Bumblebees live in colonies of several hundred that often have many qu

Question

Bumblebees live in colonies  of several hundred that often have many queens as well as  a large number of workers.

(A) of several hundred that often have many queens as well as

(B) of several hundred, often with many of them being queens as well as having

(C) having several hundred, and often many of them are queens as well as

(D) that have several hundred of them, often with many queens as well as

(E) with several hundred that often have many queens as well as having

chetan2u · Accepted Answer

Responding to a PM on why A is better than D..

A) Bumblebees live in colonies  of several hundred that often have many queens as well as  a large number of workers
 Clear and concise meaning.. 
Bumblebees stay in several hundreds of numbers in colonies and these colonies consist of many queens as well as workers..

D) Bumblebees live in colonies   that have several hundred of them, often with many queens as well as  a large number of workers
 Here the flaws are..

1) with many queens as well as a large number of workers... 
It illogically means that bumblebees stay with many queens and workers. This in turn means bumblebees are different from Queens and workers..
Ofcourse they are part of bumblebees

2) Usage of 'that' after colonies restricts the colonies... 
so now it means that bumblebees stay in COLONIES that have several hundred of them... I can further inference from this that they do not live in colonies that do not have several hundred of them..
Ofcourse if a colony consist of 1 or 1000 of them, it is a colony of bumblebees

Hope it helps

sayantanc2k · Answer

I am replying to the same query as well. In addition to Chetan's crisp and clear explanations, I have the following little point to add:

Option D. The relative pronoun "that" refers to "colonies". This structure implies that  all  the colonies (together) consist of several hundred of bumblebees. However the implied meaning is that  each  colony consists of several hundred of them. Therefore option D is wrong.

Option A. The above mistake is eliminated by using "colonies of several hundred" - this structure implies that each colony has several hundred bumblebees. Another example:
The students arrived in  groups of 5 .

Kurtosis · Answer

A) of several hundred that often have many queens as well as - Correct - 'that' refers to colonies

B) of several hundred, often with many of them being queens as well as having - Incorrect - Awkward

C) having several hundred, and often many of them are queens as well as - Incorrect - Pronoun error - them can refer to colonies or bumblebees

D) that have several hundred of them, often with many queens as well as - Incorrect - Pronoun error

E) with several hundred that often have many queens as well as having - Incorrect - Parallelism error

Answer: A

DeepikaV · Answer

in D, what does 'often with many queens as well as large number of workers' modify? please explain.

keats · Answer

It refer to 'colonies' 
The sentence is conveying that
a) The bumblebees live in colonies.
b) Each colony comprises of several hundred bumblebees
and
c) These colonies have queen as well as large number of workers.

Hope this clarifies your doubt!

GMATNinja · Answer

If you need more practice with this type of question, a vaguely similar sentence appeared in Souvik's magnificent QOTD series last week: https://gmatclub.com/forum/qotd-prairie ... 42439.html

MSarmah · Answer

I am still not clear with the usage of  "that"  in option A...

"That"  refers to the Preceding Noun.... so in option A isn't  "that"  referring to   "several hundred (bumblebees)"  ??

Please explain !!

GMATNinja · Answer

"Bumblebees" isn't the nearest noun to the word "that" in (A): "colonies of several hundred" is also a noun, and it's much closer to the modifier. And the phrase "that often have many queens..." certainly could logically modify "colonies of several hundred." For more on the uses of the word "that" on the GMAT -- especially as a modifier -- check out this article: https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 43686.html. I hope this helps!

DanTe02 · Answer

I am unable to understand the error in D) I've read the above explanations but I disagree with the ones saying the usage of often with queens.... is wrong in D).Can anyone tell me any concrete issue here?
Thanks a ton

Businessconquerer · Answer

Them could refer to colonies or bumblebees (because two nouns are appearing before a prououn)
Such a case creates ambiguity. We want to be firm on what "them" refers to

Irising · Answer

Can someone please explain why B is wrong?

DanTe02 · Answer

Irising 
Okay so being and having are two ing modifiers
 The use of having is very specific in GMAT
GMAT uses having in following form:
Having done her homework, Sia went to ice skating
Having a large number of people working for her, She decided to chill

So you see what's having doing here. What follows it is the effect related in someway. The same goes for every Having + verb construction
Therefore the usage of having is wrong in option B

Posted from my mobile device

GMATNinja · Answer

Here's (B):
 
There are two main issues to investigate in this answer choice: the pronoun "them" and the parallelism marked by "as well as."

Let's start with the pronoun. There are two plural nouns that could be the antecedent for "them":  "Bumblebees"  or  "colonies."  Ambiguity like this isn't an automatic disqualifier on SC questions -- you have to look at the rest of the sentence and see whether at least one of the options works. Here, we can say that "them" must refer to "bumblebees" because of the context in the sentence. It makes sense to say " often with many of  the bumblebees  being queens," but it doesn't make sense to say " often with many of  the colonies  being queens." So far, so good.

Now, take a look at the parallelism. Here, "being queens" is parallel to "having a large number of workers." Grammatically, this seems fine (although the GMAT generally frowns on using "being" this way -- check out  this  article for more info on that topic).

But who, exactly, are described as "being queens" as well as "having a large number of workers"? Here is the parallelism broken out into its separate parts:

"...often with many of  them

1) being queens  as well as  
2) having a large number of workers.

We established earlier that "them" has to refer to  "bumblebees."  So this sentence describes  many bumblebees as "being queens"  (fine), as well as  many bumblebees "having a large number of workers"  (not fine, this doesn't make any sense).

Because "bumblebees" doesn't work for both parallel pieces, this sentence is illogical. Eliminate (B).

I hope that helps!

bullishdutta · Answer

I was confused about whether colonies should take a singular verb, given it usually represents a collective noun. Or is the rationale that plural forms of collective nouns take plural verbs?

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  bullishdutta ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, yes: the plural form of a collective noun must take a plural verb.

Singular collective nouns take singular verbs because they refer to multiple things as one collective unit; the plural versions of collective nouns take plural verbs because they refer to multiple instances of those units.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

The colonies are large. The colony is large. Although the word ARMY may similarly "feel" plural to some people, it is singular: https://gmatclub.com/forum/rivaling-the ... 67423.html

Bumblebees live in colonies of several hundred that often have many qu

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Bumblebees live in colonies of several hundred that often have many qu

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