Question
Next month, state wildlife officials are scheduled to take over the job of increasing the wolf population in the federally designated recovery area, the number of which will however ultimately be dictated by the number of prey in the area.
Option A
Option B
Option C
Option D
Option E
(This question is from Official Guide. Therefore, because of copyrights, the complete question cannot be copied here. The question can be accessed at GMAT Club)
Solution
Sentence Analysis
- Next month, (Modifies the main verb – states the time of the action)
- state wildlife officials are scheduled (Main Subject: Officials; Main Verb: are scheduled)
- to take over the job of increasing the wolf population (Infinitive phrase modifying the main verb)
- in the federally designated recovery area, (Prepositional phrase modifying ‘increasing’)
- the number of which will however ultimately be dictated by the number of prey in the area. (Dependent clause modifying ‘area’ – Subject: the number of which; Verb: will be dictated)
- to take over the job of increasing the wolf population (Infinitive phrase modifying the main verb)
The sentence says that some officials are scheduled to take over the job of increasing wolf population in some area. However, the size of the population will ultimately be decided by the number of prey in the area.
The sentence has the following problems:
- ‘which’ currently refers to ‘area’, producing an ungrammatical construction and illogical meaning that the number of area will be dictated by the number of prey. Even if we go back in the sentence to find an antecedent for ‘which’, we’ll find none. Neither wolf nor population can be the antecedent of ‘which’ since neither ‘the number of wolf’ nor ‘the number of population’ is correct.
- Even if we replace ‘which’ with ‘wolves’ to say ‘the number of wolves’, the shift from talking about ‘wolf population’ to talking about ‘the number of wolves’ doesn’t seem appropriate.
Option Analysis
(A) Incorrect. For the reasons mentioned above.
(B) Correct.
(C) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- Two independent clauses are joined by a comma.
- Problem no. 2 of the original sentence.
(D) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- Error no. 1 of the original sentence
- ‘the number of which will be dictated’ is not an independent clause. Thus, it should not be separated from the independent clause by a semi-colon.
(E) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- The dependent clause ‘when the size…’ seems to present the time of the action ‘are scheduled to take over’, producing a nonsensical meaning.
- In this construction, the use of ‘however’ doesn’t make sense.
If you have any doubts regarding any part of this solution, please feel free to ask in the comments section.
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Hi Sir,
In option D, the clause “the number of which” is a relative clause according to you?
Yes.
Hello sir,
Please if possible can you highlight over the position of However. In the following options. If ” however ” position in the sentence is right or wrong?
I don’t find any issue with the position of “however” in any option.
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