Although the Komodo dragon found mainly in islands around Indonesia

Question

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Although the Komodo dragon, found mainly in islands around Indonesia, is a powerful predator, it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey, it sometimes has to go without food for days.
A) it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,

A) it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,

B) having a fantastic sense of smell that help it locate prey,

C) and it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,

D) it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps them locate prey,

E) despite having a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,

generis · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2)

THE PROMPT  
 
This sentence describes two qualities of the Komodo dragon: it is a powerful predator and it possesses a keen sense of smell.

These two qualities must be connected by a conjunction such as  and .

The sentence sets up a contrast: despite having what would seem to be good food-finding abilities, the animal must go without food for days.

THE OPTIONS  
 
• run on sentence
→ we need an  and  to connect the two qualities of the Komodo dragon; without the word  and  the result is a run-on sentence (a sentence with two independent clauses that are not connected properly).
• missing logic
Because the two qualities of the animal are not connected, the part after the last comma ( it sometimes has to go for days without food ) has no connection with the earlier part.
ELIMINATE A

• subject/verb disagreement:  help  should be  helps 
→ the singular noun  smell  does not agree with the plural verb  help

• the word  having  is not great. It creates an awkward sentence. This error is not enough to eliminate the option on its own, but the first error is fatal.
ELIMINATE B
 
• I do not see any errors
• the conjunction  and  connects the two qualities of the Komodo dragon, a connection that completes the "although" thought and thus makes clear the contrast between the animal's predatory characteristics and inability to kill prey for food.
KEEP

• just as is the case in option A, the word  and  is missing, an absence that creates a run-on sentence and fails to convey contrast

• the plural pronoun  them  does not agree with the singular noun  Komodo dragon 
ELIMINATE D
 
• using both  although  and  despite  is confusing, redundant, or illogical:
→  Although the Komodo dragon . . . is a powerful predator,  despite having a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,  it sometimes has to go without food for days. 
→ despite creates a "switchback" from or contrast to the  although  clause, but the shift is not warranted

• if in doubt, compare to C. Option C is better.
ELIMINATE E

The answer is C.  
 
  COMMENTS

mukherjeeabhish  and  Ajl11101991  , welcome to SC Butler.

These answers range from good to outstanding.
Almost all the answers, in fact, are outstanding: they are easy to understand and they  explain .

Very nicely done!

mukherjeeabhish · Answer

Although the Komodo dragon, found mainly in islands around Indonesia, is a powerful predator, it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey, it sometimes has to go without food for days.
A) it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,

A) it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,

B) having a fantastic sense of smell that help it locate prey,

C) and it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,

D) it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps them locate prey,

E) despite having a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,

A)The original sentence has 2 independent sentence joined by comma . So it can be eliminated

B)The relative clause has SV agreement issue . The subject sense requires a singular verb and help is plural.

C) I do not see any error in (C) and will hold on to it

D)The them is plural and we do not have any plural antecedent to refer to

E)The modifier starting with despite does not make sense the way it is used . Back to back modifiers is usually wrong . Added to it is the redundancy error of despite and although .

so (C) is the option I will choose.

Ajl11101991 · Answer

Although the Komodo dragon, found mainly in islands around Indonesia, is a powerful predator, it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey, it sometimes has to go without food for days.

A) it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey, - Second independent clause without an "and" -  incorrect

B) having a fantastic sense of smell that help it locate prey, - sense of smell is singular so it must be followed by helps -  incorrect

C) and it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey, -  Correct  for me

D) it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps them locate prey, - Them refers to the komodo dragon (singular) -  incorrect

E) despite having a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey, - Despite does not make any sense -  incorrect

IMO - C

penco · Answer

Answer:C

Although is used to hint contrast and correct usage is  Although X, Y. 
Here, comparison is: Even though dragon is predator and has fantastic smell, it has to go without food for days.
The conjunction for :  Although the Komodo dragon,  found mainly in islands around Indonesia , is a powerful predator  and  it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey  is missing as it is just extending the same idea, not hinting on contrast.
We can easily chuck this option and check further.

comma +ing modifier is used as modifier to modify the preceding clause. It can work here but the word 'help' is plural form and incurs a SV agreement error. We would need singular 'helps'. 
Eliminate B

Conjunction 'and' is used correctly to extend the same idea and SV agreement issue existing in B is corrected.
Keep C.

No conjunction to extend the same idea and SV agreement error by introducing 'them'. We need the subject 'Komodo Dragon' to be singular as used in original sentence.
Eliminate D.

Meaning error. The usage of despite is wrong here. 
The sentence does not seems to imply Komodo Dragon is predator despite having fantastic sense of smell but, despite the fact that Komodo is predator and has sense of smell, it goes hungry.
Eliminate E

kntombat · Answer

A) it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey, -    Not our answer     (Joining another independent clauses without a conjunction has lead to this error.)

B) having a fantastic sense of smell that help it locate prey, -    Not our answer     ( the wrong form of the verb "help" has been used, "Komodo Dragon" is a singular subject in this sentence and the use of the plural form of the verb "help" is incorrect here.)
 
C) and it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey, -    This is our answer     (The presence of the conjunction "and" helps link the otherwise independent clause to the sentence, no other issue is found in this option.)

D) it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps them locate prey, -    Not our answer     ( "Komodo Dragon" is a singular subject in this sentence, using the pronoun them leads to a subject-verb agreement error.)

E) despite having a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey, -    Not our answer     ( In my opinion the use of the word 'despite' leads to a redundancy error, as "although" has already been used in the starting of the sentence.)

The OA is C.

TarunKumar1234 · Answer

Although the Komodo dragon, found mainly in islands around Indonesia, is a powerful predator, it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey, it sometimes has to go without food for days.

A) it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,

B) having a fantastic sense of smell that help it locate prey,

C) and it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,

D) it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps them locate prey,

E) despite having a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,[/quote]

A)The original sentence has 2 independent sentence joined by comma . So it can be eliminated

B)The relative clause has SV agreement issue . The subject sense requires a singular verb and help is plural.

C) I do not see any error in (C) and will hold on to it

D)The them is plural and we do not have any plural antecedent to refer to

E)The modifier starting with despite does not make sense the way it is used . Back to back modifiers is usually wrong . Added to it is the redundancy error of despite and although .

so (C) is the option I will choose.

winterschool · Answer

Although the Komodo dragon, found mainly in islands around Indonesia, is a powerful predator, it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey, it sometimes has to go without food for days.

A)  it has a  fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,  Incorrect

and needed to connect two independent clause

B)  having  a fantastic sense of smell that help it locate prey,  Incorrect

having uses wrong

C)  and it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,   Correct

D)  it has a  fantastic sense of smell that helps them locate prey,  Incorrect

and needed to connect two independent clause

E)  despite having  a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,  Incorrect

despite having uses wrong

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  here .

ravigupta2912 · Answer

“It” in option C after “and” is bothering me. I’m not sure if it’s needed? Although the Komodo dragon:-

a) is a powerful predator;
b) it has.... (repetition of the subject?)

Or is the parallelism as under:-

Although:-
a) the Komodo dragon is a powerful predator; and
B) it has fantastic sense of smell?

I mean do we have 2 parallel dependent clauses here? Or two parallel attributes (is / has)?

Posted from my mobile device

Request your thoughts generis

warrior1991 · Answer

Meaning:- 
Although komodo dragon, is a powerful predator it sometimes has to go without food for days.
Rest sentences in between are providing additional information

A) it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,
 This is a run-on
Although the Komodo dragon, found mainly in islands around Indonesia, is a powerful predator,it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey
Need a 'and' after comma.
Eliminate

B) having a fantastic sense of smell that help it locate prey,
 having a fantastic sense is not parallel to a powerful predator. Eliminate

C) and it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,
 This one is correct. Komodo dragon is a powerful predato, and it has a fantastic sense of smell......

D) it has a fantastic sense of smell that helps them locate prey,
 This has same error as in option A. Eliminate

E) despite having a fantastic sense of smell that helps it locate prey,
Although and despite usage in this option is wrong.Eliminate

IMO C

VerbalBot · Answer

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Although the Komodo dragon found mainly in islands around Indonesia

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Although the Komodo dragon found mainly in islands around Indonesia

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