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555-605 Level|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|   Modifiers|   Modifiers|   Parallelism|                                 
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the 28 Nov 2020, 00:02
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The usage of relative pronoun 'which' whenever appears to modify incorrectly/ambiguously, has always been highlighted in the official guide explanations.

But while i was going through the explanation of this very question , the official guide didn't not identify the usage as incorrect. (It just didn't address 'which' for options C and D)

The little i have understood about the usage of 'which' is that it modifies preceding Noun or sometimes even far of nouns, but it does not modify the entire clause.

As per me, I would have eliminated 'which means ' on the basis of usage and abiguity.

Could you please Explain for this little finding of mine in regard to the Official Guide?
For starters, the official guide explanations were written years -- and often a couple of decades -- after the original question was created. So the OG explanations often aren't a great reflection of the question-writers' intent, and in general, it's worth taking those explanations with a grain of salt.

In this case, the test for whether "which" is correct is twofold:

    1) Is the modifier beginning with "which" reasonably close to the noun it modifies?
    2) Does the verb in the modifier agree in number with the noun it describes?

With that in mind, take another look at the relevant portion in (C): "Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world’s social wasps, which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society." The verb "means" is singular, so we know that the phrase beginning with "which" needs to modify a singular noun. But there aren't any singular nouns that "which" could possibly modify, so (C) is incorrect. (D) has the exact same problem.

And yes, you're correct that in most cases, "which" should modify the nearest noun. That's not a strict rule, though: as long as "which" modifies a nearby noun, it can be OK -- but the modifier needs to actually make sense and adhere to basic subject-verb agreement rules. And in (C) and (D), it simply doesn't.

I hope that helps!
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GMATNinja - Love that test, as there is often a lot of confusion around the use of "which". I wonder if this test can applied to any other modifiers as well?
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the 16 Jan 2021, 12:49
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For starters, the official guide explanations were written years -- and often a couple of decades -- after the original question was created. So the OG explanations often aren't a great reflection of the question-writers' intent, and in general, it's worth taking those explanations with a grain of salt.

In this case, the test for whether "which" is correct is twofold:

    1) Is the modifier beginning with "which" reasonably close to the noun it modifies?
    2) Does the verb in the modifier agree in number with the noun it describes?

With that in mind, take another look at the relevant portion in (C): "Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world’s social wasps, which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society." The verb "means" is singular, so we know that the phrase beginning with "which" needs to modify a singular noun. But there aren't any singular nouns that "which" could possibly modify, so (C) is incorrect. (D) has the exact same problem.

And yes, you're correct that in most cases, "which" should modify the nearest noun. That's not a strict rule, though: as long as "which" modifies a nearby noun, it can be OK -- but the modifier needs to actually make sense and adhere to basic subject-verb agreement rules. And in (C) and (D), it simply doesn't.

I hope that helps!

GMATNinja - Love that test, as there is often a lot of confusion around the use of "which". I wonder if this test can applied to any other modifiers as well?
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You can ask yourself those two questions with any noun modifier: which, that, where, when, who, whose...

Let us know if you come across any good GMAT examples where this process does (or does not) help!
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the 18 Jan 2021, 12:42
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What is the verb in the first IC ?

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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the 18 Jan 2021, 22:18
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What is the verb in the first IC ?
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Hi wali786,

The verb is number. The subject is "yellow jackets".

Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps...
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the 03 Jul 2021, 02:17
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of females—the queen and her sterile female workers.


A. wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of

B. wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of

C. which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society, almost all

D. which means that their society is highly cooperative, organized, and it is almost entirely

E. living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all
Show more

Hi VeritasKarishma EducationAisle, Although I was able to get to the correct answer by doing below analysis, I don't understand the structure of the sentence for e.g. what role the underlined portion is playing here?

Analysis of option choices

A. wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of [b] where is used to refer to geographical entities, hence use of where is not correct here [\b]

B. wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of [b] No grammatical issues in this one, although I am not sure of structure of this sentence [\b]

C. which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society, almost all [b] here the usage of which is not correct and is illogical, there is nothing in the preceding sentence that would demand which, more importantly which could refer to the nearest noun i.e. wasps and "wasps" means they live blah blah is non sensical [\b]

D. which means that their society is highly cooperative, organized, and it is almost entirely [b] Issue with parallelism towards the end of the sentence and same issue of which as described in C [\b]

E. living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all [b] Paralleism issue towards the nd of the sentence. Meaning wise also it does not make sense to use "ing" modifier here [\b]
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the 04 Jul 2021, 03:49
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of females—the queen and her sterile female workers.
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Well, grammatically, the underlined portion in B is (what's called) a resumptive modifier; you might want to Google it, for more information.
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GMATNinja

Could you please help:

"Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world’s social wasps,"_________
Isn't the subject here yellow jackets, instead of wasps?
And, isn't : of the world’s social wasps, a prepositional phrase?
Based on the same, would options A, B starting with wasps refer to the correct subject?
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the 11 Sep 2021, 20:18
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I understand that option B is correct but I have a very hard time eliminating Option E. The reason is that I think, +and is used to connect two independent clauses in E.

So the sentence that I read is this.


Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all females???the queen and her sterile female workers.

Below is how I understood the sentence

Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, - Main Clause that informs about the Yellow Jackets
living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, - Modifies the Yellow Jackets
it consists of almost all females???the queen and her sterile female workers. - the 2nd independent clause.



In the above sentence, I do understand that it has no clear referent to it. Also, I want to understand whether it can refer to society from the modifier. Is this allowed?

And so the reason I think this sentence is incorrect is that if we are connecting two independent clauses the pronoun "it" is going to refer to the subject of the first clause which in this case is Yellow Jackets. Yellow Jackets is Plural and it is singular. Also, Yellow Jackets consists of almost all the females does not work meaning wise

The Official Guide explains that sentence E has a parallelism error. But I almost missed that this sentence is testing parallelism. I approached this sentence entirely from the modifier issue. Also, the official guide explanation that cooperative, organized, and consisting almost entirely of females modifies social wasps seems to be a bit confusing. I think these three are modifying the word society.

Also, there is a difference between Option B and Option E.

B. wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of - highly cooperative and organized are parallel to each other and consisting modifies society

E. living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all ( Incorrect Version )

living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and consisting almost entirely of females

The three elements in the above sentence are parallel to each other and modify society.


Are both the above constructions correct? I feel option E is incorrect because of the pronoun issue but I am not entirely sure. Please help me with this.
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GMATNinja, GMATNinjaTwo,
I understand that option B is correct but I have a very hard time eliminating Option E. The reason is that I think, +and is used to connect two independent clauses in E.

So the sentence that I read is this.


E.Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all females—the queen and her sterile female workers.

Below is how I understood the above sentence

Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, - Main Clause that informs about the Yellow Jackets
living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, - Modifies the Yellow Jackets
it consists of almost all females—the queen and her sterile female workers. - the 2nd independent clause.



In the above sentence, I do understand that it has no clear referent. Also, I want to understand whether it can refer to society from the modifier. Is this allowed? And would that make sense?

And so the reason I think this sentence is incorrect is that if we are connecting two independent clauses the pronoun "it" is going to refer to the subject of the first clause which in this case is Yellow Jackets. Yellow Jackets is Plural and it is singular. Also, Yellow Jackets consists of almost all the females does not work meaning wise

The Official Guide explains that sentence E has a parallelism error. But I almost missed that this sentence is testing parallelism. I approached this sentence entirely from the modifier issue. Also, the official guide explanation that cooperative, organized, and consisting almost entirely of females modifies social wasps seems to be a bit confusing. I think these three are modifying the word society.

Also, there is a difference between Option B and Option E.

B. wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of - highly cooperative and organized are parallel to each other and consisting modifies society


E. living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all ( Incorrect Version )

living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and consisting almost entirely of females

The three elements in the above sentence are parallel to each other and modify society.


Are both the above constructions correct? I feel option E is incorrect because of the pronoun issue but I am not entirely sure. Please help me with this.

egmat
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the 13 Sep 2021, 13:37
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GMATNinja, GMATNinjaTwo,
I understand that option B is correct but I have a very hard time eliminating Option E. The reason is that I think, +and is used to connect two independent clauses in E.

So the sentence that I read is this.


E.Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all females—the queen and her sterile female workers.

Below is how I understood the above sentence

Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, - Main Clause that informs about the Yellow Jackets
living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, - Modifies the Yellow Jackets
it consists of almost all females—the queen and her sterile female workers. - the 2nd independent clause.



In the above sentence, I do understand that it has no clear referent. Also, I want to understand whether it can refer to society from the modifier. Is this allowed? And would that make sense?

And so the reason I think this sentence is incorrect is that if we are connecting two independent clauses the pronoun "it" is going to refer to the subject of the first clause which in this case is Yellow Jackets. Yellow Jackets is Plural and it is singular. Also, Yellow Jackets consists of almost all the females does not work meaning wise

The Official Guide explains that sentence E has a parallelism error. But I almost missed that this sentence is testing parallelism. I approached this sentence entirely from the modifier issue. Also, the official guide explanation that cooperative, organized, and consisting almost entirely of females modifies social wasps seems to be a bit confusing. I think these three are modifying the word society.

Also, there is a difference between Option B and Option E.

B. wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of - highly cooperative and organized are parallel to each other and consisting modifies society


E. living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all ( Incorrect Version )

living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and consisting almost entirely of females

The three elements in the above sentence are parallel to each other and modify society.


Are both the above constructions correct? I feel option E is incorrect because of the pronoun issue but I am not entirely sure. Please help me with this.

egmat
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First, you should always take the Official Guide's explanations with a grain (or several grains) of salt. Some are fine, but they're not written by the same folks who write the questions, and so the quality there can be a little uneven.

Here's why I'd kill (E). First, that "living" modifier is illogical. When we see "full clause + comma + -ing," the "-ing" modifier is describing the entire previous clause, or giving us info regarding the action of that clause. Take another look at how the modifier is operating in (E):

Quote:
Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, living in a society
Show more
How on earth is "living in a society" supposed to modify the verb "number?" The wasps don't live in a society as a result of being among the 900 species of social wasps. Instead, "living" should describe the wasps themselves, as they're the ones in the society! So first, we've got an illogical modifier.

Also, while the use of two independent clauses here is grammatically correct, it creates an odd meaning. Consider an example:

    Tim likes to go the gym, and he likes to lift 12-ounce weights.

Here, because I'm offering two independent clauses, it sounds as though the actions don't necessarily have a logical relationship to each other. Put another way, this sentence creates the impression that Tim might do one activity at the gym, and then he lifts weights someplace else.

That isn't wrong, necessarily. But if I wanted to convey that Tim lifts weights at the gym, I'd use a modifier instead of two independent clauses:

    Tim likes to go to the gym, where he likes to lift weights.

Because (E) uses two independent clauses, it sounds as though the second clause, "it consists of all females," is unrelated to the first. But that doesn't really make sense, as the composition of the society is part of how it's organized. In other words, the clauses seem like they should have been logically related, rather than independent. Again: not wrong, but not ideal either.

Contrast this with (B), in which we get the modifier "consisting almost entirely of females" to describe the society, giving us that logical causal connection we lack in (E).

Taken together, (B) is clearly better.

I hope that helps!
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the 14 Sep 2021, 10:36
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of females—the queen and her sterile female workers.
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A. wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of
they usage in the middle is distorting the meaning therefore out

B. wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of
The meaning is spot on therefore let us hang on to it

C. which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society, almost all
almost all isn't the right usage and which is creating meaning issue therefore out

D. which means that their society is highly cooperative, organized, and it is almost entirely
Wasps are well organised not the society therefore out

E. living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all
almost all isn't perfect in addition and it usage isn't perfect therefore out

Therefore IMO B
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the 25 Sep 2021, 07:53
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xxxpbxxx
GMATNinja

Could you please help:

"Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world’s social wasps,"_________
Isn't the subject here yellow jackets, instead of wasps?
And, isn't : of the world’s social wasps, a prepositional phrase?
Based on the same, would options A, B starting with wasps refer to the correct subject?
Show more
Here, have an example:

    "Tim is fond of vintage clothing, clothing that cannot be found at any retail stores."

The phrase "clothing that cannot be found..." clearly describes "vintage clothing," not the subject of the sentence ("Tim").

The same is true in (A) and (B). There is no need for the modifier after the comma to describe the subject of the sentence. In fact, that would be awfully confusing -- if we wanted to modify the subject, we would probably want to stick the modifier right after "yellow jackets". The word "wasps" is repeated to indicate that the comma-separated modifier is giving us more information about the "social wasps" mentioned just before the modifier.

I hope that helps!
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Hi EducationAisle

In option E, doesn't the pronoun "it" refers to society ? It makes sense too as it gives us the information that the society consists of all females.
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Hi EducationAisle

In option E, doesn't the pronoun "it" refers to society ? It makes sense too as it gives us the information that the society consists of all females.
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No problem with "it".

E is not parallel. Notice that E says:

....a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all females

So, the sentence is: a society that is X, Y, and Z.

X: highly cooperative
Y: organized, and
Z: it consists of almost all females

X, Y, and Z are not grammatically similar here: X and Y are adjective phrases, while Z is an entire clause.

Phrases and clauses are generally not parallel.
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Hello GMATNinja,

Please suggest if there is an error with my analysis.

Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of females—the queen and her sterile female workers.

Option A
In red --> modifier
Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps --> is modifier for ‘wasps’
living in a highly cooperative and organized society --> modifier for ‘wasps’
where they consist almost entirely of females --> modifier for ‘society’
the queen and her sterile female workers --> provides more information about females

Doesn’t have a verb! --> Hence incorrect

Other issues:
Where  society is a group not a place; can’t use where


A. wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of

B. wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of
‘Wasps’ is the subject and ‘verb’ is live

C. which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society, almost all
‘which’ could refer to any one of ‘species’ or ‘wasps’

D. which means that their society is highly cooperative, organized, and it is almost entirely
‘which’ could refer to any one of ‘species’ or ‘wasps’
Parallelism issue --> ‘cooperative’, ‘organized’ and ‘it is’ --> adjective, adjective and clause

E. living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all
Parallelism issue --> ‘cooperative’, ‘organized’ and ‘it is’ --> adjective, adjective and clause
Also no verb
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Hello GMATNinja,

Please suggest if there is an error with my analysis.

Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of females—the queen and her sterile female workers.

Option A
In red --> modifier
Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps --> is modifier for ‘wasps’
living in a highly cooperative and organized society --> modifier for ‘wasps’
where they consist almost entirely of females --> modifier for ‘society’
the queen and her sterile female workers --> provides more information about females

Doesn’t have a verb! --> Hence incorrect

Other issues:
Where  society is a group not a place; can’t use where


A. wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of

B. wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of
‘Wasps’ is the subject and ‘verb’ is live

C. which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society, almost all
‘which’ could refer to any one of ‘species’ or ‘wasps’

D. which means that their society is highly cooperative, organized, and it is almost entirely
‘which’ could refer to any one of ‘species’ or ‘wasps’
Parallelism issue --> ‘cooperative’, ‘organized’ and ‘it is’ --> adjective, adjective and clause

E. living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all
Parallelism issue --> ‘cooperative’, ‘organized’ and ‘it is’ --> adjective, adjective and clause
Also no verb
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Hello niyatisuri,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, we do have a few key points regarding your analysis that we believe you should keep in mind.

The first is to do with the overall structure of the sentence - in the correct sentence, the main clause is "Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps", and "wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society..." is an appositive modifier that acts upon the noun phrase "social wasps", explaining what social wasps are. So, the error in Option A is actually one of meaning; the phrase "society, where they consist almost entirely of..." illogically, implies that social wasps consist almost entirely of females specifically when they are inside a highly cooperative and organized society; the intended meaning is simply that yellowjackets are one of the species of social wasps, and social wasps are those that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of females.

Options C, D, and E also feature meaning errors.

The use of "which means" in C and D incorrectly implies a cause-effect relationship between yellowjackets being one of the species of social wasps and social wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society that is almost entirely female.

Further, the use of the "comma + present participle ("verb+ing" - "living" in this sentence) incorrectly implies that because yellowjackets are one of the species of social wasps, they live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of females; remember, the introduction of the present participle ("verb+ing"- “living” in this case) after comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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niyatisuri
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the 25 Mar 2022, 09:37
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ExpertsGlobal5
niyatisuri


Please suggest if there is an error with my analysis.

Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps, wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of females—the queen and her sterile female workers.

Option A
In red --> modifier
Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps --> is modifier for ‘wasps’
living in a highly cooperative and organized society --> modifier for ‘wasps’
where they consist almost entirely of females --> modifier for ‘society’
the queen and her sterile female workers --> provides more information about females

Doesn’t have a verb! --> Hence incorrect

Other issues:
Where  society is a group not a place; can’t use where


A. wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of

B. wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of
‘Wasps’ is the subject and ‘verb’ is live

C. which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society, almost all
‘which’ could refer to any one of ‘species’ or ‘wasps’

D. which means that their society is highly cooperative, organized, and it is almost entirely
‘which’ could refer to any one of ‘species’ or ‘wasps’
Parallelism issue --> ‘cooperative’, ‘organized’ and ‘it is’ --> adjective, adjective and clause

E. living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all
Parallelism issue --> ‘cooperative’, ‘organized’ and ‘it is’ --> adjective, adjective and clause
Also no verb

Hello niyatisuri,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, we do have a few key points regarding your analysis that we believe you should keep in mind.

The first is to do with the overall structure of the sentence - in the correct sentence, the main clause is "Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world's social wasps", and "wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society..." is an appositive modifier that acts upon the noun phrase "social wasps", explaining what social wasps are. So, the error in Option A is actually one of meaning; the phrase "society, where they consist almost entirely of..." illogically, implies that social wasps consist almost entirely of females specifically when they are inside a highly cooperative and organized society; the intended meaning is simply that yellowjackets are one of the species of social wasps, and social wasps are those that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of females.

Options C, D, and E also feature meaning errors.

The use of "which means" in C and D incorrectly implies a cause-effect relationship between yellowjackets being one of the species of social wasps and social wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society that is almost entirely female.

Further, the use of the "comma + present participle ("verb+ing" - "living" in this sentence) incorrectly implies that because yellowjackets are one of the species of social wasps, they live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of females; remember, the introduction of the present participle ("verb+ing"- “living” in this case) after comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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Thank you for the explanation @Experts' Global. Really appreciate your help!
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Mansha1412
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the 17 May 2022, 11:43
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Experts, 1 Quick question : Is THAT also used to modify noun/ pronoun?

--------

laxieqv
Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world’s social wasps, wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of females—the queen and her sterile female workers.

A. wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of
B. wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of
C. which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society, almost all
D. which means that their society is highly cooperative, organized, and it is almost entirely

E. living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all


9 out of 10 times, "which means" is not correct because it's meant to modify a phrase in front of it; whereas, "which" should be used to modify a noun/ pronoun. --> C and D out

We need "and" in between "cooperative" and "organized" . "it" has no specific antecedent --> E is out

"consist almost entirely of" is of "society" rather than of "wasps" --> A is out

I'm in for B.
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the 17 May 2022, 23:20
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Mansha1412
Is THAT also used to modify noun/ pronoun?[/b]
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Hi Mansha, "that", when used as a relative pronoun, will always modify a noun or a noun phrase.

For example:

This is the car that I drive.

"that" is modifying the noun "car".

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses modifier issues of "that", their application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the 17 May 2022, 23:23
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Experts, 1 Quick question : Is THAT also used to modify noun/ pronoun?
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Quick answer: Yes!
"That" has various uses, one of them is being used as a relative pronoun. Relative pronouns such as that, which, who, whom refer to nouns/pronouns.
    Who: Refers to a person (as the verb’s subject)
    Whom: Refers to a person (as the verb’s object)
    Which: Refers to an animal or thing
    What: Refers to a nonliving thing
    That: Refers to a person, animal, or thing
You can read more about the usage of that by Clicking here.

Hope it helps.
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