Though Being Tiny, Blind, and Translucent, a Recently Discovered Species of Catfish Lessens their Vulnerability with Thickened Bones and Armor Plates on their Sides.

Question: Though being tiny, blind, and translucent, a recently discovered species of catfish lessens their vulnerability with thickened bones and armor plates on their sides.

1. Though being tiny, blind, and translucent, a recently discovered species of catfish lessens their vulnerability with thickened bones and armor plates on their sides.
2. Though tiny, blind, and translucent, a recently discovered species of catfish has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen its vulnerability.
3. A recently discovered species of catfish has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen their vulnerability, though tiny, blind, and translucent.
4. Thickened bones and armor plates on their sides lessen the vulnerability of a recently discovered species of catfish that is tiny, blind, and translucent.
5. Tiny, blind, and translucent, thickened bones and armor plates on its sides lessen the vulnerability of a recently discovered species of catfish.

“Though being tiny, blind, and translucent, a recently discovered species of catfish lessens their vulnerability with thickened bones and armor plates on their sides.”- 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 the meaning,pronouns, modifiers and awkwardness. 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 following concepts are tested here:

1. Pronouns
2. Meaning
3. Modifiers
4. Awkwardness

Option A: Incorrect

This option is incorrect. It refers to the singular noun “species of catfish” with a plural pronoun “their”. A singular pronoun should be used with a singular noun. Also, it used the word “being” which leads to awkwardness and redundancy. So, Option A is incorrect.

Option B: Correct

This option is correct. It correctly refers to the singular noun “species of catfish” with the singular pronoun “its”. Also, it uses "Though tiny, blind, and translucent" to modify "a recently discovered species of catfish", that conveys the intended meaning of the statement. It is also free of any awkwardness or redundancy. Option B is correct.

Option C: Incorrect

This option is incorrect. It wrongly refers to the singular noun "species of catfish" with the plural pronoun "their”, which is grammatically incorrect. Also, it incorrectly modifies "thickened bones and armor plates...vulnerability" with "though tiny, blind, and translucent", which implies that the bones and armor plates are tiny, blind, and translucent. Option C is incorrect.

Option D: Incorrect

This option is incorrect. It refers to the singular noun "species of catfish" with the plural pronoun "their", which is wrong. Also, it uses the wrong phrase "that is tiny, blind, and translucent". It has not used a term along the lines of "though", which wrongly implies that there is a recently discovered species of catfish. That is tiny, blind, and translucent, and as a separate action it has thickened bones and armor plates on its sides that lessen its vulnerability. Option D is incorrect.

Option E: Incorrect

This option is incorrect. It incorrectly uses the phrase "Tiny, blind, and translucent" to modify "thickened bones and armor plates". That illogically implies that the bones and armor plates are tiny, blind, and translucent. Option E is incorrect.

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