Well first and foremost- Gmatmachoman, you are our loyal customer. so dont worry. together we will bash any1 who points fingers at u LOL!!! moreover there was no finger pointed at you, so dont worry. I am just a pm away, let me know and i will bring my arsenals to the fore
Now mgmat_gmat, now need to do 2 things:align the question properly and underline the sentence. This makes it very easy to the users to answer your question with precision.
One more thing: 'Due to' is interchangeable with 'caused by'. So when ever you see 'Due to' replace it with caused by. if that makes sense, then the use of 'due to' is correct.
The structure of the sentence is this: Independent clause [semi colon] dependent clause tat modies another Independent clause. So the structure is grammatically correct. Nothing wrong with it.
the second independent clause is "the ants consider all their fellows to be a close relative and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limits" Now what is the dependent clause trying to do? It is trying to provide a reason for this action. Therefore we need a 'because' and not 'Due to'. When in doubt replace 'due to' with 'caused by' and you will know which option to keep.
Here we can directly eliminate A and B.
A.
due to their being so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider
all their fellows to be a close relative and thus do not engage in the kind
of fierce intercolony struggles that limits [Eliminated!]
B.
Due to its being so genetically similar the ant considers all its fellows to be
a close relative and thus does not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony
struggles that limit [Eliminated!]
C. Because it is so genetically similar, the ant considers all its fellows to be
close relatives and thus does not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony
struggles that
limits [now 'that' is a demonstrative pronoun. It points to the word it is modifying. here 'That' refers to struggles. what is the verb? limits. what is the subject of the verb? ask the question who/ what to the verb. what limits the spread of the species? answer is struggles. Struggles is a plural subject. Limits is singular. Hence subject verb agreement error. Eliminated!]
D. Because they are so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider
all their fellows to be close relatives and thus do not engage in the kind
of fierce intercolony struggles that limit [sentence is clear of any errors. subject verb agree. 'they' properly refers to the plural- the ants. Correct!]
E. Because of
being so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be close relatives and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limit ['being' as a verb is not correct. 'being' if represented as a participle does not require quick elimination but as a verb 'being' is wrong. Eliminated!]
Hope this helps!
