Though clearing and burning activities are kept in check by most affor

Question

Though clearing and burning activities are kept in check by most afforestation programs, they fail to track hyper-grazing (by goats and sheep),  destroying the top foliage, or pests, boring  holes through large tree trunks.

A. destroying the top foliage, or pests, boring

B. destroying the top foliage, as well as pests that bore

C. which destroys the top foliage, along with pests that bore

D. which is the destruction of top foliage, as well as pests, boring

E. which is the destruction of the top foliage, or pests that bore

ykaiim · Accepted Answer

hyper-grazing - a phenomenon not itself performs some action. So, D and E remains.

In D, remove the middle man to check the sentence connectivity:
...hyper-grazing (by goats and sheep) as well as pests, boring...holes through large tree trunks.

Here, the gerund BORING is awkwardly modifying entire clause, which is wrong. So, E is correct.

izaidi · Answer

IM not an expert ... LOL

65. Though clearing and burning activities are kept in check by most afforestation programs, they fail to track hyper-grazing (by goats and sheep), destroying the top foliage, or pests, boring holes through large tree trunks. 
A. destroying the top foliage, or pests, boring 
B. destroying the top foliage, as well as pests that bore 
C. which destroys the top foliage, along with pests that bore 
D. which is the destruction of top foliage, as well as pests, boring 
E. which is the destruction of the top foliage, or pests that bore

A. present participle with a comma is a verb modifier (not a noun modifier)
B. present participle with a comma is a verb modifier (not a noun modifier)
C. "along with" changes the meaning from "or"
D. "as well as" changes the meaning from "or"
E.  CORRECT

dwivedys · Answer

Though clearing and burning activities are kept in check by most afforestation programs, they fail to track X or Y
X = hypergrazing, which is blah blah (Noun followed by non restrictive adjective clause)
Y = pests that bore... (Noun followed by a restrictive adjective clause)

In D - the parallel effect is not maintained. The hypergrazing part uses Noun and Adjective clause where as Pests part uses a reduced adjective clause (pests boring holes etc). This causes the "awkwardness" described below.

apex1umt · Answer

B C & D are straight out, as they use "As well as" & "Along With".. which are substitutes for And, and here we have to use "or".....

Boring  as rightly said by someone above, sounds totally wierd in reference to the context and thus provokes us cent percent to shun that option too..

leaving us with the only poor option to be clicked "E".......

gmatopoeia · Answer

65. Though clearing and burning activities are kept in check by most afforestation programs, they fail to track hyper-grazing (by goats and sheep),  destroying the top foliage, or pests, boring  holes through large tree trunks.

A. destroying the top foliage, or pests, boring
B. destroying the top foliage, as well as pests that bore
C. which destroys the top foliage, along with pests that bore
D. which is the destruction of top foliage, as well as pests, boring
E. which is the destruction of the top foliage, or pests that bore

First strike 
as well as, along with --> eliminate B, C and D

Second strike 
E modifies 'hyper-grazing' appropriately.

Hence, Answer: E.

B C & D are straight out, as they use "As well as" & "Along With".. which are substitutes for And, and here we have to use "or".....

gautammalik · Answer

Splits
1. "destroying" vs "which is the destruction"
"which is the destruction" is correct
2. "as well as" vs. "or"
"or" is correct
3. "pests, boring" vs "pests that bore"
pests that bore is correct

Hence E

crick20002002 · Answer

I differ with others on this one.

hyper-grazing is a phenomenon which suggestively causes damage to top foliage and additionally to the pests . Hence I am leaning towards C here.

There is another reason I do not like E.

"which is the destruction of the top foliage, or pests that bore" => if the parallelism is assumed to be correct here , it means that  hyper grazing by animals is the destruction of pests ... => doesn't make sense.

Crick

navigator123 · Answer

If we replace pronoun "which" with its antecedent "hyper-grazing", it sounds more like definition for hyper-grazing than describing the issue because of hyper-grazing.

Replacing option E in original sentence-
Though clearing and burning activities are kept in check by most afforestation programs, they fail to track hyper-grazing (by goats and sheep), <hyper-grazing> is the destruction of the top foliage, or pests that bore holes through large tree trunks.

Given this, I don't think option E is correct.
Kindly help me with the understanding

VerbalBot · Answer

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Though clearing and burning activities are kept in check by most affor

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