(A) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants
(B) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, which are
(C) leaf cutters and most other ants, whose nests are
(D) leaf cutters and most other ants in having nests
(E) those of leaf cutters and most other ants with nests

The comparison should be between the raider ants and leafcutters and most other ants. Only C and D survive. ‘In having nests’ in D is doesn’t make a parallel comparison with raider ants make a portable nest; C correctly points to the nests by using the possessive pronoun ‘whose’

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Unlike the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, situated underground or in pieces of wood, raider ants make a portable nest by entwining their long legs to form "curtains" of ants that hang from logs or boulders, providing protection for the queen and the colony larvae and pupae.

(A) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants
(B) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, which are
(C) leaf cutters and most other ants, whose nests are
(D) leaf cutters and most other ants in having nests
(E) those of leaf cutters and most other ants with nests

As soon as I read the sentence, there is a comparison of X and Y as we have a marker of "Unlike". And we need to compare correct nouns to correct nouns.
So, for the non - underlined part, the type of ants are compared, so we need type of ants at the beginning.

Hence A,B and E goes off.

Next, Unlike X, Y does Z -> is the correct structure. So, we need an action describing what Y does that X doesn't do.
If we need to add extra information, we need a modifier. Option C) does exactly that.

For option D) in having -> looks like an action for X which is not correct. And besides, that, having is used for possessive form.

hence C)

Hi experts,
I just feel "in having nest" in D is strange, but I have no idea about what's wrong with "in having nest",
I went back to OE

it confused me a lot
any expert can help?

thank a lot
have a nice day

>_~

Consider the following sentence:
In having nests, raider ants make a portable....

In the above structure, "in having nests" refers to the raider ants. This is what the OE indicates.

In option D, the prepositional phrase can be considered a part of the following clause:
In having nests, raider ants make a portable nest by entwining their long legs.

Out of option D, you cannot make such a structure using leaf cutters and most other ants. Hence the OE.

"In the corner" is a place - a boy in the corner refers to the boy who is in the corner.
In the contrary, "in having bests" is not a place - it means "in the process of having nests" - in such case a verb is required and the subject of the verb is the noun that this phrase refers to.

Yes, we can.

'Who' is a nominative pronoun(a subject pronoun) that is usable only for humans. 'Which' is also a nominative pronoun that is usable for other animals, and even all other inanimate things such as books, tables etc -- all in all to say, for everything under the universe

'Whose' is a possessive form of both 'who' and 'which' and hence is universally usable in common.
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Hello daagh

I have seen the usage "having" in some OG sentences but not all correct questions have this form (verb-ing modifier or prepositional phrase) like in the above sentence. Is there a reason for that or it all depends on meaning?


Thanks

Unlike the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, situated underground or in pieces of wood, raider ants make a portable nest by entwining their long legs to form "curtains" of ants that hang from logs or boulders, providing protection for the queen and the colony larvae and pupae.

(A) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants - illogically compares the nests with raider ants
(B) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, which are - illogically compares the nests with raider ants
(C) leaf cutters and most other ants, whose nests are - Correct
(D) leaf cutters and most other ants in having nests - The prepositional phrase “in having nests” seems to modify the subject “raider ants” and thus imply that raider ants have their nests underground. From the remaining part of the sentence, it is clear that this is not the case.
(E) those of leaf cutters and most other ants with nests - illogical comparison , It is not clear what “those” refers to

Answer C
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Hello Everyone!

This is a great example of a comparison question! Let's take a closer look at it to determine how to best tackle this type of question. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the original question and highlight any major differences between each option in orange:

Unlike the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, situated underground or in pieces of wood, raider ants make a portable nest by entwining their long legs to form "curtains" of ants that hang from logs or boulders, providing protection for the queen and the colony larvae and pupae.

(A) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants,
(B) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, which are
(C) leaf cutters and most other ants, whose nests are
(D) leaf cutters and most other ants in having nests
(E) those of leaf cutters and most other ants with nests

After a quick glance over the options, a couple major differences jump out:

1. What they're comparing: the nests of ants / the ants themselves / those of the ants
2. Where the "nests" are located in each option

Since we know this sentence is comparing two items, we MUST first check that the two items being compared are parallel! After reading over the rest of the sentence, we can see that we're comparing "raider ants" to something that's underlined. Let's see which options use parallel structure, and which options fall short:

(A) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, --> WRONG
(It's comparing nests to raider ants, which aren't parallel in type.)

(B) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, which are --> WRONG
(It's also comparing nests to ants, which aren't parallel in type.)

(C) leaf cutters and most other ants, whose nests are --> OK
(It's comparing ants to ants, which is parallel!)

(D) leaf cutters and most other ants in having nests --> OK
(It's comparing ants to ants, which is parallel!)

(E) those of leaf cutters and most other ants with nests --> WRONG
(This is comparing ants to "those of" ants, which is not parallel. It is also unclear what "those of" is even referring to.)

We can eliminate options A, B, and E because they haven't created a parallel comparison based on the types of ants.

Let's take a closer look at options C and D to determine which is the best choice. To do this, I've added the options to the rest of the sentence:

(C) Unlike leaf cutters and most other ants, whose nests are situated underground or in pieces of wood, raider ants make a portable nest by entwining their long legs to form "curtains" of ants that hang from logs or boulders, providing protection for the queen and the colony larvae and pupae.

This is CORRECT because it uses the correct comma placement to indicate that the phrase highlighted in green is a non-essential phrase! It's not necessary to know where leaf cutters and other ants make their nests. It's only important to know that they DON'T do what raider ants do, and this sentence makes that clear with or without that extra information.

(D) Unlike leaf cutters and most other ants in having nests situated underground or in pieces of wood, raider ants make a portable nest by entwining their long legs to form "curtains" of ants that hang from logs or boulders, providing protection for the queen and the colony larvae and pupae.

This options is INCORRECT because it doesn't use the correct comma placement to show that the phrase "in having nests situated underground or in pieces of wood" is a non-essential phrase. It's missing a comma before "in" for this to work. It's also incorrect because "in having" sounds awkward and isn't necessary - just say "having" to convey the same meaning.


There you go - option C is the correct choice!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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