Unable to build nests or care for their young, a female cowbird lays u

Unable to build nests or care for their young, a female cowbird lays up to 40 eggs a year in the nests of other birds, including warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes.

A. a female cowbird lays up to 40 eggs a year in the nests of other birds, including “Their” in the non-underlined section tells us that the subject is plural. “A female cowbird” cannot be used.

B. a female cowbird will use the nests of other birds to lay up to 40 eggs a year, including those of “Their” in the non-underlined section tells us that the subject is plural. “A female cowbird” cannot be used.

C. female cowbirds use the nests of other birds to lay up to 40 eggs a year, including those of “, including those” seem to mean that the cowbird lays eggs of the other birds including warbler, vireos and so on.”

D. female cowbirds lay up to 40 eggs a year in the nests of other birds, including This option shows that the cowbird lays up to 40 eggs in the nest of other birds, including warbler vireos and so on.

E. up to 40 eggs a year are laid by female cowbirds in the nests of other birds, including “Unable to build nests or care for their young” has been used to tell us more about female cowbirds. So this needs to follow immediately after the comma.

- Nitha Jay

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that - female cowbirds are unable to build nests or care for their young, and so lay up to 40 eggs a year in the nests of other birds, and these birds include warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers + Pronouns + Tenses + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• In the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun; this is one of the most frequently tested concepts on GMAT sentence correction.
• Information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense.
• The simple future tense is used to refer to actions that will take place in the future.

A: The sentence formed by this answer choice incorrectly uses the plural pronoun "their" to refer to the singular noun phrase "a female cowbird".

B: The sentence formed by this answer choice incorrectly uses the plural pronoun "their" to refer to the singular noun phrase "a female cowbird". Further, Option B incorrectly modifies the noun phrase "40 eggs a year" with "including those of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes", illogically implying that the 40 eggs laid in a year by the cowbird include eggs of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes; the intended meaning is that the birds in whose nests the cowbird lays its eggs include warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes; remember, in the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun; this is one of the most frequently tested concepts on GMAT sentence correction. Additionally, Option B incorrectly uses the simple future tense verb "will use" to refer to information that is permanent in nature; remember, information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the simple future tense is used to refer to actions that will take place in the future. Besides, Option B uses the needlessly wordy phrase "use the nests of other birds to lay", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

C: This answer choice incorrectly modifies the noun phrase "40 eggs a year" with "including those of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes", illogically implying that the 40 eggs laid in a year by the cowbird include eggs of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes; the intended meaning is that the birds in whose nests the cowbird lays its eggs include warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes; remember, in the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun. Further, Option C uses the needlessly wordy phrase "use the nests of other birds to lay", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

D: Correct. This answer choice correctly uses "Unable to build nests or care for their young" to modify "female cowbirds" and modifies "other birds" with "including warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes", conveying the intended meaning - that female cowbirds are unable to build nests or care for their young, and so lay up to 40 eggs a year in the nests of other birds, and these birds include warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes. Further, the sentence formed by Option D correctly uses the plural pronoun "their" to refer to the plural noun "cowbirds". Additionally, Option D correctly uses the simple present tense verb "lay" to refer to information that is permanent in nature. Besides, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

E: This answer choice incorrectly uses "Unable to build nests or care for their young" to modify "up to 40 eggs a year", illogically implying that the eggs laid by cowbirds are unable to build nests or care for their young; the intended meaning is that cowbirds are unable to build nests or care for their young; remember, in the “phrase + comma + noun” and “noun + comma + phrase” constructions, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



To understand the concept of "Phrase Comma Subject" and "Subject Comma Phrase" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Unable to build nests or care for their young, a female cowbird lays up to 40 eggs a year in the nests of other birds, including warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes.

A. a female cowbird lays up to 40 eggs a year in the nests of other birds, including
Pronoun number agreement error : Non-underlined part "their" must agree in number with "a female cowbird"..
B. a female cowbird will use the nests of other birds to lay up to 40 eggs a year, including those of
Same error as A
E. up to 40 eggs a year are laid by female cowbirds in the nests of other birds, including
Non-underlined part "Unable to build...." so immediately after the comma the entity which is unable to do that activity should come.... The female cowbirds must come immediately after the comma ...

So, straight away option A, B and E are out..
Now my analysis of option C and D are as follows : Though I got this question wrong, on spending few more minutes this is what occurred to me :
C. female cowbirds use the nests of other birds to lay up to 40 eggs a year, including those of
as per this sentence, the meaning becomes "the birds take help of the nests of other birds to lay eggs" - which seems a bit illogical as it means "the action of laying is aided by nests"
Hence, I think this option changes the meaning of the original sentences ...
However, I feel "those" correctly refers to "the nests" and there is NO error in this modification

D. female cowbirds lay up to 40 eggs a year in the nests of other birds, including
Pronoun agreement error in option A is rectified here and the meaning error in C is not present as the sentence avoided the usage of verb "use".


Hi mikemcgarry,

Sir can you please confirm whether my analysis of option C is correct here ?

Choice C is plain wrong in meaning that the cowbirds use the nests of other birds to lay up to 40 eggs a year, eggs that include the eggs of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes. This is absurd.

pikolo wrote





1. If you have a comma before including, then it will never modify the noun before.

2. C. female cowbirds use the nests of other birds to lay up to 40 eggs a year, including those of

Let's replace the pronoun with both nouns:

1. C. female cowbirds use the nests of other birds to lay up to 40 eggs a year, including the eggs of
2. female cowbirds use the nests of other birds to lay up to 40 eggs a year, including the nests of

Both choices are equally weird, the second being more bizarre

Hi RMD007, this indeed creates confusion. The rule you've mentioned (modifying the previous clause) is for present participial phrases. However, including is not a present participial phrase; including is actually a preposition. Hence, the general rules of participial phrases do not apply to including.

including can modify the Noun or Noun-Phrase immediately before the word including.

An officially correct sentence:

A study by the Ocean Wildlife Campaign urged states to undertake a number of remedies to reverse a decline in the shark population, including establishing size limits for shark catches, closing state waters for shark fishing during pupping season, and requiring commercial fishers to have federal shark permits.

Notice how including modifies a rather far-away noun remedies.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana has a special note on the usage of including. Have attached the corresponding section of the book, for your reference.

Hello Daagh Sir,

I have 2 queries here

1. The word "including" is modifying the preceding clause - right? A few people on the thread commented it is modifying the nearest noun i.e.
- in Option C, "including" ----> year
- in option D, "including" ----> birds
2. How did you conclude that "those of" in option C is referring to "eggs" and not referring to "nests" ?

Hello shameekv1989,

You correctly say that comma + including... is an exception to the usage of the comma + verb-ing modifier as an action modifier. The word including, even if preceded by a comma and placed after a clause, the word including ALWAYS acts as a noun modifier. It always associates with the logical noun entity in the sentence. This logical noun entity can be right before including or far-away in the sentence.

Notice the usage of including in the following official sentence:

The principal feature of the redesigned checks is a series of printed instructions that the company hopes will help merchants confirm a check’s authenticity, including reminders to watch the endorsement, compare signatures, and view the watermark while holding the check to the light.


In this official sentence, the word including modifies the far-away noun a series of printed instructions because per the context of the sentence, this is the only noun entity that including can logically modify.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Hello, Suryanshi. Your query reminds me of something GMATNinja often says in his SC posts, namely that you sometimes have to read each part with a literal interpretation, at face value, rather than with your mind already made up. My take on each of the following below:


Analysis: What is a singular female cowbird doing as the subject of the main clause when the possessive pronoun their is used immediately before? This option will not work.


Analysis: I struck this one at about the same time as option (A), not even bothering to read beyond the first three words.


Analysis: People talk this way all the time, and I cannot argue that your interpretation is incorrect. The problem is that, taken in a literal sense, those of could also refer to eggs, as in, female cowbirds... lay up to 40 eggs a year, including [the eggs] of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes. How nice of the cowbirds to take on the labor duties of the other birds! See how silly that is? Of course, no bird can lay eggs on behalf of other pregnant birds, but grammatically speaking, the second interpretation makes just as much sense as the first. For more on -ing modifiers, I would suggest reading this article. In terms of this question and answer choice, the ambiguity of meaning rules it out.


Analysis: Now the issue has been worked out, with the -ing modifier reaching back to in the nests of other birds. Again, the -ing modifier is much more flexible than a "touch rule" would lead you to believe. (Please refer to the article I linked to above.)


Analysis: There is no need for a passive construct in this sentence, and the phrase about eggs here does not clearly or logically deliver on the setup of the introductory phrase, Unable to build nests or care for their young. You need to know what or whom their refers to, and female cowbirds should be front and center in the main clause.

I hope that helps. If you need further clarification, please ask.

- Andrew

This is a valid concern, but we don't really have a choice here. (B) and (C) are both out because "those of" seems to refer to the "eggs of other birds." Obviously a cowbird doesn't lay the actual eggs of other birds, so that wouldn't make any sense.

(A), (D), and (E) all end with "in the nests of other birds, including warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes," so we don't actually have to worry about this point! Could we instead say, "in the nests of other birds, including THOSE OF warblers, vireos, etc."? Sure, but is that necessary? The correct meaning is already clear without adding "those of".

Because the remaining options are identical at the end and because the absence of "those of" does not cause any obvious problems or break any specific grammar rules, we can move on to other decision points.

We'll have to be careful about the "rules" we apply to ings in general, but this type of including is not like other ings, so we'll have to be doubly careful here. An including can refer to the noun just before it, and this has nothing to do with commas (there is nothing that restricts an including to only the noun just before it either). Here is an example from an official question:

Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style influenced generations of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from his own.

Even the following sentence is okay:
Ten people were arrested by the police, including two minors.

However, because the last sentence is not very clear, we'd prefer the following option:
Ten people, including two minors, were arrested by the police.

Or, if the ambiguity is too great (there are multiple nouns before the including), we could do away with the including entirely.
Ten people, two of whom were minors, were arrested by the police.

The problem with (C) is that "including those of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes" seems to modify eggs! This sentence seems to indicate that female cowbirds use the nests of other birds to lay eggs of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes. That, of course, doesn't make any sense: the cowbird doesn't lay eggs of other types of birds.

On the other hand, choice (D) makes it clear that we are talking about the NESTS of those other birds, not the eggs of those other birds.

In C, notice how "far" including is from nests (the intended modifier). The general rule is that modifiers should preferably be placed as close as possible, to what the modifier is intended to modify.

In D, including is modifying birds and hence, those does not make sense.

Hello shameekv1989,

You ask a good question. Yes, generally we see that the noun modifier - which, that, verb-ed or verb-ing modifier - jumps the preceding prepositional phrase modifier to modify a slightly far-away noun. Why such a modification become possible? It is so because the modifier that is jumped over modifier the same noun entity that the far-away noun modifier is meant to modify. Also, the jumped over modifier cannot be placed anywhere else in the sentence. So, these two factors make the far-away modification possible.


Now, the thing to note is that it is not only the preceding prepositional phrase modifiers that can be jumped over. Any modifier can be jumped over that fulfills the two criteria mentioned above. The same is the case in the official sentence I mentioned in my previous response. The modifier that the company... is the noun modifier that modifies the same noun entity the word including is meant to modify. Also, this modifier cannot be placed anywhere else in the sentence. Hence, the far-away modification takes place.

Let me present another famous (or rather infamous) official sentence in which we see the same usage:

Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.


In this correct version of the sentence, both the verb-ed modifier spawned... and the verb-ing modifier extending... jump over the preceding that clause - that is an... - to modify the far-away noun a giant fungus.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

The use of "including" here is similar to "for example" or "to name a few".

So it will logically give examples of whatever is closest to it.

Consider this sentence:
The managers need all your documents, including ...

What will you give after "including"? Will you give "your passport and your driving license" or will you give "the sales manager and the finance manager"? I am sure that only this makes sense to you:
The managers need all your documents, including your passport and your driving license.


If you want to specify some particular managers, you will need place "including" after managers.
The managers, including the sales manager and the finance manager, need all your documents.

tkorzhan1995

The verb+ing (participle) construction can work as an adverb (and in that case would have to modify a verb), but it can also act as an adjective even though it retains some of its verb-like qualities. And because it can perform both functions, you have to fall back on the logic here - a group of birds can include a list of bird types, but a verb like build, care, or lays can't logically include a list of bird types.

Both including and including those of are correct and the usage would depend on the meaning..
Here we want to give examples of birds after including, so THOSE OF is wrong..
However if we had a sentence -
female cowbirds use the nests, including those of other birds, to lay eggs.... Here those means nests