The rare bird, considered extinct for over fifty years and actually

The rare bird, considered extinct for over fifty years and actually thriving in a remote part of the Andes, has made a remarkable comeback over the past decade.

Meaning :

This sentence puts a contrasting information ... The rare bird was considered extinct for over 50 years .However it was actually thriving in a remote part of Andes . The rare bird has made a remarkable comeback over the past decade .

Analysis :

Two contrasting pieces of information has been connected through 'and' : Error
1. The rare bird considered extinct for over 50 years .
2. It was actually thriving in a remote part of Andes .

In this original choice .
Considered is used as a modifier to rare Bird. Also thriving is a modified to rear Bird. Uses of both the modifier is correct in the sentence


(A) The rare bird, considered extinct for over fifty years and actually thriving in a remote part of the Andes, has made a remarkable comeback over the past decade.

Use of 'and' for the contrasting information is an error as shown in the error analysis.

(B) The rare bird, which had been considered extinct for over fifty years but it was actually thriving in a remote part of the Andes, has made a remarkable comeback over the past decade.

There is no comma before but ,hence use of 'it' is redundant subject ...error... out


(C) The rare bird, which was considered extinct for over fifty years and had actually been thriving in a remote part of the Andes, made a remarkable comeback over the past decade


1.Use of 'and' for the contrasting information is an error as shown in the error analysis. .
2.Use of had is wrong as well .
3. Use of made is changing the meaning because of wrong tense ..


(D) The rare bird was considered extinct for over fifty years, but it was actually thriving in a remote part of the Andes, and, over the past decade, has made a remarkable comeback.

This sentence is correct .
1. The contrast is shown properly .
2.Use of has made also properly conveying the meaning that the effect of comeback is still on.

(E) The rare bird was considered extinct for over fifty years, was actually thriving in a remote part of the Andes, and, over the past decade, has made an remarkable comeback.


1.Use of 'and' for the contrasting information is an error as shown in the error analysis. .
2.There is is a parallelism error in the sentence. Two verb phrases in the list are in past tense and one is in Present perfect tense, creating the parallel error.


Hence D is the best choice and is my answer .

(A) The rare bird, considered extinct for over fifty years and actually thriving in a remote part of the Andes, has made a remarkable comeback over the past decade.
but is required in the sentence and the different usage in tense of considered and thriving adds on to the sentence expulsion

(B) The rare bird, which had been considered extinct for over fifty years but it was actually thriving in a remote part of the Andes, has made a remarkable comeback over the past decade.
it appeareance isn't correct and also the usage of which

(C) The rare bird, which was considered extinct for over fifty years and had actually been thriving in a remote part of the Andes, made a remarkable comeback over the past decade
The usage of which isn't correct and the absence of but before had also adds on to the meaning of the sentence

(D) The rare bird was considered extinct for over fifty years, but it was actually thriving in a remote part of the Andes, and, over the past decade, has made a remarkable comeback.
This is exactly the intended meaning therefore let usa hang on to it

(E) The rare bird was considered extinct for over fifty years, was actually thriving in a remote part of the Andes, and, over the past decade, has made an remarkable comeback.
an usage beside remarkable isn't right and distorts the meaning

Therefore IMO D

AndrewN

A big fan of your detailed explanations and this was indeed very much helpful. Thanks a lot for your time for us.

just to clear some misunderstanding

In 1st sentence below. we see an independent clause starting with 'IT'.

''The rare bird which had been considered extinct for over fifty years'' this is a ''noun+relative pronoun construction'' will we call it a full clause parallel to the 2nd independent clause?

If I replace 'IT' with 'WHICH/THAT' will it still be an independent clause or an absolute phrase?

1. The rare bird which had been considered extinct for over fifty years, but it was actually thriving in a remote part of the Andes, has made a remarkable comeback over the past decade

Thank you for the kind words, himanshu0123. If, in the sentence marked "1" above, we were to replace it with which, we would create nothing more than a branching relative clause within an overarching main (independent) clause.

The rare bird which had been considered extinct for over fifty years, but which was actually thriving in a remote part of the Andes, has made a remarkable comeback over the past decade.

Note that either relative clause could function as a logical modifier on its own, either essential or non-essential (i.e. with double commas), although there would be no reason to keep but.

1) The rare bird which had been considered extinct for over fifty years has made a remarkable comeback over the past decade.

2) The rare bird which was actually thriving in a remote part of the Andes has made a remarkable comeback over the past decade.

You can think of the two relative clauses together as coordinate adjectives, those that modify the same noun and can be transposed without any real loss in meaning. To illustrate, notice that the following sentence is just as functional as the first, at the top of the post. I will add a comma after bird out of preference.

The rare bird, which was actually thriving in a remote part of the Andes, but which had been considered extinct for over fifty years, has made a remarkable comeback over the past decade.

We see coordinate adjectives more often as two single words (e.g., He led a long, prosperous life and He led a prosperous, long life), but they can appear as phrases or even clauses, as we see in this question.

Perhaps the issue makes more sense now. Thank you for thinking to ask, and good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

How can we choose D over E, as "it" after "but" in D doesn't seem right.
I chose Option A and I can't figure out what's wrong with option A.
Pls Help!

Hello jim441,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "it" in Option D clearly refers to the noun phrase "The rare bird".

Further, Option A incorrectly uses "and" to link the actions - "considered extinct for over fifty years" and "actually thriving in a remote part of the Andes"; there is a clear logical contrast between these two actions, so conjunction along the lines of "but" is needed.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Hi, thanks for the feedback.
Isn't parallelism more clear in E than in D? SO why are we choosing D?

jim441

Watch out for phony parallelism! If two ideas are contrasting--we thought the bird was extinct BUT it was actually thriving--then we don't want to just throw them together in a list. D is better precisely because it separates the first idea (the previous belief about the bird) from the other two items (what was actually happening and what has happened since).

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