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Breeding Bird Survey

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Breeding Bird Survey

by Dean Jones » Sat Dec 17, 2011 7:26 am
Dear Friends,

I was having problems in answering the following question.

Organized in 1966 by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Breeding Bird Survey uses annual roadside counts along established routes for monitoring of population changes of as many as, or of more than 250 bird species,including 180 songbirds.
(A) for monitoring of population changes of as many as, or of
(B) to monitor population changes of as many, or
(C) to monitor changes in the populations of
(D) that monitors population changes of
(E) that monitors changes in populations of as many as, or


Please help.

OA after some discussions.

My choice was option B

Regards
Deano.
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by patanjali.purpose » Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:18 am
Dean Jones wrote:Dear Friends,

I was having problems in answering the following question.

Organized in 1966 by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Breeding Bird Survey uses annual roadside counts along established routes for monitoring of population changes of as many as, or of more than 250 bird species,including 180 songbirds.
(A) for monitoring of population changes of as many as, or of
(B) to monitor population changes of as many, or
(C) to monitor changes in the populations of
(D) that monitors population changes of
(E) that monitors changes in populations of as many as, or
Prep phrase "for monitoring of population changes of as many as, or of..." indicates purpose of THE SURVEY. Therefore, IMO its always better to show the purpose with Preposition TO (ie TO MONITOR is prefered over FOR MONITORING).

B - idiom AS MANY is incomplete (We need AS MANY AS)

D/E - THAT MONITORS

Lets analyze it further: "the Breeding Bird Survey uses annual roadside counts..that MONITORS..". Note here, the VERB is MONITORS. There is only singular subject coming before MONITORS that is "SURVEY". It means D/E says "Survey uses.. counts.. that monitors..", meaning survey is monitoring changes in populations of species. This meaning is very different from original meaning of the sentence that says "Survey uses counts with a purpose to monitor changes in population".

Moreover, I always prefer "changes in populations" to "population changes".

IMO C
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:21 am
Dean Jones wrote:Dear Friends,

I was having problems in answering the following question.

Organized in 1966 by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Breeding Bird Survey uses annual roadside counts along established routes for monitoring of population changes of as many as, or of more than 250 bird species,including 180 songbirds.
(A) for monitoring of population changes of as many as, or of
(B) to monitor population changes of as many, or
(C) to monitor changes in the populations of
(D) that monitors population changes of
(E) that monitors changes in populations of as many as, or
(A) - wordy
(B) - very wordy PLUS there is potential ambiguity. Does "of more than 250 bird species" modify "population" or "changes"?
(C) - concise PLUS "of more than 250 bird species" definitely modifies "population"
(D) - incorrectly suggests that the roadside counts monitor population changes.
(D) - incorrectly suggests that the roadside counts monitor population changes.

The best answer is C

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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by GmatKiss » Mon Dec 19, 2011 11:19 am
Is population's' correct here?

Please help!
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