Most biologists agree that, although they are being eradicated for cen

Question

Most biologists agree that, although  they are being eradicated for centuries and remain an endangered and much maligned species , the wolf has made a comeback in some Western states.

A. they are being eradicated for centuries and remain an endangered and much maligned species 
B. they have been eradicated for centuries, remaining an endangered and much maligned species 
C. it had been eradicated for centuries and it remains an endangered species that had been much maligned 
D. it was eradicated for centuries and remains an endangered and much maligned species 
E. its centuries of eradication, endangerment and being a much maligned species

My question: The wolf refers to a category of wolves, (more like an adjective) so shouldn't the pronoun be plural rather than singular?

Thanks

abhijeetsharad · Answer

For collective noun in gmat(American English) singular is used. hence it is used

GMatAspirerCA · Answer

what is meant by collective noun?

abhijeetsharad · Answer

collective nouns are nouns which are used to represent a group
eg army,flock,herd etc

Posted from my mobile device

unuk50 · Answer

Between c and d ( considering collective pronoun s are singular) , had been is incorrect for c, simple past to present comparison is correct, so D

sanjibh062 · Answer

Biologists is plural noun and they referred here for Biologists. I think correct answer should be B

rishit924 · Answer

Dear Experts!!

Could you please help with the detail solution for this?

d.it was eradicated for centuries and remains an endangered and much-maligned species

here "Was eradicated and remains aren't parallel" please explain.

Thanks in advance

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  sanjibh062 . It cannot be the case that  they  refers to  biologists , since that would mean that  biologists , not wolves, have been  eradicated for centuries . I mean, I have heard of dark ages for science, but nowhere have I read about people burning biologists at the stake or anything, let alone wiping out every last biologist in the vicinity. No, the non-underlined subject of the main clause,  the wolf , in addition to the singular verb agreement in  has , cues us in on the singular subject of the sentence, and only the pronoun  it  can serve in place of  the wolf . To be honest, I wish the question were reformatted with the correct  underlining  in the original sentence, as I feel that would aid members considerably.

Bunuel  , will you please update the question? Thank you.

- Andrew

Bunuel · Answer

_______________________
Done. Thank you.

AshutoshB · Answer

HI Rishit, in D there is perfect parallelism, It was eradicated for centuries || It remains an endangered and much-maligned species DM if you have any queries.I would love to help

sarphant123 · Answer

Kaplan's Explanation -

Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors: 
When the underlined portion of the sentence contains a pronoun, check to make sure the pronoun agrees in number with the noun it is referring to. 
Here, the underlined portion starts with the pronoun "they," which is referring to "the wolf." 
Since "the wolf" is singular, it requires a singular pronoun. "They" is plural, however, and so is incorrect. 
The sentence also uses the present progressive verb "are being eradicated" to describe an action that has taken place "for centuries," meaning it has happened in the past. This is also an error. 
Scan and Group the Answer Choices: 
(A) and (B) contain the incorrect plural pronoun "they." 
(C), (D), and (E) change the pronoun to "it" or "its." 
Eliminate Wrong Answer Choices: 
Based on the error spotted during the initial reading of the sentence, (A) and (B) can be eliminated. They both use the wrong pronoun. 
(C) corrects the pronoun error by changing "they" to "it." However, the past perfect verb tense, "had been eradicated" and "had been much maligned," is overly complicated and changes the meaning of the sentence, which states the wolf is maligned today. Eliminate (C). (E) is wrong because it ends up creating a clause beginning with "although" that does not include a verb. Dependent clauses beginning with "although" must contain a subject and verb. Here's an example: Although Jim is quiet, he is not shy. (D) corrects the pronoun error by using "it" and changes "they are being " to the simple past tense "it was," which works perfectly. (D) is correct. 
TAKEAWAY: Pronouns are often tested. Stick to the rules—pronouns must have clear antecedents and agree in number with their antecedent—and watch out for answer choices that fix the pronoun error but introduce new errors.

WarriorWithin · Answer

Most biologists agree that, although  they are being eradicated for centuries and remain an endangered and much maligned species , the wolf has made a comeback in some Western states.

A.   they   are being eradicated for centuries and remain an endangered and much maligned species    --> They cannot refer to singular the wolf  
B.   they   have been eradicated for centuries, remaining an endangered and much maligned species    --> They cannot refer to singular the wolf  
C.   it had been   eradicated for centuries and it remains an endangered species that   had been    much maligned -->    The later clause is in Simple Present Tense so to mentioned the earlier even you should use Simple Past Tense.  
D.  it was     eradicated for centuries   and   remains an endangered and much maligned species   -->   Correct Parallel list and Correct Tense is used here  
E.   its centuries of eradication  ,   endangerment and being a much maligned species   -->   Incorrect Parallel List and use of being is awkward

ekanshgoyal · Answer

Can someone explain how the verb forms are in parallel? 
"was eradicated" and "remains" how are they parallel?

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Ekansh, "was" and "remains" are both verbs and hence, are parallel.

What is different is the  tense : "was eradicated" is simple past, while "remains" is simple present.

Please note however that  tenses  and  parallelism  are  separate  concepts and should not be mixed with each other.

Parallel structures can be in different tense and voice.

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses  this aspect of Parallelism . Have attached the corresponding section of the book, for your reference.

Most biologists agree that, although they are being eradicated for cen

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Most biologists agree that, although they are being eradicated for cen

Prep Toolkit

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