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dermestid beetle

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dermestid beetle

by hitmewithgmat » Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:07 pm
Used by many natural history museum curators in the preparation of animal skeletons for display, dermestid beetles feed on the decaying flesh of animal carcasses, pulling with its mouthparts to strip the bone of any residual fat or muscle tissue.
A) dermestid beetles feed on the decaying flesh of animal carcasses, pulling
B) dermestid beetles feed on the decaying flesh of animal carcasses and pull
C) the dermestid beetle feeds on the decaying flesh of animal carcasses and pulls
D) the dermestid beetle feeds on the decaying flesh of animal carcasses, pulling
E) the dermestid beetle feeds on the decaying flesh of animal carcasses and it pulls


OA follows.
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by awesomeusername » Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:28 pm
IMO (D).

"...pulling with ITS mouthparts..."
Pronoun ITS implies singular subject. Thus (A),(B) out

"Feeding on the carcass" and "pulling with its mouthparts" describe the same thing, so using AND is awkward. The sentence would sound better if "pulling with its mouthparts" modified the action of feeding on the decaying flesh. So (C) out.

For (E), the same goes.
Constant dripping hollows out a stone.
-Lucretius
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by hitmewithgmat » Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:32 pm
OA is D.

thanks for the explanation. however, i was a little bit confused between C and D.

so you mean, C is grammatically correct but slightly different the original meaning?
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by awesomeusername » Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:49 pm
Yes, I believe it's grammatically correct, but (D) sounds better.

For example:

a) Joe watches TV for long periods of time, gazing at the screen as if he were mesmerized.

b) Joe watches TV for long periods of time and gazes at the screen as if he were mesmerized.

A sounds better than B because "gazing at the..." modifies Joe's watching TV. "Gazing" describes HOW Joe watches TV.

"Pulling" describes HOW the beetle feeds.

To say that Joe watches and gazes seems a bit redundant.
Constant dripping hollows out a stone.
-Lucretius
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Ari-ga-to!

by hitmewithgmat » Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:32 pm
Thank you again Awersomeusername! Crystal clear!
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by Stacey Koprince » Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:42 pm
I received a PM asking me to weigh in on C vs. D. It looks like awesome beat me to it, but just wanted to say - I agree!

When you say "something and something" - those two things are only tangentially related in some way. I read and play tennis. Those two things are both related to the "I" - they're both things that *I* do - but they're not necessarily related to each other. I don't read while I play tennis. :)

vs. something like:
I play tennis, running around the court as fast as I can. This describes HOW I play tennis.
I play tennis and run around the court as fast as I can. Perhaps, when I'm not actually playing tennis, I keep in shape by just running laps around the court as fast as I can. The only thing I can definitely say is that both are related to the "I" - they're both things that I do.

If what I'm trying to convey is the first meaning - this is how I play tennis - then I really need to set it up as a modifying clause (as the first sentence does with that -ing intro).
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