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abhasjha: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 379; Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2008 7:17 amFollowed by: 11 members; Location: NY; Thanked: 28 times

by abhasjha » Tue Sep 23, 2014 11:14 pm

Starfish, with anywhere from five to eight arms, have a strong regenerative ability, and if one arm is lost it quickly replaces it, sometimes by the animal overcompensating and growing an extra one or two.

A one arm is lost it quickly replaces it, sometimes by the animal overcompensating and
B one arm is lost it is quickly replaced, with the animal sometimes overcompensating and
C they lose one arm they quickly replace it, sometimes by the animal overcompensating,
D they lose one arm they are quickly replaced, with the animal sometimes overcompensating,
E they lose one arm it is quickly replaced, sometimes with the animal overcompensating

why is option C wrong ???

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Tue Sep 23, 2014 11:14 pm

GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Wed Sep 24, 2014 5:50 am

Starfish, with anywhere from five to eight arms, have a strong regenerative ability, and if one arm is lost it quickly replaces it, sometimes by the animal overcompensating and growing an extra one or two.

A one arm is lost it quickly replaces it, sometimes by the animal overcompensating and
B one arm is lost it is quickly replaced, with the animal sometimes overcompensating and
C they lose one arm they quickly replace it, sometimes by the animal overcompensating,
D they lose one arm they are quickly replaced, with the animal sometimes overcompensating,
E they lose one arm it is quickly replaced, sometimes with the animal overcompensating,

In A, the first it (singular) does not agree with its intended antecedent, starfish (plural). Eliminate A.

In D, the second they (plural) does not agree with its intended antecedent, arm (singular). Eliminate D.

In C and E, sometimes by the animal and sometimes with the animal imply a nonsensical meaning: that the lost arm is replaced sometimes NOT BY the animal or sometimes WITHOUT the animal.
Eliminate C and E.

The correct answer is B.

Where a modifier is placed affects MEANING.
Always notice when a modifier such as SOMETIMES changes position in the answer choices.
In the OA, sometimes correctly modifies overcompensating and growing:
If one arm is lost it is quickly replaced, with the animal SOMETIMES OVERCOMPENSATING AND GROWING an extra one or two.

Last edited by GMATGuruNY on Sat Sep 27, 2014 6:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

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David@GMATPrepNow: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 147; Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2014 3:52 pmFollowed by: 21 members; Thanked: 53 times

by David@GMATPrepNow » Fri Sep 26, 2014 11:06 am

Hi abhasjha,

The correct answer is B.

Answer C is incorrect because of the "sometimes by the animal overcompensating" phrase. "Sometimes" implies that a certain action (growing extra arms) does not always take place, an idea which might make sense. However, the placement of "sometimes" next to "by" suggests that the extra arms are not always grown by the animal - just sometimes. That implies that the arms are sometimes grown by something else, which doesn't make sense!

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by [email protected] » Fri Sep 26, 2014 11:24 am

Hi abhasjha,

Both Mitch and David have properly explained the Modification problem with answer C, so I won't rehash that here. Instead I'll focus on more of a pronoun/"style" issue...

The opening part of the sentence "Starfish....have a strong ability" clearly refers to a plural subject; the intent of this part of the sentence is to provide us with information about ALL Starfish. Later on, the sentence refers to a specific situation that "the animal" might face (this appears in all 5 answer choices, so we cannot change it). "The animal" is singular, so the pronoun "they" does not match. Answers C, D and E would have to be eliminated.

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Md Raihan Uddin: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 49; Joined: Sun May 18, 2014 8:51 am

by Md Raihan Uddin » Sat Sep 27, 2014 7:43 pm

GMATGuruNY wrote:
Starfish, with anywhere from five to eight arms, have a strong regenerative ability, and if one arm is lost it quickly replaces it, sometimes by the animal overcompensating and growing an extra one or two.

A one arm is lost it quickly replaces it, sometimes by the animal overcompensating and
B one arm is lost it is quickly replaced, with the animal sometimes overcompensating and
C they lose one arm they quickly replace it, sometimes by the animal overcompensating,
D they lose one arm they are quickly replaced, with the animal sometimes overcompensating,
E they lose one arm it is quickly replaced, sometimes with the animal overcompensating,
In A, the first it (singular) does not agree with its intended antecedent, starfish (plural). Eliminate A.

In D, the second they (plural) does not agree with its intended antecedent, arm (singular). Eliminate D.

In C and E, sometimes by the animal and sometimes with the animal imply a nonsensical meaning: that the lost arm is replaced sometimes NOT BY the animal or sometimes WITHOUT the animal.
Eliminate C and E.

The correct answer is B.

Where a modifier is placed affects MEANING.
Always notice when a modifier such as SOMETIMES changes position in the answer choices.
In the OA, sometimes correctly modifies overcompensating and growing:
If one arm is lost it is quickly replaced, with the animal SOMETIMES OVERCOMPENSATING AND GROWING an extra one or two.

Hi Mitch,
I eliminated C, and E in the following ways.
C-sometimes by the animal overcompensating,growing an extra one or two.- Here we need 'and' between overcompensating and growing.

Besides, Starfish can't replace arm by their own. Actually arm is replaced naturally. So, it is wrong to say " they replace it"

E-sometimes by the animal overcompensating growing ----. Overcompensating growing- wrong

Am I correct in my elimination process?

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Sun Sep 28, 2014 3:21 am

Md Raihan Uddin wrote: Hi Mitch,
I eliminated C, and E in the following ways.
C-sometimes by the animal overcompensating,growing an extra one or two.- Here we need 'and' between overcompensating and growing.

Besides, Starfish can't replace arm by their own. Actually arm is replaced naturally. So, it is wrong to say " they replace it"

E-sometimes by the animal overcompensating growing ----. Overcompensating growing- wrong

Am I correct in my elimination process?

Good work.
Your reasons for eliminating C and E are valid.

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