Unlike most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged wa

895. Unlike most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warbler are very difficult to tell apart.

(A) Unlike most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warbler are very difficult to tell apart.
(B) Unlike most warbler species, the gender of the blue-winged warbler is very difficult to distinguish.
(C) Unlike those in most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warblers are very difficult to distinguish. PARALLEL
(D) It is very difficult, unlike in most warbler species, to tell the male and female blue-winged warbler apart.
(E) Blue-winged warblers are unlike most species of warbler in that it is very difficult to tell the male and female apart.

C,D and E come close. But, E is the best choice, because in C and D, it sounds like every other species has blue winged male and female. E clears this doubt, by naming the species (Blue winged warbler) and then describing the difference.

E in my opinion.

Stumped !!!

Though I think I will go for E, due to the following reasons:
Idiom is : Unlike X,Y ... where X and Y are Nouns / Noun Phrase. ( not Preposition Phrase )

Option A - Incorrect comparison ( Comparing Most Species to Male and Female Warbler )
Option B - Incorrect comparison ( Comparing most species to Gender )
Option C - Incorrect Comparison ( Comparing Those to Male and Female Warblers)
Option D - Incorrect usage of Unlike Idiom ( Preposition Phrase )
Option E - Correct comparison and Idiom
Rewritting Option E :
unlike most species, Blue-winged warblers are of warbler in that it is very difficult to tell the male and female apart.
This correctly indicates the Idiom usage ( which is perfect )

Simply speaking, E is the only choice in which one type of warbler is compared to most other species of warbler, and the comparison is brought out by the uniqueness of that one species. In all others choices, the comparison is faulty

1. Option A can be eliminated as it compares 'species' with a 'male' and 'female' warbler
2. Similarly, option B can be eliminated as it compares 'species' with 'gender'
3. Option C is incorrect as 'those' refers to the 'male and female blue-winged warbler species', therefore it would read:
Unlike male and female blue-winged warblers in most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warblers are very difficult to distinguish
This is incorrect as blue-winged warblers are a subset of the warbler species
4. D can be eliminated due to the same reasons as A
5. E is correct as it compares the 'blue-winged warblers' correctly with the warbler species

good question to practice comparison...

Unlike most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warbler are very difficult to tell apart.

the intended meaning:
Blue-winged warbler are not like the most warbler species
how blue-winged warbler is different? it is difficult to distinguish between a male blue-winged warbler and a female blue-winged warbler.

a. Unlike most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warbler are very difficult to tell apart.
compares most warbler species with the male and female blue-winged warbler - not correct.

b. Unlike most warbler species, the gender of the blue-winged warbler is very difficult to distinguish
again, compares most warbler species with the gender of the blue-winged warbler.. - not correct.

c. Unlike those in most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warblers are very difficult to distinguish
unlike those - those what? those IN - looks more like a quality than the genders/males/females. were it "unlike those of the most..." it might have been correct. so no, C is out.

d. It is very difficult, unlike in most warbler species, to tell the male and female blue-winged warbler apart.
unlike needs 2 nouns that it compares. in this case, unlike refers to "it is very difficult" so this usage is definitely not correct.

e. Blue-winged warblers are unlike most species of warbler in that it is very difficult to tell the male and female apart.
by POE, E should be the answer. the meaning is correct. specie is compared to other species.

Unlike most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warbler are very difficult to tell apart.

(A) Unlike most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warbler are very difficult to tell apart. - Incorrect - Illogical Comparison

(B) Unlike most warbler species, the gender of the blue-winged warbler is very difficult to distinguish. Incorrect - Illogical Comparison

(C) Unlike those in most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warblers are very difficult to distinguish. - Incorrect - Illogical Comparison

(D) It is very difficult, unlike in most warbler species, to tell the male and female blue-winged warbler apart. - In the statement - "unlike in most warbler species" - the highlighted in is the error carcass souvik101990 Divyadisha

(E) Blue-winged warblers are unlike most species of warbler in that it is very difficult to tell the male and female apart. - Correct

Unlike most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warbler are very difficult to tell apart.

(A) Unlike most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warbler are very difficult to tell apart. species compared with male and female blue-winged warbler

(B) Unlike most warbler species, the gender of the blue-winged warbler is very difficult to distinguish. species compared to gender

(C) Unlike those in most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged warblers are very difficult to distinguish. "those" does not have clear antecedent

(D) It is very difficult, unlike in most warbler species, to tell the male and female blue-winged warbler apart. wrong comparison, same as A

(E) Blue-winged warblers are unlike most species of warbler in that it is very difficult to tell the male and female apart. correct comparison

E..as I could only identify a proper use of Unlike. Comparing Warbler with species of warbler..other either compare it to gender or have construction issue

Can someone please assist me with this question. So the correct form for comparison is Unlike X,Y
Also in the correct answer choice, the pronoun IT cannot refer to the plural blue-winged warblers. So how can this be the correct choice??

Normally, in class essay, I often use the structure in E to make my essay look longer.
In this question, A,B,C have wrong comparisons.
D is awkward.
E sounds good.

i chose C. My approach was

Unlike "Male and female" in most warbler species, the male and female blue-winged are very difficult to distinguish....I thought "THOSE" in C refers to "MALE AND FEMALE Warblers"

Can anyone please explain why C is wrong. I went thru thread but i couldn't get much help.

I rejected E because of "IN THAT" word. I found E awkward. I know awkward is not any approach but still i couldn't understand/feel that E is right.

Read about placeholder pronouns and things will get clear.

Thank You very much. My doubt is clear now.

Hey GMATNinja,
If I re-write option B using the concept of ellipse (not confident enough whether my concept is correct)

Unlike [gender of] most warbler species, the gender of the blue-winged warbler is very difficult to distinguish.

Would it be correct??
Please explain.

Regards,
Tamal

why it is not considered ambiguous in the answer,in the answer it refers to what exactly?

Ah, the dreaded ellipsis. For anyone unfamiliar with the terminology, an ellipsis is simply a case in which a sentence implies words rather than stating them outright.

The problem is that you might hallucinate an ellipsis to fix incorrect answer choices. "That option isn't wrong - you just have to fill in all the stuff it's missing!"

Here's the deal: there's no clear, universal rule dictating when it's acceptable to leave words out of a sentence. So let's establish a common-sense approach: leaving stuff out is only allowed if the author's intention is abundantly obvious to even the laziest reader.

Here's a simple example: "Amy has more money than her irresponsible sister, Natalie." You probably did not have to torture yourself much to derive the meaning of the sentence even though, technically, I left out a word: "Amy has more money than her irresponsible sister, Natalie [has]." The last word isn't necessary because no one would read the original sentence and interpret it to mean that "Amy has more money than Amy has her sister". That would make no sense at all.

Compare the above example with B:
As soon as you see "unlike most warbler species" you're set up to expect another species to follow. Once you realize that the comparison appears to be between species and gender, you'd have to double back and try to determine what the writer actually intended to compare. That's an awful lot to ask of a reader. And really, if we could fix comparison errors by imagining an ellipsis to fill in whatever appeared to be missing, there'd be no such thing as a comparison error on the GMAT!

Put another way: anytime the literal interpretation of a sentence is illogical, and you find yourself searching for unwritten ghost words to make sense of it, there's no way it's correct.

I hope that helps!