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In this article, we’ll look at the solution to this GMAT sentence correction question – Last week local shrimpers held a news conference to take some credit for the resurgence of the rare Kemp’s ridley turtle, saying that their compliance with laws requiring that turtle-excluder devices be on shrimp nets protect adult sea turtles.

We have analyzed the 5 answer choices and arrived at the correct choice through 3 steps:

1. Meaning analysis
2. Error analysis
3. Answer choice analysis

General information on this question

• Difficulty level – Hard
• 56% of people got this question correct
• The average time taken to answer this question correctly – 1:31 correctly

Let’s look at the question-and-answer choices.

Last week local shrimpers held a news conference to take some credit for the resurgence of the rare Kemp’s ridley turtle, saying that their compliance with laws requiring that turtle-excluder devices be on shrimp nets protect adult sea turtles.

(A) requiring that turtle-excluder devices be on shrimp nets protect

(B) requiring turtle-excluder devices on shrimp nets is protecting

(C) that require turtle-excluder devices on shrimp nets protect

(D) to require turtle-excluder devices on shrimp nets are protecting

(E) to require turtle-excluder devices on shrimp nets is protecting

Take a look at other GMAT SC official guide questions on:

Solution – Last week local shrimpers held a news conference to take…

Meaning Analysis

• Last week local shrimpers held a news conference
  • to take some credit for the resurgence of the rare Kemp’s ridley turtle,
  • saying
  • that their compliance with laws requiring
    • that turtle-excluder devices be on shrimp nets
  • protect adult sea turtles.

The sentence starts by saying that local shrimpers organized a press conference last week. They did so to take credit for revival of the Kemp’s ridley turtles that are rare. In this conference, the shrimpers said that they were adhering to laws that require the presence of turtle-excluder devices on nets for catching shrimps. Their adherence to the laws were able to save adult sea turtles.

Error Analysis

SV Agreement Error

The singular subject “compliance” does not agree in number with the plural verb “protect”.

P.S.: The usage of the word “requiring” calls for the usage of the subjunctive verb in the sentence. Therefore, we see the usage of the verb “be” for the subject “turtle-excluder devices”. This usage is correct.

Answer Choice Analysis

Choice A: requiring that turtle-excluder devices be on shrimp nets protect

Incorrect for the reason stated in the Error Analysis section.

Choice B: requiring turtle-excluder devices on shrimp nets is protecting

Correct. This choice rectifies the only error of Choice B and presents the intended meaning clearly.

Choice C: that require turtle-excluder devices on shrimp nets protect

SV Number Agreement Error

This choice repeats the SV Agreement error of Choice A.

Choice D: to require turtle-excluder devices on shrimp nets are protecting

Idiom Error

The usage of the phrase “to require” is incorrect in this sentence because requiring the said devices on shrimp nets is not the purpose/intent of the said laws. The intent of the laws is to save the turtle. The law is that shrimp nets must have these devices.

Choice E: to require turtle-excluder devices on shrimp nets is protecting

SV Number Agreement Error

This choice repeats the SV Agreement error of Choice A.

Idiom Error

This choice repeats the idiom error of Choice D regarding the usage of “to require”.

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