Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds

Question

Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring  8 feet in length, the Alaskan brown bear is a close relative of grizzly bear.

(A) Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring 
(B) Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and it measures 
(C) Largest of all land carnivores, it weighs up to 1500 pounds and measures 
(D) It is largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring 
(E) It is largest of all land carnivores, weighs up to 1500 pounds and measures

In Option D & E does "it" refers to "Alaskan brown bear"?

If so then why option D & E are wrong

Kurtosis · Answer

It is preferred to introduce the noun first and the pronoun later. Also options D and E convert the modifying clause into an independent clause.

There are no modifier errors in option A and 'weighing' and 'measuring' are parallel.

Answer: A

GGMU · Answer

IMO A...

A.Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring 
B.Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and  it  measures  Parallelism and pronoun error  
C.Largest of all land carnivores,  it  weighs up to 1500 pounds and measures  Parallelism and pronoun error 
D.It is largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring  Awkward construction 
E.It is largest of all land carnivores, weighs up to 1500 pounds and measures  Awkward construction

For D and E the construction is awkward because:
In A, B, C Noun modifier,...., Noun... is the correct form.
In D,E Clause,...., Noun... is not correct.

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Nandish, as Vyshak correctly pointed out, D actually  changes  the structure of the sentence, so that now D has the following  two   Independent clauses  connected just by a comma:

i)  It is largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring 8 feet in length  - This has a subject  it  and verb  is 
ii)  the Alaskan brown bear is a close relative of grizzly bear  - This has a subject  the Alaskan brown bear  and verb  is .

This kind of a structure is called  run-on , and is always  incorrect . Similarly, E is also a run-on.

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses   run-on  sentences , their application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id, I can mail the corresponding section.

Skywalker18 · Answer

Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring  8 feet in length, the Alaskan brown bear is a close relative of grizzly bear.

A.Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring -- Correct
B.Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and it measures - Parallelism error
C.Largest of all land carnivores, it weighs up to 1500 pounds and measures - Parallelism error
D.It is largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring -- Run- on sentence - 2 independent clauses connected by comma
E.It is largest of all land carnivores, weighs up to 1500 pounds and measures -- Run- on sentence - 2 independent clauses connected by comma

Answer A

thorX88 · Answer

Why is C wrong? Can anyone pls explain.

There is no parallelism error in C.  it  is common for weighs and measures

Option C sounds awkward but that cannot be the reason to discard.

Option A may sound correct but the Verb-ing phrase can also modify  land carnivores  or the noun phrase  Largest of all land carnivores  - distorting the meaning.

Am I missing something?

thorX88 · Answer

Why is C wrong? Can anyone pls explain.

There is no parallelism error in C. it is common for weighs and measures

Option C sounds awkward but that cannot be the reason to discard.

Option A may sound correct but the Verb-ing phrase can also modify - land carnivores- or the noun phrase - Largest of all land carnivores - distorting the meaning.

Am I missing something?

daagh · Answer

Xbox
1.If largest of the land carnivores is a noun phrase that contains a noun 'land carnivores' and when the subsequent modifier encased in the parenthesis modifies the noun phrase that touches it. then it will be interesting to know what is the verb of such 'a clause' is. 
2. If the modifier simply modifies all the land carnovores, do all the land carnivores weigh 1500 pounds each or the modifier refers to only those land carnivores that weigh 1500 pounds each?

IanStewart · Answer

Take out the unnecessary words in answer C:

It weighs 1500 pounds, the Alaskan brown bear is a relative of the grizzly bear.

There are two major errors here. This is a run-on sentence; it has two main clauses with no conjunction between them. We need a word like 'and' in the middle, or else we need a period or a semicolon between the two clauses.

But there is also a pronoun error. It's not clear what "it" refers to when it is first used. It might be easier to see the problem with a simpler example:

She went to the store, and the chef bought lemongrass.

There's no way to tell in this sentence if the "she" at the beginning of the sentence is "the chef" at the end of the sentence. Compare with this sentence:

The chef went to the store, and she bought lemongrass.

Now it is clear that "the chef" and "she" are the same person. If a vague subject (like 'it' or 'she') refers to a specific subject (like 'the Alaskan brown bear' or 'the chef') in a sentence, then the specific subject needs to be named first. Otherwise there's no way to know who or what the 'it' or 'she' is referring to.

And, unrelated, the word "the" seems to be missing at least once in the OP. The sentence absolutely needs to say " the  grizzly bear" at the end, and I'd normally expect to see a 'the' somewhere in the first clause of the sentence too.

thorX88 · Answer

Thanks understood what's wrong with C.

Can u also share what does the Verb-ing modify in A.

Is the construction of A -  Noun, Verb-ing, Independent Clause ; in this case does the Verb-ing modify the Noun. TIA

thorX88 · Answer

Hi Daagh,

Thanks for the response. I am not able to understand the structure of the sentence (what is the modifier and what is it modifying). Can you pls you please help?

daagh · Answer

XboX

1. We are starting the sentence with an appositive modifier (Largest of all land carnivores) that points to the noun the Alaskan bear
2. Then we have a couple of verb+ing modifiers that both modify the noun namely the Alaskan bear
3. Now you get the independent sentence, namely, the Alaskan brown bear is….. 
Therefore, this is a simple sentence with adjectival modifiers appearing before the main clause.

The important thing here to remember is that the modifiers will not have any verb. If the modifiers have any verb, then the sentence will become comma splices( run-ons) since there will be two clauses joined by a comma. That is precisely the reason why choices B, C, D and E are all wrong

A.Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring 
B.Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and it  measures  
C.Largest of all land carnivores, it weighs up to 1500 pounds and  measures  
D.It  is  largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds and measuring 
E.It  is  largest of all land carnivores,  weighs  up to 1500 pounds and  measures

HTH

VerbalBot · Answer

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Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds

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Largest of all land carnivores, weighing up to 1500 pounds

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