Rather than confining the animals to cages, the zoo's lions currently

When you have such doubts, take the replacement test.

Original C) the zoo is currently housing its lions in an environment that it specially designed to mimic their natural habitat.

Modified: 1.the zoo is currently housing its lions in an environment that the zoo specially designed to mimic their natural habitat.
Modified: 2. the zoo is currently housing its lions in an environment that the environment specially designed to mimic their natural habitat.
Which is more logical now? You can see there is no need for any ambiguity doubt. In C, the ‘it’ does refer to the zoo only.

If its C, can somebody tell me whether is it possible for an adverb- 'currently' to modify gerund-'Housing' ??

Your observation is correct. However please note that a subject pronoun in one clause often refers to a noun in subject position in another clause. In general, subject nouns make strong antecedents for subject pronouns, even when there is another eligible noun in the predicate portion of the other clause. In such cases, the sentence may be accepted as a correct answer although there may be a sight pronoun ambiguity. Nonetheless please ensure that there are other more serious errors in the other answer choices and there is no other problem with the sentence. Hope this explanation helps.

The main verb of the sentence is is housing. The adverb currently refers to this verb correctly.

Now consider the following two cases:

Case I: modifying a gerund: You may use an adjective to modify a gerund to emphasize the nominal aspect (i.e., it is a noun). e.g., His quick thinking saved the accident.

Case II: modifying a present participle: Alternatively you may use an adverb if you want to modify the action aspect of the present participle. e.g. The horse ran across the field breathing heavily.

In your post, it appears that you meant that a present participle (rather than a gerund) is being modified. In that case, it is alright to use an adverb.

Hope this explanation clarifies your question.

Currently is modifying not just ‘housing’, but ‘is housing’. ‘Is housing’ is a present progressive tense verb. ; So, there is nothing unusual about an adverb modifying the verb within which is it is housed.

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Choice C is correct. The modifier "rather than confining the animals to cages" correctly describes the subject "the zoo." Answer choice A incorrectly uses "zoo's lions" as the subject of the opening modifier "rather than confining the animals to cages." This implies that the zoo's lions made the choice not to confine themselves to cages. Answer choice B is incorrect because it uses the wordy and awkward phrases "in which the animals currently live" and "in a mimic of their". Answer choice D incorrectly uses "zoo's lions" as the subject of the opening modifier "rather than confining the animals to cages." This implies that the zoo's lions made the choice not to confine themselves to cages. Answer choice E is incorrect because "zoo" is singular but is matched with "their," a plural pronoun.

In C, Can anyone please tell me how "its" can be used to refer zoo. Its is plural and zoo is singular.

I am just a beginner, Please help me.

Thanks

sayantanc2k

Hi a12bansal, this is the funny thing about it.

it: Singular
its: possessive of singular it
it's: it is

There is no such thing as plural its. It, by very definition, can only refer to a non-person singular.

Rather than confining the animals to cages, the zoo's lions currently live in an environment that it specially designed to mimic their natural habitat.

A) the zoo's lions currently live in an environment that it specially designed to mimic their natural habitat.
- 'it' is referring to zoo but zoo is in possession so the usage of it is wrong. Eliminate A

B) the zoo designed a special environment for its lions in which the animals currently live in a mimic of their natural habitat.
- the usage of 'their' jumps out of the sentence. It can refer to lions or animals. Pronoun error. Eliminate B

C) the zoo is currently housing its lions in an environment that it specially designed to mimic their natural habitat.
- nice and clean use of pronouns. As per the meaning, 'Rather than confining the animals to cages' correctly modifies zoo. Keep C

D) the zoo's lions currently live in a special environment that the zoo designed to mimic their natural habitat.
- no issue with the grammar. But as per the meaning, 'Rather than confining the animals to cages' is modifying zoo's lions and that doesn't make any sense. Eliminate D

E) the zoo currently houses their lions in a special environment designed to mimic their natural habitat.
- Again the usage of 'their' jumps out of the sentence. It is referring to zoo but zoo is singular and that usage is wrong. Eliminate E.

Option C is our winner!

in C] how do I visualize that present progressive tense - 'is housing' is used correctly.

do we day that ''confining'' and ''housing'' are parallel.

That's the default tense to use for action verbs that are true/happening at the present (narrated) time.



Yes.

RonTargetTestPrep

isn't 'Rather than confining the animals to cages' an appositive phrase or a verbless clause

I think of it as 'Rather than X, Y''
X:confining
Y: Zoo is housing

How do I consider X and Y parallel?

Hello himanshu0123,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "Rather than confining the animals to cages" is actually an adverbial phrase that acts upon the action "is currently housing".

It cannot be an appositive, as appositives are always noun phrases that explain or identify the noun they modify.

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

@ExpertsGlobal5

I think of it as 'Rather than X, Y''
X:confining
Y: Zoo is housing

How do I consider X and Y parallel?



Hello himanshu0123,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "Rather than confining the animals to cages" is actually an adverbial phrase that acts upon the action "is currently housing".

It cannot be an appositive, as appositives are always noun phrases that explain or identify the noun they modify.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team[/quote]

[/quote]

Hello himanshu0123,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, since "Rather than..." serves as a modifier here, we do not need to maintain parallelism.

For example, "Although damaged, my phone still works well."

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

ExpertsGlobal5

isn't ' although damaged' a verbless clause.

can we say the same for 'Rather than...' used here? How we will write the full clause.


Hello himanshu0123,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, since "Rather than..." serves as a modifier here, we do not need to maintain parallelism.

For example, "Although damaged, my phone still works well."

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team[/quote]

ExpertsGlobal5 egmat GMATCoachBen

OA is option C
Can I eliminate option B on the basis of logic that “the zoo designed a special environment for its lions” …here zoo is doing the designing part, i.e inanimate object doing humanly thing and hence gives wrong meaning. If yes, then for C, isn’t it wrongly implying that zoo – an inanimate body – designed the environment? Read as “ ….. lion in an environment that it (zoo) specially designed (past tense verb)