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655-705 Level|   Meaning/Logical Predication|   Modifiers|   Pronouns|   Subject Verb Agreement|                              
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Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a parasitic worm, is prevalent in 31 Oct 2023, 10:39
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DmitryFarber
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"Their" can't refer back to "parasite's." That's the problem. Meaning-wise, we DO want to refer to the parasite, so that's why we need a choice with the singular "its."

"Their" would have to refer back to some plural noun, but as GMATNinja points out, the INTENT seems clearly for that pronoun to refer to parasite's. So we want our pronoun to refer back to that word, but we can't if our pronoun is "their." Does that clear it up?
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DmitryFarber
Hello, Thanks for the explanation.
The quoted below is from GMATNinja. This line confused me a little bit. GMATNinja intend to make clear that “the parasite’s hosts” could replace “their” in this case!
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And that’s a problem: “their” is plural, so it has to refer to either “the freshwater snails” or “the parasite’s hosts”
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Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a parasitic worm, is prevalent in 31 Oct 2023, 14:17
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Keep in mind that he's talking about a wrong answer, but in any case, the noun in "the parasite's hosts" is HOSTS, not PARASITE'S, so it's plural.
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Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a parasitic worm, is prevalent in 31 Oct 2023, 14:39
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Quote:
A. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycle
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:
B. the freshwater snails that are the parasite's hosts in part of their life cycle
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. freshwater snails which becomes the parasite's hosts for part of its life cycles
(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).

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Hello GMATNinja
As we see that parasite's hosts is plural. So why do we bother about the replacement of singular 'its'?
:) This explanation confused me a bit. Also can you check my previous comment?
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Schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a parasitic worm, is prevalent in 02 Aug 2025, 18:03
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Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

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