It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded

Question

It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded seven-inch claws, and  Megatherium americanum , a giant ground sloth , may have been the largest hunting mammal ever to walk the Earth.

(A) It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded seven-inch claws, and  Megatherium americanum , a giant ground sloth,

(B) It stood twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws,  Megatherium americanum  was a giant ground sloth and

(C) The giant ground sloth  Megatherium americanum , having stood twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws, it

(D) Standing twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws,  Megatherium americanum , a giant ground sloth,

(E) Standing twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, it wielded seven-inch claws, and the giant ground sloth  Megatherium americanum

GMATNinja · Accepted Answer

If you replaced the comma + "and" in (A) with a semicolon, you'd have the following:

It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded seven-inch claws; Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth, may have been the largest hunting mammal ever to walk the Earth.

In terms of the semicolon use, sure -- it would be completely fine, as long as there are two independent clauses separated by that semicolon. But I'm not sure why we would choose to write it this way. All of the characteristics in the first clause modify the giant ground sloth, so we're much better off with (D), because all of those characteristics are structured as modifiers. In the modified version of (A) with a semicolon, it seems like we're just telling two separate stories about this animal, and that doesn't make quite as much sense.

I hope this helps!

daagh · Answer

It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded seven-inch claws, and Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth may have been the largest hunting mammal ever to walk the Earth.

A. It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded seven-inch claws, and Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth, -  Choice A's problem doesn't stem the use of 'and'. There e two sentences, the first one is a list containing three factors, but essentially depending on the next indecent clause for the pronoun reference. The biggest lacuna is that we cannot say for sure that 'it' stands for MA, as there is no connect between the two independent clauses. If you do not use the fanboys 'and', then the situation turns still worse, the clause becoming a comma splice.   
B. It stood twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws, Megatherium americanum was a giant ground sloth and ---  a comma splice  
C. The giant ground sloth Megatherium americanum, having stood twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws, it ----  'it' starts a new IC and it is a comma splice.  
D. Standing twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws, Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth,  - Correct  
E. Standing twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, it wielded seven-inch claws, and the giant ground sloth Megatherium americanum --  faulty modification. A comma should have been used between the two back - to back adjectives that modify the pronoun it, because if they are not coordinate adjectives. Yet again both the ICs are standing aloof without a meaningful connect. 
 
 This topic is essentially a test of identifying the comma splices and proper conjugation of multiple modifiers.

Kurtosis · Answer

A. It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded seven-inch claws, and Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth, - Incorrect - Awkward

B. It stood twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws, Megatherium americanum was a giant ground sloth and - Incorrect - Awkward

C. The giant ground sloth Megatherium americanum, having stood twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws, it - Incorrect - Awkward

D. Standing twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws, Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth, - Correct - There are no modifier or parallelism errors and the sentence conveys the intended meaning without any ambiguity.

E. Standing twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, it wielded seven-inch claws, and the giant ground sloth Megatherium americanum - Incorrect - Awkward

Answer: D

CounterSniper · Answer

D is the best of the lot and should be the answer !!

prabugmat · Answer

It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded seven-inch claws, and Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth, may have been the largest hunting mammal ever to walk the Earth.

A. It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded seven-inch claws, and Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth,
B. It stood twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws, Megatherium americanum was a giant ground sloth and
C. The giant ground sloth Megatherium americanum, having stood twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws, it
D. Standing twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws, Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth,
E. Standing twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, it wielded seven-inch claws, and the giant ground sloth Megatherium americanum

Answer - D

A - Usage of and is wrong
B - Usage of was
C - No verb for the first part of sentence.
E - Awkward

Abhishek009 · Answer

Standing twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws,   Megatherium americanum ,  a giant ground sloth,   may have been the largest hunting mammal ever to walk the Earth.

Standing   twelve feet tall,   weighing   nine thousand pounds, and   wielding   seven-inch claws,   Megatherium americanum  ,   a giant ground sloth, may have been the largest hunting mammal ever to walk the Earth.  
  
Correct answer must be (D)

alwaysnewbie · Answer

A question regarding the usage of "and"
 - in parallel elements of a list
- as a conjunction

X, Y and Z -> parallel elements in a list connected by "and"
X, Y ,  and Z -> Z is a clause connected by the conjunction"and"

If my understanding (above) is correct, can someone explain how parallelism is maintained in this question with " , and " structure in all the below answer choices?

A. It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds , and  wielded seven-inch claws, and Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth,
B. It stood twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds , and  wielding seven-inch claws, Megatherium americanum was a giant ground sloth and
C. The giant ground sloth Megatherium americanum, having stood twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds , and  wielding seven-inch claws, it
D. Standing twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds , and  wielding seven-inch claws, Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth,

P.S. Please ignore the differences in weilded/weilding, stood/standing, weighed/weighing for now

Edit: added link to forum where a similar question is posted
 https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-grammar-book-coordinating-conjunctions-part-i-97274.html

Thanks

Skywalker18 · Answer

It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded seven-inch claws, and Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth , may have been the largest hunting mammal ever to walk the Earth.

A. It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded seven-inch claws, and Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth, - Incorrect meaning - usage of and
B. It stood twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws, Megatherium americanum was a giant ground sloth and - Run on sentence
C. The giant ground sloth Megatherium americanum, having stood twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws, it - Not a sentence 
D. Standing twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch claws, Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth, - Correct 
E. Standing twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, it wielded seven-inch claws, and the giant ground sloth Megatherium americanum - Incorrect - usage of and is improper here . Also "it "violates parallelism

Answer D

anox · Answer

It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded seven-inch claws, and Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth , may have been the largest hunting mammal ever to walk the Earth.

Issues:  Modifier

Analysis:
- The main subject of the sentence is  Megatherium americanum 
- The core of the sentence is "... Megatherium americanum may have been the largest hunting mammal ever ..."
- Hence, we need to use  verb-ing  for the verbs (stand, weigh and wield) to correctly modify the main subject

A.  It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded seven-inch claws,  and  Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth,
- Incorrect usage of "and"

B.  It stood twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch  claws, Megatherium  americanum was a giant ground sloth and
- Run sentence (comma splice)

C.   The giant ground sloth Megatherium americanum , having stood twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, and wielding seven-inch  claws, it 
- Fragment
- Run on sentence

D.   Standing  twelve feet tall,  weighing  nine thousand pounds, and  wielding  seven-inch claws, Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth,
- Has the correct structure: Standing.., weighing.. and weilding..., MA may have been ....

E.  Standing twelve feet tall, weighing nine thousand pounds, it wielded seven-inch claws,  and  the  giant ground sloth Megatherium americanum 
- Incorrect usage of "and"
- Parallelism issues
- (not sure about this one) it seems like "giant ground sloth Megatherium americanum" is missing either punctuation or a word. A better way to write it would be: 
--- giant ground sloth, Megatherium americanum, ...

Ashokshiva · Answer

hi,

why is option A wrong and option D correct?

request to explain

thanks

Smokeybear00 · Answer

A is wrong because the double use of "and"

It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds,  and  wielded seven-inch claws,  and  Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth

MyGuruStefan · Answer

In addition to the redundant use of "and", choice A is also incorrect for beginning with the ambiguous pronoun "it" which could refer to either "Megatherium americanum" or "a giant ground sloth". Thus, the sentence would not correctly indicate that the two items are one and the same in the way that choice D does.

BusyPhilipps · Answer

A. It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded seven-inch claws, and(this is placed in a wrong spot) Megatherium americanum, a giant ground sloth,

Ashokshiva · Answer

if a semicolon is used instead of the second "and" to connect the two IC would the option be correct?

JAIN09 · Answer

EGMAT

whether GMAT prefers the placeholder IT structure.in this example can  i reject option A and B just ON THE BASIS OF PLACEHOLDER IT structure?

JAIN09 · Answer

whether GMAT prefers the placeholder IT structure.in this QUESTION, can i reject option A and B just ON THE BASIS OF PLACEHOLDER IT structure?

Skywalker18 · Answer

The pronoun 'it' used in option A and B is not a placeholder.

KalBand · Answer

As the subject is singular, how come the sentence ends with "may  have  been the largest hunting mammal ever to walk the Earth " 
Shouldnt it be "may  has  been...." ?

GMATNinja · Answer

The word "may" is actually functioning as a verb in this sentence (a "modal verb," if you like grammar jargon). When you use "may," you follow it with the infinitive form of a verb, but without the "to."

For example, "to regret" is the infinitive form of a verb. This sentence uses "may" and "to regret" without the "to":

I  may regret  calling my boss a ding-dong.

The form of "regret" doesn't change at all, even if the subject of the sentence changes:

He  may regret  eating all five burritos.
 
 We  may regret  wearing socks and sandals.

"To have" is the infinitive form used in the official question. So, it's correct to say that "Megatherium americanum   may have  been the largest hunting mammal ever to walk the Earth," even though the subject is singular.

I hope that helps!

It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded

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It stood twelve feet tall, weighed nine thousand pounds, and wielded

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