The group of Thai and Bangladeshi elephants behaved a little different

Question

The group of Thai and Bangladeshi elephants behaved a little differently from the others: they didn’t shake their heads or shower themselves with dust,  but they did make noises, shy away from the bees and touch one another’s  trunks or putting a trunk into one another’s mouth, perhaps as a sign of reassurance or comfort.

(A) but they did make noises, shy away from the bees and touch one another’s

(B) they did make noises, shying away from the bees and touching one another’s

(C) but they did make noises, shying away from the bees and touching one another’s

(D) they did make noises, shy away from the bees and touch each other’s

(E) make noises, shy away from the bees and touching each other’s

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

This complicated sentence contains a clear decision point at the beginning of each answer: some contain the conjunction “but” and the others do not. There is also a clear parallelism choice for how the elements in the series are linked together.

Starting with the first decision point, you need to decide which choices logically link the underlined portion to the rest of the sentence. Often these types of sentence construction decisions are best done by using slash-and-burn to simplify the sentence: (A) and (C) state that “they didn’t do this, but they did do this” - that is a logical linking. In (B) and (D) you have “they didn’t do this, they did do this” – this is a classic “comma splice” error as you cannot link together two independent clauses with just a comma…some type of conjunction is required. Answer choice (E) creates an illogical series that is not parallel: “they didn’t shake, make noises, shy away and touching…” It is not parallel at the end and the “didn’t” doesn’t go logically with the rest of the verbs in the sentence.

With (B), (D), and (E) eliminated, you must compare (A) and (C) – (C) correctly uses the parallel participial structure “shying…and touching” which goes with the “or putting” that is not underlined and dictates this decision. (A) might seem parallel at first glance but the series “make…shy…and touch” does not go with the “or putting” after the underlined portion.  The correct answer is (C).

petrichor · Answer

FANBOYS error in B and D.

C has a parallelism error at "they did make noises, shying away from the bees .." as the later -ing phrase looks like a modifier and doesn't sit parallel to the rest of the sentence before it, distorting the meaning.

Again, E has a parallelism error at 'shy away from the bees and touching each other’s trunks or putting .. ' if the sentence intends to list the things that the elephants didn't do, then the 'touching' and 'putting' should be in parallel to work with "They didn't ..". 
From the contextual clues "behaved a little differently from the others" and "perhaps as a sign of reassurance or comfort", we can understand there should be a contrast of something the elephants didn't and did do. E doesn't work this way.

Though I am not sure on whether "or" marks a list's end as noted in previous comment.

A has a parallelism error at "they did .. putting a trunk into one another’s mouth" is not parallel, which leaves only C.

Note : Previously, I overlooked the "putting .." phrase and didn't match it with "they did"

C is the answer

winterschool · Answer

The group of Thai and Bangladeshi elephants behaved a little differently from the others: they didn’t shake their heads or shower themselves with dust, but they did make noises, shy away from the bees and touch one another’s trunks or putting a trunk into one another’s mouth, perhaps as a sign of reassurance or comfort.

(A) but they did make noises,  shy  away from the bees and  touch  one another’s  Incorrect

nonunderlined portion - putting needs to be parallel, so touching is correct uses

(B)  they  did make noises, shying away from the bees and touching one another’s  Incorrect

FANBOYS require before they

(C)  but they did make noises, shying away from the bees and touching one another’s   Correct

(D)  they  did make noises,  shy  away from the bees and  touch  each other’s  Incorrect

FANBOYS require before they
nonunderlined portion - putting need to be parallel, so touching is correct uses

(E)  make noises ,  shy  away from the bees and  touching  each other’s  Incorrect

changes meaning and parallelism error

kakakakaak · Answer

i know this is not part of question but it will help me clear my concept.
this modoifier is a noun modifer used at the last in the sentence ... perhaps as a sign of reassurance or comfort.
  .... but i dont understand what it is modifying as it is noun modifier it should follow touch rule

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  kakakakaak ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "perhaps as a sign of reassurance or comfort" is actually an adverbial phrase that modifies "touching one another’s trunks or putting a trunk into one another’s mouth".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

VerbalBot · Answer

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The group of Thai and Bangladeshi elephants behaved a little different

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The group of Thai and Bangladeshi elephants behaved a little different

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