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15 Jan 2021, 00:16
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C
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
65%
(hard)
Question Stats:
50% (01:28) correct
50%
(01:30)
wrong
based on 427
sessions
History
Date
Time
Result
Not Attempted Yet
The black-backed woodpecker lives almost exclusively in severely burned forests, thrives on insects that are adapted to fire, and detecting heat up to 30 miles away.
A) thrives on insects that are adapted to fire, and detecting heat up to 30 miles away
B) thriving on insects that have adapted to fire, and detects heat up to 30 miles away
C) thrives on insects adapted to fire, and can detect heat up to 30 miles away
D) thrives on insects that had been adapted to fire, and detects heat up to 30 miles away
E) thrives on insects, adapting to fire, and detecting heat up to 30 miles away
15 Jan 2021, 00:18
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OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
THE PROMPT
• How do I know this fact before I look at the options?
I don't. I suspect this fact from the prompt, but I cannot be certain.
• Which clue exists in the prompt alone tell me that this question probably tests straight-up list parallelism?
→ the presence of a very common pattern on the GMAT that in this prompt is an incorrect rendition of the pattern:
A, B, and C.
Notice the Oxford comma before the word and.
→ The Oxford comma is not used in British English.
It is not used in journalism in order to save space.
But I have never seen a GMAT question fail to use the Oxford comma.
(And this rule is one that I hope the writers stick with. The Oxford comma + and makes it easier to see lists.)
• The prompt's incorrect rendition of the pattern is verb, verb, AND verbing [which one of these is not like the others?]
THE OPTIONS
The last verb should be detects.
ELIMINATE A
→ Worse, the modifier thriving seems important in a statement of fact about a type of bird, but verbals do not pack as much weight as verbs.
→ The thriving on insects phrase is surrounded by commas and hence removable.
→ thriving on insects that have adapted to fire could be a modifier of the black-backed woodpecker in the previous clause, but I'm not sure why a verbING modifier gets stuck between the two action verbs (lives and detects)
→ worse, the modifier is removable
I cannot rule B out, but I am not a fan.
KEEP, but look for an answer whose parallelism is not in doubt
→ it doesn't matter that the third verb contains two words. You're looking for present tense because lives is present tense.
→ In English, when we want to emphasize an ability, we say that a thing CAN detect, CAN produce, CAN create, etc.
→ In English, when we want merely to describe what a thing does, we leave off the CAN and say that a thing detects, produces, creates, etc.
The first kind of verb (a CAN verb) emphasizes the ability of the thing to do the action.
The second kind of verb merely emphasizes the fact that the thing does the action.
• insects adapted to fire is perfectly fine.
→ The phrase is a reduced relative clause.
Don't worry about the jargon. Just understand that most good writers are trying to limit their use of the word that.
→ We can "reduce" a relative clause:
insects adapted to fire is a reduced (and concise!) version of insects that are/have adapted to fire
KEEP, and compare to B.
• had been adapted is past perfect (in the passive voice: HAD + BEEN + past participle/verbED) and thus signals the earlier of two past events.
Where is the other, later-in-time past event?
Almost always, past perfect requires that there be at least one other verb in simple past tense or a timestamp that "marks off" that same simple past moment.
ELIMINATE D
• This sentence lacks and AND between the two main verbs lives and thrives
• if adapting and detecting were supposed to modify the two previous clauses, the two gerunds (verbINGs) should not be separated by a comma.
The absence of a comma tells the reader that she is NOT reading a list of four items, but rather, a list of two items that are both modified by two co-equal ___ING modifiers
ELIMINATE E
We are down to B and C.
You would probably not face this exact situation on the test. (Maybe. I cite to a recent official question involving essential modifiers.)
Time to think like a test writer.
Which sentence is more concise? Option C.
Which sentence follows the "lead" of the nonunderlined verb lives? Option C.
Which sentence puts what seems to be equally important information on equal footing? Option C.
Option C is stronger than option B
OPTION C
→ The nonunderlined portion contains the verb lives; that central verb pattern is repeated by the verbs thrives and can detect in (C).
→ In other words, Option C uses only present tense verbs and follows the GMAC-favorite pattern: A, B, and C.
→ Option C is undoubtedly parallel.
→ Option B may follow the "simple present working verb" pattern by pairing thrives with lives, but the option is troublesome.
→ Option B's construction allows us to remove what appears to be essential information.
That removal is not warranted.
The "thriving" phrase should not be set off by commas—but the best way to do so would be to change thriving (verbal) to thrive (verb).
Option C does exactly that.
An OG 2020 question tests the distinction between essential and nonessential information.
The question was not a fluke. It appears in OG 2021.
You can find that question here.
The best answer is C.
COMMENTS
shikhasing4 , welcome to SC Butler.
This question is hella hard.
On the real test, you would almost certainly be given a bit more to work with.
The good news is that you all have figured out how ___ING modifiers work.
Excellent! (GMAC frequently tests such modifiers against [COMMA + WHICH] and [WITH + NOUN PHRASE].)
And the other good news is that you can all learn to think like a test writer.
(Yes. "Like" is correct. The word like is followed by a noun phrase and is not used with a verb. All is well.)
Kudos to all who answered.
Even if you reached an incorrect answer, your display of critical reasoning skills is commendable.
You were brave. I respect bravery. Stay safe, everyone.
Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2)
THE PROMPT
Quote:
• I suspect that this question tests parallelism
• How do I know this fact before I look at the options?
I don't. I suspect this fact from the prompt, but I cannot be certain.
• Which clue exists in the prompt alone tell me that this question probably tests straight-up list parallelism?
→ the presence of a very common pattern on the GMAT that in this prompt is an incorrect rendition of the pattern:
A, B, and C.
Notice the Oxford comma before the word and.
→ The Oxford comma is not used in British English.
It is not used in journalism in order to save space.
But I have never seen a GMAT question fail to use the Oxford comma.
(And this rule is one that I hope the writers stick with. The Oxford comma + and makes it easier to see lists.)
• The prompt's incorrect rendition of the pattern is verb, verb, AND verbing [which one of these is not like the others?]
THE OPTIONS
Quote:
• lives, thrives, and detecting are not parallel.
The last verb should be detects.
ELIMINATE A
Quote:
• The sentence is grammatical but a bit unwieldy because the two verbs are separated by a modifier.
→ Worse, the modifier thriving seems important in a statement of fact about a type of bird, but verbals do not pack as much weight as verbs.
→ The thriving on insects phrase is surrounded by commas and hence removable.
→ thriving on insects that have adapted to fire could be a modifier of the black-backed woodpecker in the previous clause, but I'm not sure why a verbING modifier gets stuck between the two action verbs (lives and detects)
→ worse, the modifier is removable
I cannot rule B out, but I am not a fan.
KEEP, but look for an answer whose parallelism is not in doubt
Quote:
• lives, thrives, and can detect are all present tense working verbs
→ it doesn't matter that the third verb contains two words. You're looking for present tense because lives is present tense.
→ In English, when we want to emphasize an ability, we say that a thing CAN detect, CAN produce, CAN create, etc.
→ In English, when we want merely to describe what a thing does, we leave off the CAN and say that a thing detects, produces, creates, etc.
The first kind of verb (a CAN verb) emphasizes the ability of the thing to do the action.
The second kind of verb merely emphasizes the fact that the thing does the action.
• insects adapted to fire is perfectly fine.
→ The phrase is a reduced relative clause.
Don't worry about the jargon. Just understand that most good writers are trying to limit their use of the word that.
→ We can "reduce" a relative clause:
insects adapted to fire is a reduced (and concise!) version of insects that are/have adapted to fire
KEEP, and compare to B.
Quote:
• are the insects no longer adapted to fire? The verb phrase had been adapted suggests just that.
• had been adapted is past perfect (in the passive voice: HAD + BEEN + past participle/verbED) and thus signals the earlier of two past events.
Where is the other, later-in-time past event?
Almost always, past perfect requires that there be at least one other verb in simple past tense or a timestamp that "marks off" that same simple past moment.
ELIMINATE D
Quote:
• This sentence lacks and AND between the two main verbs lives and thrives
• if adapting and detecting were supposed to modify the two previous clauses, the two gerunds (verbINGs) should not be separated by a comma.
The absence of a comma tells the reader that she is NOT reading a list of four items, but rather, a list of two items that are both modified by two co-equal ___ING modifiers
ELIMINATE E
We are down to B and C.
You would probably not face this exact situation on the test. (Maybe. I cite to a recent official question involving essential modifiers.)
Time to think like a test writer.
Which sentence is more concise? Option C.
Which sentence follows the "lead" of the nonunderlined verb lives? Option C.
Which sentence puts what seems to be equally important information on equal footing? Option C.
Option C is stronger than option B
OPTION C
→ The nonunderlined portion contains the verb lives; that central verb pattern is repeated by the verbs thrives and can detect in (C).
→ In other words, Option C uses only present tense verbs and follows the GMAC-favorite pattern: A, B, and C.
→ Option C is undoubtedly parallel.
→ Option B may follow the "simple present working verb" pattern by pairing thrives with lives, but the option is troublesome.
→ Option B's construction allows us to remove what appears to be essential information.
That removal is not warranted.
The "thriving" phrase should not be set off by commas—but the best way to do so would be to change thriving (verbal) to thrive (verb).
Option C does exactly that.
An OG 2020 question tests the distinction between essential and nonessential information.
The question was not a fluke. It appears in OG 2021.
You can find that question here.
The best answer is C.
COMMENTS
shikhasing4 , welcome to SC Butler.
This question is hella hard.
On the real test, you would almost certainly be given a bit more to work with.
The good news is that you all have figured out how ___ING modifiers work.
Excellent! (GMAC frequently tests such modifiers against [COMMA + WHICH] and [WITH + NOUN PHRASE].)
And the other good news is that you can all learn to think like a test writer.
(Yes. "Like" is correct. The word like is followed by a noun phrase and is not used with a verb. All is well.)
Kudos to all who answered.
Even if you reached an incorrect answer, your display of critical reasoning skills is commendable.
You were brave. I respect bravery. Stay safe, everyone.
Moderator Note: EDIT: I copied and pasted parts of two different drafts of this OE. I have fixed the confusing parts created by my accidental merger.
General Discussion
15 Jan 2021, 00:29
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The black-backed woodpecker lives almost exclusively in severely burned forests, thrives on insects that are adapted to fire, and detecting heat up to 30 miles away.
A) thrives on insects that are adapted to fire, and detecting heat up to 30 miles away - Incorrect :list compared is lives and detects
B) thriving on insects that have adapted to fire, and detects heat up to 30 miles away - Correct: thriving - this is ing modifier modifying 1st sentence.
C) thrives on insects adapted to fire, and can detect heat up to 30 miles away - Incorrect :list compared is lives and detects
D) thrives on insects that had been adapted to fire, and detects heat up to 30 miles away Incorrect : list compared is lives and detects. Also we don't need had been adapted to fire, it show that insects are still adapted and still in the process of adaptation.
E) thrives on insects, adapting to fire, and detecting heat up to 30 miles away - Incorrect :list compared is lives and detects
IMO B
A) thrives on insects that are adapted to fire, and detecting heat up to 30 miles away - Incorrect :list compared is lives and detects
B) thriving on insects that have adapted to fire, and detects heat up to 30 miles away - Correct: thriving - this is ing modifier modifying 1st sentence.
C) thrives on insects adapted to fire, and can detect heat up to 30 miles away - Incorrect :list compared is lives and detects
D) thrives on insects that had been adapted to fire, and detects heat up to 30 miles away Incorrect : list compared is lives and detects. Also we don't need had been adapted to fire, it show that insects are still adapted and still in the process of adaptation.
E) thrives on insects, adapting to fire, and detecting heat up to 30 miles away - Incorrect :list compared is lives and detects
IMO B
