leaf cutters and most other ants in having nests...

[songqianru]

Unlike the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, situated underground or in pieces of wood, raider ants make a portable nest by entwining their long legs to form "curtains" of ants that hang from logs or boulders, providing protection for the queen and the colony larvae and pupae.

(A) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants
(B) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, which are
(C) leaf cutters and most other ants, whose nests are
(D) leaf cutters and most other ants in having nests
(E) those of leaf cutters and most other ants with nests

I can correctly choose the answer choice C, but I cannot easily get rid of the choice D. Please someone could explain the answer D (according to the explanation from OG 16, the prepositional phrase in having nests suggests that it is raider ants, not leaf cutters and most other ants, that have nests situated underground or in pieces of wood; however, the rest of the sentence indicates that in fact raider ants' nests are not situated in such locations.) I get confused, why does in having nests imply raider ants rather than leaf cutters and most other ants?

Thank you in advance.

Best

[GMATGuruNY]

I cannot easily get rid of the choice D. Please someone could explain the answer D (according to the explanation from OG 16, the prepositional phrase in having nests suggests that it is raider ants, not leaf cutters and most other ants, that have nests situated underground or in pieces of wood; however, the rest of the sentence indicates that in fact raider ants' nests are not situated in such locations.) I get confused, why does in having nests imply raider ants rather than leaf cutters and most other ants?

in + VERBing is an ADVERB.
Generally, in + VERBing serves to modify the VERB IN THE FOLLOWING CLAUSE.
D: In having nests, situated underground or in pieces of wood, raider ants make a portable nest.
Here, in having seems to modify make -- the action performed by raider ants.
Since a VERBing modifier implies CONCURRENT action, the following meaning is conveyed:
When raider ants MAKE A PORTABLE NEST, they are simultaneously HAVING NESTS SITUATED UNDERGROUND OR IN PIECES OF WOOD.
This meaning is nonsensical.
Eliminate D.

[songqianru]

But there is not any comma to separate in having nests from unlike the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, should in having nests modify the closer preceding noun?

Thank you very much again.

[GMATGuruNY]

But there is not any comma to separate in having nests from unlike the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, should in having nests modify the closer preceding noun?

Thank you very much again.

Please revisit my post above, in which I have clarified the reasoning.
in + VERBing is an ADVERB.
An adverb cannot serve to modify a noun.
Thus, it is not possible for in having to serve to modify leaf cutters and most other ants (two nouns).
In D, the only eligible referent for in having is make -- the verb in the following clause.

[songqianru]

Ya, I got your point. Thank you very much for your explanation

Best, Song

[KngDi45]

But there is not any comma to separate in having nests from unlike the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, should in having nests modify the closer preceding noun?

Thank you very much again.

Please revisit my post above, in which I have clarified the reasoning.
in + VERBing is an ADVERB.
An adverb cannot serve to modify a noun.
Thus, it is not possible for in having to serve to modify leaf cutters and most other ants (two nouns).
In D, the only eligible referent for in having is make -- the verb in the following clause.

Mr. Hunt--
Sorry to refresh this older topic. I understand that "in helping" would modify the word "make"; however, I'm a little more confused about "In + Verb-ing" serving the function as an adverbial modifier.

I always understood it that if you have a preposition immediately following a noun (as in "in" following "ants" in this circumstance) then that prepositional phrase would serve as a noun modifier for the previous noun.

Thanks in advance!

[GMATGuruNY]

I always understood it that if you have a preposition immediately following a noun (as in "in" following "ants" in this circumstance) then that prepositional phrase would serve as a noun modifier for the previous noun.

Thanks in advance!

A prepositional phrase following a noun may or may not serve to modify the immediately preceding noun.

SC15 in the OG12:
Many regard the increase in credit card borrowing as a sign.
Here, in credit card borrowing is an adjective serving to modify the immediately preceding noun (the increase).
What KIND of increase?
An increase IN CREDIT CARD BORROWING.

SC5 in the OG12:
the wave that brought 12 million immigrants onto American shores
Here, onto American shores does not serve to modify the immediately preceding noun (immigrants).
We know from context that this prepositional phrase is an ADVERB serving to modify the preceding verb -- brought -- expressing WHERE 12 million immigrants were BROUGHT.
WHERE were 12 million immigrants brought?
They were brought ONTO AMERICAN SHORES.

To determine the function of a prepositional phrase, we must consider both position AND context.

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Hello Everyone!

This is a great example of a comparison question! Let's take a closer look at it to determine how to best tackle this type of question. Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the original question and highlight any major differences between each option in orange:

Unlike the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, situated underground or in pieces of wood, raider ants make a portable nest by entwining their long legs to form "curtains" of ants that hang from logs or boulders, providing protection for the queen and the colony larvae and pupae.

(A) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants,
(B) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, which are
(C) leaf cutters and most other ants, whose nests are
(D) leaf cutters and most other ants in having nests
(E) those of leaf cutters and most other ants with nests

After a quick glance over the options, a couple major differences jump out:

1. What they're comparing: the nests of ants / the ants themselves / those of the ants
2. Where the "nests" are located in each option

Since we know this sentence is comparing two items, we MUST first check that the two items being compared are parallel! After reading over the rest of the sentence, we can see that we're comparing "raider ants" to something that's underlined. Let's see which options use parallel structure, and which options fall short:

(A) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, --> WRONG
(It's comparing nests to raider ants, which aren't parallel in type.)

(B) the nests of leaf cutters and most other ants, which are --> WRONG
(It's also comparing nests to ants, which aren't parallel in type.)

(C) leaf cutters and most other ants, whose nests are --> OK
(It's comparing ants to ants, which is parallel!)

(D) leaf cutters and most other ants in having nests --> OK
(It's comparing ants to ants, which is parallel!)

(E) those of leaf cutters and most other ants with nests --> WRONG
(This is comparing ants to "those of" ants, which is not parallel. It is also unclear what "those of" is even referring to.)

We can eliminate options A, B, and E because they haven't created a parallel comparison based on the types of ants.

Let's take a closer look at options C and D to determine which is the best choice. To do this, I've added the options to the rest of the sentence:

(C) Unlike leaf cutters and most other ants, whose nests are situated underground or in pieces of wood, raider ants make a portable nest by entwining their long legs to form "curtains" of ants that hang from logs or boulders, providing protection for the queen and the colony larvae and pupae.

This is CORRECT because it uses the correct comma placement to indicate that the phrase highlighted in green is a non-essential phrase! It's not necessary to know where leaf cutters and other ants make their nests. It's only important to know that they DON'T do what raider ants do, and this sentence makes that clear with or without that extra information.

(D) Unlike leaf cutters and most other ants in having nests situated underground or in pieces of wood, raider ants make a portable nest by entwining their long legs to form "curtains" of ants that hang from logs or boulders, providing protection for the queen and the colony larvae and pupae.

This options is INCORRECT because it doesn't use the correct comma placement to show that the phrase "in having nests situated underground or in pieces of wood" is a non-essential phrase. It's missing a comma before "in" for this to work. It's also incorrect because "in having" sounds awkward and isn't necessary - just say "having" to convey the same meaning.


There you go - option C is the correct choice!


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