Porcupines shooting their quills is a common misconception, but the qu

Question

Porcupines shooting their quills is a common misconception, but the quills still pose a serious threat, and it can be difficult to remove them because each one has up to 800 backward-facing barbs that act as grappling hooks after they pierce skin.

A. Porcupines shooting their quills is a common misconception, but the quills still pose a serious threat, and it can be difficult to remove them because each one has up to 800 backward-facing barbs that act as grappling hooks after they pierce skin

B. Porcupines shooting their quills is a common misconception, but the quills still pose a serious threat because they can be difficult to remove since each one has up to 800 backward-facing barbs that act as grappling hooks after they pierce skin.
 
C. That a porcupine can shoot its quills is a common misconception, but the quills still pose a serious threat because each quill has up to 800 backward-facing barbs that act as grappling hooks after they pierce skin.
 
D. Contrary to popular belief, porcupines do not actually shoot their quills, but the quills still pose a serious threat: each quill has up to 800 backward-facing barbs that act as grappling hooks after they pierce skin, which makes removing the quills difficult.
 
E. Contrary to popular belief, porcupines do not actually shoot their quills, even though each quill has up to 800 backward-facing barbs that act as grappling hooks after they pierce skin and that still pose a serious threat.

josico111 · Accepted Answer

My 2 cents.

A) 'shooting their quills' works as a present participle. it defines porcupines, and porcupines are not misconceptions. also, 'it can be difficult to remove them' is unnecessarily wordy. eliminate A.

B) though slightly better than A, it has the same participle problem. eliminate B.

C) what is a misconception? "that" is a misconception. elaborate on that "that", "that a porcupine can shoot its quills". seems weird, but grammatically correct.

D) wordy but seems better than C. almost opted for this, but then realized "skin, which makes removing the quills difficult." skin is not the thing that makes the removing action difficult. wrong modifier. eliminate D.

E) shooting quills has no logical connection with having 800 barbs. therefore, usage of even though doesn't make sense. weird structure overall. eliminate E.

ShankSouljaBoi · Answer

Official Explanation

The initial sentence says that porcupines shooting their quills is a misconception. What it means to say is that the idea that porcupines can shoot their quills is a misconception. The porcupines themselves are not a misconception! Eliminate answer choice (A) and any others that repeat this mistake.

Even though porcupines cannot in fact shoot their quills, the quills do still pose a serious threat: each quill has 800 backward-facing barbs, making the quills difficult to remove.

(A) This sentence should say that the idea that porcupines shoot their quills is a misconception, not that porcupines shooting their quills is a misconception.

(B) This sentence should say that the idea that porcupines shoot their quills is a misconception, not that porcupines shooting their quills is a misconception.

(C) CORRECT. The phrase that a porcupine can shoot its quills may sound awkward as the subject of the sentence, but the idea is implied before the word that:   that a porcupine can shoot its quills is a common misconception. This sentence correctly contrasts the fact that porcupines cannot shoot their quills with the fact that the quills are still dangerous.

(D) In this sentence, the noun modifier comma which refers to skin. However, it is actually the fact that the barbs … act as grappling hooks that makes them difficult to remove, so the comma –ing adverbial modifier making them difficult to remove should be used to properly describe the clause.

(E) The structure in this sentence contrasts porcupines do not actually shoot their quills with the fact that each quill has up to 800 backward-facing barbs that act as grappling hooks. These two facts are not in opposition to one another, so it is not logical to say that even though quills have barbs, porcupines do not shoot their quills.

neoeahit · Answer

I am confused about D. Why is D wrong.

I was torn between E and De, and finally went with D.

Skywalker18 · Answer

Porcupines shooting their quills is a common misconception, but the quills still pose a serious threat, and it can be difficult to remove them because each one has up to 800 backward-facing barbs that act as grappling hooks after they pierce skin.

A. Porcupines shooting their quills is a common misconception, but the quills still pose a serious threat, and it can be difficult to remove them because each one has up to 800 backward-facing barbs that act as grappling hooks after they pierce skin - meaning issue - "but the quills still pose a serious threat, and it can be difficult to remove them" ; the quills pose a serious threat because it can be difficult to remove them ; "Porcupines shooting their quills" seems awkward

B. Porcupines shooting their quills is a common misconception, but the quills still pose a serious threat because they can be difficult to remove since each one has up to 800 backward-facing barbs that act as grappling hooks after they pierce skin. - "Porcupines shooting their quills" seems awkward
 
C. That a porcupine can shoot its quills is a common misconception, but the quills still pose a serious threat because each quill has up to 800 backward-facing barbs that act as grappling hooks after they pierce skin. - Correct
 
D. Contrary to popular belief, porcupines do not actually shoot their quills, but the quills still pose a serious threat: each quill has up to 800 backward-facing barbs that act as grappling hooks after they pierce skin, which makes removing the quills difficult. - incorrect usage of which
 
E. Contrary to popular belief, porcupines do not actually shoot their quills, even though each quill has up to 800 backward-facing barbs that act as grappling hooks after they pierce skin and that still pose a serious threat. - the second that refers to barbs, whereas the meaning conveyed should be that quills pose a serious threat

Answer C

1. Can you please provide a concrete reason(s) to eliminate option B?
2. Also, in the OA-C , "the difficulty to remove" part is not present.

AjiteshArun  ,  GMATNinja  ,  MagooshExpert  ,  GMATGuruNY  ,  VeritasPrepBrian  ,  MartyMurray  ,  DmitryFarber  ,  daagh  ,  generis  ,  mcelroytutoring  , other experts - please enlighten

redskull1 · Answer

“Porcupines shooting their quills is a misconception”....

Porcupine is not the misconception.You can say “is” refers to the phrase “porcupines shooting their quills” but misconception is incorrect here.A fact can be a misconception.Not an phrase(action)or a noun(porcupine).

For a similar question see the SC question “a study of food resources in the north pacific”.See Rons explanations very thoroughly (either in the video or on manhattan prep forum)...

Cheers

Posted from my mobile device

AjiteshArun · Answer

One way to get rid of B: the phrase    Porcupines  shooting their quills  is    is not quite the same as   Porcupines'  shooting  their quills  is   . In the original, we are almost certainly looking at  Porcupines  (plural) as the subject for the verb  is  (singular) as  shooting their quills  is just a modifier. If the option had included the possessive, it'd have been easier to consider  shooting  a gerund.

daagh · Answer

Skywalker,
In addition what you said.

1. C perhaps changes the original intent. No one is bothered about whether a porcupine can shoot or cannot shoot the quills.

I would deem B to be better because Pronoun reference leaves no ambiguity in it. Both the 'they' refer to the quills. They cannot refer to 'each one ' because of basic SV error.

But how is A changing the meaning? It is ultimately the quills that pose the threat because it is not the barbs or the hooks that pierce the skin.

Let's wait for the OE.

ballest127 · Answer

daagh

How is B better than C ?

I think that in B , "Porcupines   is a common misconception" is not possible. Porcupines cannot be a misconception.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thank you.

daagh · Answer

@ballest 
Both 'Porcupines shooting their quills' in A and B are substantive phrases that are noun phrases acting as a singular noun. This might clear the doubt why 'is' is the singular verb.

Therefore parsing porcupines separately from the noun phrase is erroneous.

I have already said why is C is poor in comparison to B.

elavendan1 · Answer

I chose option C, but I am concerned. Is some missing information allowed in the options? For instance, option C eliminates altogether the fact that,  it is impossible to remove the quills. 
Has anyone ever come across any of the questions like this?

daagh · Answer

Elav
Missing information is not so detrimental. But missing the intention or the essence of the passage is unacceptable. AS long as the deliberately dropped part does not harm the totality of the issue, then it is good to go. 
In the given case, the idea that the quills pose a serious threat is the meaning conveyed, notwithstanding whether W they are difficult to remove or not.

As far as I remember, such editing is not uncommon in SC, although one cannot reel off example instantly.

rocky620 · Answer

Hi Experts,

Why did we exclude the part "and it can be difficult to remove them" from the OA.

IMO it is an essential information about the threat.

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  rocky620 ,

That's a good point, and we don't see something like this very often in official questions. You may choose to overlook this issue as this isn't an official question.

That said, I do think that C is much better than A.

nikhilvarekar · Answer

Quills pose threat because "quills can be difficult to remove" and not because " 800 backward-facing barbs that act as grappling hooks after they pierce skin". C seems to miss out on that detail, thus distorting the meaning.

ARSarkar · Answer

I also have the same question. " it can be difficult to remove" - this part from the original sentence is missing here.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  ARSarkar ,

We hope this finds you well.

To clarify, it does appear that something is missing from Option C.

The GMAT is unlikely to ever feature a correct answer choice that displays such arbitrary change in meaning; likely, there has simply been some transcription error.

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

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