Sentence Correction

Birds known as honeyguides exhibit a unique pattern of behavior: the bird leads another animal, such as a honey-badger or a human, to a bees' nest with their chattering when they fly ahead; after the larger animal takes honey, the bird eats the wax and bee larvae.

A. with their chattering when they fly
B. with chattering and its flying
C. by chattering as it flies
D. by chattering and its flying
E. by chattering as they are flying

Question:
What is the specific error in the option D?

Thanks.

IMO C

gmat_perfect wrote:Birds known as honeyguides exhibit a unique pattern of behavior: the bird leads another animal, such as a honey-badger or a human, to a bees' nest with their chattering when they fly ahead; after the larger animal takes honey, the bird eats the wax and bee larvae.

A. with their chattering when they fly
B. with chattering and its flying
C. by chattering as it flies
D. by chattering and its flying
E. by chattering as they are flying

Question:
What is the specific error in the option D?

Thanks.

I believe Option D has two problems


1) Parallelism (by chattering and its flying): 'its' usage here -- breaks parallelism

2) pronoun ambiguity, Its referes to what Bird or bee

IMO C

krazy800 wrote:

gmat_perfect wrote:Birds known as honeyguides exhibit a unique pattern of behavior: the bird leads another animal, such as a honey-badger or a human, to a bees' nest with their chattering when they fly ahead; after the larger animal takes honey, the bird eats the wax and bee larvae.

A. with their chattering when they fly
B. with chattering and its flying
C. by chattering as it flies
D. by chattering and its flying
E. by chattering as they are flying

Question:
What is the specific error in the option D?

Thanks.

I believe Option D has two problems


1) Parallelism (by chattering and its flying): 'its' usage here -- breaks parallelism

2) pronoun ambiguity, Its referes to what Bird or bee

IMO C

Then in the option C, the use of "it" will be wrong, but the answer is C.
Any more thought on it?

gmat_perfect wrote:Birds known as honeyguides exhibit a unique pattern of behavior: the bird leads another animal, such as a honey-badger or a human, to a bees' nest with their chattering when they fly ahead; after the larger animal takes honey, the bird eats the wax and bee larvae.

A. with their chattering when they fly
B. with chattering and its flying
C. by chattering as it flies
D. by chattering and its flying
E. by chattering as they are flying

Question:
What is the specific error in the option D?

Thanks.

I will go for C. But I would request for the explanations ..for the options...

IMO C

wats the source of such ques...

Bible... ?

gmat_perfect wrote:

krazy800 wrote:

gmat_perfect wrote:Birds known as honeyguides exhibit a unique pattern of behavior: the bird leads another animal, such as a honey-badger or a human, to a bees' nest with their chattering when they fly ahead; after the larger animal takes honey, the bird eats the wax and bee larvae.

A. with their chattering when they fly
B. with chattering and its flying
C. by chattering as it flies
D. by chattering and its flying
E. by chattering as they are flying

Question:
What is the specific error in the option D?

Thanks.

I believe Option D has two problems


1) Parallelism (by chattering and its flying): 'its' usage here -- breaks parallelism

2) pronoun ambiguity, Its referes to what Bird or bee

IMO C

Then in the option C, the use of "it" will be wrong, but the answer is C.
Any more thought on it?

Subject or object pronoun like 'it' here cannot refer back to possessive noun Bees'. So it in option C clearly refers to Bird and not Bees'

While the possessive pronoun like 'its' can refere back to either noun (bird here) or possessive noun (Bees').. so Option D is incorrect

HTH!!

gmat_perfect wrote:

krazy800 wrote:

gmat_perfect wrote:Birds known as honeyguides exhibit a unique pattern of behavior: the bird leads another animal, such as a honey-badger or a human, to a bees' nest with their chattering when they fly ahead; after the larger animal takes honey, the bird eats the wax and bee larvae.

A. with their chattering when they fly
B. with chattering and its flying
C. by chattering as it flies
D. by chattering and its flying
E. by chattering as they are flying

Question:
What is the specific error in the option D?

Thanks.

I believe Option D has two problems


1) Parallelism (by chattering and its flying): 'its' usage here -- breaks parallelism

2) pronoun ambiguity, Its referes to what Bird or bee

IMO C

Then in the option C, the use of "it" will be wrong, but the answer is C.
Any more thought on it?

chattering and its flying, not only it is not parallel,

it makes it unclear what is it that's leading the animals to the nest.

its the chattering that the birds does as it flies

the bird leads the animal by chattering
the bird leads the animal by its flying

very awkward.

IMO C
'its flying ahead' is awkward in option D

krazy800 wrote:

gmat_perfect wrote:

krazy800 wrote:

gmat_perfect wrote:Birds known as honeyguides exhibit a unique pattern of behavior: the bird leads another animal, such as a honey-badger or a human, to a bees' nest with their chattering when they fly ahead; after the larger animal takes honey, the bird eats the wax and bee larvae.

A. with their chattering when they fly
B. with chattering and its flying
C. by chattering as it flies
D. by chattering and its flying
E. by chattering as they are flying

Question:
What is the specific error in the option D?

Thanks.

I believe Option D has two problems


1) Parallelism (by chattering and its flying): 'its' usage here -- breaks parallelism

2) pronoun ambiguity, Its referes to what Bird or bee

IMO C

Then in the option C, the use of "it" will be wrong, but the answer is C.
Any more thought on it?

Subject or object pronoun like 'it' here cannot refer back to possessive noun Bees'. So it in option C clearly refers to Bird and not Bees'

While the possessive pronoun like 'its' can refere back to either noun (bird here) or possessive noun (Bees').. so Option D is incorrect

HTH!!

Yes, this is the answer I am looking for.
Thanks.

The correct choice is C - by chattering as it flies . The first split by / with - by make the logical sense and the "it" can only refer back to "the bird" and not the examples provided because one of the two is "a human" ( takes a singular she or he instead ).