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 the Farming Practices.

Question: 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 the farming practices.

1. The sandpapers vanishing in the northeastern United States is a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in
2. The bird itself is vanishing in the northeastern United States as a result of residential and industrial development and of changes in
3. That the birds themselves are are vanishing in the northeastern United States is due to residential and industrial development and changes to
4. In the northeastern United States, sanspipers’ vanishing due to residential and industrial development and to changes in
5. In the northeastern United States, the sandpipers’ vanishing, a result of residential and industrial development and changing

“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 the farming practices.”- is a GMAT sentence correction question. This particular GMAT sentence correction topic has been taken from the book ‘The Official Guide of GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition, 2009’. This question checks Parallelism, Comparison of two elements and Modifiers. GMAT Sentence Correction questions comprise 11-16 questions to be completed within 65 minutes. Each Sentence Correction question contains a sentence with an underlined portion that includes 0-2 errors.

Answer: B
Explanation: The given sentence correction question can be tested by the given-below rules:

1. Comparison
2. Verb Forms

Option A: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because it incorrectly compares the noun phrase ‘the grassy fields and old pastures’ to the verb phrase ‘the sandpipers’ vanishing’. A comparison can only be made between two similar elements, a noun can be compared to a noun and a verb phrase can only be compared to a verb phrase. Since this option violates this theory, Option A is incorrect.

Option B: Correct’
This option is correct because the phrase ‘the bird itself’ is correctly compared to ‘the grassy fields and old pastures since both are disappearing. The parallelism also works in the case of Option B as it shows ‘the bird itself is vanishing’ due to residential and industrial development and of changes in’. So, Option B is correct.

Option C: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because of the wrong placement of ‘that’ in the sentence. “Like the grassy fields and old pastures… that the birds themselves are vanishing… is due to… development and changes. In this sentence, the use of that implies ‘the fact that. So, this statement is comparing ‘the grassy fields and old pastures’ to ‘the fact that birds are vanishing’, which does not make any sense. Option C is incorrect.

Option D: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because grassy fields and old pastures are compared to sandpipers and this is not logical at all. We can compare fields and pastures to sandpipers but the statement literally talks about the comparison between fields and sandpipers vanishing. So, Option D is incorrect.

Option E: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because this answer fails to form a complete sentence. There is no verb to act upon the main subject of the sentence. Also, it compares the grassy fields and old pastures to sandpipers vanishing, which does not make sense at all. Option E is incorrect.

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