Madagascar was one of the last habitable areas of the earth to undergo

Question

Madagascar was one of the last habitable areas of the earth to undergo human settlement, which has made it  an ideal site for researching rare flora and fauna.

(A) Madagascar was one of the last habitable areas of the earth to undergo human settlement, which has made it
(B) Madagascar was one of the last habitable areas of the earth to have undergone human settlement, and that has made it
(C) Madagascar underwent human settlement as one of the last habitable areas of the earth, which makes it
(D) Madagascar, one of the last habitable areas of the earth, underwent human settlement, making it
(E) Because Madagascar was one of the last habitable areas of the earth to undergo human settlement, it is

daagh · Accepted Answer

Madagascar was one of the last habitable areas of the earth to undergo human settlement, which has made it  an ideal site for researching rare flora and fauna.

A grand exercise on modifications relative pronoun touch rule and Pronoun reference. 
 
(A) Madagascar was one of the last habitable areas of the earth to undergo human settlement, which has made it ---  No referent noun for the relative pronoun. It is the undergoing the human settlement as the last habitable area that makes Madagascar as a research bed. 'Which' cannot refer to a theme? It should refer to a single worded noun. The pronoun 'it' modifies "Madagascar".

(B) Madagascar was one of the last habitable areas of the earth to have undergone human settlement, and that has made it -- ' That' has made - No proper referent for the demonstrative pronoun 'that'.

(C) Madagascar underwent human settlement as one of the last habitable areas of the earth, which makes it-  No referent for 'which'

(D) Madagascar, one of the last habitable areas of the earth, underwent human settlement, making it --- T he choice distorts the actual meaning. This choice says that because Madagascar underwent human settlement, it is suitable for research. 
 
(E) Because Madagascar was one of the last habitable areas of the earth to undergo human settlement, it is ---  best of the choices.

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

On the GMAT, ‘which’ has to have a noun before it to modify. In the case of this question, there is no noun immediately before which. Therefore we can  eliminate Option A and Option C. 
 
 Option B  – There is no direct reference for that. Also, the comma before that is suspect. Eliminate. 
 
Option D  – This is a case of altered meaning. The sentence does not express the intent of the original sentence. Eliminate.

Option E  –  the best choice.

Hope this helps!

ueh55406 · Answer

Some problem with OA, even though I agree, E, as a choice, makes more sense than any other.

(E) Because Madagascar was one of the last habitable areas of the earth to undergo human settlement,  it  is

it  is supposed to refer to a noun, so human settlement /earth / or Madagascar? which one are we talking about here?

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  ueh55406 , pronoun  it  is indeed  ambiguous  here.

In case of pronoun ambiguity, application of following rule often comes in handy:

Pronoun-subject in one clause can be presumed to refer to noun-subject of another clause.

The two clauses here are:

i) Because Madagascar was one of the last habitable areas of the earth to undergo human settlement -  Madagascar  is the  noun-subject

ii) it is an ideal site for researching rare flora and fauna -  it  is the  pronoun-subject

So,  it  refers to  Madagascar . So, despite the ambiguity, this will be considered a  valid  construct.

Having said that, it's worth noting that pronoun ambiguity should  not  be the  only  reason to eliminate an answer choice.

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses  Pronoun ambiguity , its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

allanjoseph97 · Answer

In option A ,which modifies "Human Settlement". This construction creates an erroneous meaning, The sentence suggests that "human settlement made it ideal to study Madagascar". The clearly is not the intended meaning.

In option B the usage of "that" is not correct. That should be immediately followed by a noun.

In option C ,which modifies the earth. This construction creates an erroneous meaning, The sentence suggests that "Earth made it ideal to study Madagascar". The clearly is not the intended meaning.

In option D The meaning conveyed by this option is that the reason my Madagascar is ideal to be studied is that Madagascar underwent human settlement. This is also clearly not the intended meaning

we are left with option E which conveys the actual meaning

Hope this reasoning helps

VerbalBot · Answer

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Madagascar was one of the last habitable areas of the earth to undergo

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Madagascar was one of the last habitable areas of the earth to undergo

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