Sentence Correction

The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, thus allowing it to hunt efficiently under the gloomy conditions at its feeding depths of between 300 and 700 meters.


A) The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, thus allowing it
B) The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, allowing them
C) The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than do those of any other animal yet tested, allowing it
D) Because they adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, the eyes of the elephant seal allow it
E) Because the eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than do those of any other animal yet tested, it allows them

OAC

A,B, and D have illogical comparison: eyes compared with animal.
In E, it has no antecedent.
Furthur, them refers to eyes of the elephant seal, leading to illogical meaning( eyes are hunting).

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Hi Ali ,

Thank you so much for your reply.

Can you please explain that in OA COMMA+ALLOWING refers to what?

Thanks.

Learned something new today. Thanks Ali for the detailed breakdown of the potential answers.

joingy

Hello Everyone!

Let's take a closer look at this question to narrow it down to the correct answer. First, here is the original question with the main differences between the 5 options highlighted in orange:

The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, thus allowing it to hunt efficiently under the gloomy conditions at its feeding depths of between 300 and 700 meters.

(A) The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, thus allowing it
(B) The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, allowing them
(C) The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than do those of any other animal yet tested, allowing it
(D) Because they adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, the eyes of the elephant seal allow it
(E) Because the eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than do those of any other animal yet tested, it allows them

While the 5 options have a lot of differences, here are just 2 that we can focus on for now. Each of these items will eliminate 2-3 options, which will hopefully leave us with only one option left:

1. "any other animal" vs. "do those of any other animal" (parallelism & comparisons)
2. "it" vs. "them" (pronoun-antecedent agreement)

Let's begin with #1 on our list: "any other animal" vs. "do those of any other animal." We can see that in the original sentence, these phrases are part of a comparison:

The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, thus allowing it to hunt efficiently under the gloomy conditions at its feeding depths of between 300 and 700 meters.

What are the two things being compared here? The one part of this comparison that remains constant among all 5 options is "the eyes of the elephant seal." Remember that the two things being compared MUST be parallel. This means that the sentence MUST compare the eyes of elephant seals to the eyes of other animals! Let's see which sentences do this correctly, and eliminate those that aren't parallel:

(A) The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, thus allowing it --> NOT PARALLEL (compares eyes to any other animal)
(B) The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, allowing them --> NOT PARALLEL (compares eyes to any other animal)
(C) The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than do those of any other animal yet tested, allowing it --> PARALLEL ("those of" is referring to the eyes of other animals, so we're comparing eyes to eyes, which is parallel)
(D) Because they adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, the eyes of the elephant seal allow it --> NOT PARALLEL ("they" is referring to the eyes of the elephant seal, which is still comparing eyes to any other animal)
(E) Because the eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than do those of any other animal yet tested, it allows them --> PARALLEL ("those of" is referring to the eyes of other animals, so we're comparing eyes to eyes, which is parallel)

We can eliminate options A, B, & D because the comparisons made in each sentence are not parallel in type. Instead of comparing the eyes of the elephant seal to the eyes of other animals, they compare the eyes of the elephant seal to the entire bodies of any other animals, which isn't parallel.

Now that we're left with only 2 options, let's tackle #2 on our list: it vs. them. This is an issue of pronoun-antecedent agreement! We need to look closely to determine what each pronoun is referring back to, and make sure they match up:

(C) The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than do those of any other animal yet tested, allowing it

This is CORRECT! The singular pronoun "it" is referring back to the singular antecedent "the elephant seal."

(E) Because the eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than do those of any other animal yet tested, it allows them

This is INCORRECT for a couple reasons. First, the singular pronoun "it" in this sentence is actually referring back to the plural "eyes," which isn't parallel. Also, the plural pronoun "them" is referring back to the singular "elephant seal," which is also not parallel. To fix this, the phrase would have to say "they allow it."

There you have it - option C is the correct choice! It's the only option that uses parallelism correctly throughout the entire sentence! By focusing on two main difference between the options, we were able to narrow down the options quickly to find the correct choice.


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

Can we eliminate E because of a comma splice ? ( tested, it allows them to hunt efficiently under the gloomy conditions at its feeding depth ....)