The endangered giraffes have sometimes been shot by farmers trying to

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

E - 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.

Option, C.

Shot by farmers trying or by poachers.

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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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.

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.

Got the point. Thanks a lot sir

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

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).

[quote="Bunuel"]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

[spoiler=]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?

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

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.

Sir

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

(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.

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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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!