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A study by the ocean wildlife campaign urged states to undertake a number of remedies to reverse a decline in the shark population, which includes the establishment of size limits for shark catches, closing state waters for shark fishing during pupping season, and requiring commercial fishers to have federal shark permits.

A. which includes the establishment of size limits for shark catches, closing

B. which includes establishing limits to the size of sharks that can be caught, closing

C.which include the establishment of size limits for shark catches, the closing of

D. including establishing size limits for shark catches, closing

E. including the establishment of limits to the size of sharks that are caught, the closing of

 

What does this question test?

This question tests your understanding of parallelism.  It also tests your knowledge of which modifiers and comma + including modifiers.

What does this sentence mean?

This sentence presents the list of remedies to reverse a decline in the shark population.  These remedies were a result of the study by the ocean wildlife campaign.  These include:

1. establishment of size limits for shark catches
2. closing state waters for shark fishing during pupping season
3. requiring commercial fishers to have federal shark permits

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What are the errors in the original sentence?

This sentence has parallelism error.  The list as shown in the meaning analysis is not parallel.  Since 3rd element of the list is not underlined, elements 1 and 2 should follow the structure of element 3.  Thus, all elements should be verb-ing forms as follows:

1. establishing size limits for shark catches
2. closing state waters for shark fishing during pupping season
3. requiring commercial fishers to have federal shark permits

This sentence also has modifier error.  The modifier “which includes…” modifies the closest noun or noun phrase.  In this sentence, it does not make sense for the “which modifier” providing list of remedies to modify either the noun phrase “decline in shark population” or the noun “the shark population”.

Answer Choice Analysis:

Choice A:  A study by the ocean wildlife campaign urged states to undertake a number of remedies to reverse a decline in the shark population, which includes the establishment of size limits for shark catches, closing state waters for shark fishing during pupping season, and requiring commercial fishers to have federal shark permits.

This choice has parallelism and modifier errors as discussed above.

Choice B:  A study by the ocean wildlife campaign urged states to undertake a number of remedies to reverse a decline in the shark population, which includes establishing limits to the size of sharks that can be caught, closing state waters for shark fishing during pupping season, and requiring commercial fishers to have federal shark permits.

This choice has modifier error as in Choice A.  It also distorts the meaning of first remedy.  It states “establishing limits to the size of sharks”.  It is not clear whose limits will be established.  Per the intended meaning, the limits of shark catches will be established.

Choice C:  A study by the ocean wildlife campaign urged states to undertake a number of remedies to reverse a decline in the shark population, which include the establishment of size limits for shark catches, the closing of state waters for shark fishing during pupping season, and requiring commercial fishers to have federal shark permits.

This choice has parallelism & modifier errors as in Choice A.

Choice D:  A study by the ocean wildlife campaign urged states to undertake a number of remedies to reverse a decline in the shark population, including establishing size limits for shark catches, closing state waters for shark fishing during pupping season, and requiring commercial fishers to have federal shark permits.

No Errors.  Note that “which modifier” has been converted into “including modifier”. This modifier is very versatile and can modify the far away noun without any issues.  Thus, this modifier can modify “remedies”.

Choice E:  A study by the ocean wildlife campaign urged states to undertake a number of remedies to reverse a decline in the shark population, including the establishment of limits to the size of sharks that are caught, the closing of state waters for shark fishing during pupping season, and requiring commercial fishers to have federal shark permits.

This choice has meaning error as discussed in choice B.  It also has parallelism error as in Choice A.

Thus, Choice D is the correct answer.

What are the key take-away messages?

1. A list must be parallel.
2. Correct sentence must communicate the intended meaning.
3. “comma + including” modifier can modify far away noun.  But which modifier cannot modify the far away noun.  It can only modify the noun phrase if it does not lead to any ambiguity.

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