Though being tiny, blind, and translucent, a recently discovered speci

"a" refers to plural noun, right ? Whereas "the" refers to singular. But u mentioned "a species" is singular? Please explain
Thanks in advance

Hi NandishSS,

Happy to help Here, "tiny, blind, and translucent" has to modify a noun, so it will logically modify the nearest noun. "A recently discovered" is not a noun -- the next noun is "species of catfish". "Recently discovered" is also modifying "species of catfish". So all of these modifiers are modifying "species of catfish"

Hope that helps!
-Carolyn

Hi ,

In option B - if "a species of xxx" is singular then why we are not using singular verb-lessens ??

The following structure would be incorrect:
Polio continues elsewhere, although eradicated in the United States.
Here, the verbless although clause is NOT next to the omitted subject (polio).

Dear GMATGuruNY,

How do you know that "their" does not refer to "catfish," which can be plural?

Though being tiny, blind, and translucent, a recently discovered species of catfish lessens their vulnerability with thickened bones and armor plates on their sides.


A. Though being tiny, blind, and translucent, a recently discovered species of catfish lessens their vulnerability with thickened bones and armor plates on their sides.

B. Though tiny, blind, and translucent, [color=#00a651]a recently discovered species of catfish has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen its vulnerability.

C. A recently discovered species of catfish has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen their vulnerability, though tiny, blind, and translucent.

D. Thickened bones and armor plates on their sides lessen the vulnerability of a recently discovered species of catfish that is tiny, blind, and translucent.

E. Tiny, blind, and translucent, thickened bones and armor plates on its sides lessen the vulnerability of a recently discovered species of catfish.

I don’t know why the GMAT thinks this is important, but there are a whole bunch of official SC questions that include words that could be either singular or plural: “media” or “data” or “deer” or diabetes, just to name a few. The key is that the GMAT will always give you some hint about whether these nouns are singular or plural in the sentence.

With that in mind…


Hopefully, the two uses of “their” jump off the page at you. Logically, “their” needs to refer back to a plural noun – in theory, “species of catfish.”

The trouble is, “species of catfish” is singular in this sentence. It’s pretty subtle, but the giveaway is the singular article “a”: “a… species of catfish” implies that we’re only talking about one species. So “their” is wrong.

Plus, the use of “being” is pretty goofy here. In general, it’s not cool to use “being” as a modifier – at the very least, it doesn’t seem to happen on the GMAT. And why would we say “though being tiny, blind, and translucent…” when we could just say “though tiny, blind, and translucent…”? The “being” serves no useful purpose.

So (A) is gone.


Well, this fixes everything I complained about in (A). The opening modifier is succinct, and doesn’t have that silly use of “being” anymore. And now “its” refers logically back to the singular noun, “a… species of catfish.”

This looks good enough. Let’s keep (B).


The use of “their” in (C) is still a problem: “a… species of catfish” is singular, as described under answer choice (A).

Plus, the placement of that last modifier, “though tiny, blind, and translucent” is kind of odd. That modifier is right next to “their vulnerability”, and it doesn’t make sense to say that the “vulnerability” is tiny, blind, and translucent – it’s the species of catfish that has those characteristics.

So we have two pretty good reasons to ditch (C).


Once again, the pronoun “their” is a problem: “a recently discovered species of catfish” is still singular. See answer choice (A) for more on this issue.

So (D) is out.


The pronoun is fine in (E), but now that opening modifier doesn't make sense: “tiny, blind, and translucent” seems to be describing “thickened bones and armor plates”, and that doesn’t make any sense. It’s the “species of catfish” that’s “tiny, blind, and translucent” – not the bones or armor plates.

So that wipes out (E), and we’re left with (B).

Hi tejassvi, "a" pretty much always refers to singular (a person, a student, a car etc. are all singular); I am wondering whether you are confusing it with the exception that a number of a always plural, while the number of is always singular.

However, in the below OA, the verbless "when" clause is NOT next to the omitted subject.

OA : Under a provision of the Constitution that has never been applied, Congress is required to call a convention to consider possible amendments to the document when formally asked to do so by the legislatures of two-thirds of the states.

In conclusion, the verbless "(al)though" clause must be next to the omitted subject. However, the verbless "when" or "after" clause doesn't have to?

C. A recently discovered species of catfish has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen their vulnerability, though tiny, blind, and translucent.

"Though" in C. illogically refers to "vulnerability," right?

The following structure would be incorrect:
Polio continues elsewhere, although eradicated in the United States.
Here, the verbless although clause is NOT next to the omitted subject (polio).

OA : The results of the company's cost-cutting measures are evident in its profits, which have increased five percent during the first three months of this year after falling over the last two years.

Why are we using lessen here? Shouldn't it be lessens?

Though being tiny, blind, and translucent, a recently discovered species of catfish lessens their vulnerability with thickened bones and armor plates on their sides.


A. Though being tiny, blind, and translucent, a recently discovered species of catfish lessens their vulnerability with thickened bones and armor plates on their sides.

B. Though tiny, blind, and translucent, a recently discovered species of catfish has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen its vulnerability.

C. A recently discovered species of catfish has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen their vulnerability, though tiny, blind, and translucent.

D. Thickened bones and armor plates on their sides lessen the vulnerability of a recently discovered species of catfish that is tiny, blind, and translucent.

E. Tiny, blind, and translucent, thickened bones and armor plates on its sides lessen the vulnerability of a recently discovered species of catfish.

Generally, a modifier should be AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE to what it modifies.

OA: Under a provision of the Constitution that has never been applied, Congress is required to call a convention to consider possible amendments to the document when formally asked to do so by the legislatures of two-thirds of the states.
Here, when formally asked refers to the preceding subject in blue, while to do so refers to the preceding infinitive phrase in green (to do so = to call a convention).
For the meaning to be clear, when formally asked and to do so must both FOLLOW their intended referents.
Thus, the verbless when-clause is as close as possible to what it modifies.
As a result, it is crystal clear that when formally asked refers not to the document but to CONGRESS.

I don’t know why the GMAT thinks this is important, but there are a whole bunch of official SC questions that include words that could be either singular or plural: “media” or “data” or “deer” or diabetes, just to name a few. The key is that the GMAT will always give you some hint about whether these nouns are singular or plural in the sentence.

With that in mind…


Hopefully, the two uses of “their” jump off the page at you. Logically, “their” needs to refer back to a plural noun – in theory, “species of catfish.”

The trouble is, “species of catfish” is singular in this sentence. It’s pretty subtle, but the giveaway is the singular article “a”: “a… species of catfish” implies that we’re only talking about one species. So “their” is wrong.

Plus, the use of “being” is pretty goofy here. In general, it’s not cool to use “being” as a modifier – at the very least, it doesn’t seem to happen on the GMAT. And why would we say “though being tiny, blind, and translucent…” when we could just say “though tiny, blind, and translucent…”? The “being” serves no useful purpose.

So (A) is gone.