Giant pandas, who have recently acquired their herbivorous lifestyle

Question

Giant pandas, who have recently acquired their herbivorous lifestyle, maintain a complicated food habit over the year,  eating different parts of two bamboo plants in each season thus procure  adequate levels of essential nutrients.

A. eating different parts of two bamboo plants in each season thus procure

B. eating different parts of two bamboo plants in each season, they procure

C. eating different parts of two bamboo plants in each season, and thus procure

D. eat different parts of two bamboo plants in each season, procuring

E. eat different parts of two bamboo plants in each season, and thus procure

haardiksharma · Answer

Can someone explain error in D
also what is subject to the second clause after and 
and how do we find if that is an independent clause or dependent clause?

SISDIT · Answer

A. Run-on We need a comma and a connector before "thus" to make a complete sentence. B. Run-on The comma before "they" is NOT sufficient to connect 2 clauses. D. Changes intended meaning. 2 actions, "maintain..." and "eat...", are NOT independent. These two are related, so we need "eating" to modify "maintain..." E. Like D. C. Looks okay. "eating" modifies "maintain" successfully connects 2 related clauses "Maintain" and "procure" make perfect parallelism. IMO C. Just my 2 cents

Sent from my SM-T116NU using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

akshayk · Answer

A - "eating.... season" the modifier is fine but the problem lies with "thus procure". No conjunction connecting the 2 clauses, hence this one is out.
B - Missing conjunction 'and' as the main clause is "Giant Pandas maintain....."_______ "they procure...". This is out.
C - Giant pandas maintain....... and thus procure.... (Correct)
D - makes "eat different parts...." into a list with "maintain a complicated....year" whereas the sentence is trying to say Giant Pandas maintain a complicated food habit, (how?) by eating 2 different..... season, (result) and thus "procure....nutrients."
E - Same as D ; Makes eat different parts into a list with maintain ; so shifts the meaning.

C is the correct answer.

Any other thoughts?

SISDIT · Answer

Hi, Option C makes a complete sentence like this: Giant pandas , who have recently acquired their herbivorous lifestyle , maintain a complicated food habit over the year, eating different parts of two bamboo plants in each season , and thus procure adequate levels of essential nutrients. Here is the structure of the above sentence: Subject, 1st modifier, 1st Verb, 2nd modifier, "and thus" 2nd Verb. - Subject = giant pandas . This is the Subject for BOTH "maintain" and "procure" Hope this helps

Sent from my SM-T116NU using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

amarsinha · Answer

A. in each season thus procure....who procure is not clear....
B. , they procure....there should be something before they...as a result 
C correct...
D maintain a complicated food habit...the modifier should be eating and not eat.
E. maintain a complicated food habit...the modifier should be eating and not eat.

arvind910619 · Answer

Imo C
Choice is a trap for parallelism .
Actually the underlined part of the sentence modifies the preceding clause which talks about the pandas's eating habits   eating different parts of two bamboo plants in each season ] , and thus procure.
This sentence is also parallel to the main sentence .
If you try to answer the question how pandas maintain a complicated food habit over the year we can pretty much arrive at the answer.
Also in D we need and to join two verbs .

sayantanc2k · Answer

In D, the two main verbs are "maintain" and "eat". The conjunction "and" is missing between these verbs. 
In C, there is no second clause after "and" - there are two verbs ("maintain" and "procure") in parallel in ONE clause - the subject of this clause is "Giant Pandas".

chesstitans · Answer

hazelnut ,
what is the source of this question? Thank you.

I think this question is interesting even though i do not know the source of the question.
commas + "eating.." + commas is the modifier of the "habit"
Only C makes sense.

saarthak299 · Answer

Giant pandas, who have recently acquired their herbivorous lifestyle, maintain a complicated food habit over the year, eating different parts of two bamboo plants in each season thus procure adequate levels of essential nutrients.
A. eating different parts of two bamboo plants in each season thus procure
B. eating different parts of two bamboo plants in each season, they procure
C. eating different parts of two bamboo plants in each season, and thus procure
D. eat different parts of two bamboo plants in each season, procuring
E. eat different parts of two bamboo plants in each season, and thus procure

sdlife · Answer

What is the source of this question?

I think in E, use of "eat" as a separate verb distorts the meaning. In E there are 3 parallel verbs - maintain, eat, and procure. BUT, the original sentence wants to convey only 2 things -

1) they maintain a complicated food habit (ING modifier starting with "eating" provide more details about how they do that; it modifies the verb "maintain") 
2) they procure adequate levels of essential nutrients.

This meaning is clear in C. E shows 'eat' as a separate independent action, hence changing the original meaning.

Hope this helps!

testprep11 · Answer

Hi  sayantanc2k ,

Thanks for your valuable and insightful replies.

However I am confused by observing the replies from various other people here - they refer to the part  thus procure adequate levels of essential nutrients  as a clause. Whereas according to me it is not. It is simply a Verb phrase, as you mentioned.

But this is where my doubt stems from - Why do we have a  , and   (Comma + and) structure in the right answer choice as this gives the impression that the latter part is indeed as clause with the subject  Giant Pandas  implied -   procure adequate levels of essential nutrients. Hence, it is a clause.... what?

Which kills my understanding of comma acting as a separator in a list of verbs , like in example - Sam drinks milk,eats apple and plays football.
As per me -   Sam     drinks   milk,  eats   apple and   plays   football.
 Blue  is the subject and Words in  Green  are the 3 verbs which are simply separated by commas.

But as per logic suggested by people in the replies above , the correct construction is - Sam drinks milk  , and   eats apple  , and   plays football

Can you/anyone else help?

Thanks in advance.

buan15 · Answer

GMATNinja

Why E is incorrect here? How do we get C as correct answer?
Will be really helpful if you provide some insight to solve this kind of questions.
Thanks.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

Giant pandas, who have recently acquired their herbivorous lifestyle

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Giant pandas, who have recently acquired their herbivorous lifestyle

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards