like”, we need two nouns that are logically comparable – and the tricky part here is deciding which of the metaphorical comparisons is actually “logically comparable.”

We covered some similar issues in our YouTube webinar on comparisons, so head on over there if you prefer your explanations in video form.

Quote:

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

The comparison here is shaky, but I’m not 100% sure that it’s absolutely wrong. Is there any reason why we can’t compare “the grassy field and old pastures” with “the sandpipers”, since both are vanishing? I guess not. So we can tolerate the comparison, even though there are better versions below.

The bigger problem: “the sandpipers vanishing… is a result…” The sandpipers (plural!) are the subject; vanishing is just an adjective. So the subject-verb agreement is wrong here. (If you think this “sounds OK”, you’re not wrong. The subject-verb agreement would be OK if “sandpipers” was possessive, because then “vanishing” would be the subject. But that’s not what’s actually happening here.)

So (A) is out.

Quote:

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

Not bad, the comparison is clarified somewhat by the use of “the bird itself”: that phrase is nicely comparable to “the grassy fields and old pastures”, since both are disappearing.

The parallelism also works well later in the sentence: “the bird itself is vanishing… as a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in….” That’s great: the bird is vanishing as a result of X and of Y. Keep (B).

Quote:

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

Quote:

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

A lot of this is pretty clunky, but the real problem is that the grassy fields and old pastures are compared to “sandpipers’ vanishing.” And that doesn’t make sense: we’re literally comparing fields and pastures to “vanishing” – and not to the sandpipers themselves.

Plus, (D) doesn’t actually have an independent clause, which means that it isn’t a proper sentence. So (D) is gone.

Quote:

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

(E) has exactly the same issues as (D): the comparison is nonsense, and the sentence isn’t actually a real sentence, since it lacks an independent clause. So (B) is the best we can do.

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.

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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!

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egmat

Sachin9

In A, is 'sandpipers vanishing' not a gerund? and if yes, it can be parallel to 'grassy fields and old pastures'.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

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

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SKGM

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.

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