Comparison - Sandpipers

[saranshpuri]

Like the grassy fields and old pastures that the upland sandpiper needs for feeding and nesting when it returns in May after wintering in the Argentine Pampas, the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in farming practices.

(A) the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in

(B) the bird itself is vanishing in the northeastern United States as a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in

(C) that the birds themselves are vanishing in the northeastern United States is due to residential and industrial development and changes to

(D) in the northeastern United States, sandpipers' vanishing due to residential and industrial development and to change in

(E) in the northeastern United States, the sandpipers' vanishing, a result of residential and industrial development and changing


OA is B. plz expalin what is compared to what . i m totally lost in this question.

[Bill@VeritasPrep]

For clarity's sake:

Like the grassy fields and old pastures that the upland sandpiper needs for feeding and nesting when it returns in May after wintering in the Argentine Pampas, the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in farming practices.

(A) the sandpipers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in

(B) the bird itself is vanishing in the northeastern United States as a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in

(C) that the birds themselves are vanishing in the northeastern United States is due to residential and industrial development and changes to

(D) in the northeastern United States, sandpipers' vanishing due to residential and industrial development and to change in

(E) in the northeastern United States, the sandpipers' vanishing, a result of residential and industrial development and changing

[Bill@VeritasPrep]

We're comparing the grassy fields to the sandpipers. Wait, how can we compare grass to birds? That doesn't seem to make any sense, but we can do it in this case because they share a specific similarity: they are both vanishing.

[saranshpuri]

Hey Bill,

Thanks for the explanation. This exactly what my doubt was as how can we compare grass to sandpipers.But you have clear my doubts .

this question has changed my approach to solve comparison type questions.
Earlier i look for the first word of the clause as indicator for the right comparison.

but now i learned that in what context things are compared is also equally important .

[tathastuGMAT]

Like is a comparison signal, indeed the comparison is between the fields and pastures that are disappearing and the sandpiper(bird), which is disappearing as well. For parallelism reasons the second chunk of the sentence has either to start with the bird or the sandpiper, thus we can comfortably get rid of answer choice E), D), and C).

A v B

A: vanishing incorrectly works like a modifier in this case. We desperately need a verb to bear the structure. Vanishing is modifying the antecedent sandpipers. Sandpipers is still the subject of the sentence and it does not agree with "is", "Sandpipers" is plural.

B: subject verb agreement works fine in this case, the comparison either. This is a perfect fit.

We're going to issue an article on comparisons very soon, stay tuned for that

Hope it helps.

-tathastuGMAT