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Reindeer

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by parallel_chase » Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:03 am
Both the caribou and the reindeer belong to the species Rangifer Tardus, but after 7000 years of domestication in Eurasia, reindeer have developed a tendency to circle in tight groups, while caribou tend to spread far and wide.

A. belong to the species Rangifer Tardus, but after 7000 years of domestication in Eurasia, reindeer have developed a tendency to circle in tight groups, while caribou tend

B. belong to the same species, Rangifer tarandus, but about 7000 years of domestication in Eurasia have developed reindeer's tendency to circle in tight groups, which is different from that tend

C. belong to the species Rangifer tarandus, but being domesticated in Eurasia for about 7000 years has developed reindeer's to circle in tight groups, and that is different from carbiou tending

D. are the same species, Rangifer tarandus,but about 7000 years of domestication in Eurasia have developed reindeer's tendency to circle in tight groups, while the tendency is for carbiou


E. are the same species, Rangifer tarandus,but being domesticated in Eurasia for about 700 years has developed the reindeer's tendency to circle in tight groups, which differs from caribou tending

OA to follow.
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Re: Reindeer

by iamcste » Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:17 am
parallel_chase wrote:Both the caribou and the reindeer belong to the species Rangifer Tardus, but after 7000 years of domestication in Eurasia, reindeer have developed a tendency to circle in tight groups, while caribou tend to spread far and wide.

A. belong to the species Rangifer Tardus, but after 7000 years of domestication in Eurasia, reindeer have developed a tendency to circle in tight groups, while caribou tend

B. belong to the same species, Rangifer tarandus, but about 7000 years of domestication in Eurasia have developed reindeer's tendency to circle in tight groups, which is different from that tend

C. belong to the species Rangifer tarandus, but being domesticated in Eurasia for about 7000 years has developed reindeer's to circle in tight groups, and that is different from carbiou tending

D. are the same species, Rangifer tarandus,but about 7000 years of domestication in Eurasia have developed reindeer's tendency to circle in tight groups, while the tendency is for carbiou


E. are the same species, Rangifer tarandus,but being domesticated in Eurasia for about 700 years has developed the reindeer's tendency to circle in tight groups, which differs from caribou tending

OA to follow.

A

which changes the meaning by modifying groups

same and species express same meaning

being is wordy and wrong on GMAT


while is the correct usage

Have developed has nothin to do with singular...its expresses correct tense


Last edited by iamcste on Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by mals24 » Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:19 am
IMO A
B. belong to the same species, Rangifer tarandus, but about 7000 years of domestication in Eurasia have developed reindeer's tendency to circle in tight groups, which is different from that tend
C. belong to the species Rangifer tarandus, but being domesticated in Eurasia for about 7000 years has developed reindeer's ?? to circle in tight groups, and that is different from caribou tending
I think you missed the word tendency after reindeer. Also 'that is different from caribou tending'..the reindeer's tendency is different from caribou tending...awkward.
D. are the same species, Rangifer tarandus,but about 7000 years of domestication in Eurasia have developed reindeer's tendency to circle in tight groups, while the tendency is for carbiou
The bold parts are not parallel. Plus 'are the same species' needs the verb belong. The omission of the word 'belong' makes it a illogical construction.
E. are the same species, Rangifer tarandus,but being domesticated in Eurasia for about 700 years has developed the reindeer's tendency to circle in tight groups, which differs from caribou tending
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by parallel_chase » Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:33 am
Thanks for your replies.

Answer is indeed A.

But I have two problems with A.

belong to the species Rangifer Tardus, but after 7000 years of domestication in Eurasia, reindeer have developed a tendency to circle in tight groups, while caribou tend

First = Reindeer has/have. Shouldnt this be has, Iamcste you have mentioned this in your post, so you are saying tenses dont affect the noun irrespective of singular/plural. I know that tenses only affect the verbs but I think it should make sense with the noun that verb is referring to.

Second = Caribou tend, caribou is singular so shouldnt this be tends instead of tend.


Thanks.
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by mals24 » Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:53 am
Here's the rule: (taken from Wren and Martin)

A collective noun takes a singular verb when the collection is thought of as one whole, when you think of the group as a unit.

A collective noun takes a plural verb when the individuals of which it is composed are thought of.

Now in this situation, the reindeer and caribou have not developed their respective tendencies as a unit in 7000 years.
Its not like all the reindeers in the world developed their tendency at the same time in 7000 years.
So here we are referring to the individual reindeers and not considering the reindeers and caribou as a unit.

I know my explanation sounds Greek at the moment so read the explanation given in the following website you will understand this rule better:

https://www.chompchomp.com/terms/collectivenoun.htm
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by parallel_chase » Tue Nov 25, 2008 7:29 am
mals24 wrote:Here's the rule: (taken from Wren and Martin)

A collective noun takes a singular verb when the collection is thought of as one whole, when you think of the group as a unit.

A collective noun takes a plural verb when the individuals of which it is composed are thought of.

Now in this situation, the reindeer and caribou have not developed their respective tendencies as a unit in 7000 years.
Its not like all the reindeers in the world developed their tendency at the same time in 7000 years.
So here we are referring to the individual reindeers and not considering the reindeers and caribou as a unit.

I know my explanation sounds Greek at the moment so read the explanation given in the following website you will understand this rule better:

https://www.chompchomp.com/terms/collectivenoun.htm
Brilliant!

I know about collective nouns, but in this question I was lost in the oblivion. especially the non underlined part.

Thanks a lot.
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by ssgmatter » Wed Sep 15, 2010 12:45 am
although A makes the most sense of all the options in this one....My only concern with A is whether it should be reindeer HAS/HAVE....although i understand the explanations posted above but i guess in this case it is talking about one reindeer so it should be has....

is there some typo error....

let us discuss.
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by pesfunk » Sat Oct 23, 2010 6:13 am
Could someone please throw some light on this ?
ssgmatter wrote:although A makes the most sense of all the options in this one....My only concern with A is whether it should be reindeer HAS/HAVE....although i understand the explanations posted above but i guess in this case it is talking about one reindeer so it should be has....

is there some typo error....

let us discuss.
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by Jim@Grockit » Sun Oct 24, 2010 5:46 pm
pesfunk wrote:Could someone please throw some light on this ?
ssgmatter wrote:although A makes the most sense of all the options in this one....My only concern with A is whether it should be reindeer HAS/HAVE....although i understand the explanations posted above but i guess in this case it is talking about one reindeer so it should be has....

is there some typo error....

let us discuss.
Just some bad luck for you . . . some nouns in English have the same singular and plural form. The plural of "deer" is "deer", and the plural of "caribou" is "caribou" (or sometimes "caribous"). Fish and sheep are the same in the singular and plural.

When we speak of a species, we use the singular form with "the", like "the spotted owl"; we can also talk about other living things as plurals "dogs are the most domesticated species".

With "reindeer" and "caribou", all we have is "the" to differentiate the singular species and the plural for all the animals out there: "the reindeer tends . . ." vs "reindeer tend"
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