Sentence Correction

Found throughout Central and South America, sloths hang from trees by long rubbery limbs and sleep fifteen hours a day moving infrequently enough that two species of algae grow on its coat and between its toes.

(A) sloths hang from trees by long rubbery limbs and sleep fifteen hours a day, moving infrequently
enough
(B) sloths hang from trees by long rubbery limbs, they sleep fifteen hours a day, and with such infrequent
movements
(C) sloths use their long rubbery limbs to hang from trees, sleep fifteen hours a day, and move so
infrequently
(D) the sloth hangs from trees by its long rubbery limbs, sleeping fifteen hours a day and moving so
infrequently
(E) the sloth hangs from trees by its long rubbery limbs, sleeps fifteen hours a day, and it moves
infrequently enough

AIM GMAT wrote:Found throughout Central and South America, sloths hang from trees by long rubbery limbs and sleep
fifteen hours a day. moving infrequently enough that two species of algae grow on its coat and between its toes.

(A) sloths hang from trees by long rubbery limbs and sleep fifteen hours a day, moving infrequently
enough
(B) sloths hang from trees by long rubbery limbs, they sleep fifteen hours a day, and with such infrequent
movements
(C) sloths use their long rubbery limbs to hang from trees, sleep fifteen hours a day, and move so
infrequently
(D) the sloth hangs from trees by its long rubbery limbs, sleeping fifteen hours a day and moving so
infrequently
(E) the sloth hangs from trees by its long rubbery limbs, sleeps fifteen hours a day, and it moves
infrequently enough

Hi!

A great way to quickly solve sentence correction problems is to scan the choices for differences and eliminate the versions that you don't like.

Here, we see that we have a 3-2 split to begin the choices; A, B and C begin with "sloths" and D and E begin with "the sloth".

Remembering that the underlined portion has to agree both with what precedes it and what follows it, we see "grow on ITS coat and between ITS toes"; since "its" can only refer to a singular noun, we eliminate A, B and C.

Now we scan for a difference between D and E. D has "sleeping... and moving", which is parallel; E has "sleeps... and it moves" - the "it" disrupts the parallelism, so we eliminate E.

One might think that "sleeping and moving" isn't parallel to "hangs", but the GMAT likes to put "ing" verbs after a comma. Looking at the entire list in E we have "hangs, sleeps and it moves" - now we really see how "it" disrupts the list.

Choose (D)!

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:

AIM GMAT wrote:Found throughout Central and South America, sloths hang from trees by long rubbery limbs and sleep
fifteen hours a day. moving infrequently enough that two species of algae grow on its coat and between its toes.

(A) sloths hang from trees by long rubbery limbs and sleep fifteen hours a day, moving infrequently
enough
(B) sloths hang from trees by long rubbery limbs, they sleep fifteen hours a day, and with such infrequent
movements
(C) sloths use their long rubbery limbs to hang from trees, sleep fifteen hours a day, and move so
infrequently
(D) the sloth hangs from trees by its long rubbery limbs, sleeping fifteen hours a day and moving so
infrequently
(E) the sloth hangs from trees by its long rubbery limbs, sleeps fifteen hours a day, and it moves
infrequently enough

Hi!

A great way to quickly solve sentence correction problems is to scan the choices for differences and eliminate the versions that you don't like.

Here, we see that we have a 3-2 split to begin the choices; A, B and C begin with "sloths" and D and E begin with "the sloth".

Remembering that the underlined portion has to agree both with what precedes it and what follows it, we see "grow on ITS coat and between ITS toes"; since "its" can only refer to a singular noun, we eliminate A, B and C.

Now we scan for a difference between D and E. D has "sleeping... and moving", which is parallel; E has "sleeps... and it moves" - the "it" disrupts the parallelism, so we eliminate E.

One might think that "sleeping and moving" isn't parallel to "hangs", but the GMAT likes to put "ing" verbs after a comma. Looking at the entire list in E we have "hangs, sleeps and it moves" - now we really see how "it" disrupts the list.

Choose (D)!

whats the difference when we say sloth sleep 15 hours a day and when we say the sloth sleeps 15 hours a day . Are both sentences acceptable when we are talking about the sloth/sloths in general ?

mundasingh123 wrote:

whats the difference when we say sloth sleep 15 hours a day and when we say the sloth sleeps 15 hours a day . Are both sentences acceptable when we are talking about the sloth/sloths in general ?[/quote]

Both are acceptable, as long as they agree with and make sense in the context of the other parts of the sentence.