V32-10

Official Solution:

Cattle are often mistakenly described as having four stomachs when, in fact, they have one stomach with four distinct compartments; the abomasum, the true stomach, excretes gastric juices that digest protein while the rumen, the largest compartment, ferments the ingested feed.

A. the abomasum, the true stomach, excretes gastric juices that digest protein while
B. the gastric juices digest protein while in the abomasum, the true stomach, excretes
C. the abomasum excretes gastric juices that digest protein while, the true stomach,
D. the abomasum the true stomach excreting gastric juices that digest protein while
E. the abomasum, the true stomach, excretes while gastric juices that digest protein



This is a long sentence with a lot of added information that can distract us from the main issues in the sentence. A review of our answer choices, however, reveals that we are dealing with the placement of an appositive, the placement of a subordinating conjunction, and the correct use of a verb.

Let's start with the appositive. An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that renames another noun that is right beside it. An appositive will describe, define, or provide another term for a noun in a sentence. It is always enclosed in commas and must always be paired with the noun it is modifying. They cannot be separated in the sentence. The majority of our answer choices use the wording "the abomasum, the true stomach," which implies this is supposed to be an appositive. To be sure, let's look at the options that don't use this format to see if these nouns are truly appositive. We also need to include the non-underlined portion of the second independent clause to fully understand this sentence.

Option B reads "the gastric juices digest protein while in the abomasum, the true stomach, excretes the rumen, the largest compartment, ferments the ingested feed." The sentence is awkward and unclear. "The gastric juices digest protein" makes sense. It is unclear what the phrase "while in the abomasum" is modifying. Do the gastric juices digest protein while they are in the abomasum? Or does "while in the abomasum" begin a new clause? This sentence also creates a noun, verb, noun, noun, verb construction without any conjunctions. The true stomach (noun) excretes (verb) the rumen (noun), the largest compartment (noun), ferments (verb). Two verbs and two nouns cannot be combined without a conjunction. Option B cannot be the correct answer.

Option C reads "the abomasum excretes gastric juices that digest protein while, the true stomach, the rumen, the largest compartment, ferments the ingested feed." This sentence is perfect until we get to the word "while." After that, we have three nouns in a row without a conjunction to turn them into a series, and each noun is enclosed in commas. When a noun or noun phrase is enclosed in commas, this tells us it is not essential to the sentence. All the nouns in the dependent clause (while begins a dependent clause) are in commas, so our dependent clause no longer has a noun. That doesn't work at all. Option C cannot be the correct answer.

Now that we have eliminated the answer choices that didn't use the appositive structure, we can safely assume "the true stomach" is an appositive of "the abomasum." Appositives must always be set off by commas, and in Option D there are no commas. Additionally, Option D uses "excreting" instead of "excretes." Without a helping verb, an -ing word cannot act as a verb. Option D does not have a true verb. It cannot be the correct answer.

We have narrowed our choices to Option A and Option E. The only difference between the two choices is the place of the subordinating conjunction "while." Option D places "while" after the verb excretes. This means that the verb "excretes" no longer has an object, and it is a transitive verb. It needs an object. But even if we didn't know "excretes" was a transitive verb, the placement of "while" here creates this sentence: while gastric juices that digest protein the rumen, the largest compartment, ferments the ingested feed. This doesn't make sense. This created a dependent clause (while gastric juices that digest protein) that does not relate to the independent clause it is connected to. Option E cannot be the correct answer.
We have successfully eliminated four answer choices. Option A is the best answer.


Answer: A