The army cutworm moth is a critical source of fat for many of Yellowst

Question

The army cutworm moth is a critical source of fat for many of Yellowstone National Park's grizzly  bears; they overturn rocks to find them and consuming as many as  40,000 apiece in a single day.

A. bears; they overturn rocks to find them and consuming as many as
B. bears; overturning rocks to find the insects, consuming up to
C. bears, overturning rocks to find them and they consume as many as
D. bears, and they overturn rocks to find them and consume up to
E. bears, which overturn rocks to find the insects, consuming as many as

Swagatalakshmi · Accepted Answer

A. bears; they overturn rocks to find them and consuming as many as
WRONG -Realative pronoun after ";" refers to the subject of first clause which is moth.

B. bears; overturning rocks to find the insects, consuming up to
WRONG - Fragment that is added after ";" is not an independnt clause as it doesn'y have a subject or a verb

C. bears, overturning rocks to find them and they consume as many as
WRONG - The way participle is use iy is modifying the subject of the sentence which is moth.

D. bears, and they overturn rocks to find them and consume up to
WRONG - "and they" refers to moths.

E. bears, which overturn rocks to find the insects, consuming as many as
CORRECT

Edited : Wrote preposition in place of pronoun.

blueseas · Answer

who  and  whom   can  only be used for human being and not for animals or things.
 that  and  which   cannot  be used for human beings.

in this case  bear => animal  .. so we cannot use WHO..

hope it helps

trivikram · Answer

semicolon in B is the problem 'cos each statement should be an independent clause.

E has no antcedent problems and the participle consuming correctly describes the action of the bears.

Also we can remove the " which overturn rocks to find the insects "
to check this

u2lover · Answer

agreed... E looks the best gerunds with -ing ARE NOT verbs, thus don't create an indep. clause... THEY in D isn't clear... who is eating THEM??? isn't it the "ARMY OF MOTHS" and not just "MOTHS" :!:

trivikram · Answer

When you mentioned GERUNDS did you refer to option B??

u2lover · Answer

A B and C... those are choices don't have 'modifiers'... and they mean "action"... Consume, overturn, etc... one might mistake those as participle modifier, but there isn't anything after semicolon that modifier could refer to. in addtion, the construction of the second part must me Indep Clause (just as you said)

DenisSh · Answer

A . After ";" must go clause. We see correct clause construction (clause has subject, object & verb). Problem with pronouns (they, them - whom do they search for, who searches?) B . After ";" must go clause. We see phrase. C . 'Overturning rocks' modifies bears. Thus, it must be connected with bears with 'which' or 'who' D . Problem with pronouns (they, them - whom do they search for, who searches?) E . Right connection. (which). All errors are corrected, and no errors are added

- right one Relative pronouns who , which can refer to people/animals . Relative pronouns that , which can refer to things .

TheMechanic · Answer

Is the usage of which in OA correct? I suppose 'who' would be a better relative pronoun. Can some one clarify this?

TheMechanic · Answer

Yeah I knew the usage of who and whom pertaining to human beings, but I was dicey with their usages in context of animals.

Need to brush up finer details before the D-Day.

Thanks.

Abhishek009 · Answer

A. bears; they overturn rocks to find  them  and consuming as many as
B. bears; overturning rocks to find the insects, consuming up to
C. bears, overturning rocks to find  them  and they consume as many as
D. bears, and they overturn rocks to find  them  and consume up to
E. bears, which overturn rocks to find the insects, consuming as many as

Down with B and E

bears;  overturning rocks to find the insects , consuming up to - After ; the highlighted part is not an independent clause.

bears,  which  overturn rocks to find the insects,  consuming   as many as

Which - Correctly refers to Bears

Consuming - Presents additional information

As many as - Idiomatically correct and correctly used to refer to countable nouns...

Hence E

anje29 · Answer

I understand E is the best option here , but in this option 'which' is modyfying a living thing. Is this usage of 'which' is correct ? . Experts please explain

Adyy96 · Answer

When you are talking about an animal say a "dog" . If this dog has a name say Mike then you would refer to him by using "who" (same way as we refer people) But if the dog does not have a name and we just use "dog" or "dogs" , in this case "which" or "that" has to be used to refer to them. i hope its clear

kudos please if it helped

chandan10feb · Answer

How does which refer to a noun (bears). Think should be who instead of which

shrewd1 · Answer

Which can clearly refer to bears here.
Only in case of humans, I think we should specifically use "who"

Think of animals as objects, you would normally say 'it is a cute puppy'

daagh · Answer

Not every verb + ing word is a gerund; there are three types of verb + ing words such as 1. A progressive tense word (when used with another helping verb, mostly a 'be' verb, or its derivative) example: is singing/ were singing etc 2. a present participle, mostly acting as part of an adverbial or adjectival modifier example -- singing a song, John walked along the river bank etc, with or without a comma before, and 3. as a gerund to denote an action noun, as in constructing a house is tedious job these days, etc.. Each is used in a specific context of its own. 
Overturning is not a gerund but a participle in both B and C.

Skywalker18 · Answer

The army cutworm moth is a critical source of fat for many of Yellowstone National Park's grizzly  bears; they overturn rocks to find them and consuming as many as  40,000 apiece in a single day.

A. bears; they overturn rocks to find them and consuming as many as - pronoun them can't refer to moth
B. bears; overturning rocks to find the insects, consuming up to - uses a semicolon incorrectly (the part that comes after the semicolon is a fragment).
C. bears, overturning rocks to find them and they consume as many as - pronoun them can't refer to moth ; uses a COMMA -ING modifier incorrectly; that choice actually implies that the moth itself overturns the rocks.
D. bears, and they overturn rocks to find them and consume up to - pronoun them can't refer to moth
E. bears, which overturn rocks to find the insects, consuming as many as - Correct

Answer E

cr7anika · Answer

A. bears; they overturn rocks to find them and consuming as many as

1. "them" antecedent is not present. "moth" is used singularly in the sentence.
2. X and Y, "overturn" is not parallel to "consuming"

B. bears; overturning rocks to find the insects, consuming up to

1. ";" is followed by a modifier. It should be followed by an independent clause
2. Verb-ing post comma modifies the preceding clause and doer of the action is the subject of the preceding clause. Here the subject is "moth" while "bears" are performing the act of "overturning"

C. bears, overturning rocks to find them and they consume as many as

1. Verb-ing post comma modifies the preceding clause and doer of the action is the subject of the preceding clause. Here the subject is "moth" while "bears" are performing the act of "overturning"
2. No clear antecedent for "them"
3. "overturning rocks" is not parallel with "they consume"

D. bears, and they overturn rocks to find them and consume up to

1. "No clear antecedent for "them"
2. That the bears "overturn" rocks to find them and "consume up to" are not independent actions. Usage of "and" is wrong here.

E. bears, which overturn rocks to find the insects, consuming as many as
 
 Looks okay. It correct the errors pointed above.
"Consuming" is modifying the subject of the preceding clause, "which" and "which" refers to "bears"

rnn · Answer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7kcxfICVhY&list=PL0LGZMx8pP21Jx8Er_L5V-HfbPn9DKY7M&index=14

39:30

generis · Answer

Although the discussion of participial modifiers   is fruitful,
it is probably quicker to use these concept areas to eliminate four incorrect answers

• pronoun disagreement (NOT ambiguity), and
• a semicolon used incorrectly

The sentence means that a certain kind of worm is a critical source of fat for grizzly bears—so critical
that grizzly bears overturn rocks to find and consume thousands of these insects each day.

Split #1: The army cutworm, singular, vs. pronoun THEM, plural

Ignore pronoun ambiguity.
We know what "them" is supposed to mean: the bugs that the bears eat.
Because two options use "the insects," check the pronoun THEM for antecedent disagreement or non-existence.

Options A, C, and D contain pronoun disagreement.

GMAC often tolerates pronoun ambiguity.
Occasionally GMAC tolerates ambiguity even if two forms of a similar pronoun are used.

GMAC never tolerates disagreement between pronoun and antecedent.

In the underlined portion, as usual, GMAC gives a clue about whether 
"the critical source of fat" for grizzly bears is singular or plural.

The moth  is singular. (The verb that follows the moth is singular:  IS .)

Options A, C, and D incorrectly use the plural pronoun  them  to refer to the bugs that the bears eat.
Eliminate A, C, and D

Split #2:  Semicolons  must separate  two full independent clauses

The RHS of B is not a complete sentence—the RHS is not an independent clause, 
because that RHS has neither subject nor verb,
and an independent clause requires both.

RHS of semicolon in B:  overturning rocks to find the insects, consuming up to 40,000 apiece in a single day. 
-- No subject. 
-- No verb. Participial verbals (verbINGs and verbEDs) are not working verbs.
Wrong, no working verb: The leader spreading discontent and hatred.
Correct, contains a working verb: The leader spread discontent and hatred.

Do not worry about whether the verbING can "hop over" the semicolon (it cannot).
The right hand side of the semicolon is not a full sentence. End of story.

The semicolon in B incorrectly contains one clause that is not a full independent clause.
Eliminate B.

By POE, the answer is E

• Check. Does E have errors?

PRONOUN ISSUE? 
No. In E, the sentence sensibly uses "the insects" to refer to what the bears eat.

COMMA + WHICH? 
Correct. That structure modifies the immediately preceding noun,  bears .
 Which  can always refer to  non-human nouns . 
--  Which  can  never  refer to people. We use  who  for people.

COMMA + WHICH = a non-essential modifier set off by a comma
If we remove the non-essential modifier (comma + which), the sentence still makes sense.
We could end the sentence this way and retain the core meaning of the sentence:
The army cutworm moth is a critical source of fat for many of Yellowstone National Park's grizzly bears.

The answer is E

The army cutworm moth is a critical source of fat for many of Yellowst

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The army cutworm moth is a critical source of fat for many of Yellowst

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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