Fossils of a whale that beached on an African shore more

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Fossils of a whale that beached on an African shore more than a million years ago and was subsequently butchered by hominids have been recovered by paleontologists.

A. that beached on an African shore more than a million years ago and was subsequently butchered by hominids have
B. that beached on an African shore more than a million years ago and then was subsequently butchered by hominids has
C. that beached on an African shore more than a million years ago, which was subsequently butchered by hominids, has
D. having been beached on an African shore more than a million years ago and subsequently butchered by hominids, have
E. having beached on an African shore more than a million years ago and then subsequently were butchered by hominids have
OA is a

why do you think B is correct and better

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by Akrita@Jamboree » Wed Apr 04, 2018 4:15 am
BTGmoderatorRO wrote:Fossils of a whale that beached on an African shore more than a million years ago and was subsequently butchered by hominids have been recovered by paleontologists.

A. that beached on an African shore more than a million years ago and was subsequently butchered by hominids have
B. that beached on an African shore more than a million years ago and then was subsequently butchered by hominids has
C. that beached on an African shore more than a million years ago, which was subsequently butchered by hominids, has
D. having been beached on an African shore more than a million years ago and subsequently butchered by hominids, have
E. having beached on an African shore more than a million years ago and then subsequently were butchered by hominids have
OA is a

why do you think B is correct and better
A is correct. The main subject Fossils needs a plural verb.

A: that beached on an African shore more than a million years ago and was subsequently butchered by hominids have - The plural subject Fossils gets a plural verb have; beached and was butchered are in parallel. CORRECT
B: that beached on an African shore more than a million years ago and then was subsequently butchered by hominids has - Fossils is plural
C: that beached on an African shore more than a million years ago, which was subsequently butchered by hominids, has - same as B
D: having beenbeached on an African shore more than a million years ago and subsequently butchered by hominids, have - having been is awkward and passive; 'having' is avoidable unless used to indicate possession.
E: having beached on an African shore more than a million years ago and then subsequently were butchered by hominids have - same as B and D; whale is singular - were butchered is incorrect.

This leaves us with option A as the correct answer.

Please let me know in case anything doesn't make sense.

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by Terry@ThePrincetonReview » Wed Apr 04, 2018 7:30 pm
Excellent job finding the most critical errors in most of these answer choices. Some additional observations:

B: THEN was SUBSEQUENTLY is redundant.
C: Also lacks parallelism. The noun whale has two modifying clauses, one beginning with that (a restrictive clause) and one beginning with which (a non-restrictive clause). The two aren't parallel in grammatical structure and there is no conjunction joining them.
D: This answer choice is hard to pin down. The points you bring up (passive voice and the -ing verb form) are completely valid reasons to be suspicious, but they aren't necessarily deal-breakers. The sentence appears to set up an appositive phrase but doesn't execute it correctly. (A correct example of an appositive phrase: "My score having fallen short of my goal, I decided to take the test again.")
E: Another parallelism error. The participial phrase having beached on an African shore is joined by and to the past-tense verb phrase then subsequently were butchered, but the two aren't equivalent so can't be parallel.
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by deloitte247 » Sun Apr 15, 2018 7:32 am
Option A: It appears to be more correct than all other options. Other has carries has will be ruled out. The reason for this is because has is a singular verb that is supposed to be use with a singular subject. On the other way round, the verb have is a plural verb that attracts a plural subject. Let it be know that the subject of this question is FOSSILS, and the Fossils is the mineralized remains of animals and plants.
that beached is the best suitable intro to this clause. having cannot begin the new clause.
With this reason, Option A is the correct answer

Option B: As being established in the explanation above, has wouldn't be the best choice of auxiliary verb that attracts singular subject. But in the case of this question, the subject is a plural noun. Thus, this option is wrong

Option C: This is a subtle difference between option B and option C. Please observe the two options carefully. In option B above, then was while in option C which was the best choice to pick here is then indicating that those activities happened in the past and should be explained with a past tense verb. However, none of the two options are suitable for best pick her. we can therefore conclude that option C is wrong</i><i class="em em-pensive"></i>

Option D: As being explained in the above text, the use of having been is not in parallelism with the sentence as a whole and with the first clause. having been does not introduce the new clause in the -ing ending verb. Hence, the option is incorrect

Option E: This option suffers similar fate as option D above. Although, it contains 'have' which makes it similar to option A above and a possible consideration for the best pick but the use of having been is not the verb to use. A past participle verb would have been a great construction since all activities were in the past. Thus, make this option incorrect.