At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with creature

Question

At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with creatures, plants and containing microbes that have yet to be discovered by science .

A. At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with creatures, plants and containing microbes that have yet to be discovered by science

B. Lying at the depths of the earth's oceans are habitats teeming with creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science

C. Lying at the depths of the earth's oceans is habitats teeming with creatures, plants and microbes yet to be discovered by science

D. At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with and containing creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science

E. At the depths of the earth's oceans lies habitats that are teeming with creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with creatures, plants and containing microbes that have yet to be discovered by science .

A. At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with creatures, plants and containing microbes that have yet to be discovered by science

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect. The first two items in the list of the sentence are nouns ( creatures, plants ), but the last item is a verb ( containing ).

In a list of 3 or more items, all the items should be the same part of speech (all nouns, all verbs, or all adjectives).

What helps us identify this question as a Parallelism question as well as identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign: A list of 3 items or more, separated by commas and and/or before the last item.

B. Lying at the depths of the earth's oceans are habitats teeming with creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science

This answer choice corrects the original Parallelism error by making all the items in the list the same part of speech (in this case nouns).

C. Lying at the depths of the earth's oceans is habitats teeming with creatures, plants and microbes yet to be discovered by science

Although this answer choice corrects the original Parallelism error by making all the items in the list the same part of speech (in this case nouns), it is grammatically incorrect. The plural subject  habitats  does not agree with the singular verb  is .

What helps us identify this question as a Subject Verb Agreement question and identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign: The verb precedes the subject

D. At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with and containing creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science

Although this answer choice corrects the original Parallelism error by making all the items in the list the same part of speech (in this case nouns), it is grammatically incorrect. The plural subject habitats does not agree with the singular verb is.

What helps us identify this question as a Subject Verb Agreement question and identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign: The verb precedes the subject

E. At the depths of the earth's oceans lies habitats that are teeming with creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science

Although this answer choice corrects the original Parallelism error by making all the items in the list the same part of speech (in this case nouns), it is grammatically incorrect. The plural subject  habitats  does not agree with the singular verb  lies .

What helps us identify this question as a Subject Verb Agreement question and identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign: The verb precedes the subject

ProKiller · Answer

A. At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with creatures, plants and containing microbes that have yet to be discovered by science - parallelism B. Lying at the depths of the earth's oceans are habitats teeming with creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science -

C. Lying at the depths of the earth's oceans is habitats teeming with creatures, plants and microbes yet to be discovered by science - should be 'are' D. At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with and containing creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science - Just... weird. How can one teem with something... and contain too? E. At the depths of the earth's oceans lies habitats that are teeming with creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science - should be 'lie'

Anisha1637 · Answer

:  SV Agreement error : lie should be replaced with lie as the subject is depths

AlexTheTrainer · Answer

Great example of how the GMAT might use the passive voice.

Passive voice: where the subject of the verb differs from the subject of the action, the latter most often placed after the verb.

The subject of the action is what acts upon (or does) the verb.

Ask yourself: What IS lying at the depths? What LIES at the depths?

Answer: The habitats - always placed after the verb in this case.

Do habitats LIE or LIES at the depths? Habitats IS or ARE lying at the depths?

The answer to these questions indicate that C and E must be wrong.

A and D have clear parallelism problems, so B is the answer.

Posted from my mobile device

Ved3 · Answer

A. At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with creatures, plants and containing microbes that have yet to be discovered by science - parallelism B. Lying at the depths of the earth's oceans are habitats teeming with creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science -

C. Lying at the depths of the earth's oceans is habitats teeming with creatures, plants and microbes yet to be discovered by science - should be 'are' D. At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with and containing creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science - Just... weird. How can one teem with something... and contain too? E. At the depths of the earth's oceans lies habitats that are teeming with creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science - should be 'lie' Posted from my mobile device

Sushil117 · Answer

A. At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with creatures, plants and containing microbes that have yet to be discovered by science -in "teeming with creatures, plants and containing microbes that have yet to be discovered" meaning is kind of distorted as seems like only microbes are to be discovered. sounds fishy

let's keep it for a while B. Lying at the depths of the earth's oceans are habitats teeming with creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science seems good C. Lying at the depths of the earth's oceans is habitats teeming with creatures, plants and microbes yet to be discovered by science SVA error "is" should be "are" D. At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with and containing creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science use of "and containing" is redundant E. At the depths of the earth's oceans lies habitats that are teeming with creatures, plants and microbes that have yet to be discovered by science SVA error "lies" doesn't agree with plural subject habitats between A nd B ,B is better choice.IMO B

VerbalBot · Answer

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At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with creature

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

At the depths of the earth's oceans lie habitats teeming with creature

Prep Toolkit

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