Official Explanation:For protection, mongooses use a variety of defense mechanisms, such as standing up, lifting their tails, and weaving and bobbing,
that make their body appear large and more threatening when confronted by a predator.
A. that make their body appear largeB. thus making their bodies appear largerC. to make their bodies appear largerD. so that the bodies appear largerE. of making their body appear largeA quick review of our answer choices shows that we need to decide if the adjective “large” or the comparative “larger” should be used. We also have to decide if we need the singular or plural of “body.” Finally, we need to decide if a relative clause, gerund phrase, infinitive, or an adverb should introduce this phrase.
Since the endings of our answer choices are different, we need to look at the non-underlined portion of the sentence. “And more threatening” follows “large/larger.” “More threatening” is a comparative adjective so we need another comparative adjective to make the sentence parallel. “Larger” is a comparative adjective, and “large” is not.
Options A and E cannot be the best answers. These options also used the singular “body,” but the subject is plural (mongooses) so the plural “bodies” should be used.
This sentence has an introductory phrase and a modifying phrase that are nonessential to the sentence. Let’s ignore those for a little while and look at each sentence using our remaining answer choices.
Option B: Mongooses use a variety of defense mechanisms thus making their bodies appear larger.“Thus” is used to indicate the outcome of some action, but here, it changes the logical meaning of the sentence. We don’t know if these defense mechanisms actually make mongooses appear larger to predators; the point of the sentence is to tell us some of the reasons why mongooses take the actions that they do. When the modifying phrase (such as . . . bobbing) is included in the sentence, it also becomes unclear what the “thus” statement is modifying.
Logically, Option B cannot be the best answer. Option C: Mongooses use a variety of defense mechanisms to make their bodies appear larger.This sentence makes sense and uses the plural “bodies” and the comparative “larger.”
This is probably the correct answer. Option D: Mongooses use a variety of defense mechanisms so that their bodies appear larger.This one is a little tricky. “X so that Y” is used to indicate the purpose or intention of Y in relation to X. Technically, this sentence does that. The intention of using some of the defense mechanisms is to make their bodies appear larger. But, “so that,” in this sentence, implies that using the defenses actually makes the body appear larger. We don’t know if the predator sees it that way. One other thing that will completely knock this option out is the use of “the bodies” versus “their bodies.” The pronoun “their” allows us to know that the bodies being referred to are those of the mongooses. However, by using “the bodies,” Option D is not clear on whose bodies, the mongooses or the predators, the sentence is referring to. While we can assume it means the mongooses, there is another option that leaves us in no doubt.
Option D cannot be the best answer.We have successfully eliminated four answer choices.
Option C makes logical sense, is grammatical, and leaves no questions about meaning, so it is the best answer. _________________
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