According to anthropologists human babies look markedly different

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION



THE PROMPT

• Meaning?
It is human babies who have 15 percent of their body weight made up of fat and not the newborns of other primates.

• Issues?
→ Modifiers
By the "Touch Rule," noun modifiers must be placed as close as possible to the nouns that they modify.*
With . . . describes a noun, as does which.

The antecedent of which is usually the noun that immediately precedes it or the main noun (the "head" noun) in an immediately preceding noun phrase.

→ IDIOM
The correct idiom is different from, not different than. GMAC occasionally tests this issue.

THE OPTIONS

• Modifier ambiguity
→ Does the phrase with almost 15% of their body weight made up of fat refer to newborns of other primates or human babies?
Both human babies and newborns of other primates are logical candidates.

The newborns of other primates may have body weights that are almost 15 percent fat but that may still be "skinny" compared to human babies. Perhaps human babies have body weights made up of almost 30 percent fat.

True, if the phrase really applied to newborns of other primates, I would expect to see the word "skinny" amplified by only, not almost, this way:
. . . human babies look markedly different from the skinny newborns of other primates, with only 15 percent of their body weight made up of fat.

Close call. I do not like this option, but I am uncomfortable with what seems like a diction problem: if the modifier applies to the primates, why isn't the word only used?

KEEP, but look for a better option


• WHICH is used incorrectly
→ which must refer to a stated noun and cannot modify verbs or whole clauses.
The fat itself does not make human babies distinctive but rather the fact that their bodies are made up of 15 percent fat.

• idiom
→ The correct idiom is different from, not different than.
ELIMINATE B


• I do not see any errors
• This sentence places the modifier with almost 15% ….. next to human babies.
• the idiom is correct: different from.
→→ We will definitely keep this option. I immediately conclude that this option is a lot clearer than option A.
ELIMINATE A
KEEP C

• modifier meaning error
→ comma + ING almost always modifies the previous clause or the subject of the previous clause.
→ the word looking after the comma gives the impression that it is the fat that looks different from the newborns of other primates.
(Fat is the subject of the previous clause.) Wrong meaning.
ELIMINATE D


• modifier meaning error
→ The placement of which after fat gives the incorrect impression that it is the fat that looks different from the newborns of other primates.

• Different than is an incorrect idiomatic expression.
ELIMINATE E

The best answer is C.

COMMENTS

Just a heads up: this kind of SC question often invites sloppy mistakes.
The question does not look terribly difficult. The sentence is not complex.

At least one advantage of posting is that you teach yourself to be careful because if you have made a careless mistake, you will catch it as you write your answer.

The answers range from good to outstanding.

ananya3 and zhanbo , I am bumping you both to Best Community Reply.

Happy Sunday. Stay safe, everyone.

*Just FYI, close can be an adjective or an adverb. Closely is always an adverb.

-- Close as an adjective of position: The restaurant is close to the pier. (In what position or location was the restaurant?)
Close modifies restaurant and is a subject complement (the thing on the other side of the linking verb "is").

-- Close as an adverb of position: He was standing close to the open window.
(In which position or location was he standing?)
Close modifies "standing." In our sentence, close modifies "placed."

Closely as an adverb of manner: The geologist looked closely at the tiny cracks in the rock.
(In what way or manner was the geologist examining the cracks?)
Closely modifies "looked."