The population of tigers

[GmatKiss]

The population of tigers in the National Park is increasing steadily, and this is a source of encouragement to those who have worked so hard to fund the conservation effort.

A. steadily, and this
B. steadily: which
C. steadily; this trend
D. steadily, this increase
E. steady, and this

OA after some discussion!

[Krk]

Here the encouragement is the "population increase"
Hence the answer would be "steadily, this increase".

[winniethepooh]

The population of tigers in the National Park is increasing steadily, and this is a source of encouragement to those who have worked so hard to fund the conservation effort.

A. steadily, and this
B. steadily: which
C. steadily; this trend
D. steadily, this increase
E. steady, and this

In this sentence, the first clause is a main clause and ends at 'steadily'. As per punctuation rules steadily should be preceded by a semi colon ( ; ) (or 'and' if the second clause is a main clause too)
Also, in the original sentence there is no referent to 'this'.

the correct answer is C.

[arashyazdiha]

I would go with C.
Because each of the two statements can stand alone, so we need a ; between them, other wise there should be some connecting words like 'and', but answers with and are ambiguous in their second part.
This trend is obvious for this answer

[aspirant2011]

I think with increasing i.e continous trend should be the right word but if it were

the population of tigers in xxxx has increased steadily then the usage this increase would have been correct but I am not sure on this......

experts please comment

[mukgera]

We couldn't choose B because of colon (:)?...otherwise it seems the best option to me because the two clauses are not independent.

"the source of encouragement" what is source of encouragement could be described only by the first clause!!

Please comment.

[aspirant2011]

We couldn't choose B because of colon (:)?...otherwise it seems the best option to me because the two clauses are not independent.

"the source of encouragement" what is source of encouragement could be described only by the first clause!!

Please comment.

B Is wrong because of two reasons-

1. Which should be preceded by a comma
2. Which refers to the closest noun I.e over here National Park

[Asher]

A. steadily, and this - 'this' sounds ambiguous
B. steadily: which - 'which' - subordinator
C. steadily; this trend - Correctly introduces two independent clause
D. steadily, this increase - 'this increase' should have been 'and this increase'
E. steady, and this - 'steady' is inappropriate

Ans. C

[saketk]

+1 for option C

[aspirant2011]

We couldn't choose B because of colon (:)?...otherwise it seems the best option to me because the two clauses are not independent.

Hi Mukgera,

Just a small rectification to what you said above I.e a colon doesn't signify that the two clauses left & right of it should be an Independent clause because part on the right hand side of the colon depends on the part on left hand side of the colon though the part on the left side is an IC......... In case of a semi colon this rule is valid.

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The population of tigers in the National Park is increasing steadily, and this is a source of encouragement to those who have worked so hard to fund the conservation effort.

A. steadily, and this
B. steadily: which
C. steadily; this trend
D. steadily, this increase
E. steady, and this

In this sentence, the first clause is a main clause and ends at 'steadily'. As per punctuation rules steadily should be preceded by a semi colon ( ; ) (or 'and' if the second clause is a main clause too)
Also, in the original sentence there is no referent to 'this'.

the correct answer is C.

PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY CHOICE A AND D ARE WRONG. THEY ARE GM CORRECT

[kdraj]

A --> The role of 'This' is ambiguous - Does it refer to 'Population of Tigers' or 'The increasing numbers' ?

D --> This would have been correct if the comma were to be a semi-colon instead or if the comma were to be followed by and.

Please comment on my reasoning.


Thanks.