Minnesota is the only one of the contiguous forty-eight states that st

But what does 'this' refers to in option E. We have 'a sizeable population of wolves' in option E which refers to population not wolves. Even if I assume it is referring to 'wolves' not 'population', 'wolves' is still plural and 'this' is singular.

Hi Manish, this predator in E clearly conveys that this is referring to predator.

Minnesota is the only one of the contiguous forty-eight states that still has a sizable wolf population, and where this predator remains the archenemy of cattle and sheep.

(A) that still has a sizable wolf population, and where

(B) that still has a sizable wolf population, where - 'where' incorrectly refers to 'population'

(C) that still has a sizable population of wolves, and where - usage of comma+ AND is incorrect as the part that follows is not an independent clause

(D) where the population of wolves is still sizable; - the semicolon in (d) separates its meaning into two unrelated sentences; i.e., the part of (d) that follows the semicolon suggests that the wolf is still the archenemy of the sheep in general. this is almost exactly the opposite of the intended meaning, which is that Minnesota is the only state where that's still true!

(E) where there is still a sizable population of wolves and where - Correct

Answer E

1. I understand that 'that' correctly refers to 'the only one of the contiguous forty-eight states' which is Minnesota. So, there is no subject-verb agreement issue in options A-C.
2. usage of comma+ AND is incorrect in options A and C as the part that follows is not an independent clause. So, can we use this rule to eliminate?
3. Is the parallelism in options A and C incorrect or are those options just inferior to option E? Can 'that' clause be parallel to 'where' clause?
4. Does 'this predator' need to refer to a noun? sizable wolf population-- wolf is an adjective
sizable population of wolves-- wolves is a noun and it is plural too, whereas 'this predator' is singular

AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , MagooshExpert , GMATGuruNY , VeritasPrepBrian , MartyTargetTestPrep , DmitryFarber , VeritasKarishma , generis , jennpt , other experts - please enlighten

I don't really believe that the presence of that comma is a reason to eliminate those choices. Commas can be used optionally to create pauses and indicate emphasis in sentences. So, the presence of that comma before "and" does not constitute a clear flaw.


The parallel structure in A and C is not clearly incorrect. To choose E over those two, you have to use the GMAT SC approach of just choosing the most parallel choice.


I think "this predator" would ideally have the noun "wolf" to refer to. In the OA, (E), "this predator" almost seems to refer to the only preceding singular noun, "population."

Overall, the truth is that this question is not very good. You have to choose a not particularly well written OA on the basis of the presence a comma, which may nor may not be a flaw, and other vague differences between choices.

We can only hope that SC quality control keeps us from seeing a question as lame as this one when we take the test.

I am still confused as to why the OA is E.

I have read all the answers twice but noone has given any concrete explanations. Based on my understanding:

1) The use of has is correct in choice A
2) There is no parallelism issue (Both that and where start a relative clause)
3) this predator basically doesn't need any antecedent


So what exactly is wrong with choice A, can someone shed a light on this?

Thanks!

daagh GMATNinja generis VeritasKarishma AjiteshArun hazelnut

Posted from my mobile device

Both relative clauses are modifying Minnesota and are joined with 'and'. Hence (E) does a better job of parallelism by using 'where' for both.
Option (E)

Complete agreement with VeritasKarishma!

Also, notice that choice (A) has a comma before the "and". The "comma + and" creates the expectation that we're going to be treated to new information, potentially unrelated to what we've seen thus far.

In other words, it isn't clear that the "where..." part in (A) actually refers back to Minnesota; instead, we expect another main clause (subject+verb pair) to follow the "where" clause (i.e. "... and where this predator remains the archenemy of cattle and sheep, farmers must remain alert." - or something like that).

Is choice (A) absolutely wrong? Maybe not. But (E) is certainly the better option.

I hope that helps!

Hi experts GMATNinja AjiteshArun AndrewN,

I have a question here with regards to the use of "that". Can "that" modify "one of the states" instead of " the states" in this sentence?

I also want to ask if there is no "the" in front of the phrase "only one of the contiguous forty-eight states that", would the verb be "have" instead of "has"? Does the appearance of "that" change the verb tense for have/has (IMO it should be the word "only" that dictates the verb tense, but I am not 100% sure).

Thank you for your help!

Hello, nhatanh811. I would always suggest you view a that through the lens of the entire sentence to decide what, exactly, it may be modifying. I would also recommend this post for reference on the topic of one of and subject-verb agreement. (Preview: only makes an appearance.)

I hope that points you in the right direction. I would urge you not to sweat the small stuff too much on your journey to a higher score. Often, even if an arcane concept pops up in an answer choice, other concepts are brought to bear as well, and you need only one flaw to expose an incorrect answer.

Thank you for thinking to ask me about this tough question.

- Andrew

Souvik /Experts /GMATNinja

As mentioned above , If the sentence uses The only one of ... its singular and if it has one of the ..its plural

In this question Minnesota is **the only one ** of the contiguous forty-eight states that still has a sizable wolf population, and where this predator remains the archenemy of cattle and sheep.

So here it uses the only one and this should mean that the fourty eight states that still has... as in it should singualr aint it ??

Thanks for your time

I'm not sure that I fully understand your question, unfortunately. Are you asking whether the verb should be singular or plural? Notice that the question doesn't actually make this an issue at all. Choices (A), (B), and (C) all give is "Minnesota is the only one... that HAS..." And that's correct, since the sentence is saying that only one (singular) state has a sizable wolf population. Choices (D) and (E) have completely different constructions, and we don't have to worry about the verb at all in those.

If that's not what you're asking, maybe try reviewing these posts from earlier in the thread, if you haven't already:

1) https://gmatclub.com/forum/minnesota-is ... l#p1838805 (especially the second part)
2) https://gmatclub.com/forum/minnesota-is ... l#p1929996

If those don't clear up your doubts, please try to clarify where you are getting stuck, and we'll do our best to help!

GMATNinja

How kind of you to reply , yes my question was regarding the subject verb agreement here .
The sentence is -Minessota is **the only one** of the states that HAS ..
Before i was presuming that the sva in the correct answer had got it wrong , my bad .


Thank you for your time , i surely would need more of yours in the future . My GMAT is in two days . wish me luck and hope you baby is doing fine

I'm lamentably late with the well-wishes, but I hope that everything went wonderfully yesterday, Ashish632! And thank you for the wishes for the baby. The little guy still causes some sleep disruptions, but all is well.

Will option D be correct if instead of ';' there would be ',and' ?

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Hi Dhwanii,

It'd certainly be better than it currently is, but it's hard to say whether it'd be correct. For what it's worth, I'd still go with E, simply because it does a better job of connecting the two ideas. That said, this is just my opinion, and I don't know whether the GMAT would agree with it.

Got this right by looking at Where.....and Where from the last option, though i admit that it was a close call vs A.

I chose E only for the better parallelism, but i wasn't that sure about "this predator", given that, being true that there is a correct SV agreement in the last clause, the first clause was actually talking about wolves.

Not a question that you would find today, i hope!

I found a bunch of this older questions that either rely on pure idioms or are somehow "obscure" to me in their right answer.

Hi Rail,

It's almost certain that the current question pools also contain such questions ("pure idioms"/"obscure").