Programs designed to reintroduce the condor into the wild have been

Question

Project SC Butler: Day 88: Sentence Correction (SC1) 
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Programs designed  to reintroduce the condor into the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that it will eventually be removed  from endangered species lists.

A. to reintroduce the condor into the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that it will eventually be removed

B. to reintroduce the condor into the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that they will eventually be removed

C. to reintroduce condors into the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that they will eventually be removed

D. for reintroducing the condor in the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that they will eventually be removed

E. for the condor to be reintroduced into the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that it will be eventually removed

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pk123 · Answer

Meaning: Programs have been successful in reintroducing condor into the wild
programs convince environmentalist that condor will be removed from endangered species list

Option B, C and D have pronoun "they" which may refer to environmentalists or far off programs which does not seem logical

E changes the meaning , programs designed for the condor to be introduced vs in A programs designed to reintroduce condor into the wild...into the wild as a modifier also is misplaced in option E

which makes Option A as correct

Sarwan14 · Answer

SIMPLE EXPLANATION

Programs designed to reintroduce the condor into the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that it will eventually be removed from endangered species lists.

A.  to reintroduce the condor into the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that it will eventually be removed

B. to reintroduce the condor into the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that they will eventually be removed   (Incorrect, "they" who??, condor or environmentalists)
 
C. to reintroduce condors into the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that they will eventually be removed (  incorrect, same as  B)

D. for reintroducing the condor in the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that they will eventually be removed (  incorrect, designed for is incorrect and awkward)

E. for the condor to be reintroduced into the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that it will be eventually removed (  Incorrect, awkward and distorts meaning)

swatato · Answer

Reading the sentence you can gauge that if the subject is 'The Condor' then it will always be referred to as 'it'. So keeping this in mind, we go through the answer choices:

A : The right option. 'It' correctly references 'The Condor'. There is no ambiguity as to which subject 'it' refers to.

B : This sentence has a changed meaning now. It appears the environmentalists will be taken off the endangered list because the condors were reintroduced.

C: While this sentence now fixes the 'Condors' and 'It' issue, 'they' could still refer to the environmentalists. Still ambiguous.

D: This has the same issue as C.

E: 'Will be eventually removed'. I found this part of the sentence to be a bit off. 'Eventually be removed' is a better way to put it across.

pikolo2510 · Answer

A very close call between A and C because both make sense according to me

In option C: - 
* The pronoun "they" rightly refers to "Condors" . 
* "They" doesn't make sense with "environmentalists" --> ...that environmentalists will eventually be removed from endangered species lists. Absolute garbage
* Hence "they" can only refer to "Condors"

In Option A: - 
* "it" can only refer to "condor"

Hence I feel both are correct and there is nothing wrong in both the options.

aragonn   GMATNinja  - Please let me know if my understanding is incorrect

aragonn · Answer

pikolo2510  - Ofcourse grammatically both are right, but lets think the meaning of both options. So there is a list of endangered species, now what one should add in this list? 'The condor', which mean all species. while 'condors' means a bunch of condor :P. Obviously first one is only giving the intended meaning.

pikolo2510 · Answer

Thank you  aragonn  . It makes sense now

I was actually surprised when everyone wrote pronoun ambiguity to eliminate option C

KanishkM · Answer

Programs will be designed to introduce something, with this in mind, I eliminated D and E

Since animals wont be removed from a list, rather than a type of species will be removed from a list.(This was the main intent behind this sentence)

Out of A, B and C 
A. to reintroduce the condor into the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that it will eventually be removed
It singular pronoun is correctly referring to the condor. ->Correct answer

B. to reintroduce the condor into the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that they will eventually be removed
They is referring to what here??, environmentalists plural is ok, but the intent of the sentence is talk about a  species (singular) -> Eliminate

C. to reintroduce condors into the wild have been successful enough to convince environmentalists that they will eventually be removed
They is referring to what here??, environmentalists plural is ok, but the intent of the sentence is talk about a  species (singular) -> Eliminate

parijit · Answer

Between A and E.E is not correct because it is passive ,can someone explain more on the same?

aragonn · Answer

Official Explanation: 
This sentence is correct as written.

Since the underlined portion of the sentence contains a pronoun, check whether it agrees with its referent. The singular pronoun it clearly and unambiguously refers to the singular noun the condor. There appears to be no error in the original sentence, so keep choice A. Because there is no error in the original sentence, there are no obvious repeaters to look for, so evaluate the remaining answer choices individually, looking for reasons to eliminate each.

Choice B incorrectly uses the plural pronoun they to refer to the singular noun condor, so eliminate choice B for a pronoun agreement error. For choice C, the plural pronoun they is ambiguous, since it could refer to either condors or environmentalists, so eliminate choice C. Choice D incorrectly uses the plural pronoun they to refer to the singular noun condor, so eliminate choice D for a pronoun agreement error. Choice E correctly uses the singular pronoun it to refer to the singular noun condor, but the phrase for the condor incorrectly modifies designed, suggesting that the programs were designed for the condor rather than for reintroducing the condor into the wild, so eliminate choice E for a modifier error.

Choice A: Correct

Choice B: No. The plural pronoun they refers to the singular noun condor. Pronoun agreement.

Choice C: No. The plural pronoun they could refer to either condors or environmentalists. Pronoun ambiguity.

Choice D: No. The plural pronoun they refers to the singular noun condor. Pronoun agreement.

Choice E: No. The phrase for the condor incorrectly modifies designed. Misplaced modifier.

The correct answer is choice A.

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Programs designed to reintroduce the condor into the wild have been

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Programs designed to reintroduce the condor into the wild have been

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