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gmatimothy
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Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological trait 02 Jun 2022, 17:02
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sondenso
Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection, favored due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.

(D) - Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection....but are by-products


(A) due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are

(B) due to the reproduction or survival they enhance, but they are

(C) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but

(D) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but are

(E) because of enhancing reproduction or survival, but are
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Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological trait 03 Jun 2022, 04:18
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mdacosta
I thought C is correct via the "in-out" principle? So, "ARE not x, but (ARE) Y", so in D it would go "ARE ARE" if that makes sense?

Someone please help!!! Thank You :P
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Linking verbs include forms of to be such as is, are, was, were, etc.

Rule:
A linking verb can never FOLLOW not but may only PRECEDE it.
Incorrect:
Mary NOT IS tall.
Correct:
Mary IS NOT tall.

not X...but Y
In this idiom, if Y is a verb, then X must also be a verb.
If X and Y are both linking verbs such as is, we get:
not is...but is
However, the rule above states that a linking verb such as is can never follow not but may only PRECEDE it.
Implication:
If we want not and but to connect two linking verbs, we must place the first linking verb BEFORE not, as in the following constructions:
IS not...but IS
WAS not...but WAS
ARE not...but ARE
WERE not...but WERE

This line of reasoning explains why in the OA the linking verb are follows but yet PRECEDES not:
Biological traits ARE NOT the products of natural selection BUT ARE simply random by-products.
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Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological trait 15 Jun 2022, 03:47
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I went for D over C because simply is a adverb and it requires a verb to modify which we have in D
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Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological trait 12 Aug 2022, 21:39
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jaisonsunny77
Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection, favored due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.

key idea: ''Due to'' is used to describe a noun and is usually preceded by a variant of the verb form ''to be''.

In (A) and (B), we do not have a noun that precedes ''due to''. Instead, we have the verb ''favored''. Hence, eliminate (A) and (B).

(C) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but - (C) introduces the following structure: Stephen Jay....has argued that...traits are not ......., ....., but... " In the clause that follows ''but'', we do not have the verb 'are'. Without the ''are'', we do not have a full clause.

(D) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but are - does not introduce any error. Hence, (D) is the correct answer choice.

(E) because of enhancing reproduction or survival, but are - the verb ''enhancing'' does not have a clear subject.
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Is reasoning mentioned above correct for eliminating A & B ? Expert guide me here.

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Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological trait 16 Nov 2022, 06:55
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Quote:
Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection, favored due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.

(A) due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are
(B) due to the reproduction or survival they enhance, but they are
(C) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but
(D) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but are
(E) because of enhancing reproduction or survival, but are
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Hi GMATNinja
I got this SC from one of your comment where you referred it.

Will it be wrong if someone add the subject before are as but is the part of fanboys?
(D) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but they are

Thanks__
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Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological trait 26 Oct 2023, 10:31
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Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection, favored due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.

Option Elimination - It's a bit of a crazy question, especially for non-native English speakers. So, have some patience, and please bear with me. Apologies for the long explanation, but I hope it helps. :)
First, a quick refresher on the usage of "due to, "because of," and "because."

"Due to" is an adjective phrase that modifies nouns or pronouns. It is used to explain the cause or reason for something. It is recommended to use "due to" only
1. when it directly follows a form of the verb "to be" (e.g., is, are, was, were) AND
2. modifies a Noun.
Eg. The cancellation (NOUN) of the event was due to bad weather. The "Due to" adjective phrase modifies the noun "The cancellation" and explains the reason for "bad weather."
"Due to" is correct if the sentence makes sense when you replace "due to" with "caused by." If it does not, then "due to" is incorrect.

"Because of" is a prepositional phrase that functions as an adverbial. It explains an ACTION or the reason for an ACTION.
Eg. The flight was delayed because of heavy traffic. Here, "Because of" explains the action of "delay," and the reason was " heavy traffic."
"Because of" is followed by a noun, noun phrase, or a gerund to indicate the cause. It is not followed directly by a subject and verb.

"Because" is a subordinating conjunction to introduce a subordinate adverbial clause.

(A) due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are - Here, we need "because or because of " as we are trying to explain the action "are not the products." Moreover, why use that, as we don't have that in the sentence earlier? "They" is just repeating "biological traits" - not required.

(B) due to the reproduction or survival they enhance, but they are - the same issue.

(C) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but - This requires a bit more depth. First, it uses "because" - ok. The problem arises with the use of but. "But" is typically used as a coordinating conjunction on GMAT. It is not that in general English, we can't use "but" as a preposition; we can. E.g., Everyone was invited but John or No one but him knows the truth. But this kind of usage is rare on GMAT. Now, if we look at this question, the format after the relative pronoun "that." We have a clause (many biological traits are not the products ..blah blah), ed verbal modifier to modify the noun "the products" (favoured because they blah blah), a prepositional modifier (but simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments). The problem is twofold. First, the prepositional modifier can modify a noun, or it can be adverbial (modifying the main subject + verb). So technically, it can ambiguously modify the same noun as "ed verbal," i.e., "the products," or as an adverbial "it can modify" biological traits are." Second, the use of "but" as a preposition on GMAT is rare (and maybe it's because of the hell lot of ambiguity it causes as it has caused here). So to avoid this, we need to use "but" as coordinating conjunction and we need verb after "but." I know it's not a 1+1=2 kind of simple, straightforward explanation, but the question is also not simple: 1+1 =2 types. :)

(D) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but are - Finally. Here it is. Yes, this is correct.

(E) because of enhancing reproduction or survival, but are - "Because of" is followed by a noun, noun phrase, or a gerund to indicate the cause. It is not followed directly by a subject and verb. But the challenge here is that "enhancing" is not a gerund-like acting as a Noun or doer. Enhancing is just an ING verbal modifier. We need a noun or a gerund after "because of." "they" would have solved the purpose, but we don't have it here. I know. This is too much. Even after giving us the right option, GMAT still wants to ensure that we didn't get option D just by some guesswork. We need to earn it. :)
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Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological trait 14 Jun 2025, 03:37
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