doubt 16

[aditya8062]

Although the sting of Egyptian Scorpions are rarely dangerous, they cause red welts to appear, posing minor health risks to infants, who are particularly vulnerable to its venom.

a)Egyptian Scorpions are rarely dangerous, they cause red welts to appear, posing minor health risks to infants, who are particularly vulnerable to its

b) Egyptian Scorpions are rarely dangerous, they cause red welts to appear and pose minor health risks to infants, who are particularly vulnerable to their

c)Egyptian Scorpions is rarely dangerous, it causes red welts to appear, posing minor health risks to infants, who are particularly vulnerable to their

d)Egyptian Scorpions is rarely dangerous, it causes red welts to appear and poses minor health risks to infants, who are particularly vulnerable to its

e) Egyptian Scorpions is rarely dangerous, they cause red welts to appear, posing the greatest danger to the infant, who are particularly vulnerable to its

my doubt: although i selected D in this SC but i want to understand whether the construction "it causes red welts to appear, posing minor health risks to infants" in option C is wrong? honestly i do not feel that it is so wrong to eliminate option C on this basis. in fact i eliminated option C because of the construction "vulnerable to their"

[David@GMATPrepNow]

Hi aditya8062,

You are correct to eliminate answer choice C because of the "particularly vulnerable to their" part of the sentence.

"Their" is not the best pronoun, because the sentence is talking about the sting (singular), not the scorpions (plural). Answer D uses "its," the appropriate pronoun because it refers to the sting, which is consistent with what the rest of the sentence is talking about.

Good work.

[aditya8062]

thanks David
but my doubt is still open: i want to understand whether the construction "it causes red welts to appear, posing minor health risks to infants" in option C is wrong?

[Matt@VeritasPrep]

That's fine, at least grammatically: "posing minor health risks to infants" is a participial phrase, and since it appears at the end of the sentence, it doesn't have to modify any noun/phrase that comes immediately before it. I agree that the meaning seems a little off (does the appearance of red welts really pose a health risk?) but we'd need a doctor to resolve that part, not a GMAT instructor!

[David@GMATPrepNow]

Hi aditya8062,

The "it causes red welts to appear, posing minor health risks to infants" part of the sentence is correct.

"It" refers to the sting, which has the effect of causing red welts to appear, which pose minor health risks. The sentence doesn't actually use "which" like I did in the previous sentence, as it is implied.