To distinguish quickly between king and coral snakes

Question

To distinguish quickly  between king and coral snakes slithering  out from under a rock, hikers should look at the bands of color on their bodies: red and yellow bands touch on the venomous coral snake, but they are always separated by black bands on the harmless king snake.

a) between king and coral snakes slithering 
 
b) between kings and coral snakes that slither 
 
c) among kings and coral snakes that are slithering 
 
d) among king and coral snakes as they slither 
 
e) kings from coral snakes slithering

tarek99 · Answer

For me, I chose B, but the OA is A. Can somebody explain why?

jingy77 · Answer

It is definitely A. King should be singular. "that" is a essential modifier, meaning that whatever comes after should be essential to the meaning. In this case, B, "that slither" is not essential.

eyunni · Answer

To distinguish quickly  between king and coral snakes slithering  out from under a rock, hikers should look at the bands of color on their bodies: red and yellow bands touch on the venomous coral snake, but they are always separated by black bands on the harmless king snake. 


a) between king and coral snakes slithering 
 --correct 
b) between king s  and coral snakes that slither 

c)  among  king s  and coral snakes that are slithering 

d)  among king and coral snakes  as they slither 
 --Only 'distinguish between X and Y' or 'distinguish X from Y' are correct 
e) king s  from coral snakes slithering

Amardeep Sharma · Answer

A indeed, king should be singular as coral is ( the only difference between A and B)

While for rest, E has wrong idiom and C and D have wrong use of among.

Amar

Beyond700 · Answer

If I may request, it will be better if the OA is posted not immediately but after 5 or 6 replies (min..). :wink:

....Anyway, it is just a suggestion. Will go for 'A'.. it is something like 'between black and white elephants'... In 'E' - I would believe the idiom is in usage and the right statements could either distinguish King snakes from Coral snakes or distinguish king from coral

Amardeep Sharma · Answer

I completely agree with beyond700. This will help us in improving our sentence correction solving skills.

Amar

sayantanc2k · Answer

OA has been added.

B, C and E are wrong because the distinction is required to be made between king snakes and coral snakes, not kings and coral snakes. 
D is wrong because "among" is wrongly used for distinct objects.
A is the correct answer.

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To distinguish quickly between king and coral snakes

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To distinguish quickly between king and coral snakes

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