Organized in 1966 by the Fish and Wildlife Service,

[frankieguo]

Organized in 1966 by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Breeding Bird Survey uses annual roadside counts along established routes for monitoring of population changes of as many as, or of more than 250 bird species, including 180 songbirds.

(A) for monitoring of population changes of as many as, or of
(B) to monitor population changes of as many, or
(C) to monitor changes in the populations of
(D) that monitors population changes of
(E) that monitors changes in populations of as many as, or

oa is C
Could anyone help me explain: Doesn't C ignores some of the meaning?
Can I use " use .. to do .." to just narrow down to B and C?
How to eliminate others>?
Thank you!!!

[RonPurewal]

you're correct that "to monitor" is the only one of the three beginnings that truly makes sense here.

choice B: "... as many, or 250..."
—> this is one of the worst choices i've seen in a while.
e.g.,
• "as many" is nonsense;
• "or" is nonsense;
• "or" connects non-parallel structures;
etc.

[RonPurewal]

nb:
it's possible to have "as many" by itself—but only if there's an obvious reference to a numerical figure given elsewhere in the sentence.

e.g.,
last year, i read 100 books; i have not read as many (= 100) this year.

there's nothing like this in the sentence at hand.

[RonPurewal]

Could anyone help me explain: Doesn't C ignores some of the meaning?

any reasonable meaning will do.

if 2 choices have 2 different meanings but both are sensible, then either is fine.

[RonPurewal]

here, though, the sentence makes more sense WITHOUT "as many as...".

we're talking about a government program. such a program would, presumably, track a specific set of bird species; thus we have an exact number (250).

"as many as..." implies a certain degree of randomness ("well, we don't know exactly how many different birds we'll track... but the number could be as high as 250") that isn't very reasonable in the context of a government-run scientific initiative.

[RonPurewal]

finally, please title your threads according to the forum rules (= first few words of the problem).

i've changed the title of this thread to follow the convention, but please obey it in any new threads you might create in the future. (your original title for this thread was something like "HELP~~~~".)

thanks in advance.

[750plus]

Dear Team at Manhattan,

Though I understand that the sentence demands "to +verb", can you please help me with the reason that why can I eliminate options D and E on the basis of the starting split, i.e., ' that monitors ....'

What is wrong with options D and E apart from the reason(s) already stated above for choice B [I'm referring to the common reasons]

Thank You for your help.

Warm Regards
Rajat Gugnani

[750plus]

Organized in 1966 by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Breeding Bird Survey uses annual roadside counts along established routes for monitoring of population changes of as many as, or of more than 250 bird species, including 180 songbirds.

Option D: that monitors population changes of

Since monitors is followed by that in choice D, I'm sure that 'that' is not referring to routes. From the meaning point of view it is clear that it is the Breeding Bird Survey that's monitoring the changes in the populations of 250 bird species.

How can 'that' jump over a verb 'uses'. Is this the reason that this choice is incorrect ?

Please help me with the reason for eliminating choice D.

[RonPurewal]

basically the idea, yes.

[750plus]

Great to know that my reasoning is in line with Mr. Purewal'

Thanks.

[RonPurewal]

sure.

[Crisc419]

sure.

hi, Ron,

I confused about the difference between " changes in the population of " and " the population changes of"? which one is better in this context?

[RonPurewal]

that distinction is mainly there to distract you (it's a stylistic difference, and you aren't responsible for stylistics).

you can solve this problem on the basis of two VERY straightforward errors:
• D and E have disagreeing subjects/verbs
• "as many as ... or more than 250" makes no sense, since that description encompasses literally ALL numbers (it is saying "either ≤ 250 or > 250")

also, on top of being very straightforward, these splits are also perfectly vertical (the words are not rearranged or re-ordered in any way between choices).

when this happens -- i.e., when a problem can be decided entirely on the basis of VERY straightforward, easily identifiable differences -- the problem writers often toss in extra things purely as distractions, such as the thing you're asking about here.

[Crisc419]

that distinction is mainly there to distract you (it's a stylistic difference, and you aren't responsible for stylistics).

you can solve this problem on the basis of two VERY straightforward errors:
• D and E have disagreeing subjects/verbs
• "as many as ... or more than 250" makes no sense, since that description encompasses literally ALL numbers (it is saying "either ≤ 250 or > 250")

also, on top of being very straightforward, these splits are also perfectly vertical (the words are not rearranged or re-ordered in any way between choices).

when this happens -- i.e., when a problem can be decided entirely on the basis of VERY straightforward, easily identifiable differences -- the problem writers often toss in extra things purely as distractions, such as the thing you're asking about here.

Ok, i understand, i will try to think straightward. but i still want to know if in one sentence "of 250" modifies "the population" ,and the other modifies "the changes? if so, the one modifies the changes will be wrong?

[RonPurewal]

which choices are you asking about? and which parts of those choices?