Question: Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection, favored due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.

(A) due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are
(B) due to the reproduction or survival they enhance, but they are
(C) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but
(D) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but are
(E) because of enhancing reproduction or survival, but are

Correct Answer: D
Explanation:

This line of thought can be used to support the suggested change to the language:

• Parallelism
• Considering two separate truths
• Modifiers

The applicant must have strong grammatical knowledge and a wide vocabulary in order to tackle sentence repair issues. There is a statement in the highlighted passage in this section.

The candidate has five options to choose from. So, the candidate must check the grammar of each sentence. Most of the choices will have words that are used more than once or grammar mistakes. There will be only one good choice.

Let us check the given options.

A: Incorrect

This choice is an incorrect one. Remember that any elements joined by a conjunction—in this case, "but"—must be parallel. This answer option fails to maintain parallelism between "are not the results of natural selection" and "that they are merely random by-products of other evolutionary changes." Option A also uses the clunky and redundant phrase "owing to their augmentation of reproduction or survival," which adds unnecessary wordiness.

B: Incorrect

B is an incorrect choice. The phrase "due to the reproduction or survival they enhance" in this answer choice changes the meaning of the sentence. The intended meaning is that many biological traits are favored for reasons other than their capacity to improve reproduction or survival. However, the way this phrase is constructed implies that many biological traits are favored for reasons. Other than the specific abilities of reproduction or survival that they enhance. The parallelism between "are not the results of natural selection" and "they are simply random by-products of other evolutionary changes" is also broken in Option B. Keep in mind that any parts joined by conjunction—in this case, "but"—must be parallel.

C: Incorrect

It is an incorrect choice. The phrase "but simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments" changes the meaning of the sentence created by this answer choice. This is intended to say that many biological traits are not the result of natural selection and are not favored. They improve reproduction or survival, but rather that they are merely random by-products of other evolutionary developments.

D: Correct

This is the correct choice. Correct. This answer choice's sentence, which is formed by the phrases "because they enhance reproduction or survival" and "but are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments". This conveys the intended meaning, which is that many biological traits are not the results of natural selection. They are not favoured because of their capacity to enhance reproduction or survival. But rather they are just random by-products of other evolutionary developments. The parallelism between "are not the products of natural selection" . The "are merely random by-products of other evolutionary changes" is also maintained by Option D. Option D is also free of awkwardness and repetition.

E: Incorrect

It is an incorrect choice. This answer choice is wrong because it says that the reason many biological traits are valued is not because they help with reproduction or survival. What it should say is that the reason many biological traits are valued is not because they can help with reproduction or survival. This phrase, "because of improving," changes what the sentence means.

“Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological trait” is a GMAT sentence correction question. The text that is underlined in these questions has grammatical mistakes, and we must select the right response from the list of possibilities. The GMAT verbal section includes GMAT sentence correction.

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