The endangered giraffes have sometimes been shot by farmers trying to

Question

The endangered giraffes have sometimes been shot by farmers  trying to save their crops when they are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers  allowed access to help guard the fields.

(A) trying to save their crops when they are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers
 
(B) trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks or poachers

(C) trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers

(D) who are trying to save their crops when they are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers who are

(E) who are trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks or poachers who are

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/science/bees-elephants-.html

The threat of bees is so intensely felt by elephants that conservationists are using it to help prevent the kinds of conflict that put the behemoths at risk. The endangered animals have sometimes been shot  by farmers  trying to save their crops from elephants foraging at night for late-night snacks,  or   by poachers  allowed access to help guard the fields.

daagh · Accepted Answer

The endangered giraffes have sometimes been shot by farmers  trying to save their crops when they are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers  allowed access to help guard the fields.

A. trying to save their crops when they are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers --  their' and 'they' refer to different nouns.

B. trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks or poachers --  'by farmers' should be followed 'by poachers'; otherwise, it is unparallel. 
  
C. trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers--  Correct

D. who are trying to save their crops when they are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers who are --   differential reference of the pronouns 'their' and 'they' as in B; In addition, the present perfect( have been shot) and the present continuous(('are trying') do not sync.

E. who are trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks or poachers who are --  same parallelism error as in B in addition to the tense mismatch.; in addition, the present perfect(have been shot' and the present continuous tense 'are trying' do not sync.

thinkTheta · Answer

farmers, therefore 'who' required.
Between D and E. D disrupts the parallelism by introducing a 'by' with poachers.

E - Answer

Hero8888 · Answer

You have some misunderstanding in terms of ing-modifiers that can modify nouns. Also prepositions can be repeated if other parts of the parallel list are far enough to create ambiguity. (C) is correct indeed.

rahul16singh28 · Answer

Option, C.

Shot by farmers trying or by poachers.

sandman13 · Answer

C seems to fix pronoun ambiguity for me.

I don't like E since it could mean animals are foraging for poachers?

C it is.

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tamal99 · Answer

Hello  daagh 
Why I can't drop "by" as a common word?? As per that I would go with option B

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daagh · Answer

tamal,
Hi,

You can't dispense with 'by' before poachers as it would lead to mean that the animals are foraging for late-night snacks or the animals are foraging for the poachers. Hope you can see the twist in the meaning.

tamal99 · Answer

daagh 
Sir I got the point. But what if we modify the option B with a "," after "late night snack" (as option A or C)? Whether that will make the option B best option???

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daagh · Answer

tamal
Even then it will mean that the animals are foraging for poachers. But the actual meaning is that the number of the endangered animal is being further depleted by both farmers and the poachers, who are shooting the animals down either to save the crop or for other pecuniary benefits.

tamal99 · Answer

Got the point. Thanks a lot sir

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SajjitaKundu · Answer

IMO the answer should be C. Only that maintains parallelisn by using 'by' and Noun+Noun Modifiers.

Bunuel · Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

This problem is primarily testing logical meaning, pronoun reference, and sentence construction. Whenever you have a pronoun choice in the answers, start there: (A) and (D) use the pronoun “they” while the remaining choices use “animals”. This is a major hint that the pronoun “they” might have a reference problem and indeed it does: it is not the farmers who are “foraging for late-night snacks” but rather the giraffes! The use of the word “animals” corrects this problem so it must be (B), (C) or (E).

The most obvious decision point between the remaining choices is the use of “or poachers” in (B) and (E) versus “or by poachers” in (C). A closer look (and the use of slash-and-burn to simplify the sentence) shows that it should be: the giraffes have been shot by farmers doing X, or BY poachers doing Y. Without the word “by”, it seems that the last part is linked to what the animals are doing when it is really a separate component going back to who is shooting the giraffes. If you read (B) and (E) carefully it seems that the giraffes might be foraging for poachers – clearly illogical!  The correct answer is (C).

shekhu · Answer

The endangered giraffes have sometimes been shot by farmers  trying to save their crops when they are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers  allowed access to help guard the fields.

(A) trying to save their crops when they are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers
 
(B) trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks or poachers

(C) trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers

(D) who are trying to save their crops when they are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers who are

(E) who are trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks or poachers who are

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/science/bees-elephants-.html

The meaning in OA is ambiguous, poachers allowed access to help guard the fields. were the poachers that were allowed the access or were the poachers themselves allowed the access? This distinction made me reject option C.

Can any expert clarify?

adstudy · Answer

Answer - C

(A) trying to save their crops when they are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers 
 Their seems to point to the farmers but the pronoun they seems ambiguous. Therefore (A) has pronoun error.

(B) trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks or poachers
 only 'poachers' is incorrect. 'by poachers' is required to maintain parallelism. Therefore (B) has parallelism error

(C) trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers
 handles both parallelism and pronoun error correctly. No ambiguity observed. Seems to be the best option out of the given.

(D) who are trying to save their crops when they are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers who are
 'who' makes the sentence wordy and is generally not required. Without it also we have a better option in C.Also pronoun 'they' not corrected in this sentence. Therefore (D) has pronoun error along with wordiness.

(E) who are trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks or poachers who are
 only 'poachers' is incorrect. 'by poachers' is required to maintain parallelism. (same issue as in B). Therefore (E) has parallelism error

Gagoosh · Answer

Though a little ambigous, it is the most grammatically apt answer. The question gives us parallelism error and pronoun ambiguity error, both of which have been amended by choice C. Hope this helps.

Kritisood · Answer

Sir

I still don't get why "by" cannot be used for both "by farmers"... and " by  poachers" in option C. Request your assistance.

riyu44 · Answer

(A) trying to save their crops when they are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers

(B) trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks or poachers

(C) trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers

(D) who are trying to save their crops when they are foraging for late-night snacks, or by poachers who are

(E) who are trying to save their crops when the animals are foraging for late-night snacks or poachers who are

By farmer should be parallel to by poacher. B & E are out
In A and D "They" does not have clear antecedent.

Dug50 · Answer

Can anyone please help me identify how to mark this question in error log. I am not getting any option of marking it or add notes.
Thanks

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gmatsnow · Answer

GMATNinja  or any other in-the-know members, can we talk about the comma usage in choice (c)?

I've slowly learned to not pay much attention to commas in my study, but the vast majority of the time, commas usage before the word 'which' and before an independent clause led by FANBOYS, has been consistent.

For this one though, "..., or by poachers allowed access to help guard the fields" isn't an independent clause, so I don't see how the comma is appropriate. Is there a term for this type of clause?

Thanks so much!

The endangered giraffes have sometimes been shot by farmers trying to

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The endangered giraffes have sometimes been shot by farmers trying to

Prep Toolkit

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

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