Animals - WHICH ?

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by hrishi19884 » Wed Dec 23, 2009 12:25 pm
Testluv, there is a post "Languages!" by Umaa - can you just help me out with that?

It has the below two answer options :

"between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within it" --- singular

"between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within them" --- plural


Which one do you think is correct. I have heard that :

if X(singular) and Y(plural) ----then following part should be plural

if X(plural) and Y(singular) ----then following part should be singular.

Looking from the above theory, the option "within them" should be considered.

Let me know if I am wrong!
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by Testluv » Wed Dec 23, 2009 12:28 pm
I think the pronoun "it" is replacing the noun "language", and so it should be "within it".

Hrishi, please post questions pertaining to a thread in that specific thread!
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by hrishi19884 » Wed Dec 23, 2009 12:29 pm
Sure..thanks!
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by vikram4689 » Tue Jun 21, 2011 5:38 pm
yserious wrote:Unlike lions and tigers, whose hyoid bones vibrate loosely to create their trademark roars, the hyoid bones of
domestic felines do not move and so housecats cannot roar.
"¢ whose hyoid bones vibrate loosely to create their trademark roars, the hyoid bones of domestic felines
"¢ whose hyoid bones vibrate loosely to create the cats' trademark roars, domestic felines have hyoid bones that
"¢ whose hyoid bones vibrate loosely to create the cats' trademark roars, the hyoid bones of domestic felines
"¢ who have hyoid bones that vibrate loosely to create their trademark roars, domestic felines have hyoid bones that
"¢ which have loosely vibrating hyoid bones that create their trademark roars, domestic felines have hyoid bones that

OA is B
People mentioned that "their" in E is ambiguous but i do not think it is ambiguous it clearly refers to bones. Now the reason E is incorrect is because bones cannot vibrate so go with B. I want to confirm the reason why E is Incorrect.
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by divineacclivity » Wed Jan 09, 2013 9:26 am
Testluv wrote:
hrishi19884 wrote:heshamelaziry,

I am asking you the answer for the 1st part(1st question) which says : "whose hyoid bones vibrate loosely to create the cats trademark roars, domestic felines have hyoid bones that"

Testluv, What answer can you suggest for the 1st question? Appreciate, if you could justify?
Well, I agree with the OA. Is there any part of B that is bothering you? I think B is more active, less wordy than A.

I think Hesham is right about the example, and you would say "the lion WHICH killed..."

You really don't use "who" for things other than humans (rare exception: pets. But that probably won't show up on the GMAT).

Now, "whose" is a bit different. "Whose" can be used for people, animals, and even inanimate objects. EX: "A theory whose central tenets presuppose too many hypothetical elements is likely incorrect."
on reading this question, my first instinct rejected options B and D because "vibrate loosely to create" sounded like bones vibrate in order to create that sound. So, I chose E though "their" is ambiguous but then I thought the meaning does make it pretty clear. Please help me correct my understanding about it.

thank you very much in advance

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by e-GMAT » Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:29 am
What is the source of this question? Please make sure that you prepare from trustworthy sources.
In this question, I am truly stuck between choices B and E. Other choices have clear enough errors.

Let's discuss choice B first - I agree with @ divineacclivity that this choice illogically implies that the bones vibrate loosely with an intention to create the roars. This illogical aspect has been corrected very well in choice E.

But now when I review choice E, I come across the pronoun reference issue with "their". It appears that "their" is ambiguous since it can refer to both "lions and tigers" and "bones". Now IMO, logically their can only refer to "lions and tigers" since bones cannot roar. However, whenever I face such issue, I see if any of the other choices better present this reference and if they do, then I consider them. In this question when I do that, I get to choice B that I have already rejected.

So as you can see I am kind of stuck between choices B and E. I would reluctantly mark choice E (the lesser evil!!). but frankly you should not be caught in such a situation if this were a good question.

So this brings me back to my original point - make sure the question is from a good source and make sure that it is posted correctly. I have seen this many times that the original poster by mistake posts the question incorrectly or the question may have been revised from its initial version and the question here on the thread still refers to the old versions!!