GMAT Prep Question

The idiom here is "as...as" which is used to make a comparison, but no comparison is intended in this sentence, so (A) and (B) can be eliminated.

Always identify the subject/verb in each sentence.

C - "results in the fact that the act of stinging causes" is wordy, and "staying where it is inserted" is also awkward.

D - the idiom is "X results in Y" - something can "result in the act" but there is no verb to indicate what is the thing causing the result

E - Correct. The stinger [noun] is [verb]...and stays [parallel verb], with the result that [nice explanatory clause].

chaitanya.mehrotra wrote:As the honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inserted, this results in the act of stinging causing the bee to sustain a fatal injury.


A. As the honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed, staying where it is inserted, this results in the act of stinging causing
B. As the heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, with the result that the act of stinging causes
C. The honeybee’s stinger, heavily barbed and staying where it is inserted, results in the fact that the act of stinging causes
D. The heavily barbed stinger of the honeybee stays where it is inserted, and results in the act of stinging causing
E. The honeybee’s stinger is heavily barbed and stays where it is inserted, with the result that the act of stinging causes

Can somebody explain how to approach this question ,this question was quite ambiguous ?

Received a PM asking me to comment.

In, (A) the "this" has no referent.
(B) does not form a complete sentence: it has two dependent clauses ("As..." and "with..."), but not the requisite independent clause that a sentence needs to be a complete sentence.
The problem with (C) is that it says that "the honeybee's stinger" "results in...," but in reality, the stinger does not result in anything; rather, the fact that the stinger stays in place does.
(D) also says the the stinger results in something; same problem as the one (C) has, just phrased differently.
(E) is perfect because we get our independent clause out of the way early on ("The honeybee's stinger...stays where it is inserted"), and then we're free to provide more information with a dependent clause ("with...").