The 32 species that make up the dolphin family are closely related to

The 32 species that make up the dolphin family are closely related to whales and in fact include the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow to be 30 feet long and is famous for its aggressive hunting pods.


(A) include the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow to be 30 feet long and is
Correct. "Include" correctly refers to the plural subject "the 32 species". "which" correctly modifies the the whale and the construction gives the logical meaning.

(B) include the animal known as the killer whale, growing as big as 30 feet long and
"Include" correctly refers to the plural subject "the 32 species" but "growing" modifies the verb " include" , which distorts the meaning

(C) include the animal known as the killer whale, growing up to 30 feet long and being
Same reason as B

(D) includes the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow as big as 30 feet long and is
Subject Verb issue. The 32 species (Plural) have a singular verb "includes "

(E) includes the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow to be 30 feet long and it is
Same as D

Great post, except for the last example:

*”The killer whale is as BIG as the SIZE of a VW beetle car.’l

Logically, something can not be as BIG as a SIZE.

You would just compare the “killer whale” to the “VW beetle”

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I have one doubt anyone can help with option C

C) include the animal known as the killer whale, growing up to 30 feet long and being

Why growing being verb-ing modifier isn't modifying killer whale?
I chose C as i thought its grammatically correct but now i see it's meaning changed but for my knowledge of modifiers. How can you be sure if the modifier (growing) is modifying killer whale or 32 species or any verb?

Please help.

Hello HC1993,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the "comma + present participle ("verb+ing" - "growing" in this sentence)" construction modifies the entirety of the preceding clause and in doing so it conveys that the subject of the clause - "The 32 species" in this case - takes the action conveyed through the participle.

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

Relying on grammar "rules" often backfires on GMAT SC, unfortunately. Instead, let's simply compare (slightly shortened versions of) choice (A) and choice (C):


Here we have a noun modifier ("which...") that logically modifies the noun right before it: "the killer whale" (or "the animal known as the killer whale" -- it's the same meaning either way).

The reader doesn't really have to think twice here. It's obvious that the "which" clause describes the killer whale, and there's no reason to go all the way back to the beginning of the sentence.

But here's (C):


Sure, "-ing" words can describe nouns (as explained in this article). But if we wanted "growing" to modify "killer whale," why put a comma between them? The comma makes the reader think that the "-ing" modifier describes the entire preceding clause, which doesn't make much sense.

Can you figure out what the author intends here? Sure. But it's awfully confusing, and most readers will have to re-read the sentence to make sense of it.

So, we have one choice where the meaning of the modifier is clear and obvious and another that makes the reader think twice. That gives us a pretty solid reason to choose (A) over (C).

I hope that helps!

if it was makes up instead of make up , would it have "include" or "includes" or how do we decide that when to use s/es form and when not

Yeah, make is one clue that "The 32 species" is plural; another clue is "are" (The 32 species ... are closely related to whales).

Hi Experts,

Is the phrase "as big as 30 feet long" correct?

Thanks
Kitty

GMATNinja ExpertsGlobal5 MartyTargetTestPrep

If there were a tense shift in the sentence like this:

The 32 species that make up the dolphin family are closely related to whales and in fact include the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow to be 30 feet long and was once in danger of extinction.

Would the second 'which' be required to make the sentence parallel?

The 32 species that make up the dolphin family are closely related to whales and in fact include the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow to be 30 feet long and which was once in danger of extinction.

No, the sentence is fine without the second "which."