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Updated on: 27 Sep 2018, 00:03
Originally posted by sayantanc2k on 09 Sep 2016, 09:07.
Last edited by Bunuel on 27 Sep 2018, 00:03, edited 2 times in total.
Last edited by Bunuel on 27 Sep 2018, 00:03, edited 2 times in total.
Renamed the topic.
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B
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
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76% (01:35) correct
24%
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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.
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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.
Verbal Question of The Day: Day 279: Sentence Correction
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09 May 2018, 22:59
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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.
This looks good enough. Let’s keep (B).
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).
So (D) is out.
So that wipes out (E), and we’re left with (B).
With that in mind…
Quote:
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.
Quote:
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).
Quote:
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).
Quote:
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.
Quote:
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).
02 Sep 2022, 03:09
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Dear Friends,
Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that a recently discovered species of catfish is tiny, blind, and translucent, but it has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen its vulnerability.
Concepts tested here: Pronouns + Meaning + Modifiers + Awkwardness/Redundancy
• In the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun; this is one of the most frequently tested concepts on GMAT sentence correction.
• “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.
A: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "species of catfish" with the plural pronoun "their". Further, Option A incorrectly uses the word "being", leading to awkwardness and redundancy; remember, “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.
B: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the singular noun "species of catfish" with the singular pronoun "its". Further, Option B correctly uses "Though tiny, blind, and translucent" to modify "a recently discovered species of catfish", conveying the intended meaning - that a recently discovered species of catfish is tiny, blind, and translucent, but it has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen its vulnerability. Besides, Option B is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.
C: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "species of catfish" with the plural pronoun "their". Further, Option C incorrectly modifies "thickened bones and armor plates...vulnerability" with "though tiny, blind, and translucent", illogically implying that the bones and armor plates are tiny, blind, and translucent; the intended meaning is that the catfish are tiny, blind, and translucent; remember, in the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.
D: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "species of catfish" with the plural pronoun "their". Further, Option D uses the phrase "that is tiny, blind, and translucent"; the omission of a term along the lines of "though" incorrectly implies that a recently discovered species of catfish is tiny, blind, and translucent, and as a separate action it has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen its vulnerability; the intended meaning is that a recently discovered species of catfish is tiny, blind, and translucent, but it has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen its vulnerability.
E: This answer choice incorrectly uses "Tiny, blind, and translucent" to modify "thickened bones and armor plates", illogically implying that the bones and armor plates are tiny, blind, and translucent; the intended meaning is that the catfish are tiny, blind, and translucent; remember, in the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.
Hence, B is the best answer choice.
To understand the concept of "Phrase Comma Subject" and "Subject Comma Phrase" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):
To understand the use of "Being" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
sayantanc2k
Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that a recently discovered species of catfish is tiny, blind, and translucent, but it has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen its vulnerability.
Concepts tested here: Pronouns + Meaning + Modifiers + Awkwardness/Redundancy
• In the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun; this is one of the most frequently tested concepts on GMAT sentence correction.
• “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.
A: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "species of catfish" with the plural pronoun "their". Further, Option A incorrectly uses the word "being", leading to awkwardness and redundancy; remember, “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.
B: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the singular noun "species of catfish" with the singular pronoun "its". Further, Option B correctly uses "Though tiny, blind, and translucent" to modify "a recently discovered species of catfish", conveying the intended meaning - that a recently discovered species of catfish is tiny, blind, and translucent, but it has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen its vulnerability. Besides, Option B is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.
C: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "species of catfish" with the plural pronoun "their". Further, Option C incorrectly modifies "thickened bones and armor plates...vulnerability" with "though tiny, blind, and translucent", illogically implying that the bones and armor plates are tiny, blind, and translucent; the intended meaning is that the catfish are tiny, blind, and translucent; remember, in the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.
D: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "species of catfish" with the plural pronoun "their". Further, Option D uses the phrase "that is tiny, blind, and translucent"; the omission of a term along the lines of "though" incorrectly implies that a recently discovered species of catfish is tiny, blind, and translucent, and as a separate action it has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen its vulnerability; the intended meaning is that a recently discovered species of catfish is tiny, blind, and translucent, but it has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen its vulnerability.
E: This answer choice incorrectly uses "Tiny, blind, and translucent" to modify "thickened bones and armor plates", illogically implying that the bones and armor plates are tiny, blind, and translucent; the intended meaning is that the catfish are tiny, blind, and translucent; remember, in the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.
Hence, B is the best answer choice.
To understand the concept of "Phrase Comma Subject" and "Subject Comma Phrase" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):
To understand the use of "Being" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
