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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 14 Jun 2015, 04:45
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D
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65% (01:47) correct 35% (01:48) wrong based on 1357 sessions

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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working as hard as the remaining 20 percent, the foraging bees, if the latter disappear from the hive.

A) that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
B) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive; however, they work
C) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
D) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but they work
E) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive but work
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 16 Jun 2015, 04:04
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megatron13
The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working as hard as the remaining 20 percent, the foraging bees, if the latter disappear from the hive.

A) that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
B) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive; however, they work
C) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
D) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but they work
E) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive but work
Show more

Explanation ,
"But Working ... 20 %" - No SV pair.

POE
A) that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
Independent clause followed by but does not have any Subject or verb. - Incorrect

B) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive; however, they work
GMAT - Double verb error. Double verb error is very common among the wrong answer choices.
"The Lazy Bees" single subject with two verb "Account" and "contribute", without any proper connection word (Such as and)

C) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
Independent clause followed by but does not have any Subject or verb. - Incorrect

D) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but they work
Correct -
Modifier "accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population"correctly modifies Bees
SV pair is proper - Lazy Bees (subject) Contribute (verb)
IC followed by But contains subject "they" and Verb "work


E) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive but work[/quote]
Independent clause followed by but does not have any Subject . - Incorrect
"That "refers to population , this introduces change in meaning
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 14 Jun 2015, 04:49
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If we add a "that" before option B, would it also become correct?
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 06 Dec 2016, 15:31
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megatron13
The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working as hard as the remaining 20 percent, the foraging bees, if the latter disappear from the hive.

A) that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
B) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive; however, they work
C) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
D) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but they work
E) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive but work
Show more


it is a clear D for me...
but introduces a new clause, but it doesn't have an active verb, therefore A is out.
B has a new verb - account. it is not properly connected to contribute. the semicolon is ok though here...
C makes the same mistake as A.
D - corrects the only error in A.
E - same mistake as in B.

D is the answer.
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 07 Dec 2016, 19:29
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megatron13
If we add a "that" before option B, would it also become correct?
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I think "those" should be placed before option B because "bees" is a plural noun
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 14 Jan 2017, 06:43
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+1 D
In my 2 cents,
A) that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working

B) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive; however, they work
-- double vert without proper conjunction

C) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working

D) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but they work


E) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive but work
-- population doesn't contribute anything;the doers are "the lazy bees"
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 15 Jan 2017, 00:15
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Let us look at the answer options -

A - Incorrect.
Note that coordinating conjunctions such as and/but require parallelism.

"The ‘lazy’ bees ... usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working as hard as the remaining"
"working" is not parallel to anything on the left-hand-side of "but".

Also, note that we generally do not use commas to separate two phrases separated by a coordinating conjunction. We use commas to separate two clauses.
For example -
she is smart but lazy.
In many nations, criminal law does not apply to corporations, but in the United Stated today, a corporation commits a crime whenever one of its employees commits a crime.

B - Incorrect.
there are two main verbs in the clause -
"The ‘lazy’ bees account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive".

C - Incorrect.

"The ‘lazy’ bees ... usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working as hard as the remaining"
"working" is not parallel to anything on the left-hand-side of "but".

D - Correct.
Note that a comma is used to separate two main clauses along with a conjunction.

"The ‘lazy’ bees ... usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but they work ..."

E - Incorrect.
Meaning Error.

"account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive"
this refers to 80% of those bees that contribute little, not 80% of the beehive population.
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 15 Jan 2017, 03:27
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megatron13
The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working as hard as the remaining 20 percent, the foraging bees, if the latter disappear from the hive.

A) that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
B) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive; however, they work
C) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
D) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but they work
E) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive but work
Show more


The ‘lazy’ bees accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but they work as hard as the remaining 20 percent, the foraging bees, if the latter disappear from the hive.

Correct answer must be (D) for the highlighted errors in the other options...
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 10 Jun 2017, 08:56
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megatron13
The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working as hard as the remaining 20 percent, the foraging bees, if the latter disappear from the hive.

A) that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
B) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive; however, they work
C) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
D) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but they work
E) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive but work
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CAN SOMEBODY EXPLAIN ME HOW ACCOUNT HERE IS WRONG IN IN OPTION B. if there is a rule then please explain.
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 11 Jun 2017, 02:26
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1. Many have said that E is wrong because it lacks a subject in the second independent clause. Why should there be an IC every time after fanboys such as 'and' or 'but'? After all, fanboys can also connect two verbs as in E namely the lazy bees 'account for' but 'work hard'. All that is said in the relative clause starting with 'that usually contributes' is no more than a modifier of 80 percent of the hive population. Essentially, therefore, E is not a sentence with two ICs but one with a single subject and two conjugated verbs.
I wouldn't think E is wrong. Any opinions?
2. saarthak299 wrote
Quote:

CAN SOMEBODY EXPLAIN ME HOW ACCOUNT HERE IS WRONG IN IN OPTION B. if there is a rule then please explain.
Show more

B) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive; however, they work
The 'lazy bees' is the subject. 'Account for' is the first verb and 'usually contribute' is the second verb. This is thus a fused sentence and type of run-on with double verbing without appropriate conjugation.
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 11 Jun 2017, 11:10
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I understand the reasoning that D is the most correct. But shouldn't there be a comma after 'lazy' bees because "accounting for ...." is an -ing modifier? Is this a mistake or does the rule not apply here? Or is it a case of which answer is BEST?

CrackVerbalGMAT
Let us look at the answer options -

A - Incorrect.
Note that coordinating conjunctions such as and/but require parallelism.

"The ‘lazy’ bees ... usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working as hard as the remaining"
"working" is not parallel to anything on the left-hand-side of "but".

Also, note that we generally do not use commas to separate two phrases separated by a coordinating conjunction. We use commas to separate two clauses.
For example -
she is smart but lazy.
In many nations, criminal law does not apply to corporations, but in the United Stated today, a corporation commits a crime whenever one of its employees commits a crime.

B - Incorrect.
there are two main verbs in the clause -
"The ‘lazy’ bees account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive".

C - Incorrect.

"The ‘lazy’ bees ... usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working as hard as the remaining"
"working" is not parallel to anything on the left-hand-side of "but".

D - Correct.
Note that a comma is used to separate two main clauses along with a conjunction.

"The ‘lazy’ bees ... usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but they work ..."

E - Incorrect.
Meaning Error.

"account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive"
this refers to 80% of those bees that contribute little, not 80% of the beehive population.
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 16 Jun 2017, 04:41
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daagh
1. Many have said that E is wrong because it lacks a subject in the second independent clause. Why should there be an IC every time after fanboys such as 'and' or 'but'? After all, fanboys can also connect two verbs as in E namely the lazy bees 'account for' but 'work hard'. All that is said in the relative clause starting with 'that usually contributes' is no more than a modifier of 80 percent of the hive population. Essentially, therefore, E is not a sentence with two ICs but one with a single subject and two conjugated verbs.
I wouldn't think E is wrong. Any opinions?
2. saarthak299 wrote
Quote:

CAN SOMEBODY EXPLAIN ME HOW ACCOUNT HERE IS WRONG IN IN OPTION B. if there is a rule then please explain.

B) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive; however, they work
The 'lazy bees' is the subject. 'Account for' is the first verb and 'usually contribute' is the second verb. This is thus a fused sentence and type of run-on with double verbing without appropriate conjugation.
Show more

daagh Sir,

With all due respect,E is wrong because of the meaning.Bee hive population does not contribute little to the activities of the hive but lazy bees do.But I think E is grammatically correct.
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 16 Jun 2017, 06:17
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Techiesam wrote
With all due respect, E is wrong because of the meaning. Beehive population does not contribute little to the activities of the hive but lazy bees do. But I think E is grammatically correct.
Show more

Hi techie,

E) The ‘lazy’ bees account for almost 80 percent of the beehive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive but work as hard as the remaining 20 percent, the foraging bees if the latter disappear from the hive.

1. This is E. Now according to you ---that usually contributes (singular) little to the activities of the hive -- modifies the (plural) the lazy bees. Am I right? How can the singular verb 'contributes' stand for a plural subject 'bees'? If it is the bees that are contributing little to the activities of the hive, then shouldn't the verb be 'contribute'?

2. What does the second verb after but namely ' work' stand for? In a parallel feature, wherein we have the same common subject namely the bees for both clauses, can we use a singular verb (contributes) for the first part and a plural verb ( (work as hard) for the second part?
Is the problem with E only in the meaning or in the grammar too?
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 16 Jun 2017, 06:39
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Quote:
Techiesam wrote
With all due respect, E is wrong because of the meaning. Beehive population does not contribute little to the activities of the hive but lazy bees do. But I think E is grammatically correct.

Hi techie,

E) The ‘lazy’ bees account for almost 80 percent of the beehive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive but work as hard as the remaining 20 percent, the foraging bees if the latter disappear from the hive.

1. This is E. Now according to you ---that usually contributes (singular) little to the activities of the hive -- modifies the (plural) the lazy bees. Am I right? How can the singular verb 'contributes' stand for a plural subject 'bees'? If it is the bees that are contributing little to the activities of the hive, then shouldn't the verb be 'contribute'?

2. What does the second verb after but namely ' work' stand for? In a parallel feature, wherein we have the same common subject namely the bees for both clauses, can we use a singular verb (contributes) for the first part and a plural verb ( (work as hard) for the second part?
Is the problem with E only in the meaning or in the grammar too?
Show more

Sir,

I think in E,because of the unnecessary subordinate clause" that" after beehive population,verb contributes account for the subject beehive population which is singular and that is the reason for E being wrong.But I may be wrong also.
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 16 Jun 2017, 07:21
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No issue, as long as you understand something is wrong in grammar too in E, that will good enough.
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 05 Dec 2017, 00:51
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megatron13
If we add a "that" before option B, would it also become correct?
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yes, "that" will make B correct; nevertheless, B is still not an answer b/c such similar situation appears in one gmat question, and the answer is still D b/c D is shorter.
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 08 Feb 2018, 05:56
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working as hard as the remaining 20 percent, the foraging bees, if the latter disappear from the hive.

A) that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
B) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive; however, they work
C) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
D) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contributelittle to the activities of the hive, but they work
E) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive but workchange in meaning
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D for me. :-D Both independent clauses have verb tense agreement - contribute & work. "They" refers correctly to the subject "the lazy bees".

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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 08 Feb 2018, 11:15
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megatron13
The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working as hard as the remaining 20 percent, the foraging bees, if the latter disappear from the hive.

A) that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
B) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive; however, they work
C) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
D) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but they work
E) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive but work
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Imo D

A two independent clauses are connected by but so we need to have subject in the sentence after but .
B there is no conjunction between two verbs account and contribute .
C again we need subject after but to make sense .
D correct
E use of that is wrong and we need and to joint to verbs.There is no subject for the second clause .
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 04 Oct 2019, 04:29
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megatron13
The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working as hard as the remaining 20 percent, the foraging bees, if the latter disappear from the hive.

A) that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
B) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive; however, they work
C) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
D) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but they work
E) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive but work

Explanation ,
"But Working ... 20 %" - No SV pair.

POE
A) that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
Independent clause followed by but does not have any Subject or verb. - Incorrect

B) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive; however, they work
GMAT - Double verb error. Double verb error is very common among the wrong answer choices.
"The Lazy Bees" single subject with two verb "Account" and "contribute", without any proper connection word (Such as and)

C) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
Independent clause followed by but does not have any Subject or verb. - Incorrect

D) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but they work
Correct -
Modifier "accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population"correctly modifies Bees
SV pair is proper - Lazy Bees (subject) Contribute (verb)
IC followed by But contains subject "they" and Verb "work


E) account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population that usually contributes little to the activities of the hive but work Independent clause followed by but does not have any Subject . - Incorrect "That "refers to population , this introduces change in meaning
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Could you please elaborate more on the double verb error as mentioned for option B? Because answer D also has similar double verbs with one subject.
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The ‘lazy’ bees that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive 05 Oct 2019, 02:27
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A and C are incorrect because they lack a finite verb in the second clause
A) that account for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working
C) accounting for almost 80 percent of the bee hive population usually contribute little to the activities of the hive, but working

B is incorrect because the first fact "account for almost..." should be better connected to "usually contribute" - the way it reads right now B states a fact "X accounts for 80%" when instead the intended meaning is to state "X that account for 80% are responsible for Y"

E blatantly uses the relative pronoun "that" to refer to the population instead of the 'lazy bees' - it says x is the population that usually don't contribute much, when it should convey the fact that X is 80% of the population and also don't contribute much.
There is a SV agreement issue in E - "contributes"

D is correct as it corrects all issues identified
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