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An exemplary mimic

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An exemplary mimic

by akhpad » Sat Sep 04, 2010 3:21 am
Source: Knewton

An exemplary mimic, the harmless soldier fly has a body that resembles those of the stinging black wasp and thus is able to frighten away predators.

A: the harmless soldier fly has a body that resembles those of the stinging black wasp
B: the harmless soldier fly has a body resembling that of a stinging black wasp
C: the body of the harmless soldier fly resembles a stinging black wasp's
D: the harmless soldier fly's body resembles the stinging black wasps'
E: the body of the harmless soldier fly resembles those of the stinging black wasps

I confused in modifier in context of meaning.
An exemplary mimic => I believe that it is a model and it should refer to "the harmless soldier fly" or "the body". I confused in selecting here.

OA: B
Last edited by akhpad on Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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by Maciek » Sat Sep 04, 2010 3:49 am
IMO B

There is 3/2 split. According to me 'an exemplary mimic' refers to 'the harmless soldier fly'.
Thus we eliminate answers C and E.

Answer D is wrong because 'wasps' ' should be followed by a noun.
Answer A is wordy and 'wasp' should be in plural form

Hope it helps!
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by reply2spg » Wed Sep 08, 2010 1:16 pm
What's the OA for this? I selected C
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by beatthegmatinsept » Wed Sep 08, 2010 1:19 pm
akhpad wrote:Source: Knewton

An exemplary mimic, the harmless soldier fly has a body that resembles those of the stinging black wasp and thus is able to frighten away predators.

A: the harmless soldier fly has a body that resembles those of the stinging black wasp
B: the harmless soldier fly has a body resembling that of a stinging black wasp
C: the body of the harmless soldier fly resembles a stinging black wasp's
D: the harmless soldier fly's body resembles the stinging black wasps'
E: the body of the harmless soldier fly resembles those of the stinging black wasps

I confused in modifier in context of meaning.
An exemplary mimic => I believe that it is a model and it should refer to "the harmless soldier fly" or "the body". I confused in selecting here.
I vote for B. the mimic should be refering to the soldier fly. Since A compares one body to 'those' of the stinging black fly, we eliminate A, leaving us with B.
OA plz?
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by debmalya_dutta » Wed Sep 08, 2010 1:36 pm
akhpad wrote:Source: Knewton

An exemplary mimic, the harmless soldier fly has a body that resembles those of the stinging black wasp and thus is able to frighten away predators.

A: the harmless soldier fly has a body that resembles those of the stinging black wasp
B: the harmless soldier fly has a body resembling that of a stinging black wasp
C: the body of the harmless soldier fly resembles a stinging black wasp's
D: the harmless soldier fly's body resembles the stinging black wasps'
E: the body of the harmless soldier fly resembles those of the stinging black wasps

I confused in modifier in context of meaning.
An exemplary mimic => I believe that it is a model and it should refer to "the harmless soldier fly" or "the body". I confused in selecting here.
the subject is the soldier fly.. look at the later part of the sentence which is not underlined and that should provide the clue - "thus is able to frighten away predators".. Obviously , the body does not frighten away predators :).. its the "harmless" soldier fly which frightens away the predator...So the subject is the "harmless" soldier fly

I'd go for B.. The pundits have spoken ahead of me :)
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by BastiG » Wed Sep 08, 2010 2:39 pm
One question:

Is fly a name? Why doesn't it have a capital letter? I really have problems to understand this sentence.
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by uwhusky » Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:14 pm
mimic
noun
a person skilled in imitating the voice, mannerisms, or movements of others in an entertaining way.
"¢ an animal or plant that exhibits mimicry.

So I guess it should be modifying the harmless solider fly.

I also vote for B. I think the definite article in A: "the" stinging black wasp is incorrect because it falsely identify a specific wasp, plus the plurality issue mentioned by Maciek earlier.

BastiG, fly is not a name, we're not concerned with the particular named fly for this question.
Yep.
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by akhpad » Wed Sep 08, 2010 6:27 pm
Maciek wrote:
According to me 'an exemplary mimic' refers to 'the harmless soldier fly'.
Thus we eliminate answers C and E.
I was confused here only. One should explain with meaning. Why does it not refer to "body"?
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by ketandoshi » Wed Sep 08, 2010 8:09 pm
According to me 'an exemplary mimic' refers to 'the harmless soldier fly'.
Thus we eliminate answers C and E.

I was confused here only. One should explain with meaning. Why does it not refer to "body"?

I think the 'an exemplary mimic' is referred to the body and not the animal itself. If you think the sentence logically this makes sense, and hence C.
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by uwhusky » Wed Sep 08, 2010 8:17 pm
The non-underlined portion "and thus is able to frighten away predators." doesn't make sense with "body" as subject.
Yep.
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by akhpad » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:10 pm
uwhusky wrote:The non-underlined portion "and thus is able to frighten away predators." doesn't make sense with "body" as subject.
I believe that you are catching the right point.

Can someone shed some light on it? B is the right answer as per OA. Someone can elaborate it?

"An exemplary mimic" refers to "the harmless soldier fly"
the harmless soldier fly is able to frighten away predators.

We need to understand these two point. Am I right?

Confusion is whether "the harmless soldier fly" or "body".
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by uwhusky » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:17 pm
I did copy the definition of "mimic":

mimic
noun
a person skilled in imitating the voice, mannerisms, or movements of others in an entertaining way.
"¢ an animal or plant that exhibits mimicry.

Seems to be referring to an animal, or a fly in this case, and the other hint is the non-underlined portion.

Last but not least between A/B, the definite article and the plural "those" incorrectly being used.
Yep.
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by shweta.kalra » Thu Sep 09, 2010 4:53 am
btw, what,s wrong in {D}
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by beatthegmatinsept » Thu Sep 09, 2010 7:47 am
shweta.kalra wrote:btw, what,s wrong in {D}
D: the harmless soldier fly's body resembles the stinging black wasps' .... stinging black wasps' (body?).. makes it unclear without the word 'body' in the end.
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by Gurpinder » Thu Sep 09, 2010 9:14 am
In choice A,

this is wrong? right?

A: the harmless soldier fly has a body that resembles those of the stinging black wasp

It should be that?
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