Many entomologists say that campaigns to eradicate the fire ant in the

Question

Many entomologists say that campaigns to eradicate the fire ant in the United States have failed because the chemicals that were used were effective only in wiping out the ant's natural enemies,  which made it easier for them  to spread.

(A) which made it easier for them
(B) which makes it easier for it
(C) thus making it easier for them
(D) thus making it easier for the ant
(E) thereby, it was made easier for the ant

https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/24/science/mighty-fire-ants-march-out-of-the-south.html

The campaigns backfired, many entomologists say, because the efforts to kill invicta with the chemicals chlordane, heptachlor, dieldrin and mirex were effective only in wiping out the ant's natural enemies, principally other ant species, and parasites,  thus making it easier for the ant  to spread.

alwaysnewbie · Accepted Answer

By elimination
A.  which  made it easier for  them   – which, incorrect modifier. them is plural, cannot be used to refer singular noun (ant species) 
B.  which  makes it easier for  it   – which, incorrect modifier. it is singular (referring to ant species), correct but antecedent is ambiguous 
C. thus making it easier for  them   – them is plural, cannot be used to refer singular noun (ant species) 
D. thus making it easier for the ant  - correct 
E. thereby,  it  was made easier for the ant  – passive voice. it has no antecedent ("it" acts as a subject and not having a clear antecedent is worrisome)

Thanks.

ps_dahiya · Answer

D

Its between C and D. "them" in C is ambiguous and may refer to ants or their enemies.

jaynayak · Answer

Will go with D

A/B - incorrect use of "which"
C - Pronoun "them" is ambiguous
E - "it" is incorrect.

crashVcrush · Answer

fire ant : singular

thus we can safely eliminate options that comtain THEM...... A & C disappears.

2nd : what is WHICH doing here......to whom is WHICH clinging to?........if it is parasitic to natural enemies then it doesn't makes any sense ....B gone with the wind.

Bxn D & E: keeping aside grammar rules...just relying on intuition

D : X happened...........THUS Y

E : X happened............THEREBY.....it was made easier for the ant

which one wld u zone in on...... Guess D

leading to D, my take

kitandkat · Answer

Many entomologists say that campaigns to eradicate the fire ant in the United States have failed because the chemicals that were used were effective only in wiping out the ant's natural enemies,  which made it easier for them  to spread.

A. which made it easier for them
 pronoun issue
 
B. which makes it easier for it
 pronoun issue
 
C. thus making it easier for them
 pronoun issue 
 
D. thus making it easier for the ant
 correct choice 
 
E. thereby, it was made easier for the ant
 wordy

Skywalker18 · Answer

Many entomologists say that campaigns to eradicate the fire ant in the United States have failed because the chemicals that were used were effective only in wiping out the ant's natural enemies,  which made it easier for them  to spread.

A. which made it easier for them - which incorrectly refers to enemies ; them is plural and can refer to enemies or chemicals , but it should refer to fire ant 
B. which makes it easier for it - same as A
C. thus making it easier for them - them is plural and thus can't refer to fire ant
D. thus making it easier for the ant - Correct
E. thereby, it was made easier for the ant

Answer D

MHMBA2019 · Answer

A) Which is used incorrectly and the use of them makes the meaning of the sentence confusing. What does them refer to? Also, the verb tense agreement between wiping out and made is incorrect.
B) Which is used incorrectly and I think there is a pronoun issue with it. Wiping out and makes don't match.
C) wiping out and making match but the fire ant is singular so them is the incorrect pronoun because it is plural. 
D)wiping out and making match, and the ant is singular so makes the meaning of the sentence correct--> best choice for answer
E) wiping out and was made don't match and the sentence meaning is ambiguous

pikolo2510 · Answer

GMATNinja   egmat

Can you explain what is "it" referring to ? 
A few folks on this thread said it is referring to "to spread". Can you explain this concept?

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  pikolo2510 , That is correct.  it  is indeed referring to  to spread .

For example:

It takes great courage to prevail amidst uncertainty.

it   refers to a phrase ( to prevail amidst uncertainty ) that appears later in the sentence. The sentence basically is:

It (to prevail amidst uncertainty) takes great courage .

An official example:

Although some philosophers and thinkers had suggested that Earth revolved round the sun, it was not until seventeenth century that Galileo firmly established this fact.

Here,  it   refers to a clause ( that Galileo firmly established this fact ) that appears later in the sentence.

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses  these cases of pronoun usage , their application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
This scenario represents one of the two prominent

AkshdeepS · Answer

A.  which  made it easier for them

B.  which  makes it easier for it

C. thus making it easier for  them

D. thus making it easier for the ant

E. thereby, it was made easier for the ant

Hence (D)

Sidmehra · Answer

Hi  daagh ,

In option C, is it correct if we replace them with it, since that will clear out the singular-plural issue.
Also by logic will 'it' refer to ant and not its natural enemies ?
What if the 'enemies' is replaced by enemy and sentence says:

Many entomologists say that campaigns to eradicate the fire ant in the United States have failed because the chemicals that were used were effective only in wiping out the ant's natural  enemy , which made it easier for  it  to spread.

Will the above sentence be correct ?

I am having a problem in identifying pronoun antecedants

daagh · Answer

Sid wrote

Many entomologists say that campaigns to eradicate the fire ant in the United States have failed because the chemicals that were used were effective only in wiping out the ant's natural enemies,  which made it easier for them to spread .

A. which made it easier for them
B. which makes it easier for it
C. thus making it easier for them
D. thus making it easier for the ant
E. thereby, it was made easier for the ant

Both your suggestions may not pass. In the case of the first suggestion, the rules are clear that a given pronoun should refer to just one noun only. 'It' to be a placeholder or dummy in one place and to refer to the fire ant in another place is not correct grammatically.

Your second suggestion is also out of scope because a fire ant has several natural enemies not just one as you suggest. The plural 'enemies' is indispensible in the context.

However, what is the point in trying to meddle with a non-underlined part and change the entire focus of the given question? There is a beautiful correct answer in C and we should simply take it and go to the next question.

If someone is habituated to this kind of mis-practice, then it may be fatal on the Test day.

vaibhav003 · Answer

Hi daagh,

If we put option D in place of the underlined portion it will be

thus making it easier for the ant to spread

how can a ant can spread itself it should be making it easier for the ants to spread
Can you explain this ?

svasan05 · Answer

Hi Vaibhav

Usage of "the" before the word "ant" indicates that the statement is talking about the fire ant as a species. Therefore, option (D) is saying that these chemicals made it easier for the fire ant species to spread - clearly a species can spread.

For greater clarity, please note that the non-underlined portion of the sentence also talks about "the fire ant" in the singular. Here, too, it is the species that is being referred to and not a single ant.

Hope this clarifies.

AnkurGMAT20 · Answer

Bunuel , GMAT Prep question. Could you please tag it?

Bunuel · Answer

________________________
Done. Thank you!

nahid78 · Answer

Between C and D. D is the winner. Bcz Them in c may refers to enemies or ant.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Tenses + Pronouns + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• A pronoun and its derivatives can only have one referent in a sentence.
• The simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past. 
• The simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.

A: 
1/ This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "the fire ant" with the plural pronoun "them".

B: 
1/ This answer choice incorrectly uses "it" both as a placeholder pronoun and to refer to "the fire ant"; remember, a pronoun and its derivatives can only have one referent in a sentence. 
2/ Option B incorrectly uses the simple present tense verb "makes" to refer to an action that concluded in the past; remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past, and the simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.

C: 
1/ This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "the fire ant" with the plural pronoun "them".

D:   Correct. 
1/ This answer choice correctly uses "it" solely as a placeholder pronoun.
2/ Option D avoids the pronoun error seen in Options A and C, as it uses the noun phrase "the ant", rather than a pronoun. 
3/ Option D avoids the tense error seen in Option B, as it uses the present participle ("verb+ing" - "making" in this sentence) rather than an active verb. 
4/ Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

E: 
1/ This answer choice uses the passive and needlessly wordy construction "it was made easier for the ant", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATNTtugB9fM

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Many entomologists say that campaigns to eradicate the fire ant in the

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Many entomologists say that campaigns to eradicate the fire ant in the

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