Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the

by JJ Fri May 09, 2008 1:09 pm

[size=18]Yellow jackets number among the 900 or so species of the world’s social wasps, wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of females"”the queen and her sterile female workers.

A. wasps living in a highly cooperative and organized society where they consist almost entirely of
B. wasps that live in a highly cooperative and organized society consisting almost entirely of
C. which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society, almost all
D. which means that their society is highly cooperative, organized, and it is almost entirely
E. living in a society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists of almost all

Answer is B, what's wrong with A?

They is not ambiguous since the only plural noun is WASPS[/size]

by **Guest** Fri May 09, 2008 2:21 pm

In A "they consist" is wrong. Wasps don't consist of... society does

I thought "wasps that" construction in choice B was wrong.
", wasps" is redefining the wasps mentioned in previous part, so we don't need another restrictive that clause.

Apperantly my understanding is wrong, Tutors could you please explain ", wasps that...' construction in B.

Thanks
Pathik

by **RonPurewal** Wed May 14, 2008 6:57 am

Anonymous Wrote:In A "they consist" is wrong. Wasps don't consist of... society does

I thought "wasps that" construction in choice B was wrong.
", wasps" is redefining the wasps mentioned in previous part, so we don't need another restrictive that clause.

Apperantly my understanding is wrong, Tutors could you please explain ", wasps that...' construction in B.

Thanks
Pathik

your analysis of choice a is 100% correct.

choice b features a rather strange-looking usage of a very common construction: the use of an appositive phrase (a noun phrase with no introductory words) to define a term, in this case 'social wasps'.

here's an example:
seamen distinguish flotsam, goods floating on seawater after a shipwreck from jetsam, goods thrown overboard by the crew of a ship.
you've probably seen this construction many times. it's weird-looking in this problem, though, because of the apparent repetition of 'wasps'.

but here's the story: the term being defined is 'social wasps'.
therefore, there's actually no redundancy: you need to think about 'wasps' and 'social wasps' as two completely different words. once you think about it that way, the sentence is just like the flotsam/jetsam example above, which should be noncontroversial.

--

as long as we're on the topic of flotsam, jetsam, and other goods at sea, let's not forget 'lagan', which is goods that have sunk to the bottom. learn a new thing every day!

by **goelmohit2002** Sun Oct 04, 2009 9:03 am

can we refer society with where in A ?

by **RonPurewal** Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:56 am

goelmohit2002 Wrote:can we refer society with where in A ?

nope. "society" is not a physical location, so you can't use "where".

[editor: turns out i was wrong about this one -- surprisingly, gmac allows "where" to be used for societies. see this problem:
many-population-studies-have-linked-t10107.html]

by **yogeshthehackologist** Tue May 18, 2010 6:48 am

Hi Ron,

Isn't 'almost entirely' indicating redundancy?

Please explain.

by **RonPurewal** Sun Jun 06, 2010 1:18 am

yogeshthehackologist Wrote:Hi Ron,

Isn't 'almost entirely' indicating redundancy?

Please explain.

first, before i answer this question, the obligatory admonition:
DO NOT, EVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, QUESTION THE CORRECTNESS OF AN OFFICIAL ANSWER TO AN OFFICIAL PROBLEM.

the official answers are always correct -- even in cases when we moderators find them ugly and repulsive.
if something is in an official answer, it's correct. end of story. period.

so:

THE WRONG QUESTION TO ASK:
"isn't (---thing that's in official answer---) wrong?"
you already know the answer to this question: "no, it's not wrong; it appears in the official answer."

THE RIGHT QUESTION TO ASK:
"WHY is (---thing that's in official answer---) CORRECT? HOW does that WORK?"

note the big difference between these questions. the first one is a question to which you already know the answer, and which will get you nowhere in your studies. the second, on the other hand, is a constructive question whose answer will invariably expand your SC knowledge.

--

no, "almost entirely" is not redundant; it has a fundamentally different meaning from that of "entirely".

basically, "entirely" means "100%".
"almost entirely" means "close to 100%, but not quite".

thought experiment:
I'm entirely sure that this bridge will not collapse if you drive over it.
vs.
I'm almost entirely sure that this bridge will not collapse if you drive over it.
--> think about how willing you would be to drive over the bridge in each of these cases!

by **judyyang8888** Fri Jul 09, 2010 2:17 am

hi,

(C which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society, almost all
(D) which means that their society is highly cooperative, organized, and it is almost entirely

can anyone throw some light on the "which" in choice C and D? Thanks.

by **RonPurewal** Mon Jul 26, 2010 8:23 am

judyyang8888 Wrote:hi,

(C which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society, almost all
(D) which means that their society is highly cooperative, organized, and it is almost entirely

can anyone throw some light on the "which" in choice C and D? Thanks.

make sure that you know those are wrong answers!

in fact, these instances of "which" are one of the reasons why those choices are wrong -- "which" should refer to the noun or noun phrase preceding the comma, but the nouns preceding the commas in those two choices don't make any sense in context.

by **joinashish** Tue May 03, 2011 1:58 am

Ron,

Help me with this particular SC. In correct answer B i.e. "wasps that..." , that with wasps is used. Isnt wasps plural or it is reflecting to some society.

kindly help

by **joinashish** Tue May 03, 2011 1:59 am

sorry for this post . how can i delete it.

by **jnelson0612** Sun May 08, 2011 9:35 pm

joinashish, you no longer have a question?

by **sidd.shah123** Sun May 29, 2011 1:48 am

RonPurewal Wrote:
judyyang8888 Wrote:hi,

(C which means they live in a highly cooperative and organized society, almost all
(D) which means that their society is highly cooperative, organized, and it is almost entirely

can anyone throw some light on the "which" in choice C and D? Thanks.

make sure that you know those are wrong answers!

in fact, these instances of "which" are one of the reasons why those choices are wrong -- "which" should refer to the noun or noun phrase preceding the comma, but the nouns preceding the commas in those two choices don't make any sense in context.

Which is the noun that which should refer to ? Is it "yellow Jackets"?

by **sidd.shah123** Sun May 29, 2011 1:52 am

How can we eliminate A and E ? Why are they wrong?

by **jnelson0612** Sun Jun 05, 2011 9:26 am

sidd.shah123 Wrote:How can we eliminate A and E ? Why are they wrong?

Check the second post in this thread, by "Guest", for an explanation of what is wrong with A.

For E, check the parallelism--"society that is highly cooperative, organized, and it consists . . ."

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