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considered one of the most intelligent

by force5 » Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:11 pm
Considered one of the most intelligent of the New World monkeys,capuchins cleverly create an insecticide and crush millipedes, rubbing the remains of the bugs over its back.

(A) capuchins cleverly create an insecticide and crush millipedes, rubbing the remains
(B) capuchins cleverly create an insecticide, they crush millipedes, and with such rub the remains
(C) capuchins use their cleverness to create an insecticide, crush millipedes, and rub the remains
(D) the capuchin cleverly creates an insecticide, crushes millipedes, and it rubs the remains
(E) the capuchin cleverly creates an insecticide, crushing millipedes and rubbing the remains

source - kap
status- checked
OA - E
Last edited by force5 on Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by clock60 » Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:25 pm
it is E

A) capuchins ....its wrong antecedent
B)many mistakes, not ||. antecedent mistake as in A
C)wrong antecedent,
D)not ||.
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by mundasingh123 » Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:32 pm
clock60 wrote:it is E

A) capuchins ....its wrong antecedent
B)many mistakes, not ||. antecedent mistake as in A
C)wrong antecedent,
D)not ||.
There is somethin else too wrong with D
D makes it seem as if creating an insecticide, crushing centipedes and rubbing the remains on the back are different actions wheres crushing the centipedes and rubbing remains is how Capushin creates an Insecticide
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by Chaitanya_1986 » Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:35 pm
This is a clear cut Modifier + Parallelism error....

A,B,C are out by parallelism....in D and E iam confused

in D) Creates/Crushes/it rubs why it here????
E) creates/crushing/rubbing how come creates come here????

Please explain any one....
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by clock60 » Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:38 pm
mundasingh123 wrote:
clock60 wrote:it is E

A) capuchins ....its wrong antecedent
B)many mistakes, not ||. antecedent mistake as in A
C)wrong antecedent,
D)not ||.
There is somethin else too wrong with D
D makes it seem as if creating an insecticide, crushing centipedes and rubbing the remains on the back are different actions wheres crushing the centipedes and rubbing remains is how Capushin creates an Insecticide
hi mundasingh123
totaly agree with you
good catch!!
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by mundasingh123 » Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:42 pm
Chaitanya_1986 wrote:This is a clear cut Modifier + Parallelism error....

A,B,C are out by parallelism....in D and E iam confused

in D) Creates/Crushes/it rubs why it here????
E) creates/crushing/rubbing how come creates come here????

Please explain any one....
D)That is why it is wrong
E) Capuchin is singular and the pronoun needs to agree in number with the antecedent
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by force5 » Mon Apr 18, 2011 1:50 pm
D is grammatically correct.... i don't see any grammatical error there. then how do you decide? since its parallelism can i not say E is changing the meaning completely?????? Well its a catch 22 situation i guess..

Any suggestions...
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by atulmangal » Mon Apr 18, 2011 2:59 pm
force5 wrote:D is grammatically correct.... i don't see any grammatical error there. then how do you decide? since its parallelism can i not say E is changing the meaning completely?????? Well its a catch 22 situation i guess..

Any suggestions...
@Force...

First of all Op D is not grammatically correct as people already explained it has parallelism issue...

second for Op E, i believe -ing forms modifies the noun and describes the action(verb) of the preceding clause...so here in preceding clause the action is creates...logically in terms of meaning this is the best op E, why because it describes how that monkey creates insecticide...the modifier suggests that monkey crush the millipede and rub the remains and consequently or in consequence..the insecticide has been created and this i believe is more logical than other Op'ns where how he created insecticide was not described..

Thanks
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:09 pm
Hey guys,

I saw the title of this thread and thought it might be about me...

Great explanation, Atul - that -ing verb does modify that whole action that precedes it, which also makes it a much more logical meaning. To say that the capuchin is "one of the most intelligent monkeys", you want the description of what it does to be rooted in intelligence. For example, you wouldn't say, "Extremely intelligent, Mike lifts weights, eats pizza, and watches cartoons." While grammatically that's okay, that modifier "extremely intelligent" doesn't really match the rest of the sentence.

Here, D is wrong because it's not parallel, but it also in my opinion misses the meaning of the sentence, too. We lead by calling the capuchin intelligent, so to then list three things it does and have only one of them be "clever" seems off...it doesn't take intelligence to "crush millipedes and rub the remains on its back". E is really consistent with the meaning, though - it makes the clever creation of an insecticide the main clause of the sentence, and then has "crushing...and rubbing..." modify the clever action.

Now, on its own, that "logical meaning" as I mentioned probably isn't enough to make E right and D wrong if D didn't have the parallellism issue. But there are a lot of cases in which logical meaning can be the difference between right and wrong, and because it's usually less technical and more intuitive it's not a bad way to train yourself to think when you see those subtle meaning differences pop up in practice.
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by force5 » Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:31 pm
Great explanation. Thanks everyone for suggestions. updated the OA.

@ Brian - actually i mistyped D. i wanted to know about C and E. I have understood why E is correct. Is C grammatically wrong. I can see that its at least parallel?? is there a parallelism issue there

@ Atul- thanks
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:55 pm
Hey Force,

Yeah, as I think a few others mentioned, too, the problem with A, B, and C is that they each follow the modifier "ONE of the most intelligent..." with "Capuchins" (plural), so the modifier and subject disagree numerically. And that's about it...the rest of the sentence works perfectly fine (it's parallel, logical, etc.) but the numerical agreement problem does it in.
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by atulmangal » Mon Apr 18, 2011 4:43 pm
Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:Hey Force,

Yeah, as I think a few others mentioned, too, the problem with A, B, and C is that they each follow the modifier "ONE of the most intelligent..." with "Capuchins" (plural), so the modifier and subject disagree numerically. And that's about it...the rest of the sentence works perfectly fine (it's parallel, logical, etc.) but the numerical agreement problem does it in.
Thanks for your post Brian and i appreciate your sense of humor about that "title of the thread"
But i some doubt in your above explanation...for Op C u suggest its parallel...i agree...but u also said its logical, here i have doubt...Op C says,

a monkey
use his intelligenceto create an insecticide
use his intelligence to crush millipedes
use his intelligence to rub the remains

The red one seems to me logically incorrect in Op C...i mean a human can create an insecticide intensionally thats accepted...but a monkey created something intensionally...don't u think the creation of a monkey should be a consequence, a consequence of rubbing etc....OP C all the events are independent..the crushing, rubbing etc...if u compare this Op C with Op E don't u think Op E is logically correct...why i'm pressing this issue is because i have so many questions now where two Options are grammatically correct but logically only one of them wins..
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by HSPA » Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:42 pm
I can see the 'it' error in D but can Brian/Atul can you help me to understand the 'ing' form.

"Before crushing and clearing the remains of insects, the capuchin creates the anti-bug gel."

Is above statement a more clear form of E.
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by atulmangal » Mon Apr 18, 2011 6:19 pm
HSPA wrote:I can see the 'it' error in D but can Brian/Atul can you help me to understand the 'ing' form.

"Before crushing and clearing the remains of insects, the capuchin creates the anti-bug gel."

Is above statement a more clear form of E.
@HSPA

Logically as per my understanding, its because of crushing millipedes and rubbing the remains of the bugs over its back. ...or in more clear words the rubbing of that remains that paste of crushed bug which monkey rub on its body actually act as insecticide...thats why i said Op E is much better in terms of meaning...for the understanding of -ing modifier in Op E i'm posting the same that i stated in one of my above post, which already got the approval of Master Brian..

-ing forms modifies the noun and describes the action(verb) of the preceding clause...so here in preceding clause the action is creates...logically in terms of meaning this is the best op E, why because it describes how that monkey creates insecticide...the modifier suggests that monkey crush the millipede and rub the remains and consequently or in consequence..the insecticide has been created and this i believe is more logical than other Op'ns where how he created insecticide was not described..

Hope this helps
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by HSPA » Mon Apr 18, 2011 6:33 pm
"paste of curshed bug" sounds different but I copied your input

-ing forms modifies the noun and describes the action(verb) of the preceding clause

Thank you atul
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