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Posts: 4
Updated on: 09 Nov 2021, 06:47
Originally posted by getzonator on 25 Jan 2012, 05:17.
Last edited by Bunuel on 09 Nov 2021, 06:47, edited 5 times in total.
Last edited by Bunuel on 09 Nov 2021, 06:47, edited 5 times in total.
Renamed the topic and edited the question.
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
65%
(hard)
Question Stats:
55% (01:48) correct
45%
(01:56)
wrong
based on 14361
sessions
History
Date
Time
Result
Not Attempted Yet
Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a parasitic worm, is prevalent in hot, humid climates, and it has become more widespread as irrigation projects have enlarged the habitat of the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle.
A. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle
C. freshwater snails which become the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles
D. freshwater snails which become the hosts of the parasite during the parasite's life cycles
E. parasite's hosts, freshwater snails which become their hosts during their life cycles
SC02664
A. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle
C. freshwater snails which become the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles
D. freshwater snails which become the hosts of the parasite during the parasite's life cycles
E. parasite's hosts, freshwater snails which become their hosts during their life cycles
SC02664
Show Spoilernytimes article
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/27/us/drop-in-drug-cost-may-allow-all-out-attack-on-a-parasite.html
Like other drugs used to treat schistosomiasis, praziquantel does not kill all the parasites in a person's body but reduces their number until the symptoms disappear. Unlike malaria parasites, those for schistosomiasis cannot multiply in the body. Once their population is reduced it remains low unless the victim is infected again.
Freshwater snails are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle, just as mosquitoes are hosts for malaria. The disease is prevalent in hot, humid climates and has become more widespread as irrigation projects have enlarged the habitat of the snails.
Like other drugs used to treat schistosomiasis, praziquantel does not kill all the parasites in a person's body but reduces their number until the symptoms disappear. Unlike malaria parasites, those for schistosomiasis cannot multiply in the body. Once their population is reduced it remains low unless the victim is infected again.
Freshwater snails are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle, just as mosquitoes are hosts for malaria. The disease is prevalent in hot, humid climates and has become more widespread as irrigation projects have enlarged the habitat of the snails.
MGMAT( in a reversal from its earlier rigid stand perhaps) says that the issue of possessive poison is not worth worrying about since there has been hardly any case that has been rejected on the score of the possessive pronoun’s antecedence in the realm of GMAT.
The takeaway of possessive pronoun custom is;
1. A possessive pronoun can stand for a possessive noun
2. A possessive pronoun can stand for a non- possessive noun
3. A non-possessive pronoun can stand for a non- possessive noun.
4. The only case where it can‘t be accepted is when a non-possessive is used to stand for a possessive noun
A. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its lifecycle --- here its is possessive and parasite’s is possessive. So there is no issue. correct choice
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle – pronoun number agreement
C. freshwater snails which becomes the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles—snails which becomes – S-V mismatch
D. freshwater snails which become the hosts of the parasite during the parasite's life cycles--- how many life cycles does the parasite have? Secondly, do all the hosts have one parasite? Illogical
E. parasite's hosts, freshwater snails which become their hosts during their life cycles— parasite is singular while the 'their' is a plural pronoun.
_________________
The takeaway of possessive pronoun custom is;
1. A possessive pronoun can stand for a possessive noun
2. A possessive pronoun can stand for a non- possessive noun
3. A non-possessive pronoun can stand for a non- possessive noun.
4. The only case where it can‘t be accepted is when a non-possessive is used to stand for a possessive noun
A. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its lifecycle --- here its is possessive and parasite’s is possessive. So there is no issue. correct choice
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle – pronoun number agreement
C. freshwater snails which becomes the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles—snails which becomes – S-V mismatch
D. freshwater snails which become the hosts of the parasite during the parasite's life cycles--- how many life cycles does the parasite have? Secondly, do all the hosts have one parasite? Illogical
E. parasite's hosts, freshwater snails which become their hosts during their life cycles— parasite is singular while the 'their' is a plural pronoun.
_________________
Thank you Daagh for your time on GMAT Club and all your contributions! Thank you for everything you did!
Your work will remain a great tribute to you here on GMAT Club!
-bb
Your work will remain a great tribute to you here on GMAT Club!
-bb
Quote:
I don’t have a whole lot to say about (A). The first thing I notice is the modifier “that are the parasite’s hosts” – and that seems like a reasonable way to modify “the freshwater snails.”
The pronoun “its” also jumps out at me, and that would have to refer to “the parasite’s”, since that’s our nearest (and most logical) singular. And that’s fine, too: “…the freshwater snails that are the parasite’s hosts for part of [the parasite’s] life cycle…” Reasonable enough.
So I guess we’ll keep (A).
Quote:
The biggest difference between (B) and (A) is the plural pronoun “their” in (B). And that’s a problem: “their” is plural, so it has to refer to either “the freshwater snails” or “the parasite’s hosts” – and those are the same thing, anyway. So that gives us: “… the freshwater snails that are the parasite’s hosts in part of [the freshwater snails’] life cycle.”
That’s not WRONG, exactly, if you’re willing to assume that the sentence is trying to explain what happens during the snails’ life cycle. But I think that misses the point: schistosomiasis is the grammatical subject of the sentence, and the sentence is clearly trying to explain why the disease has become more common. So presumably, the sentence is interested in explaining that the snails are hosts during part of the parasite’s life cycle. The snail’s life cycle really isn’t of interest to us, and wouldn’t help explain why the parasite has become more common.
So that’s miserably subtle, but it’s basically all we’ve got, unless you want to make an unnecessarily big deal out of the prepositions. (A) is better than (B), so we can eliminate (B).
Quote:
(C) is a little bit easier to eliminate than some of the other options. The phrase “its life cycles” really doesn’t make any sense at all: “its” presumably refers to “the parasite”, since that’s the closest (and most logical) singular noun. But then how is that “the parasite” has multiple “life cycles”? As far as I know, each parasite only has one life cycle. If not, that would be creepy AF.
There’s also a problem with the phrase “freshwater snails which becomes.” Snails are plural, so the verb would have to be “become”, not “becomes.” Plus, “which” is generally a non-restrictive modifier, so it usually follows a comma – though that’s not usually a deciding factor on GMAT questions.
So we have lots of reasons to ditch (C).
Quote:
(D) is a little bit better than (C)… but only a little bit.
I guess it’s nice that “its life cycles” has been changed to “the parasite’s life cycles”, but either way, it’s illogical: a singular parasite presumably has only one life cycle, not multiple “life cycles.”
It’s also nice that the subject-verb issue has been fixed (“snails… become”), but I still don’t think it’s ideal to use “which” in this type of scenario without a comma. But again: the GMAT doesn’t generally make a big deal out of comma placement, and it’s almost never a deciding factor.
And even if you ignore the comma thing, the phrase “parasite’s life cycles” is goofy enough to let us eliminate (D).
Quote:
The plural pronoun “their” appears twice in (E), but “parasite’s” is actually singular, so “their” presumably refers to “snails.” And that’s garbage: “… freshwater snails which become [the snails’] hosts during [the snails’] life cycles…”
You could also argue that “which” needs to be preceded by a comma, as we mentioned in (C) and (D) – but again, that’s rarely a deciding factor on the GMAT.
The pronoun thing is a big deal, though. (E) is out, and we’re left with (A).
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Posts: 4,849
Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a parasitic worm, is prevalent in hot, humid climates, and it has become more widespread as irrigation projects have enlarged the habitat of the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle.
A. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle
C. freshwater snails which become the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles
D. freshwater snails which become the hosts of the parasite during the parasite's life cycles
E. parasite's hosts, freshwater snails which become their hosts during their life cycles
Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a parasitic worm, is prevalent in hot, humid climates, and it has become more widespread as irrigation projects have enlarged the habitat of the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle.
A. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle
The singular possessive pronoun “its” agrees with the singular possessive noun “parasite’s”
“That are” refers to "freshwater snails”
Correct
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle
The plural possessive pronoun “their” does not agree with the singular possessive noun “parasite’s”
Eliminate
C. freshwater snails which become the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles
C can be eliminated because of the incorrect usage- “lifecycles”. The parasite does not have more than one lifecycle.
D. freshwater snails which become the hosts of the parasite during the parasite's life cycles
Same as C.
E. parasite's hosts, freshwater snails which become their hosts during their life cycles
Same as B and C
VP
GMAT Verbal SME
A. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle
C. freshwater snails which become the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles
D. freshwater snails which become the hosts of the parasite during the parasite's life cycles
E. parasite's hosts, freshwater snails which become their hosts during their life cycles
Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a parasitic worm, is prevalent in hot, humid climates, and it has become more widespread as irrigation projects have enlarged the habitat of the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle.
A. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle
The singular possessive pronoun “its” agrees with the singular possessive noun “parasite’s”
“That are” refers to "freshwater snails”
Correct
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle
The plural possessive pronoun “their” does not agree with the singular possessive noun “parasite’s”
Eliminate
C. freshwater snails which become the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles
C can be eliminated because of the incorrect usage- “lifecycles”. The parasite does not have more than one lifecycle.
D. freshwater snails which become the hosts of the parasite during the parasite's life cycles
Same as C.
E. parasite's hosts, freshwater snails which become their hosts during their life cycles
Same as B and C
VP
GMAT Verbal SME
Posts: 6,486
Dear Friends,
Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of the crucial part of this sentence is that for part of the parasite's life cycle, the freshwater snails are its hosts.
Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Meaning + Pronouns
A: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the plural noun "freshwater snails" with the plural verb "are". Moreover, Option A correctly refers to the singular noun "parasite's" with the singular pronoun "it". Further, Option A uses the phrase "for part of its life cycle", conveying the intended meaning - that the freshwater snails are the parasite's hosts for a portion of its singular life cycle.
B: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "parasite's" with the plural pronoun "their".
C: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun "snails" with the singular verb "becomes". Further, Option C alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "its life cycles"; the use of the plural "cycles" illogically implies that the parasite has multiple life cycles, and for some of them the freshwater snails are its hosts; the intended meaning is that the freshwater snails are the parasite's hosts for a portion of its singular life cycle.
D: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "during the parasite's life cycles"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the parasite has multiple life cycles, and for their entirity the freshwater snails are its hosts; the intended meaning is that the freshwater snails are the parasite's hosts for a portion of its singular life cycle.
E: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "parasite's" with the plural pronoun "their". Further, Option E alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "during their life cycles"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the parasite has multiple life cycles, and for their entirity the freshwater snails are its hosts; the intended meaning is that the freshwater snails are the parasite's hosts for a portion of its singular life cycle.
Hence, A is the best answer choice.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
_________________
Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
getzonator
Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of the crucial part of this sentence is that for part of the parasite's life cycle, the freshwater snails are its hosts.
Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Meaning + Pronouns
A: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the plural noun "freshwater snails" with the plural verb "are". Moreover, Option A correctly refers to the singular noun "parasite's" with the singular pronoun "it". Further, Option A uses the phrase "for part of its life cycle", conveying the intended meaning - that the freshwater snails are the parasite's hosts for a portion of its singular life cycle.
B: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "parasite's" with the plural pronoun "their".
C: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun "snails" with the singular verb "becomes". Further, Option C alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "its life cycles"; the use of the plural "cycles" illogically implies that the parasite has multiple life cycles, and for some of them the freshwater snails are its hosts; the intended meaning is that the freshwater snails are the parasite's hosts for a portion of its singular life cycle.
D: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "during the parasite's life cycles"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the parasite has multiple life cycles, and for their entirity the freshwater snails are its hosts; the intended meaning is that the freshwater snails are the parasite's hosts for a portion of its singular life cycle.
E: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "parasite's" with the plural pronoun "their". Further, Option E alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "during their life cycles"; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that the parasite has multiple life cycles, and for their entirity the freshwater snails are its hosts; the intended meaning is that the freshwater snails are the parasite's hosts for a portion of its singular life cycle.
Hence, A is the best answer choice.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
_________________
General Discussion
Posts: 148
First of all "ITS " is a possessive pronoun that can correctly refer to possessive.
A. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle
--> everything is CORRECT; ITS correctly refers to the possessive.
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle
--> THEIR is wrong as per subject -verb agreement.
C. freshwater snails which becomes the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles
--. SV error
D. freshwater snails which become the hosts of the parasite during the parasite's life cycles
-->
1) which is incorrectly used--> which introduces non essential part and also is used a comma.
2) unnecessarily wordy;
3) indicates "a parasite has several life cycles"
E. parasite's hosts, freshwater snails which become their hosts during their life cycles
--> pronoun error
Hope this helps...!!
A. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle
--> everything is CORRECT; ITS correctly refers to the possessive.
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle
--> THEIR is wrong as per subject -verb agreement.
C. freshwater snails which becomes the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles
--. SV error
D. freshwater snails which become the hosts of the parasite during the parasite's life cycles
-->
1) which is incorrectly used--> which introduces non essential part and also is used a comma.
2) unnecessarily wordy;
3) indicates "a parasite has several life cycles"
E. parasite's hosts, freshwater snails which become their hosts during their life cycles
--> pronoun error
Hope this helps...!!
First, the possessive pronoun ‘its’ is properly referring to the singular parasite and its apostrophe (parasite’s) and not the plural parasites and its apostrophe (parasites’) as has been stated.
It may be noted that the first pronoun ‘it’ refers to the disease, while the second pronoun ‘its’ refers to the parasite’s due to proximity. In the case of possessive pronouns, the antecedence rules are relaxable, if logic demands.
A is good enough,IMO, as the other choices are not really challenging enough in terms of grammar, as has been stated by the poster
_________________
It may be noted that the first pronoun ‘it’ refers to the disease, while the second pronoun ‘its’ refers to the parasite’s due to proximity. In the case of possessive pronouns, the antecedence rules are relaxable, if logic demands.
A is good enough,IMO, as the other choices are not really challenging enough in terms of grammar, as has been stated by the poster
_________________
Thank you Daagh for your time on GMAT Club and all your contributions! Thank you for everything you did!
Your work will remain a great tribute to you here on GMAT Club!
-bb
Your work will remain a great tribute to you here on GMAT Club!
-bb
Posts: 305
ratinarace
Hi ratinarace, when dealing with pronoun questions, it's always simplest to replace the pronoun by the word it is replacing and verify that the pronoun agrees with the noun.
In this case, the sentence should be:
Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a parasitic worm, is prevalent in hot, humid climates, and it has become more widespread as irrigation projects have enlarged the habitat of THE FRESHWATER SNAILS THAT ARE THE PARASITE'S HOSTS FOR PART OF the worm's LIFE CYCLE. Who's life cycle are we referring to? The parasite, which in turn is referencing the worm.
If you want it to reference the snails (plural), also note that the sentence is slightly different (in part vs for part). In part usually means "as one of the reasons of" whereas for part usually means "for an incomplete period". I chose this answer in part because the idiom was good for this part of the test.
Between the intention and the phrasing, I agree that A should be the correct answer, but B is a tempting choice as well.
Hope this helps!
-Ron
Vercules
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ratinarace
Hi ratinarace,
"their" can refer to snails and in (B) "their" is in fact referring to "snails", but it shouldn't. The sentence is discussing about the life cycle of the parasite and not the snails. In (B) "their" refers to snails, resulting in change in the meaning of the original sentence.
Well, it may appear that GMAT expects one to peep into the author's brain.
But while answering you should keep in mind that the answer choice that changes the meaning of the original sentence is almost always incorrect. If we have two grammatically correct answer choices then the one which preserves the meaning of the original sentence is most likely to be the correct one. Hope this helps,
Vercules
To understand this issue correctly, one requires to look at the science of logic and I wonder whether it could have been the intention of the framers of this topic. If you understand the relationship between a host and a parasite, it is like this.
There are millions of hosts of a species and millions of parasites of the same. But it is not essential that the host has to necessarily have a parasite as part of its life cycle. It can continue to live healthily without getting infected by the parasite. For example do we all get malaria? No. we don’t. So a mosquito is not part of our life-cycle.
But not so in the case of the parasite. A parasite has to depend upon its host for some time, if it has to successfully complete its life cycle. Looking therefore from the meaning point, - its - should refer to the parasite in this case. So A.
I am not clear whether this fine tuning is by default or by design by the originators.
_________________
There are millions of hosts of a species and millions of parasites of the same. But it is not essential that the host has to necessarily have a parasite as part of its life cycle. It can continue to live healthily without getting infected by the parasite. For example do we all get malaria? No. we don’t. So a mosquito is not part of our life-cycle.
But not so in the case of the parasite. A parasite has to depend upon its host for some time, if it has to successfully complete its life cycle. Looking therefore from the meaning point, - its - should refer to the parasite in this case. So A.
I am not clear whether this fine tuning is by default or by design by the originators.
_________________
Thank you Daagh for your time on GMAT Club and all your contributions! Thank you for everything you did!
Your work will remain a great tribute to you here on GMAT Club!
-bb
Your work will remain a great tribute to you here on GMAT Club!
-bb
Hi all,
Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a parasitic worm, is prevalent in hot, humid climates, and it has become more widespread as irrigation projects have enlarged the habitat of the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle.
Meaning:
• Schistosomiasis is a disease that is caused by a parasitic worm.
• It is prevalent in places with hot and humid climate.
• The disease has become more widespread with the increase in irrigation projects.
• These projects have enlarged the habitat of the freshwater snails that play the host of the parasite for a part of its life cycle.
Error Analysis:
• Subject “that” that stands for “the freshwater snails” agrees in number and makes sense with the verb “are”. No SV pair error.
• This sentence is providing general facts about the disease and its cause. Hence simple present tense “are“ is correct.
• “that” clause correctly modifies “the freshwater snails” giving information that these snails become host to the parasite for some part in its life.
• There are no pronoun, no parallelism, no idiom and no meaning error errors.
Answer Choice Analysis:
A. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle: Correct as is.
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle: Incorrect. Reference of pronoun “their” distorts the intended meaning of the sentence. Plural “their” now refers to “the freshwater snails” meaning that they are host to the parasite in part of snails’ life cycle and not in part of the parasite’s life cycle. This is not the intended meaning of the sentence.
C. freshwater snails which become the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles: Incorrect. Plural “life cycles” is incorrect because a singular “parasite” can have only one life cycle and not multiple life cycles.
D. freshwater snails which become the hosts of the parasite during the parasite's life cycle: Incorrect. Repetition of “parasite’s” instead of a pronoun makes this choice wordier.
E. parasite's hosts, freshwater snails which become their hostsduring their life cycles: Incorrect. Same pronoun reference error as in B.
Take-Away
1. The pronoun must agree in number with its antecedent.
2. Be vary of the choices that distort he intended meaning of the sentence.
Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
_________________
Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a parasitic worm, is prevalent in hot, humid climates, and it has become more widespread as irrigation projects have enlarged the habitat of the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle.
Meaning:
• Schistosomiasis is a disease that is caused by a parasitic worm.
• It is prevalent in places with hot and humid climate.
• The disease has become more widespread with the increase in irrigation projects.
• These projects have enlarged the habitat of the freshwater snails that play the host of the parasite for a part of its life cycle.
Error Analysis:
• Subject “that” that stands for “the freshwater snails” agrees in number and makes sense with the verb “are”. No SV pair error.
• This sentence is providing general facts about the disease and its cause. Hence simple present tense “are“ is correct.
• “that” clause correctly modifies “the freshwater snails” giving information that these snails become host to the parasite for some part in its life.
• There are no pronoun, no parallelism, no idiom and no meaning error errors.
Answer Choice Analysis:
A. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle: Correct as is.
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle: Incorrect. Reference of pronoun “their” distorts the intended meaning of the sentence. Plural “their” now refers to “the freshwater snails” meaning that they are host to the parasite in part of snails’ life cycle and not in part of the parasite’s life cycle. This is not the intended meaning of the sentence.
C. freshwater snails which become the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles: Incorrect. Plural “life cycles” is incorrect because a singular “parasite” can have only one life cycle and not multiple life cycles.
D. freshwater snails which become the hosts of the parasite during the parasite's life cycle: Incorrect. Repetition of “parasite’s” instead of a pronoun makes this choice wordier.
E. parasite's hosts, freshwater snails which become their hostsduring their life cycles: Incorrect. Same pronoun reference error as in B.
Take-Away
1. The pronoun must agree in number with its antecedent.
2. Be vary of the choices that distort he intended meaning of the sentence.
Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
_________________
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A. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle
Should keep it
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle
For part of its life cycle seems ok
but in part of their life cylce seems not as "parasite" is singular and their is plural.
C. freshwater snails which becomes the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles
Which should be preceded by comma.
D. freshwater snails which become the hosts of the parasite during the parasite's life cycles
Same as (C).
E. parasite's hosts, freshwater snails which become their hosts during their life cycles
Changes the meaning and this one says that habitat of parasite's hosts and not of freshwater snails has been enlarged
Should keep it
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle
For part of its life cycle seems ok
but in part of their life cylce seems not as "parasite" is singular and their is plural.
C. freshwater snails which becomes the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles
Which should be preceded by comma.
D. freshwater snails which become the hosts of the parasite during the parasite's life cycles
Same as (C).
E. parasite's hosts, freshwater snails which become their hosts during their life cycles
Changes the meaning and this one says that habitat of parasite's hosts and not of freshwater snails has been enlarged
egmat
Shraddha,
haven't we learnt that a pronoun cannot refer to a possessive noun. Unless its here is referring to worm.?
Also Its mentioned by one of the members(supposedly expert) that
" MGMAT( in a reversal form its earlier rigid stand perhaps) says that the issue of possessive poison is not worth worrying about, since there has been hardly any case that has been rejected on the score of the possessive pronoun’s antecedence in the realm of GMAT.
The take away of possessive pronoun custom is;
1. A possessive pronoun can stand for a possessive noun
2. A possessive pronoun can stand for a non- possessive noun
3. A non possessive pronoun can stand for a non- possessive noun.
4. The only case where it can‘t be accepted is when a
Non- possessive is used to stand for a possessive noun "
Please comment as I have a concept that a pronoun cannot refer to a noun in possessive form.
ygdrasil24
Dear ygdrasil24,
Your understanding is correct.
However, note that "its" is the possessive form of the pronoun "it".
Usually for nouns, we add an apostrophe and an "s" to indicate possessive form. ("lion's", "builder's" etc.)
However, it's on the other hand is the short form for "it is". The possessive form of "it" is "its"
As you know, the possessive form of a pronoun can refer to the possessive form of a noun.
In the above mentioned sentence "its" (possessive pronoun) is referring to "parasite's" (possessive noun).
Hope this helps
Regards,
Krishna
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ramarao443 Normally we don't switch antecedents for a pronoun. In other words, once we've said that "it=disease," we don't assign "it" or "its" to any other noun. With this in mind, A would seem problematic. However, there are a few complications:
*First, there has been no possessive noun except for "parasite's." We aren't supposed to use a possessive pronoun unless there's an actual possessive noun to refer back to, so this points toward "parasite's" as the antecedent for "its."
*Second, the proximity of the pronoun and its antecedent makes it especially awkward to use the noun again. It would be like saying "My wife and I went to Kay's house for Kay's birthday party." Sure, there are two women in the sentence, but proximity (in conjunction with the possessive and the overall meaning) makes it very clear who's party we're talking about.
*Finally, D has several other grammatical problems. ("Wordy" is usually not an objection we want to accept.) We don't want to say that one parasite has multiple life cycles. We also need to begin the underlined portion with "the" to make it clear that we are talking about a specific group of freshwater snails. With that in mind, we also want to use "that" rather than "which." We use "that" to indicate essential modifiers. These are modifiers that become part of the noun phrase. Non-essential modifiers just add parenthetical information about the noun in general.
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*First, there has been no possessive noun except for "parasite's." We aren't supposed to use a possessive pronoun unless there's an actual possessive noun to refer back to, so this points toward "parasite's" as the antecedent for "its."
*Second, the proximity of the pronoun and its antecedent makes it especially awkward to use the noun again. It would be like saying "My wife and I went to Kay's house for Kay's birthday party." Sure, there are two women in the sentence, but proximity (in conjunction with the possessive and the overall meaning) makes it very clear who's party we're talking about.
*Finally, D has several other grammatical problems. ("Wordy" is usually not an objection we want to accept.) We don't want to say that one parasite has multiple life cycles. We also need to begin the underlined portion with "the" to make it clear that we are talking about a specific group of freshwater snails. With that in mind, we also want to use "that" rather than "which." We use "that" to indicate essential modifiers. These are modifiers that become part of the noun phrase. Non-essential modifiers just add parenthetical information about the noun in general.
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hi experts, please help me to clarify this problem.
Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a parasitic worm, is prevalent in hot, humid climates, and it has become more widespread as irrigation projects have enlarged the habitat of THE FRESHWATER SNAILS THAT ARE THE PARASITE'S HOSTS FOR PART OF ITS LIFE CYCLE.
in the original question, first it clearly refers to a disease (Schistosomiasis)
the second its refers to parasitic worm.
as i have learnt, it should not be the case.
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Thanks! It's interesting to note that while they describe the rule limiting "which" to nonrestrictive clauses as "controversial," the question itself still follows the rule. It's also useful to keep in mind that the explanation writer is not the same as the question writer! One of my colleagues describes the explanation writers as the "B Team."
However, this indication of flexibility does underscore a point I often make: that it's much more important to get good at reading for solid sentence structure (e.g. subject-verb and parallelism) and overall meaning than it is to memorize long lists of idioms or to spend hours agonizing over the use of "because of" vs. "due to." We don't need to be masters of which vs. that to ace this test!
I should add that this rule is indeed controversial. My brother, for instance, refuses to acknowledge it as a rule at all, saying that it was made up by a few fussy 20th-century copy-editors who have no more claim than the rest of us to dictate how the English language should be used. He may well have a point!
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However, this indication of flexibility does underscore a point I often make: that it's much more important to get good at reading for solid sentence structure (e.g. subject-verb and parallelism) and overall meaning than it is to memorize long lists of idioms or to spend hours agonizing over the use of "because of" vs. "due to." We don't need to be masters of which vs. that to ace this test!
I should add that this rule is indeed controversial. My brother, for instance, refuses to acknowledge it as a rule at all, saying that it was made up by a few fussy 20th-century copy-editors who have no more claim than the rest of us to dictate how the English language should be used. He may well have a point!
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Quote:
Sooooo true! My hunch is that whoever writes the explanations is an intern of some sort, and not necessarily a professional question-writer at all. Plus, a lot of the questions that leak into the official guides are 10 or 15 or 20 years old -- and whoever wrote them originally is probably long gone.
Fun fact: at ETS (the company that writes the TOEFL and GRE, among other tests), the question-writers are literally in a different building from the psychometricians who design the exam. No idea if the same is true at GMAC, but it wouldn't surprise me.
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getzonator
GMATNinjaTwo "that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle" modifier describing snails
it = schistosomiasis = the parasite
Is it "its" referring to "parasite's" or schistosomiasis?
ziyuen
it in it has become more widespread refers to Schistosomiasis.
its in that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle refers to parasite's. So, effectively, this portion says -- ...the the freshwater snails that are the parasite's host for part of the parasite's life cycle.
Cheers!
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