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
B. include the animal known as the killer whale, growing as big as 30 feet long and
C. include the animal known as the killer whale, growing up to 30 feet long and being
D. includes the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow as big as 30 feet long and is
E. includes the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow to be 30 feet long and it is[/quote]

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.

(D) includes the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow as big as 30 feet long and is
(E) includes the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow to be 30 feet long and it is
The subject here is "The 32 species", a plural subject.
Therefore, (D) & (E) are out, on the basis that they both use "includes", which refers to a singular noun.

(B) include the animal known as the killer whale, growing as big as 30 feet long and
In (B), growing is not modifying whales, instead it is modifying the preceding clause

(C) include the animal known as the killer whale, growing up to 30 feet long and being
Same error as in (B) "Correct me if I'm wrong"

(A) include the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow to be 30 feet long and is
include (correct verb usage)
, which can (correctly modify the killer whale)
can grow ... and is (parallelism)

Hello lary301254M7,

I must say your analysis is very thorough. You talk about very precise errors in the sentence and explain them very thoroughly in a simple way.

You have done a great job with the analysis of this question as well. Your reason to reject choices B and C is absolutely correct.

Keep the good job.


Thanks.
Shraddha

I was between A & B, unable to understand why is B incorrect.

Hi deddex , have you read the thread?

(B) leads to ambiguity.
(A) keeps the focus on the killer whale.

Some people call comma + which (grows) a "noun modifier." It is.

In (B):comma + participle
(comma + ___ING)
modifiers generally modify the entire previous clause, At the least "growing" would have to modify "species." Neither construction accords with the intended meaning.

We have ambiguity: what is growing? The species? The dolphin family?

By contrast, in (A)
comma + which
("which grows) can
modify only the immediately preceding noun, in this case, "the killer whale."

That reference is in accordance with the intended meaning.

Hope that helps.

Another problem in B is with ' as big as 30 feet long. One can call it either " as big as 30 feet" or just 30 feet long, but not a combination of both big and long.

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one issue at a time, and narrow it down to the correct choice! First, here is the original question with any major differences highlighted in orange:

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
(B) include the animal known as the killer whale, growing as big as 30 feet long and
(C) include the animal known as the killer whale, growing up to 30 feet long and being
(D) includes the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow as big as 30 feet long and is
(E) includes the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow to be 30 feet long and it is

After a quick glance over the options, a few key differences jump out:

1. include vs. includes
2. which can grow vs. growing
3. and / and is / and being / and it is

Let's tackle #1 on our list first: include vs. includes. No matter which one we choose, we'll eliminate 2-3 options rather quickly. To start, we need to figure out what the verb "include/includes" is referring 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.

Since the subject of the sentence is plural, and we also see that the writer used the plural verb "are" earlier on, we need to make sure that all verbs referring to it are also plural:

(A) include the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow to be 30 feet long and is
(B) include the animal known as the killer whale, growing as big as 30 feet long and
(C) include the animal known as the killer whale, growing up to 30 feet long and being
(D) includes the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow as big as 30 feet long and is
(E) includes the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow to be 30 feet long and it is

There you go - we can eliminate options D and E because they use a singular verb, which doesn't agree with the plural subject!

Now that we have it narrowed down to only 3 options, let's tackle #2 on our list: which can grow vs. growing. This is a case of making sure that we use the proper type of modifier to match up with its antecedent. Here is how that works:

Noun modifier = modifies a noun; must start with "which" or "that"
Adverbial modifier = modifies any phrase or word except a noun; starts with -ing verb

In this case, the modifier is supposed to modify the noun "the killer whale." Therefore, we MUST choose the options that use a noun modifier to match the antecedent (a noun). Here is how they break down:

(A) include the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow to be 30 feet long and is
(B) include the animal known as the killer whale, growing as big as 30 feet long and
(C) include the animal known as the killer whale, growing up to 30 feet long and being

We're in luck - only one option used a noun modifier here! We can eliminate options B and C because they use adverbial modifiers to modify a noun, which doesn't match.

Option A is our correct choice because it uses the proper subject-verb agreement with "include," and it uses the correct form of modifier to modify the noun "the killer whale." We don't even need to tackle #3 on our list because we already narrowed it down to the correct choice.


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

I understood why B, C, D and E are incorrect, but in " which can grow" is modifying killer whale which is singular, so shouldn't it be "which can grows".

We'll have to keep in mind that there is a can there.

A plant can grow. ← Plant is singular, but that doesn't affect the verb.
Plants can grow. ← With a can, the verb will remain the same whether the subject is singular or plural.

A plant can grows.

AjiteshArun , daagh and generis

Dear experts,

Don't we need which twice ?

which can grow to be 30 feet long and which is famous for its aggressive hunting pods.

As per my understanding, can grow || is famous.

Please provide your suggestion.

Regards,
Arup

Arup

The inclusion of 'which' in the second arm is not part of any of the choices and therefore is out of scope for us. We must limit our analysis to end up with the best of the choices. That is the essence of GMAT.

Even academically, we are permitted to skip the subject for the second arm, if the subject of the first arm can be also the subject of the second arm.

Per se, the way to parse this part is --- the 'which stands as the common subject for both the phrases.

Thanks for the explanation. My understanding was that if we use a relative pronoun in one arm, for sake of parallelism and of conveying clear meaning we should use relative pronoun in second arm as well.

Regards,
Arup

ArupRS , I am not sure whether the highlighted words are a followup question. I think that they are.

As daagh explained nicely, grammatically, no, the second pronoun is not required.

Although repetition is not required, if the first subordinate clause ([which] can grow to be 30 feet long)
were really long or complicated, we might need a second "which" for the sake of clarity. That choice is stylistic.

Finally, you may be thinking of the situation in which we have a verb followed by that
and the "second arm" needs to be tied back to the verb by repeating that.

The two sentences below are taken from an excellent post by GMATNinja that you can find here.
He discusses a circumstance in which we need to repeat the word that. He writes:

I believe that Santa Claus is real and that the Knicks will win the 2018 NBA title.
(Correct. The subordinate clauses are parallel and express the meaning properly.)

I believe that Santa Claus is real and the Knicks will win the 2018 NBA title.
(Not correct. Meaning is distorted. We need a second that. See the post for an explanation.)

Isn't "grow to be" - weird ? The correct sentence should be "grow up to" right? I am really confused how A can be correct? Is it just because other options are more wrong?

rashwiniyer , no, "grow to be" is not weird, though if you are not a native speaker you might have heard only "grow up to be."

The phrase "grow up to be" typically is used to describe children.

She may grow up to be the first woman president of the United States.
He should grow up to be as athletic and well-proportioned as his father is.

This question is official. The answer is correct.
The sentence discusses what physical length a killer whale can be → can grow to be.

The prose in (A) is both correct and well-written.

You probably hit an unusual mental road bump.

Hope that helps.

Hello,

I get why A) is correct but can someone explain to me how do spot the parallelism in this problem correct?

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 [b]and is famous for[/b ]its aggressive hunting pods.

I was instantly looking for something similar to "to be ..." because I thought "grow to be" and ... have to have some kind of similarity.
"Famous" - is certainly an adjective, but to what is it parallel?

Hi, parallelism is:

which
i) can grow....
and
ii) is....

Both are verbs.

In parallelism, don't look for word-on-word similarity.

" The 32 species " is followed by that...just wondering is use of that right here coz if its a relative pronoun than the 32 species must be singular..

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